Pritchard likes to swing for the fences when he has a good thing going. Blazers with everyone, pre-ZBO trade were good and had a lot of talent ready to go. Just like Indy pre-Granger trade..that totally fucked up the team chemistry. Paul George thing was a freak accident but trading Granger was probably the beginning of the end of that Indiana Franchise as it was, they just free-fell after that.
It's more about the assests they had, or thought they had at the time, and how Pritchard wanted to use them. Even with Roy, a 3-time All-Star, and Oden, who I think we all can agree that if healthy is a bigger version of Dwight Howard (as well as a better FT shooter), Pritchard managed to give LMA more minutes instead of ZBO doing what ZBO did back then, which was whine and act like a horse's ass, and guy who is lucky that the women he allegedly raped in the hotel room went with a financial settlement over pressing charges. Minutes that led to him being Roy's second on play-off teams. Minutes that led to LMA being a two-time All-Star at present. Why would anyone think that ZBO in 2007 had any value at all?
The moves that worked out for KP were few and most have blown up in his face. I do not know why anyone thinks he is genius.
Utter bullshit. Zach was praised by your ally The Oregonian as a quiet pro. His behavior was not loud like Sheed and Ruben. The defense has to guard Zach the whole game, unlike Aldridge, whose attention wavers.
I'm 100% on this. the few years of Roy that we had, still were worth more than still having a Randy Foye imo.
Speaking of KP, I was watching an NBA Classic game between the Run TMC Warriors and the 91 Blazers. Pritchard was a rookie for the Dubs. Pretty hilarious. BTW, that Run TMC squad was insanely fun to watch. Golden State was flat out stupid for breaking up that team.
but they were so young... Richmond was only 25 when he was traded to the Kings. Hardaway was 25 or 26. Mullin was 27 or 28. The team was just coming into their own. They blew the team up because they couldn't get past the Lakers. It seems to me it was an overreaction. Keep those three together and keep adding talent. Mullin and Richmond was HOFers. If anything, they should have traded Hardaway first and not Richmond. That was definitely a stupid move.
They were terrible up front, though, and had to make a move to get better. The dumbest move they made back in the '90s was trading away Chris Webber for Tom Gugliotta and picks. What a horrific trade, especially since the Warriors basically chose Don Nelson over Webber, and still fired Nelson the next season. PG Tim Hardaway SG Chris Mullin SF Latrell Sprewell PF Chris Webber C Chris Gatling That's a nice starting 5, but because Nellie insisted on playing Webber at the 5, he and Webber clashed, and the rest is one of the most boneheaded decisions in NBA front office history. It took until Baron Davis in 2007 for the Warriors to even make the playoffs again.
I saw that Hardwood Classics game too Nate. Quite fun. Do you think Mitch Richmond is a HOFer? I lived in Sac when he played there. He was great, but I wouldn't have voted him in.
It's still nuts to me that GS traded Webber without ever having him play a regular season game with Hardaway. What a horrific trade. Mitch Richmond being in the Hall of Fame, and Tim Hardaway not being in it, is an oversight to me.
I don't know... he had the disadvantage of playing during the same era of guys like Jordan, but he still stood out. If he played now, with the overall lack of quality shooting guards, I think he'd be arguably the best in the league at his position. Harden would just be another shooting guard back then.
Yup, the Webber trade stands out as perhaps the lowlight of a hapless organizational history in my lifetime.
I wouldn't call losing to the Heat in the ECF a collapse. They had as good a chance of winning the East as anyone next year. Too bad.
