Mike Rice hints at Blazers draft and free agency plans

That's silly. Saying something is the bomb is twenty year old slang. If anyone is so out of touch with modern culture that they don't know what you meant and took offense is 100% their issue and has noting to do with you.

I concur. But I feel the same way about really any good free agent. Portland just isn't an attractive place for young African-American millionaires. There have been plenty of situations where it seems like the Blazers would be the perfect fit for basketball reasons and the best the Blazers can hope to do is to be used as leverage for a player to get a better deal where they really want to go.

The one guy that for my own crazy logic I think could be the exception is Dwight Howard. He's a guy that has really fallen on some hard times and who's public image has gone down the toilet. If he's looking to turn the ship around signing with the Blazers would be a great first step. But I'm probably fooling myself.

 

Fixed.

Sure our culture might not be attractive to those not serious about basketball, but as far as up and coming teams with a bright future go, there are few that match us in terms of ceiling. We aren't necessarily win now like GSW, CLE, SAS, but we are ahead of teams like TOR, MIA, LAC, HOU in terms of future competitive potential.

 

Then I guess nobody prioritizes winning. Even when we had a core of Roy, Oden and Aldridge that looked like they were gonna bloom into perennial contenders we couldn't convince a good free agent to come here. If Horford or Whiteside do decide to come here, it'll blow the roof off the doors.

 

There's a saying in sports that if you lose your best player then you should already have his replacement. We've always had the feeling in Portland that we were a special fan base that just needed the right player in ftee agency. That's why this offseason is so friggin important. We have to make a significant upgrade in talent or we'll regress. We will become like thd Montreal Expos. A team that's always shopping for replacements when their best players leave. And I think Olshey knows that. Last year proved him on it.

 

I would agree it's not often the top priority. But this team also has proven more than the core of Roy, Oden, and Aldridge ever did. This current team at least has some success to back them up.

 

That had more to do with Pritchard's lack of ability, which he masked with his fake "Let it bake" ideology, propped up to the public by the Oregonian's hatred of all things Blazer.