of course, the problem with those thoughts is it's easier said than done to get good value in trade. When I first read the posts here, I was agreeing that ultimately, someone probably needs to be traded. On the other hand though, the Bulls didn't have any long-term problems with Ron Harper and MJ starting. Granted that Harper wasn't the caliber of player as Drexler at that point in his career, but it worked just fine. What was necessary to make it work was Harper having an uncommon desire and perhaps ability to change his game to fit into the role the team needed. I have no clue if your guys can do that, but I don't see why not.
The problem I have with the Jordan/Harper comparison is that Harper completely re-invented himself as a defensive stopper (which was, frankly, one of the more amazing transformations I can think of). Some of it was necessity (he didn't really have the ability to be a high-flying scorer by his Bulls days) and some of it was desire to fit better (he surely could have scored more, had he tried). I don't currently believe that Fernandez could re-invent himself as a defensive stopper and it would be a waste of his offensive talents to sublimate them like that. I think he'll either need to show that his game can complement Roy's (like, say, Jordan and Pippen did on offense, even though Roy and Fernandez aren't that level) or he may end up a trading chip.
Check out Harper's stats the year before he joined the Bulls. He was signed to replace Jordan's scoring, since Jordan was retired at the time.
Right, I wasn't talking about why he was signed. I was noting that the reason he was able to co-exist so well with Jordan was that he completely re-invented himself, and some of that was due to necessity...his skills had clearly diminished. His first season with the Bulls, he only scored at a 12.4 points per 36 minutes pace (using per-36 because his minutes dropped off significantly as a Bull). His time with Jordan was spent with his main value coming as a great defensive player.
All that is true, but I disagree about his skills being diminished. In fact, it is because they didn't and he reinvented himself as you say, he was pretty awesome. It'd be like having a LeBron join your team and focus on rebounding and defense exclusively - he'd be the best imaginable at it.
Hmm. You don't think he wanted to score much in the season and a half Jordan was gone? That would surprise me. Outside of Pippen, that team didn't have any real shot-creators, so it's not like Harper needed to sublimate his offense. To the contrary, I think it would have made the Bulls a better team if Harper were his previous 20 PPG self. I think his reduced minutes were an indication of diminished skills. I don't think his transforming his game was entirely due to diminished scoring ability, but I think it played a role. He could have tried to be a late-career Jerry Stackhouse (before Stackhouse did it, heh) and act like a go-to scorer without the ability, but he instead found a new way to be a very valuable player.
If my memory serves me, he sustained a knee injury his last year with the Clippers and played through it his first year with the Bulls. By the end of that first season, he was seeing almost no minutes at all, and I remember he may not have played in the playoffs at all, or just sparingly. I also remember it was a pretty big story about how the knee would affect his game after he was signed by the Bulls. I don't see how a guy coming off 3 straight 20+ PPG years would otherwise see his scoring ability diminish somehow. Even so, being a defensive stopper as he was does require a lot of physical ability, and he did go on to win 5 championships with two teams after that first season with the Bulls. What's stunning is how his focus on being a complementary / defensive player deteriorated his offensive game. The guy seemed to have entirely lost his jump shot, which is something you won't lose with age (see Reggie Miller). BTW, Pete Myers was heralded as the replacement for Jordan during the first year he retired. And it was a flop, even though we weren't expecting Myers to be anything but a solid defensive player with little O. Harper joined the team the following season when Jordan returned near the end of the season and for the playoffs.
I think you're right Minstrel... I maybe didn't emphasize enough just how unusual I thought Harper's transition was. But on the other hand I don't see how Fernandez necessarily has to become a stopper or completely reform his game. Unlike the Bulls, the Blazers perimeter guys are (theoretically) going to have a big-time defensive center behind them. Even though I don't think any of them defend like MJ, Pip or Harp, they probably aren't gonna need to.
