We have our team. No trades, just keep this guys together!!

Considering how young these guys are and how solid they already are, and how fucking deep they are, I think we should just stand pat. Let Raef's contract expire and have the money needed to pay to keep all our players. Aside from Raef and Ike, I like all our players. Let them go at the end of the season and fill those spots with two of Koponen, Freeland or our pick.

Let Outlaw, Webster and Batum battle it out for the SF spot and let Blake, Sergio and Bayless battle it out for the PG spot. We are deeper then Jack Handy. I love this team.

 

I second that. I like Ike though.

 

I'm not saying I don't like Ike, I just am not totally attached to him and I think he has the least potential/current quality of any player save Raef.

 

I would rather us stand pat than go seek out trades. But like I said in another thread if the right deal comes along, do it. If X players says he's unhappy with his situation, and if X player would make us a contender for many years, I would be willing to trade some of our pieces(outside of Roy, Aldridge, Oden, and Rudy) to get him.

 

nah, lets get some vets with our non-essential parts. We can't have our guys going at each other hard in practice and in the games long-term, it doesn't hold up. Guys rookie deals only last so long, agents get involved, etc. We're better off consolidating (w/o giving up what we want to keep long term) with some vets who've already got their money and want to help win rings.

Steve Nash is at the top of my list!

I like the thought of Desmond Mason too...and a few others.

I'd do Outlaw for Mason/Ibaka (though it looks terrible now), Ibaka's supposed to be a real solid prospect (whom pritch wanted), Outlaw will come back down to earth, and Mason's defensive toughness and intense work ethic and character could be good for the team.

I'd trade some combination of Blake/Bayless and either Outlaw or Frye in order to get Nash (whether it be three way or anything else).

 

First off, I just don't care for Mason. Nash, I like, but I don't see his immediate value being enough to offset all the young talent we would have to give up to get him. He might help us a little this year, but he's a little long in the tooth. And if there is a worse defensive PG in the League, I can't think of him.


Right now, the Blazers are well set, not only with star power, but also with a ton of quality depth. And I love that our players are solid in the paint (and will only get better) and also a great shooting team. Add a little more experience to some of our defenders like Batum, Oden, LMA, Bayless and perhaps Outlaw, and we will have all the needed pieces to win a championship.

 

If we can get a Tony Parker or Devin Harris, you do it and don't look back.

 

Don't look now but we already HAVE vets. Travis is a vet. Joel is a vet. Rudy has played pro ball for many years. Roy went to 4 years of college. And as the seasons go on, everyone will become vets. We don't need some magical "vet" on this team. We already have them.

 

Amen.

 

What if we win it all this season?

Well then, everyone on our team becomes even more valuable because they have championship experience. So it will probably still be hard to keep them all.

 

The point STOMP made, which is crucial, is that playoff games are won by your front line talent, not by your depth. It's another application of the 80/20 rule; 80% of your success is determined by the top 20% of your players. For a 15 man roster, that would be your best three players. The importance of the players drops off quicky after that...your fourth, fifth and sixth players matter. The rest you just count on to not be awful in the few minutes that they're in to give starters a few minutes of rest.

As much as I love being able to bring scorer after scorer off the bench, it's really more of a novelty than a huge team strength. In the regular season, depth helps overcome little injuries here and there. Come the playoffs, you need the best six players yuu can muster and a few non-terrible players. That's very preferable to no superstars but 10 good to very good players.

So I am all in favour of consolidation wherever possible. If Outlaw, Webster and Bayless could be turned into Devin Harris (they can't, but just as an example), that should be done yesterday. The 40 high-caliber minutes a game Harris will play in the playoffs matter far, far more than the combined 70 lower quality minutes those players will give you in the playoffs.

Pritchard should always be looking to upgrade, and history has shown that quality for quantity trades almost always benefit the team getting the quality. Therefore, consolidation. Turn a large sheet of iron into a finely-forged sword. Less surface area but more focused killing power. So to speak.

 

I am definitely in favor of keeping all of our guys except Frye, Diogu, and MAYBE Bayless/Sergio. I bet they would make a pretty nice package along with some draft picks. But we already so stacked at every position, the only deal I would consider would be a high-calibre PG like Tony Parker. Those 4 guys, some draft picks for Tony Parker? I think that makes sense for both teams after this season ends and SA ends up a 1st-round loser.

 

I disagree that depth doesn't matter in the playoffs. Boston's depth did wonders for them in the playoffs. PJ hit the game breaking shot vs Cleveland. Posey hit a bunch of huge shots. Powe had a huge game of 20 off the bench in the FINALS. Big Baby had some good PT. Eddie House hit lots of big shots. Sam Cassell played well. I may forgetting someone. They went very deep and did it well. I disagree that we suddenly play a different style in the playoffs. Our depth is our strength and I wouldn't expect us to playing differently in the playoffs.

 

Think about it though...in the playoffs, Roy, Aldridge, Oden, all playing 40+ min per game. Rudy around 30. Webster around 30. Outlaw 25. There's just not enough minutes to stretch the rotation past 8 guys or so.

 

I wouldn't call Posey "depth." He was one of their six best players. PJ Brown, Glen Davis, Sam Cassell, Eddie House all had their moments, but were hardly great depth. They were those players I mentioned who you just ask not to be terrible. And they weren't. Powe was unexpectedly good, which was a nice lift for them.

 

I am squarely in the consolidation column. I have been in the locker room. I have heard young guys before. Sure, it's easy to talk about "winning" and "teamwork" but these guys want to play. I can't blame them. They only have so much time to prove themselves. They only have so much time to prove they belong in the NBA, and many of them would like to show that they are something special. Travis is an extremely effective 6th man, but I can guarantee he would like to be a starter playing 35-40 minutes a night.

The only guy on our team that I can honestly say probably would accept a backup spot just to stay with this team is Frye. He's young, but he loves this team and this city. I could see him being perfectly content as a role player with the Blazers. Other than that, I think guys like Sergio, Travis, Bayless, Martell, and even Rudy would like to crack the starting lineup.

What do we do when Rudy is too good to keep out of the starting five? Will he accept a 6th man spot? I think Rudy could eventually be a 25+ ppg scorer. He's that talented. Do you keep him on the bench? Is he okay with being on the second unit?

Joel will probably be okay with coming off the bench. I spent quite a bit of time around Joel when I covered the team and I think he is too entrenched in Portland to leave. He loves the city. He loves the team. As long as he's getting PT and we're competing, I could see him accepting a backup role to Oden. He's too smart to pass up a chance at winning a title with this team.

Sergio and Travis will both eventually want to be starters. Are they good enough? Maybe. I've said in the past that I feel Travis is the odd man out, and I still feel that way. I really like Batum and I think Martell will be a better all-around player than Travis when it's all said and done. I would like to see Outlaw go somewhere (preferably in the east) and show what he can do. I just don't think this is the team for him.

I still think Bayless could be our point guard of the future. With Brandon, all he needs to work on is his entry passes to Oden and his mid-to-long range game. As long as he can move without the ball and penetrate, I would be more than happy to see Bayless as our starting floor general. I think he has the talent. He just needs some burn so he can shake off the rookie jitters.

In summation, I would like to see us put together some kind of package that includes LaFrentz, Outlaw, and maybe Sergio to get either a star point guard or a star small forward. One trade that I think would solve a lot of problems for multiple teams is:

Dallas trades:
Josh Howard
Jason Terry
Jerry Stackhouse

Dallas receives:
Martell Webster
Sergio Rodriguez
Travis Outlaw
Raef LaFrentz
Matt Carroll
Ike Diogu

Portland trades:
Martell Webster
Sergio Rodriguez
Travis Outlaw
Raef LaFrentz
Ike Diogu

Portland receives:
Jason Terry
Gerald Wallace

Charlotte trades:
Gerald Wallace
Matt Carroll

Charlotte receives:
Josh Howard
Jerry Stackhouse

Why they do it? Dallas does the trade because A) they suck this year and B) they need to clear out some head cases. They add a young point guard in Sergio to replace Jason Kidd, they add a couple of young scorers in Travis Outlaw and Martell Webster, and they remove Josh Howard and Jerry Stackhouse from their roster. They're not getting top value for Howard, but they get some really decent young prospects which makes up for the Jason Kidd/Devin Harris debacle.

Portland makes the trade because they A) consolidate some of their young talent, and B) they add some really talented players at key positions. This would be a huge shakeup for the team, but now is the time to do that. Realistically the Blazers aren't going to win a championship this season, so now is the time to make significant changes to the roster. If you remove Sergio, Travis, and Martell now, you'll give the new guys enough time to aclimate to the new team.

We add Jason Terry, who some have said would be the ideal backcourt partner for Brandon Roy, and you add Gerald Wallace who is exactly the kind of small forward this team needs. He is athletic, he plays good defense, and he fills up stat sheets. This moves Blake to the backup spot, which is perfect for him, and slides Batum over to the backup small forward spot, which is great because he will still get plenty of PT.

Charlotte does the trade because he clear some serious cap space by removing Wallace and Carroll. Both Howard and Stackhouse come off the books before the summer of 2010, which gives them a lot of space to throw at LeBron, Wade, and Bosh. They also get a nice player to replace Wallace with Howard. Larry Brown could keep Howard in line.

In the end, everyone is happy. Blazers consolidate, Dallas retools, and Charlotte clears cap space for 2010.

Blazers roster looks like this:

Terry, Blake, Bayless
Roy, Rudy
Wallace, Batum
Aldridge, Frye, Randolph
Oden, Przybilla

 

Here is the problem I see with standing pat.

At some point, players playing well like Joel, Travis, Sergio, Blake, and even Nicolas are going to be upset about their playing time. Webster will be back in a couple of weeks, and he will get minutes.

Comsolidation of 2 or 3 of our players that are playing really good for 1 player that would play better would be a good thing for the locker room. I mean that in the future tense. The key is to find the right person, which is the problem. Who out there is worth more than Joel and Travis right now? Joel has decided to play like the second coming of Wilt all of a sudden, and Travis has commited to defense for the first time in his NBA life.

Going forward I see the team this way

Keepers/starters

Roy
Rudy
Oden
Aldridge


Nice to haves

Sergio
Outlaw
Batum
Joel


Good, but do we really need them?

Webster
Blake
Bayless

Guys that really are expendable

Frye
Raef
Ike
Shavlik

Who out there will bring this team more long term value? Right now I would say no one. Keep in mind also that I have never been the biggest Joel and Travis supporters, but they are both playing magnificent right now

 

Portland's quality depth 1-12 is a strength, but having even better players 1-9 would be more of a strength come the playoffs when thats as deep as the rotation goes. Having quality guys on the end of the bench is nice when dealing with injuries, but Portland's depth absolutely will turn into a problem if quality young players are languishing. Management can see this obvious problem brewing which is why they've adopted the 15=16 mantra for the year. But I very much doubt a cute slogan is going to provide enough consolation when guys are racking up 6 MPG or DNP-CD's. If they're good enough to be in someone else's regular rotation (or possibly even starting) and especially if they've Free Agency looming, guys want PT. Regardless of whether it's Blake Frye Sergio Outlaw Webster or Joel, that guy will not take well to riding the pine over time. If Portland has everyone healthy with Batum and/or Bayless getting any minutes, several of those guys are not going to be happy. Guys who aren't playing and are predictably bitter about it are probably not helping their team or enhancing their trade value.

I don't blame the player when they become frustrated (see Sergio earlier this year) as it's normal/expected behavior. It just makes the most sense for management to be proactive. Get the roster depth down the level where players can have a role they can embrace and thrive in. Barring injuries, I see a trade deadline move being about as predictable as the bundling of their 2nd round selections in the last draft.

These guys are not going to all retire Blazers. Change is coming, it's a constant in sports. Better to embrace this fact then try to hold on to a moment that can not last

STOMP