You could also say that in a roundabout way Hitler was responsible for the Berlin wall coming down ...
I asked someone else this, but it might be interesting to get more opinions. Assuming Chris Paul makes the Blazers too good to have the draft pick that landed Aldridge and certainly too good to have the draft pick that landed Oden, but assuming Pritchard could still have dealt Telfair for the pick that landed Roy, would you rather the scenario in which Nash selected Paul? Bear in mind that Jack (a player Portland received in the deal for the Chris Paul draft pick) was the price of swapping draft picks with Indiana to get Bayless. So the scenario swap boils down to this: Chris Paul and three generic first round draft picks (in 2006, 2007, 2008) for Oden, Aldridge, Webster and Bayless The first round picks are "generic" because we don't know where the team would have selected in those years, but first round picks are still valuable. We'd currently have Paul and Roy as our core stars, with Rudy, Batum and Outlaw as the best complementary players/prospects. Plus whoever Pritchard ended up drafting in 2006, 2007 and 2008 with lower draft slots. Oden could be a once-a-decade center. Paul is a once-a-decade point guard. Aldridge is a near-star big man, Bayless is an excellent prospect, Webster is a decent reserve player. Could Pritchard have found players to approximate the value of those three players with the different first round picks he'd have had?
Although I'd rate Webster as starter material and Bayless as a decent prospect, I certainly wouldn't trade Oden or Aldridge for Paul even straight across as I doubt he and Roy would co-exist or even complement each other. We have more young talent than any team in the league, and they mesh quite nicely. We're not missing the playoffs for many, many years again, and they will only continue to get better. Bake it!
Interesting question. My quick take on the matter. Bayless: with Paul, not essential Webster: we already have 2 guys better than him who were drafted in the 20s. LMA: love the guy, but c'mon.....he isn't irreplaceable. Oden: this is the tough part. If he is the next Shaq/Robinson/Hakeem, we are probably better off with him. If he is the next Mutombo (my opinion), then I would rather have Paul. Let's split the difference. If we had drafted Deron Williams, his shakey rookie year would have left us pretty much where we were for the Roy/LMA draft......so our core would be pretty much the same, except for who we would have drafted in place of Oden. If KP worked his magic and got the right guy (Horford?) our future would still be very bright.
Not that NO would ever do that, but if so I guess it would depend on what we did with Roy. Roy seems to need the ball in his hands to do anything, and obviously Paul would make that unlikely nearly all the time. I would like to see Roy learn to move without the ball more. With a true PG like Paul, or Sergio, someone like Rudy might be a better starting SG option than Roy eventually. In any case I am fairly certain Roy would have to be a part of any trade for Paul.
The fact that you didn't say yes straight up makes me think you've lost your sanity. Indeed, you have.
It wasn't just "spirit." When Paul went out, who was "guarding" (and I use that term loosely) Bayless? Antonio Daniels, a guy who clearly didn't have the speed to do much more than draw one charge on him. Plus, I think a lot of teams that are good defensively, but not great defensively, tend to let their offense dictate the intensity of the defense. If time after time after time you look utterly incompetent on offense, as the Hornets repeatedly did last night whenever Paul was out of the game, it has an impact on your morale on the defensive end. Maybe not if you are Ben or Rasheed Wallace, but if you are Peja Stojakovic or David West it does. I'm not saying Portland can't ever beat a superstar. I'm saying there are some superstars that have games where they thoroughly dominate our team. LeBron had one recently. Paul was in the middle of one when he got taken out. Doesn't happen all the time. I actually like our odds against that team in a best of 7 series. But I think there will be 2 or 3 games where we look utterly at the mercy of Paul. We may not lose by 25 (as we were on our way to doing last night). But our team will put up its typical 95 points while his puts up 105.
Yeah... head coaches always get super pissed when their team wins. especially in come from behind wins...
