Thank you KP! YOU DA MAN! I also wanna thank Paul Allen for being the best owner in sports! We are a lucky bunch.
BTW, anybody remember Jordan's comment about the Blazers? He once said that when the Bull beat the Blazers for the title, the Blazers had 8 of the 10 best players in the series. He didn't bother to point out that he and Pippen still kicked their asses! Depth is a nice luxury over an 82 game season. In the play-offs, it is your top 3-4 guys who make the difference.
Christopher Reina at RealGM wrote a really extensive article about this last season at RealGM.com and it was pretty convincing stuff, that you need two top ten players to win it all, the only exception to that rule has been Detroit's latest title team.
The Heat didn't have two top-ten players. Wade was, Shaq wasn't by that point. I wouldn't say the Spurs ever had two top-ten players. Parker may have been arguable, but I wouldn't have placed him in the top-ten. Boston possibly didn't have any top-ten players last season, though KG was arguable (in his prime, he was top-2, but he's declined). I don't think you need two top-ten players. I think you either need two top-ten players and good defenders/rebounders around them, or you need three or four very good players and good defenders/rebounders around them. A group of ten pretty good players rarely does the trick. As far as the Blazers go, they have one top-ten player in Roy. Aldridge probably won't get there, but he should be very good. Oden might end up a top-ten player, but he should at least end up a very good player if he stays healthy. So, Portland arguably already has the three-man core necessary (once Oden and Aldridge finish developing). But to seal the deal, they shouldn't stand pat with Rudy/Batum/Bayless/Outlaw. They should aggressively try to turn them into one more very good/great player at point guard or small forward.
Agreed... every team should ALWAYS look to get better. With that being said: finally we're back in the dance and you never know what's gonna happen once you're in! Ed O.
I have no doubt that Pritchard will figure this stuff out. Any GM who can rebuild a team as quickly as he did will also figure out how to get us a championship.
Yea it is going to be really weird, because over the last few seasons, a lot of what we had to look forward to, was talent coming in. Now we will be waiting to see how players improve each summer, because the team is pretty much set for a while.
That's a good way of putting it. What was once a rusting hulk up on blocks has become a car again - it just isn't ready to run at Daytona yet.
Thank god. This team is building a high-tech, exotic materials Formula-1 contender - not a carburated billboard masquerading as a race car. Bring on Monte-Carlo.
there is no such thing as a set roster. Young guys improve and need bigger roles, older players fade but still want to play and get paid. This is a great moment in franchise history but next season brings a new set of issues that management should deal with proactively. Change is the constant, embrace it! STOMP
It's not wrong, it's just interesting to see how quickly fortunes can change -- for both good or ill. I figured this would provide a nice perspective as a companion to today's other "rebuilding" thread.
How mean-spirited. EDIT: I guess you didn't mean it that way... not that I'm inclined to believe you... but okay, I guess I take it back.
Sorry if I didn't believe you; it seems there's a whole roving pack of I-told-you-so-ers out there enjoying being right all this time... emotional vampires, the whole lot.
And to be honest... What if we picked Durant instead? I wonder if we would still be in the same situation now? Sometimes I wonder it could be "Yes". Yeah I know that sounds silly; but something is in our water man. At least since 2000. Just seems luck doesn't go our way. It always seems just when we think we are gonna do something marvelous; we are downed by some sort of reality. We are Jinxed!
Honestly, the plan was sound, except for the part where KP fell in love with too many of his own guys (the role-player types and some of the "stuck on potential" kids) and struggled to trade them ... but 80% of our woes can be traced directly to Roy's and Oden's knees exploding. It just underscores how important it is to pick "The guy(s)" correctly.
