The problem with Fernandez at the time was that you had to buy him out of his Euro-contract as well, which is why he probably fell so far in the draft and the fact that you would need to wait a year. Portland was one of the few teams with the talent and money to be able to wait a year for that to mature. What it came down to was trading Zach for "cap relief", which we would have gotten anyway down the line. I've always thought that Penn's reputation seemed a bit overstated, especially by the "trade junkies" justifying the ZBO trade.
Yeah, I like having as many smart guys as possible working together in the Blazers' front office, but Penn should certainly take a GM position if it comes along. It would be a shame to lose him, but Pritchard is the vision guy, so he's the "irreplaceable" (insofar as anyone can be irreplaceable) one.
I don't know if his reputation is overstated. His importance might be. The thing is, even if he's only involved in a few small moves per year, it's nice to have a guy who can work the margins for small pieces of value that would have been missed otherwise. It may be that that small piece of value (the trade exception) was the final block needed to snag Rudy Fernandez. Perhaps not, but we don't know for sure...but considering that is what happened, my default is that it was necessary. Penn also extracted a bit of "hidden value" by getting a small trade exception from a Diogu-Ruffin swap. It basically cost Portland nothing and gives them a small asset. Whether that asset will be beneficial (as part of a package or in buying another draft pick) remains to be seen. But it's better to have it than not. Penn may not be pivotal to Portland's success, but it's good to have a guy like that working all the angles for you. Sometimes a seemingly minor angle makes a big difference.
I've always thought that Penn's reputation is understated among some fans that don't understand how hard the CBA nut is to crack, and just asume trades would have "happened" regardless of important details they don't want to bother with trying to understand, or paying attention to the accounts of how trades that happened actually were put together.
Its not understated if the trades aren't all that great to begin with. Its not like trades don't happen in the general course of it all. Anyone with an "ESPN or REALGM" trade machine can simulate different scenarios. I still say we got screwed on the ZBO trade.
I think he got here after Miles was bought out. They applied for a medical exception which didn't work out because he actually came back to play. It was still the logical move -- Miles would have never got on the court with us again, and we would be liable for his whole contract. What's your agenda against Penn?
I just found a lot of the praise for him a bit unearned before he actually did much. During the Zach Randolph trade time, there were all these posters praising Penn for opening up an assload of cap space in which we could make one or even two max offers or something rediculous...the thinking being that we would use Penn's expertise in the cap to acquire a TOP NBA Talent to go along with our current crop of players. We've been carrying Steve Francis and Raef LaFrentz salary on the books for the past two seasons and we are going to get little use out of it other than some cap space this summer. We'll see if that happens, but I hardly consider Andre Miller or Ramon Sessions "that" player. As I had been saying, this cap space he was clearing was going to be "imaginary" until we actually acquire the talent. I thought it was greatly overrated, and I think we'll probably use it on an over-the-hill veteran type of player after its all said and done.
Not Penn's fault. So, for you to claim Penn is "overrated" because you are unhappy with a trade he made BETTER than the original iteration that Pritchard came up with is, well, I just won't go there at this time. Interesting concept. Unfortunately, internet trade machines are wrong all the time. But, whatever, live in your fantasy world that guys like Penn are worthless. Again - that has WHAT to do with Penn? The team decided that Zach HAD to go and go NOW. That movement was spearheaded by Brandon Roy and KP and McMillian agreed that Zach needed to be dumped. They shopped him and got laughed at. KP decided that trading him for crap was better than not trading at all.
so...what has Penn done to warrant his reputation? A few trade exceptions? wow. no one ever acquires trade exceptions. is he more a "behind the scenes" guy? I just don't see why he is "such a genius" with the cap.
Great. I don't care. He doesn't care. If you think Minny is looking at him because he is a lightweight who hasn't done crap, that's on you.
way to avoid the question! Minnesota...who's previous GM was Kevin McHale....yeah. I don't think they could really do worse than that.
Interesting. He does know our plans for the future and this summer. Wonder how KP handles this. Does he say, you know we are going after Gerald Wallace and ANdre miller this summer, so you guys can't!
that sucks, although his biggest use to the Blazers was this summer, given that it's the last time there will be cap space. Hopefully all plans are already made and he doesn't mess them up for us. Still, in a way it's better to have teams wanting your assistant GM than not. Just look at the Spurs, quite a few good GMs have come from them. At least it means that KP is doing something right.
obviously they should probably have non-compete clause in his contract or something along those line to get him out of his contract with the blazers. he should be an upstart, by the books type if he was in the blazers org....no need to go around and trying to screw us.
What kind of non-compete clauses can an NBA team apply to a front office person hired away by another NBA team? From what I've seen, traditionally non-compete clauses mean that the person can't engage in business directly competing with his former company's business for a certain length of time. But I can't see how that would work with an NBA GM...the entire job of an NBA GM is to compete with all other teams for players. "Non-compete" would seem to mean "You can't actually be their GM for 6 months." How can Penn be a GM for Minnesota and fail to compete with Portland?
Give the T'Wolves this - they are thinking ahead. After the 2011 lock-out, when Stern forces an NFL style hard cap on the league, bean-counters like Penn will become far more important. 10 years from now, the "talent evaluator" type GM may be extinct.
Non competes are severely restricted or outlawed in most states. The team could have a trade secret clause. It would be hard to enforce, but if Penn nakedly mucked up Portland's plans, told to many people Portland's secret plans (the more people you tell, the more likely you are found out) or used their secret sauce (that other team's don't use) they could have a case. I am sure Penn will be careful not to cross that line.
he would have to sign something to the effects of to not maliciously block certain planned moves or to use protected knowledge in his time in the Portland war rooms to Minnesota....
