West guys he needed when he needed them. He didn't have to turn over the roster every season, so saying he didn't make big deals every year is pointless. I certainly don't expect KP to make a big deal every year, or every other year. I feel very strongly that given the assets KP had at his disposal, West would have gotten something done. What I am trying to say is that I am extremely disappointed in KP for not turning Portland's best trade asset into anything at all. Even trading it for a guy whose contract came off the books in 2010 would have been acceptable. As it stands, RLEC was well and truly wasted. I place the blame for this squarely on KP's shoulders which seems fitting to me. The whole reason KP grabbed RL in the first place was to use his expiring contract to acquire talent. That fact that he was unable to doesn't diminish the fact that his strategy failed miserably. I doesn't matter much to me when he would have used it. I don't mean to single out the trade deadline. He could have used it during the draft. I recall hearing him say he didn't use RLEC at that time because he thought it would be more valuable at the trade deadline. That fact that it wasn't more valuable then means he fucked up. Bad. It is true that I have no idea what was out there being offered. It is also true that KP can't work magic and whip up my ideal player at the drop of a hat. The fact that he got RL for the explicit reason to turn his contract into a quality player and was unable to get that done IS a failure on his part. As it stands, Portland paid a guy 16 million a season for nothing. In response to the thread title, I do believe Portland had a long term strategy 4 years ago. I just think that strategy has failed and I don't believe KP has a back-up plan.
Funny, I thought it was to turn Sebastian Telfair into Brandon Roy. Magic! I trust that if there were something good out there, KP would get it. He's shown me nothing to think that he isn't on the ball with GM decisions. Why would a team trade a 2010 expiring for a 2009 expiring (RLEC)...the 2010 FA year is much more valuable for teams. By not trading for another player, he's hedging that we'll be able to use our cap space to pickup undervalued talent; there aren't many teams with capspace, and although there are no superstars, we may be able to get a buyer's discount on the players that actually are available. I was a bit disappointed to, at the time, but who knows if a decent player was available. In KP we trust!
Perhaps KP decided RLEC was more valuable to us so that we have cap space to play with this summer? It's not possible to evaluate the RLEC decision until after this coming years trade deadline and seeing what happens with the cap space. You think the strategy has failed? Would it be your opinion that we should scrap the team and start over?
That would have been worse. Letting RLEC expire now gives Portland cap room. In 2010, after extensions to Roy and Aldridge, they wouldn't have had cap room even with an expiring deal of RLEC size. So an expiring contract in 2010 would have been useless. Keeping and letting RLEC expire gives Portland cap room now and a chance to acquire a good player like Andre Miller or Ramon Sessions. Wrong. LaFrentz was part of the deal to get the #7 pick from Boston. If you'll recall, that pick was used to draft Randy Foye, who was then dealt to Minnesota for Brandon Roy. Quite a failed transaction there. All Portland got was Brandon Roy. LaFrentz was not viewed as a positive at the time of the trade. He was an extreme negative which Portland took on in order to turn Telfair and Ratliff (another terrible contract) into the #7 pick. Pritchard did not acquire LaFrentz in order to "turn his contract into a quality player." Trying to turn an expiring contract into a quality player is something all teams try to do when a bad contract is in the final year and it rarely works. It helps to get your facts right when attempting to blast someone. It definitely failed. In those four years, all Pritchard has accomplished is turning arguably the worst franchise in basketball into a mid-50 win team with a ton of talent that is still improving. The question is, after failure like that, what should Portland do now? (Yes, I'm being sarcastic. The idea that Pritchard's "four year plan" was to acquire Raef LaFrentz, turn him into a good player a few years later and everything else that he's done was incidental is flatly ridiculous. Pritchard's four-year plan has clearly been to rebuild the franchise with young talent and he's done an amazingly good job of that. LaFrentz was a speculative asset over the past year which was completely incidental to the "plan." Expiring contracts are rarely traded into good players...Pritchard clearly would have liked to use it that way if possible, but evidently it wasn't. A shame, but claiming that Pritchard messed up badly when you have no idea what was possible is silly.)
The part of the strategy that was centered around RLEC failed. I don't understand how that relates to all of the other moves KP made. So no, I don't think they should scrap the whole thing. In fact, I haven't even said that the team is bad right now. They are a good team without making a single move. However, I have a hard time seeing the current incarnation winning a title. It appears that KP believes they can. If KP is correct then I will never have been more happy to be wrong. About the cap space. I mentioned above that I think it is foolish to believe KP will do more with that then he did with RLEC. He has less value to work with, though it is more flexible. I will go on the record as saying I hope KP proves me horribly wrong, pulls a fantastic deal out of his hat and makes me eat my words.
Blasting you? That's crazy talk. I have expressed my view of the situation without any kind of personal attack what so ever. Not sure how that could be a "blast". In fact, I take a damn dim view of people who do attack others on forums. You are correct and I was wrong about Raif. He was part of bring Roy to Portland which was awesome and stupendous. A move for which KP will have my gratitude for years to come. I bought season tickets because we drafted Roy and LA. I don't know how I could show my appreciation more then that. That said, I distinctly recall KP talking up RLEC afterwards as a great asset. As this year came closer he mentioned it more and more. It sure seemed like KP felt it was an awesome asset to have, yet it fell flat. I believe that is on KP and no one else. I honestly can't imagine how my questioning of KP's non-move this year has anything to do with past moves. In fact, I have stated several times that KP kills in the draft. I trust KP to draft well every year without fail. To say I believe all of his other moves incidental is odd. Can't I question and be upset about one thing he did while acknowledging he has done a great many things I approve of? Apparently the answer is no. I may either believe he walks on water and every single thing he does is gold or I can believe that all of his moves are shit and the team is worthless as constructed. Neither is true. I believe the team is good (quite good in point of fact). I think the team can be made great next year with the right vet. I believe KP is not going to get the right vet because he over-values some of the players on the team which makes it harder for him to move them. He may yet prove me wrong and grab a guy who makes a big splash. No one this board would be happier about that then me.
You're misunderstanding me. The "someone" that I was referring to you blasting was Pritchard. Not me. That's part of the salesmanship you wanted him to display. It's harder to sell an asset that you downplay. Pritchard talked about it like it was valuable. It could have been valuable, in the right situation...if a team was so desperate for cash savings that they were willing to give up a good player just to get rid of a contract. That was never a sure thing. Look at history...every bad contract becomes an expiring contract in the final year. How many of them are traded straight up for a good player? It's not that you're "questioning one thing." You claimed that his "four year plan has failed and he apparently has no back-up plan." Would you like to retract that? If not, you are claiming that by not turning LaFrentz into a good player, his team-building for the past four years has been a failure. That seems like a pretty tough claim to support. As for whether the team is good enough to contend with the current players (bear in mind that all of the core except maybe Roy are still pre-prime and so are likely to get better) and whether Pritchard will be able to do something with the cap space, those are perfectly reasonable things to question. What I was criticizing about your position was: 1. Claiming Pritchard "failed" at the trade deadline simply because he didn't make a deal (without knowing what deals were possible, there's no way to know whether he did the right thing or wrong thing) 2. Claiming that his "four year plan" has now failed due to not trading RLEC I don't think you have supported either of those claims.
If KP's plan was to turn the RLEC into something of value, then the plan failed. We can't say with 100% certainty that *was* the plan. Nor can we say with 100% certainty whose fault it was the plan failed. That makes everything said here speculation. So what? We speculate about stuff all the time!
1.) Quite true, we will both never know for sure what was available. So be it. I am entitled to the opinion that there were moves he could have made but didn't due to over valuing players on the team. There is evidence that would suggest KP feels some of his players are worth more then they actually are. His comments about locking up Outlaw and Blake being a big priority being the biggest. Could that be a smoke-screen to try and convince other GM's they are worth more then they are? Sure. If it is, and it works, then I was mistaken. 2.) Either I didn't explain myself well, or you misunderstood. The four year plan specifically as it related to RLEC failed. The over all plan has many, many more facets then that, like every good plan. In every other case I can think of KP has succeeded more then I would have hoped. That is why this particular failure is so puzzling. Once again, I am ONLY referring to the failure to utilize RLEC in a meaningful way. How about this: The fact that the man who was able to convince New York to take Stat-Bo off our hands with his bloated ass contract sure seems like the type of guy who could make something of RLEC. In fact you might say KP's past performance is what set me up for disappointment when nothing happened.
The Randolph trade was not that bad for the Knicks nor that good for the Blazers. The Blazers had to take on Francis deadweight and the Knicks were able to get out from under Randolph's contract relatively easily. It didn't work out for the Knicks, but it was a good gamble and didn't cost them anything. The Blazers' main asset they acquired was Rudy, and it's conceivable that they would have been able to get him without the trade exception from NY. They could have later made the same deal the Knicks did and come out ahead, IMO, of where they did. Ed O.
You do realize that KP can make lopsided trades this summer with the cap space he's created don't you? Why don't you hold off on the whole "he failed" angle until we see what happens in the next couple of months.
Of course he can. I am saying he won't for the very same reasons nothing got done at the deadline. Namely, nothing he feels is worth dealing for will be available and he feels the players he has are worth far more then they actually are. Though it may seem possible, it is really unlikely a team will let a valuable player go for nothing. The only team in dire straights enough to do so is New Orleans. The only player Portland would actually want off of that team, Paul, is the one player that is completely untouchable. It mystifies me why anyone would feel differently. Do you really think Memphis is going to just give us Conelly? Do you think Toronto would just give us Jose? Much has been made of teams needed to get under the tax limit, but those teams are going to give their best players away for nothing. It is far, far more likely that Portland doesn't make a trade that makes an immediate impact next year. Portland may very well move way up in the draft. Portland may very well trade for a guy who is still a couple of years away from being a contributor. Neither of these will help the team next year.
It's hard to take what you're saying seriously when you can't spell Conley correctly. Just pointing that out. Back to what you were talking about. I think you're right in that KP overrates some of our guys a bit, but I also think part of the reason he's done so in the past may have been partially because he wanted to see what type of growth he could get out of them while our window for championships still wasn't open. Now that it's pretty obvious Roy and Aldridge need support immediately if this team wants to contend in the next year or two rather than waiting a bit longer for development that may not happen, I think KP is smart enough to realize that he either needs to get them help, or figure out who on this roster can produce now (Rudy, hopefully Greg and maybe a bit more from Bayless next year).
Do you mean to tell me I misspelled a last name, where the origin could be from damn near any country in the world? Man do I feel...nothing at all. So, everyone thinks that KP is going to do something big that involves an established star. Fair enough. Prove it. Thus far all of the responses are calling into question my belief that KP will not make any big time move. I have laid out all of my reasons. No one here has said why they believe he will do a deal. It IS obvious that Roy and LA need some help. Why does that mean KP will do something he has never done before? By that I mean make a deal outside of the draft that brings in an established impact player. Give me whatever reasons you all have that hope, since I don't see it. Clearly there must be some reason to believe otherwise since I am in minority. Instead of telling me why I am wrong, tell me why you are right.
To clarify I think he's going to make moves for cap space at the draft, then find the best deal possible during the season, likely at the trade deadline. -I think he'll do this because the reason that has been stated in the past for him not making mid season deals is it messes up chemistry and he likes seeing and evaluating what he has for a full season. One of those reasons won't be valid if he has essentially the same team from last season. Also team chemistry will likely be very strongly established for the same reason next season. A mid season trade would likely be less disruptive. -The main reason I think the blazers will do this is because this is when the blazers will be the most flexible to make a move for the duration of this championship run. If they are going to make a big deal this is when they have the most ability to do it. -Another reason is that lopsided trades are most likely to happen near the trade deadline, especially when cap space is involved due to it getting calculated for the cap based on the team you have at the end of the season. Teams will be more likely to be desperate for cap relief, and more willing to make a deal. A team isn't going to make a move that's obviously to their disadvantage when they still have time to wait and see if a better opportunity comes along. That's all I got.
I don't know what is going to happen and neither do you ... furthermore you make it sound like it's simply impossible to make impact trades in the NBA or that KP is somehow massively risk averse or "in love" with his whole roster when there just isn't enough evidence to say it's one way or another. This is the offseason we've all been waiting for for a couple of years now (the first season he was going to have any shot at cap room); this is where we find out just what KP is made of and to prejudge anything before it's actually happened just seems incredibly short sighted -- whether that is through trades or free agent signings to round out the roster.
It isn't impossible to make impact trades. It IS unlikely. They don't happen very often for good reason. In order to make a true impact deal, Portland is going to have to give up someone they really want to keep. I am talking about guys like LA, Rudy, Batum and Oden here. Outlaw, Blake, Martell, Sergio and like will be filler at best in any kind of real impact trade. I am assuming B-Roy is untouchable, with Oden next in line, LA, Batum then Rudy. I do believe KP is risk averse. I haven't seen anything to make me believe otherwise. The evidence I do have is historical in nature. Namely, KP has NEVER done such a deal before. This is only 4 years of history, but I believe this years trade deadline was telling. This most certainly is the offseason we have all been waiting for. This summer is probably the last in quite a while where the team has enough flexibility to make a big deal. As much as I wish Portland would make a deal, I don't believe they will. Mostly because any deal on this level would require LA be moved. That's risky in the extreme. I don't think KP would make a deal like that.
