As a fan I reserve the right to be as fickle or irrational as I may please. We've had so much excitement the past few offseasons I must confess I'd grown accustomed to it and was looking forward to more of the same. The fact that we let the trading deadline come and go without doing anything with the much ballyhooed RLEC bothered me. It left me wondering whether Paul got cold feet or Kevin didn't get the job done. Draft day left me feeling much the same way, and I sold myself the story that KP had a plan, just like he'd had the last few years in the draft, and when the right moment came it would be perfectly executed. Then along came Hedo Turkoglu. And off he went. I've always liked Hedo as a player, but somehow had a notion that he wasn't really the right choice and we'd regret overpaying him. So perhaps its better that he be a Raptor. Those capspace dollars of Paul Allens money are burning a hole in my pocket and I want to spend them so bad I can hardly stand it. And I much prefer being the rejecTOR rather than the rejecTEE. After the Turkoglu incident I think its safe to say WE HAVE NO PLAN, and are making it up as we go. It appears that we either bungled this this or simply didn't get the job done. Which is it? IMO, we tried to play hardball at the trading deadline and wound up empty handed. And as a result, we may just wind up empty handed again this summer....or wind up overpaying so we can get a deal made. All the competition is beefing up their rosters. If we have to pay more than we should, and we can afford it, we should do so and make the upgrades. If Mr. Allen was serious when he declared the championship window open now....that should be the modus operendi.
I hope we drag this out as long as possible. I enjoy watching people get angry for no good reason (this isn't directed at you ucatchtrout)
Now if we were actually buyers then we would be in good shape. When it comes to trading some players he actually likes KP is more of a voyeur
KP has 2 strikes against him. That doesn't mean he won't hit it out of the park, but the at bat IS starting to get a little long.
And I've seen solid improvement over the last three years. How can you argue with that? I still believe KP will get "it" done over this summer. For now, I can wait and see,
It's KP's style to make it as drawn out and painful as can be. In the end, I think he'll stay with his "boys" and go to war with "his boys"
The $9M cap hit you guys took for Darius Miles killed your chances to be the big player in FA this summer. You don't want the best players available; you want guys who don't play the same position as your top 3. At SF and PG, the pickings are just slim, and the teams with more than $9M in cap space signed the truly best available for more than $9M you guys had. As we learned in Chicago, cap space can get you into a situation where it's "use it or lose it" and we ended up signing Ben Wallace whose contract ultimately turned into Larry Hughes and Drew Gooden, then into Brad Miller and Salmons and Jerome James and Tim Thomas. Hardly anything to shout about. Hedo was the best option for use it or lose it. I think you guys may have lucked out in not signing someone for the sake of it. Look around the league at guys you can get in lopsided (salary, not talent) deals and you may end up way better off.
Portland's advantage, or disadvantage, compared to Chicago's situation is that our roster at the time of free agency is better, deeper. Portland should use the cap room and deal whomever later rather than waste the space. Since when did Paul get tight with his change?
He's already hit it out of the park considering what he inherited. Would you have considered Turkoglu a homerun? I'd call it a single, at best, and I had that opinion prior to him accepting mediocrity in Toronto for a bit more money.
Geeze, the 186th thread about begging KP to go get someone. Doesn't matter if they can play. Doesn't matter if we need them. Doesn't matter if they fit at all. So long as they have a heartbeat and cost at least $10,000,000, WE........................ MUST................. HAVE................. THEM!!! Can we give this a rest now and all get some friggin' sleep? Unbelievable. So stupidly unbelievable that's it'd be funny if it weren't so lame.
I think the Blazers have been traditionally poor when it comes to using cap space. Normally, we let contracts expire and do nothing with the space. Remember Sabonis' contract? Remember Raef? I'm not on the same band wagon as everyone else thinking Pritchard is some sort of genius. Remember that two of his first round picks will never play in the NBA in Kopenen and Freeland. I think people have a right to question his history. Everybody and their sister thought the RLEC was the crown jewel and we didnt' pull the trigger. Now, in the only off season in which we will have cap space for the next 5 years, most of the intriuging players have signed: Turk- Toronto Kidd- Mavs Bibby- Hawks Marion- Mavs Artest- Lakers Ariza- Rockets And then we seen other top teams improve: Sheed- Celtics Jefferson- Spurs Carter- Orlando Shaq- Cavs You can call us questioning KP whiners, but I'm not completely convinced he is some genious. If the Turk is the best he could do when others are bringing in tier 1 level players, I have serious reservations.
I know your little list was meant to question KP, but it seems to validate him more. There is not one player named ( except for the one player he tried to get -Turk) that make me go "Damn we could have had him" Now Artest would have been interesting, but he signed for the minimum right off the bat. He wanted to go to LA. Period. Other than that.............what am i missing?
Not really. We went after the biggest free agent, and lost out on him at the last minute due to his wife. We could have made room for him if it was just a $$ issue, but it wasn't. Having that extra cap space would not have helped. And obviously, we easily have enough cap space now to land any of the free agents out there and we're not doing it.
Hmmm... Turk- Toronto-Spurned Portland Kidd- Mavs-Never has wanted to be in Portland Bibby- Hawks-Lateral move at best Marion- Mavs-Old Artest- Lakers-Crazy Ariza- Rockets-Rudy would have a fit And then we seen other top teams improve: Sheed- Celtics-Crazy part two Jefferson- Spurs-Yawn Carter- Orlando-Old Shaq- Cavs-Old and spurned Portland Yup, really intriguing as to why KP didn't snap up one of these guys.
