I totally agree. Has everyone forgotten that we HATE Lamar Odom? The guy is a total jerk who would never fit in with the good guys. He is a total Bob Whitsett guy and I don't want him anywhere near Portland, and I applaud Pritchard for not trying to win that way. Next I'll be hearing that people want Rick Fox to come out of retirement and sign with us.
For some reason I laughed when I read this. "Just" a great defender and really good 3 point shooter from the wing? ... a position of weakness, either because of uncertainty surrounding Martell, inexperience in Nicolas or lack of consistency in Travis, and all we have to do is give up an inconsistent tweener forward who only shoots and doesn't play good defense and doesn't rebound and a 30 year old center who plays the same position as our number one draft pick, is a liability on offense and will leave us with an overcrowded frontcourt (if we get Millsap) unless we move him? This is what people talk about when referring to fans overvaluing players. Don't get me wrong, I love Joel, and I don't hate Travis, and dealing both to get Battier carries some risk, but I'd be much more comfortable with this lineup from a balanced roster perspective and production perspective than rolling forward with Joel and Travis rotting on the bench because Nate is trying to squeeze too many players into too few minutes next season.
Why is everyone trying to trade Joel away? The guy has been the backbone of the team. Have we already forgotten why we lost to the Lakers in '99? The refs fouled out Sabonis and all we had left was Brian Grant to guard Shaq. Did you notice how difficult it was to foul out both Oden and Joel? We are Portland. The refs will never let us keep a starting center in the game. Ever. We need Joel on this team, period. In my mind, he is totally untradeable, especially with the contract he has. There is a reason we are under the cap right now; it's because we have reasonable contracts for these guys.
We won a lot of games last year due to Roy taking over 1 on 1 in the 4th quarter. Brilliant coaching! I wouldn't be too upset to lose Nate, honestly. Neither Roy nor LA are going anywhere. People are over sensationalizing this offseason, and it's not even over yet. KP built this team, and you want to bag on him just because Hedo backed out?
Well, if we get Millsap, how do you think Joel is going to feel about getting less minutes than last year? Joel is a valuable commodity, but with Millsap you can get away with playing LMA at C some.
No man, you've got this all wrong (no offense intended). Millsap isn't being signed to replace Joel at all. He is meant to make the team bigger, not smaller. LaMarcus is only a center when you are playing a team that has none (Houston?). You have to think in terms of what will help you win in the playoffs, and we gotta have Joel for that.
Joel will definitely be on the block if Millsap is indeed signed. Guys like Millsap are too talented to be used for 15 minutes a game. Besides, the only reason to pay a backup 9M per year is so that he gets significant minutes.
I'm not comfortable with anything unless the Blazers have a good backup center for Oden, and no, I don't really count Aldridge in that scenario. I'm talking about an extra body that is 7 foot tall. A guy that would be the best rebounder on the team and the best defensive post player on the team, whether that means guarding guys straight up or weak side help. Joel is that guy. Losing Joel is not a good thing, period.
Kind of, but Joel is the better rebounder, and he can guard the true centers in the NBA. Millsap is an undersized PF.
I think Joel will be ok with it. He's not getting any younger and it might extend his career to play fewer minutes. Plus it has been clear to him for a couple of years now that he's Oden's backup, this isn't a big change of plans. Assuming Oden is healthy, Joel will be getting fewer minutes this year even if we don't get Millsap. I think it would be a serious mistake to trade Joel. Got to see if Oden can get through a year injury-free first. Of course, if we are going to trade him for Chris Paul, no problem. barfo
Excellent post. Thanks for reminding us of how good this team already is, and what our further development is going to look like. I'm really hoping that Oden, Batum, and Bayless turn it up a notch this season. If they do, we've got nothing to to worry about.
I respectfully disagree. Millsap is 6'8'', they aren't going to put him in there to replace Joel. That just isn't smart basketball, especially when you have Oden who can't stay in the game longer than 20 minutes before he fouls out. Millsap is meant to be a corresponding player to Joel at the 4 spot, he doesn't play the 5 for a playoff team against another playoff team. At the end of this season, Pritchard and McMillan spoke repeatedly about finding someone in free agency who could make the team tougher, that we didn't have a guy like that. They were not talking about Joel, guys. They were talking about LaMarcus and Channing. The fact that we have one more big than anyone else is going to be our advantage over the other teams in the west.
Re: More KP bashing by Wojnarowski Especially the year that Oden is DPOY and Roy is MVP regular season and Finals MVP. KP might talk about how he "Pritch slapped the whole league" at that point it won't matter if he pulls an Odysseus and enrages the gods.
Well if that's the case, then I am cool with keeping Joel even with Millsap. I would love Battier on this team though.
If Millsap were acquired and Przybilla were traded, Millsap wouldn't play center. Aldridge would slide over to center when Oden was on the bench. You'd have center/power forward units of: Oden/Aldridge, Oden/Millsap and Aldridge/Millsap. Thus, Millsap only ever plays power forward but still effectively ends up allowing Portland to use a three-man rotation in the front court.
If Outlaw's still here, he'd play some 4 as well. Not as much as last year, of course, but I could see him playing 4 with LMA for some "small ball" stretches.
Yeah, most likely. I'd anticipate the vast majority of his minutes coming at small forward (with Webster's return uncertain, Portland has nobody else at the position after Batum)...but he could certainly mop up any left-over minutes at power forward. Especially when one considers any potential injuries.
Aldridge CAN play center, but I'm not necessarily fond of the idea. He actually played a lot of minutes there last year at the end of games when the Blazers needed scoring, but the defense always took a hit.
Outlaw is the guy they would get rid of if Millsap were signed, not Joel (or else, Travis just wouldn't play at the 4 anymore). LaMarcus isn't even a good defender against other power forwards, much less centers. Again, try to remember how rough it was when we had to play Brian Grant on centers. Well Brian was a heck of a lot tougher than LaMarcus will ever be.
