This has to be one of the best intro's to a Blazer article ever... http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/Th.../the_baseline_sees_all_portland_trail_blazers
this guys take on LA Before I get around to previewing those pesky Blazers (and having to take yet another stand on Andre Miller(notes)), it's worth taking a closer look at the LaMarcus Aldridge(notes) extension. Aldridge and his team appear to be well on their way to a five-year, $70 million deal. That's a hefty chunk of change for a player who, by most accounts, has either yet to fulfill his potential or reveal exactly what his game's going to be, or maybe both. Not exactly the kind of semi-speculative investment we're used to seeing in these troubled economic times. But here's what people don't seem to understand about Portland: as good as they've been, Kevin Pritchard's five-step program to a championship depends on Aldridge, Roy and Oden. Since Oden's lagging way behind, it's all the more important that Aldridge be kept in the fold. I know it's cool to say stuff like "just don't pay the bum" or "why would we give that dude that much?" We heard similar things about Rashard Lewis(notes) when he signed with the Magic. While Lewis was overpaid by any objective measure, he was the ideal fit for that team—that is, before Turkoglu stole our hearts. Regardless, the signing was based on what he meant to that team's plan for the future, not some universal index of value. Brandon Roy(notes) is great, but the ascendant Blazers need the rest of a core. That's Aldridge and Oden. Plus, if Aldridge does get this vote of confidence from the team, it may sink in just how much he means to them, what the task at hand now is, and that he needs to come into focus to help the Blazers go all the way. It's vintage Pritchard that they kept Aldridge hanging and were careful to not break the bank on him. But while some see a soft tweener overpaid, anyone looking at it through Portland's goggles sees an essential piece of the roster, even if he's not there yet. There's just no other option. Expect to see Oden handled this season with this destiny in mind. Because if Portland can't make it work with this well-laid model, they really have to blow it up and start from scratch.
Too bad for the all the supposed goodness of the intro, he basically hedges on the rest of the article and doesn't committ to anything. He basically just put his thoughts down and came to no conclusions, which means he isn't sure.
I have watched this team 4 times this off season and I have no clue what the team will do this season. How is a guy who has only seen the team on paper going to come to any kind of conclusion? I like that dudes writting style but I don't expect to learn much about the Blazers from a national source.
I love the strawman argument. Who the hell said "don't pay the bum". No one. That's who. It is not black and white. It is NOT either overpay LaMarcus or lose him for nothing. How often does that actually happen that a player a team wants to keep walks? Sometimes, but not very often. There are other choices that float in between those two extremes.
Yeah, it's one of the strangest "preview" articles I've ever read. It tells you almost nothing, and is strangely apathetic about the team as a whole. I wish I hadn't wasted my time reading it.
The talk radio guys do the same thing - make fun of fans who post --- but THEY are the geeks who obsess about sports so much that they actually chose low paying sports jobs as their career - where they spend all the work day talking about - sports. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
and as much as they want to make fun of those of us who use the internet, we're a much bigger portion of their fanbase than they want to admit. And they're more like us than they're willing to admit too.
