....if KP's luck runs out after the Roy/Aldridge draft. Imagine we get the 7th pick instead of the first in 2007. We get Corey Brewer instead of Greg Oden. We don't get Rudy Fernandez for a few mil from Phoenix. Nicolas Batum is maybe Joey Dorsey instead. We probably still get Bayless, because we'd have a better pick and I think we still take him higher up. Webster is still Webster. Outlaw still gets injured. Maybe we still get Andre Miller. So it's kind of like a young version of Utah, with Roy/Aldridge our Stockton/Malone, Przybilla our Mark Eaton, and a bunch of a mediocre players and a few prospects left over. I guess my point is that in some alternative universe this isn't "rock bottom" but just "whew, at least the Miles, Randolph, Ratliff, Stoudamire and Rahim years are behind us."
Good post. I do wonder, however, if Corey Brewer would have been picked considering Martell was a high draft pick two years prior to the 2007 draft, and I doubt Brandan Wright would have been picked due to LMA the year prior. I'm thinking the Blazers would have Joakim Noah.
Whoa. Let's not get carried away comparing Roy and LMA to a couple of the NBA top 50 All-Time. I agree with the sentiment about Oden though. We were playing with house money in that draft since we supposed to be in the Corey Brewer-range of players.
Yea, I would prefer our "Steve Smith/Rasheed Wallace"! Besides, we wouldn't want them compared to 2 guys that never won a ring would we? That isn't setting a good example! (I had to say it.) (Like smith and Walace ever did )
Yeah, it's just that I was a Jazz fan back in the day when they were rising up. (Hey, it's the only games they'd broadcast here in Boise when I was a kid.) I cringe a little at comparing Joel to Eaton, too. Mark Eaton was fucking badass in his day. But it is kind of a similar situation. Stockton and Malone weren't really StocktonMalone in 1986 or 87. They were just young promising building blocks like Roy and Aldridge. That's the only way I've been able to talk myself back into being interested in the games at this point.
I'm thinking at 7, we would have taken Noah over Brewer. Then, after not getting Greg, we wouldn't draft his buddy McRoberts. Do to his extensive international scouting, KP would have taken Marc Gasol instead with the 37th pick. Gasol wouldn't have come over the following year, but Noah would have helped us more than Raef did, in actually playing. And maybe more than Channing as well. Memphis wouldn't move Gasol to the Lakers, because what they liked the most in that deal was getting Pau's younger brother. Because of the depth that KP has with Noah and Gasol coming the next season, he decides that including Channing in the trade with Outlaw for Devin Harris is more than acceptable now. The acquisition of Harris, and a healthy C rotation of Noah and Przybilla vault the Blazers into the playoffs as a low seed, largely on the back of their active defense. Drafting at 20th, they decide the best addition to their top defense is a young Nicolas Batum. Looking at add a little more veteran umph to the team, KP trades Raef's expiring, insured contract to Detroit, for Chauncey Billups. Giving the team a guard rotation of Roy, Harris and Billups. Because of the depth up front, with Gasol and Noah, and in the backcourt with Harris, Roy and Billups, he then moves Joel and Blake, as soon to be expiring contracts, as well as a 1st round pick, for Ron Artest, from Sacramento. Figure with the vet leadership of Billups, Artest will be alright. Opening night, we got a lineup of Billups-Roy-Artest-Aldridge-Noah, bench of Harris, Webster, Batum, Gasol. Might have signed a vet or two as well, looking to latch on for a ring. Portland's stellar defensive unit carries them over LA to the Finals, where they upset the Magic. Yay!!
So your saying that Oden just has to come back and play like Greg Ostertag in order to make the finals a couple of times?
Chances are that management WAY over sold the value of an expiring contract last year of cap space last summer. They set themselves up to have cap space one year before it would have been really awesome to actually have. After all the most sought after free agent last summer was Hedo. The most sought after free agent this next summer is LeBron. In fact next summer will be one of the greatest free agent pools in league history. Too bad Portland won't have a dime to spend. Even worse, OKC will. Do you think they might be able to bring in a guy or two to put them over the top? I think they will.
Heh. I think it has more to do with Martel Webster becoming Jeff Hornacek. (And of course Roy and Aldridge developing into top 10 players ever at their positions.)
if joel opts out they might have a few mil available, but he probably won't now that the economy has gone to hell.
