http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2009/12/visit_to_st_marys_home_for_boy.html Oh how I miss the Jail Blazer days..... /sarcasm
It's a story about boys taken from their parents and held involuntarily by the government in a religious school. I searched the article for anything relevent to the players we had before our top team was blown up, and found nothing. Oh, for the days when only trolls used the obscene J-word. Oh, how I wish we had a trader now like Bob Whitsitt.
Yes, the Blazers need more O'Neal for Dale Davis deals, and trading for Sean Kemp. I'll always give Whitsitt credit for the Pippen trade, though. Pip was the best thing to happen to this franchise between Drexler and Roy. Trading away O' Neal for Davis after the 2000 meltdown was the beginning of the end, though.
Many, if not most, fans were in favor of trading Jermaine. He seemed like Webster or Outlaw do now, and improved only once he got some new coaching. Like every player on our current team would now. And Davis was about the best per-minute rebounder in the league when we got him.. Jermaine is an example of why I define "experience" as having learned several coaches' systems. I say that a guy with 3 years and 3 coaches is more experienced than a guy with 6 years and 1 coach. That's why I think the bake philosophy can never work, anywhere, if the players have been on the team since their rookie years, as almost all of ours have. You just need to get out in the world and sow your oats. Sitting in your parents' home for years bakes nothing. (Especially your oats.)
Interesting, but let's look at the "stars" of championship teams. Lakers' dynasty - Magic, and I'll concede on Kareem, one of the best ever. Celtics - Bird, McHale as the core Pistons - Thomas/Dumars as the core Bulls - Pippen/Jordan Spurs - Robinson/Duncan, the Duncan/Parker/Ginobli Rockets - Hakeem was the core Lakers - Shaq/Kobe - Shaq did sow his oats, Kobe never has. Outliers - Heat (Wade/Shaq), Pistons (Rip/Billups/Sheed/Wallace) Seems to me the most effective approach is to keep a "star" core, and work from there.
Those guys all went through more than one coach. And I wasn't really talking about how to improve superstars (who will be great no matter who coaches them), I meant how to get ordinary NBA players up to their potentials. (Jermaine was no star when here.)
You really think coaching is what launched Jermaine into All Star Status? Or playing in a new system? I've always felt Jermaine just needed to be given a chance to play through his mistakes. Pippen used to say nobody could hold him down in practice. But he wasn't going to get that chance b/c we were in that "championship window". It was just bad timing IMO.
In fairness, during his time in Portland, Jermaine was rather immature and reputedly a bit of a whiner. The trade may have also forced him to grow up.
Yes the Jerm issue is about as hindsight as they come. I remembered hearing Jerm complain so much about time. Regardless if he earned it or not, it wasn't like he was some choir boy that was all about the community in Portland.
J-O trade was specifically geared at getting a big, tough body to go against Shaq. J-O was too undersized at that time and was getting eaten alive. We had our window and the trade was fine at that time to fill a need.
