I meant at the trade deadline and was referring to RLEC. Of course we used the lesser amount of cap space to sign Miller.
Please allow me to amend my post to say seemingly, to me, makes no sense. I only mentioned conspiracy theories because you were going on and on about Penn lying about having an offer from Minnesota. The Oregonian states flatly that they have the documentation that Penn actually did receive the offer he and his agent said he did. If my client was being smeared, anonymously all over the media and the internet, I'd do what I could in order to shut down the smears. The fact that you were still speculation about Penn lying to the Blazers, AFTER the information was already in the hands of the Oregonian, tells me his agent needs to do even more to get the word out that his client did not lie about an offer.
You keep stating that the Blazers got zilch for Zach, but that's not true. They wouldn't have Rudy Fernandez without that trade. They also wouldn't have Zach's out of whack contract. Would he help the team? Maybe, but his history, as well as the Blazer history since the trade, says that Zach tends to be a good player with a bad contract on non-playoff teams, and that Rudy Fernandez plays a key role for a playoff team. Also, Andre Miller would not be on the team, since no money would have been available to sign him. As for LA, it took the Lakers years to win a title after Shaq left. I doubt they drafted Andrew Bynum with the hopes that he'd help Kobe win a title his rookie season.
That last bit - what makes you think no real reason was given to Penn? I'd assume that Penn and his agent know exactly why he was fired. barfo
Hey, we'll have to disagree. He did what agents do, and this is a rather bizarre situation with baseless rumors being allowed to fester on boards like this one.
I guess I don't know. Strike that from my comment. I should have said no real reason made public other than "philosophical differences". Good pick up. I certainly don't know if Penn was given a reason or if he was not.
I've got no problem with all that . . . it is the fact he drags KP into this that I find to be unethical. I don't know what went down with Penn and if agent wants to bitch and moan about it, fine, I guess that it is his job. But to bring in another client, who is a completely separate client, that should be handled completely separately. Where you and I don't agree is that I don't think agent did KP any favors today and potentially hindered negotiations. You think agent did the best thing for KP today. Do I have that right?
How is it unethical? We can disagree on whether it is a good move, but I don't see at all how it is unethical. I also never said that agent did the best thing for KP. I said I think it was a great move to protect the interests of his client. Vulcan has fucked Roy around, Aldridge around, and now apparently Pritchard around. I see a pattern, and if Vulcan is going to play hardball, I want an agent who plays hardball. Pritchard will get another GM/VP of Operations contract. The only question is will it be in Portland, or will it be for another team in the league.
I believe it was unehtical because the agent was talking about Penn. I think he got so emotionally involved that he starts bad mouthing the Blazers and gets into the fact the Blazers won't extend KP in the middle of the season and that they back stabbed Penn. How does that help KP? It doesn't. The agent should have kept his press comments to Penn (can't really hurt Penn at this stage and maybe save hime some face). But again, to drag KP into this gives no negotiation advantage to KP and potentially could hurt (pissing off the other side through the media is not good). If I was KP, I would be pissed. BUt maybe KP is pissed at the Blazers and likes that his agent came out and attacked the organization while using his name. Honestly, I don't know.
It's also a scumbag move to wait for the season ticket deadline to pass before the firing of Penn. Stay classy, Volcan.
If Pritchard's agent speaking about his client in public is going to hurt Pritchard in terms of getting a contract, then I have to wonder more about the business acumen of Vulcan. It's business, and Vulcan plays hardball with everybody (other than Comcast, but then again, Comcast is paying them, and not the other way around). Since I have Comcast, I really don't care, either.
I wonder if some would not have renewed their season tickets if Penn got fired the day/week before? I don't see it as having an impact on ticket sales . . . but I could be wrong.
You think Vulcan played hardball with Roy and Aldridge? If that was Vulcan's version of hardball, they need to work on that. Hardball is not resigning Roy or giving Aldrdige a hefty (some say overpaid) contract and forcing them to test the restricted free agent market during a down economic time (like the Griz are doing to Gay). Do you think an agent bad mouthing an organization, calling them back stabber and publically questioning why they didn't extend the client's contract already is a good thing for the agent to do before entering negotiations for their client?
As you previously posted, perhaps Pritchard is fed up with the Vulcan bullshit and didn't care if his agent expressed his displeasure. I'm sure Pritchard wasn't thrilled with taking the public heat for an email that Larry Miller/Vulcan sent Memphis, whining about how they were going to sue the Grizz for daring to sign Darius Miles and play him 10 games. A bunch of number crunchers trying to run an NBA team. It's comical. Vulcan seemingly can't get out of their own way.
While for us, it's not the best thing for Pritchard, because we, or some of us, anyways might want him extended, I'm sure KP wouldn't struggle to get a job immediately in the NBA.
Canzano's point is that KP has done enough good (more than enough to make up for the mistakes) to justify his support by the team, and he questions the ability of the team to find a "special" GM if they were to fire KP. KP may or may not be "special", but if you don't have an obvious improvement to replace them where are you going with it? I fear this as Canzano does. Remember the Aldeman turns into PJ Carlesimo disaster? What the hell was management thinking then? Then they fixed it by getting Dunleavy. Great. But, was Dunleavy any better than Aldeman. NO! Then they dump Dunleavy for failing to corral the misfit crew, and bring in Cheeks. Jesus. Hated that move from day 1. All these moves amounted to a big fucking waste of time, energy, distraction, etc. Motion for motion's sake. This is what Canzano is alluding to when he invokes the spector of dark forces within Vulcan making moves to justify their existence. Doesn't mean his story is fact, just that this shit HAS happened before.
To me, a mistake is when you make an error of judgment by incorrectly evaluating the information available to you at the time you make the decision. It's not a mistake when, after you've made the decision, circumstances change in ways that you had no way of predicting that, had you known those changes would occur, would argue that you should have decided differently. KP, and nobody else either, had any way of knowing that Oden was going to have these knee problems so early in his career. He had no way of knowing that Durant wouldn't suffer similar injuries in his first three season. Even with the best of research and logical evaluation of information, life sometimes serves you up some crap to deal with that you didn't anticipate.
