Claiming you'd take Durant over Oden on that draft day is bad, I agree. Not sure why you're tarring and feathering muppets, though. [video=youtube;fQkUjeH5pK8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQkUjeH5pK8[/video]
Vance was actually talking about the drafting of Martell - though I'm not sure KP had much say in that matter (and Vance said KP wanted Paul, while Allen wanted Williams).
I don't have much issue with the drafting of Martell -- that's water under the bridge as far as I'm concerned and didn't have much to do with KP any way -- it's the ludicrous 5 year, near mid-level deal, which seemed so uneccesary and overdone, especially with how dime-a-dozen wing shooters are in the NBA.
Like I have said many times. There are players on the free agent wire better than a lot of players on our team, every year, deep into the year. We could have signed Jerry Stackhouse to a short term deal. What's he doing in Milwaukee? Playing well for cheap.
"Signed Martell for too much Signed LA for too much" I said the same at the time on another board. On every board there were people criticizing Pritchard for not hurrying the overpayment of Aldridge and Roy last summer, while I was defending Pritchard on that. ---------------- "Was almost fired prior to this season due to the Penn/Minny fiasco, plus not enough intel on Durant" Hard to believe. Make that impossible to believe. ------------- "Goofed on the Hedo praise" Easy to believe, since Pritchard had done the same with Rudy. The whole reason we had and have stellar expectations of Rudy is Pritchard's praise while we waited for Rudy to leave Europe. It's now clear that Rudy will not be an NBA starter anywhere, at his fragile but unchangeable weight of 185 pounds. ------------ "A fine draft day guy but depends on the scouting team too much" I think every GM depends upon his scouts, which is why I'm reluctant to give Pritchard more than 50% of the praise for his picks, as well as absolve him (more than 50%) of John Nash's mistakes when Pritchard was under Nash running the scouting system. After history determined which Nash players failed, Pritchard "confided" to his groupie Quick that he had disagreed with Nash's mistakes, and had agreed with whatever went right. Now Pritchard's fans use Quick's rumor as concrete fact. They have no source other than Pritchard himself. --------------- "Not nearly as good as Whitsitt was at getting PA's ear or, more importlantly, buy-in on decisions" That's because Whitsitt had far more creative options, because he himself was in the middle of the storm creating them. Pritchard is offered trades, while Whitsitt did the offering. (How many times have I heard, "Well Pritchard wasn't offered anything better" or "We don't know what Pritchard has been offered, so how can we criticize his lack of trades all through his history?") Whitsitt got Allen's attention because he was a go-getter and made things happen. He baked things fast. Also, of course, Whitsitt was doing the job of Pritchard, Blazers President Larry Miller, Seahawks GM John Schneider, and several Vulcan managers who run 20 more of Allen's companies. So Allen listened to him more than he does to the peanut Pritchard, who has all day available to curry favor with the media.
It's true there was no downward pressure, no hard negotiating, on Webster's contract. But the real criticism is that it was a mistake to re-sign Webster at any price, since it was already obvious he was the worst player in the rotation. But with Pritchard, trading someone is never an option until they finally become waiver material. Then, of course, you have an excuse, that you can't trade them. ("Waah, No GM is taking the initiative to offer me anything. Or maybe I can't hear the phone ring out here on my sundeck.")
I agree here. But I do not think it was a bigger FAIL than Oden over Durant. How are you going to miss Mike Jordan twice?
"Almost fired and one reason why was not getting enough intel on Durant." I love that KP is getting this heat. IMO, Greg's pre-draft physical should have been more than enough. How does that pressure cooker feel, KP?
other than speculation, what concrete proof was there about Greg's pre-daft physical that should have been enough? I've heard people say that several times, but I don't remember anyone actually offering up any links (that weren't in itself, pure speculation).
MM, if that's the case, then I suggest you become a Rockets fan. Can you imagine how frustrated you'd be if KP were fired and Nate became the Coach/GM?
If we dumped Kevin Pritchard, it would be a travesty. There's no perfect GM. There are simply GMs that are better than others. KP is in the very top eschelon in a very short time. Do we really believe he's a finished product? Hell, he's been so good there have been several teams that have followed his rebuilding strategy. BTW, we shouldn't forget that Pritchard was one of the primary Durant proponents in management. He loved him. The backstory is that the decision was closer than most of us assume it was. And it's not like Oden has sucked; he's just been injured. If he was playing like Thabeet, the criticism might be valid. However, you look at Durant and wonder how he'd survive an NBA season. Saying Oden was an injury waiting to happen because of a broken wrist and a hip injury as a kid is simply silly. Oden was simply a better fit. Do we really think Durant would be putting up these numbers sharing the ball with Roy, and LaMarcus with Nate running the show? Pritchard has his shortcomings, but we are unlikely to find someone better.
hindsight is 20/20 - i think most people can look back on work/life and recall times they could have made a better decision. The thing is, often the decision at the time is the right one, it there are many things that can degrade the success of that choice though - not all within your power to control. i think KP has done a pretty good job during his time with us, lets not crucify him for things that just havent turned out as planned.
