Dark days on the horizon?

Really? It looked so great to you at one time? When? Were you saying it looked great at that time? I can't remember.

 

Sweet, I hope they rehire Patterson and Nash.

 

Trader Bob looms in the shadows.

 

Exactamundo!!!

 

If KP gets fired I'm going to have a really hard time believing in the future of this franchise. It makes no sense. And who the hell could the Blazers bring in that's any better?

 

Like I was saying, Agent = douche.

 

It was the hapless Wizards.

Nobody wanted to watch that sorry ass excuse of a team. Yes, I know they took the complacent, lethargic Blazers to the wire. Point is season ticket holders who rarely miss games decided to go to the movies last night. Geez.

 

Exactly. Even the evil Vulcans, assuming they were mostly behind Penn getting the axe (which should not be assumed), aren't so insane as to just drop the hammer this way. They would have waited until the season was over. Something sudden had to happen. Something that they felt required immediate dismissal.

As far as all this hand wringing over KP being sent out of town on a rail, it has already got out of hand in Portland.

KP was a big part of a TEAM that made more good decisions than bad ones in rebuilding this team. But, people forget that Patterson was very involved in the group that made the essential key and dramatic revamp of the team - Telfair and the worst record in the NBA behind us netting the future of Aldridge and Roy.

The moves since then have been obvious (lucking into the no 1 pick and selecting the overwhelming consensus for that pick); good (Batum) and not so good (actually a long list).

I instantly celebrated what the team did in that magic draft as something special. Since then, I have often been less than thrilled - questioning the moves of the team or confused by them: Extending Webster before his did jack in this league; The Miles fiasco; hyping the Golden Ticket; trading Zach for so little; the Roy extension drama; the LaMarcus extension overpaying; non revamping the medical/training staff/team; concerned about the gulf between the players the GM brings in Vs. the style the coach imposes; the attempt to grossly overpay Hedo.

I am not suggesting KP is a bad GM, but I am not so sure he is great. Maybe parts of the coaching or management team get in the way of his brilliance. Not sure. If so, he needs to do a better sales job to get approval for his brilliant ideas. If like the gulf between Nate and KP, there is a gulf with upper management, it may be at the root of the problem.

It would be better to have ownership, upper management, GM and coach all being more closely aligned in philosophy - even if that GM was of average quality, than to have a brilliant GM who is in constant tension and opposition with all other groups.

Or put another way, if KP goes - even if you think he is "brilliant" - it may be for the best if there can be no more alignment with the rest of the decision makers.

 

masbee... saying they weren't at the wizards game cause it was the wiz is such crap. not even close. excuses.


from jaynes....

And really? Riots if Kevin Pritchard is fired? Really? Look, if it’s true, as True Hoop is hinting, that Pritchard and Penn were somehow trying to steal power from THE OWNER, man, that’s about as crazy a thing to do as I’ve ever heard. I mean, it’s Paul Allen’s team. And he wants to have a hand in operating it — he always has.

To try and mess with that is so dumb a man would deserve to be fired. And I just don’t think KP is that sort of guy. Or that dumb. And I’d be real careful about sources on this story, too. There are a few guys inside the NBA who would love to have this job and would do anything to get it. I’d listen to their gossip just about as intently as I’d listen to Warren LeGarie, Blazermaniac.

 

The agent put the upper Blazer management on blast publicly through Canzano.

That's burning a bridge, IMO.

Larry Miller is merely a PR man for Vulcan Inc.

 

Since we don't know WHY Penn was fired, the long term relevance of this story is only speculation. It could be the start of something ugly - or it could be meaningless.

I rather wish the Blazers would just tell their side, and bring all this to an end.

 

Pritchard was in Buffalo yesterday. I think he is a bit busy scouting the tourney.

 

http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2010/03/trail_blazers_to_take_their_ti.html

Larry Miller says that Pritchard will be the one with the final decison on Penn's replacement. Yet we are told that Pritchard had nothing to do with Penn's firing. Does he do the hiring and firing for the position, or doesn't he? Does he have any real power, or is it granted case by case?

 

Sewage flows downhill. If your boss's boss wants you gone, you are going.

I suppose KP could have been like Petrie. He could have fallen on his own sword instead of firing a friend. Personally, I'm glad he didn't. The guy isn't perfect and I have disagreed with several of his decisions - but what better replacement is available?

 

Paul Allen is tired of being on his best behavior. Time to thug it up. Mark Warkentein or I'm even hearing that Trader Bob is ready to make a come back.

 

This doesn't seem contradictory to me. Clearly, something major occurred that led the Blazers' management to feel Penn couldn't be kept. I doubt it was strictly performance-based, due to the suddenness of it and considering they just gave him a promotion/raise.

So if Miller or Vulcan in general decided Penn had to go for outside reasons, why wouldn't they have Pritchard hire the replacement? Unless you think the firing of Penn was also a warning shot at Pritchard (which I don't), it seems natural that they'd have their GM choose the new assistant GM.

 

The intent was not troll provoking comments.

One of the reasons why he was almost fired last summer, outside the Penn fiasco with Minnesota, was his lack of intel on Durant. And what I think was the lack of concern over Greg's pre-draft physical. He has obviously lived up to the red flags many GM's gave his physical, and then some.

Vulcan is obviously not happy with some of the moves KP has made, Oden/Durant being the main one apparently.

 

[citation needed]

[citation needed]

[citation needed]

 

In my first decade of office work I trained my inferiors, I mean equals, but got no credit for supervising. In my second decade I supervised, hired, and later had the power to fire. (I'm soft, so I got the boss to do it, but I could have.)

I guess Pritchard is at the first decade's level of supervision. He hires, but only the boss can fire. He's 2 or 3 levels under where Bob Whitsitt was.

No wonder the true managers don't want to give him a giant raise. His agent's getting Penn's revenge by churning up the fans about Pritchard not getting a giant raise. Totally unrelated issue.