What Pritchard said to Roy was, hey, I understand you feel underpaid, so do I compared to McMillan. I'm like you. He swings between immature and arrogant. He doesn't act like a high powered suit, which makes Jason Quick like him. Pritchard has escaped many GM duties, so Vulcan gave him a tryout last summer and told him to hold the line on a certain maximum for Roy, but he negotiated a higher amount. So Vulcan (Liewke) told Pritchard's boss Larry Miller to finish the negotiations with Roy, and lost confidence in Pritchard in any role other than as a once and future Chief of Scouting.
This seems like a plausible interpretation of things to me. I can picture the money guys being pissed when a hoops guy doesn't show "loyalty", but they also need to understand the chemistry of a team is a fragile thing, and it's good to have some buffer between "money negotiator" and "team builder". That being said, Pritchard better not be the sort of guy that falls in love with his guys and wants to pay them anything. And he could be, so that's a concern. That seems to me to be one of the biggest traps GMs fall into. Probably because they're primarily basketball guys and not money guys, they underestimate how legitimate the financial issues are. Finance drives the game, and if you end up overpaying guys, you very rarely end up competitive.
Wait, Roy got the max. What line did KP not hold that Miller did? Boy, them Vulcans and Miller sure showed KP how it's done, didn't they?
I think it was too late by then. Pritchard had given away the store, acting buddy-buddy to Roy. I'm just going by what I keep reading from all sources. I myself don't know. From what I read, Pritchard's negative is negotiation, with both players and other GMs. His true calling is scouting and talent evaluation, and (in my opinion) massaging the media. I've read no mention of his ability to (day to day) financially run the team.
This describes Paul Allen perfectly. The Blazers have ALWAYS overpaid, and Paul is the one overpaying. The examples are endless. It's part of the Blazers culture and business model at this point. It's expected.
That does seem to be the case. I wonder to what extent these Vulcan guys are trying to change that culture, and to what extent Allen will let them change his own behavior. Usually guys who are multi-billionaires aren't too keen on that.
Most such guys aren't known as "the accidental billionaire," either, and most haven't lost 75% of their net worth over the past 10 years. Allen's business sense has never been commensurate with his wealth... Maybe with his health fading, he's thinking more in terms of lasting legacy and trying to change some things?
