I like KP a lot too, but let me try and make the devil's advocate case against him - Spent $6 million of the owners $ to buy two draft picks that were a waste of money - Rudy and Sergio Drafted an injury prone big guy Almost completely wasted the cap space on Hedo and lucked out with Andre Wasted the LaFrenz opportunity Ball hog, publicity-wise And the unknown incident, whatever it is I'm sure I am missing something...
Has been from all accounts instrumental restablishing the connection with community. Dinging him for drafting Oden over Durant makes not sense since Oden was almost a unanimous selection for #1. Unfortunately predicting future injuries is not one of KP's strong Points Overall his draft successes have greatly exceeded his failures - Roy, LMA, Batum, Cunningham, and I would even put Rudy in there because he was a late first round pick and Fernandez can change a game when his head is right. RLEC - We have absolutely no idea what was available at the time - the name being thrown around - Carter, Jefferson, Wallace would not have helped the team based on what was given up. The problem I have is that even a skeptical person would have to admit that Job Performance is definitely not the cause. The new Hat Man idea being thrown out there makes more sense or some other internal struggle originating from Seattle. This has been the general consensus from most of the media besides Woj.
I'm firmly of the opinion that if there was a problem with the team KP constructed, or how much of PA's money he spent, then he's be gone right now. I don't know what exactly it was (and we'll never know--for legal, HR reasons, etc.) but there was a problem with Penn, and he was fired immediately. KP did something non-basketball-related (over and above his arrogance, want for more cash and "pritch-slapping", which would've been evident to his bosses from almost Day One) that got on the wrong side of the owner. I've been among those who've questioned KP's moves/non-moves, but this isn't going to be a basketball firing. This is going to be personal. And we won't get a sniff, except from a leak from Mr. LeGarie to someone other than Wojo.
The team winning is all that matters when it comes to the Blazer fans loving the team, it has always been that way. The culture thing is cute, but it is bullshit. The general tolerance for knuckleheads rises and falls with the number of wins. Heck even when this team had some tough times people were down on Brandon Roy, who is perhaps one of the best culture guys this city has ever seen. We have some crazy fans that make up a very vocal minority, I would guess around 95% of Blazer nation only really care about the wins. The other 5% posts their views here and at other sites. I mean how many users do we have here? Maybe 50 or so regular posters? That is bug shit on a window, it is visible but it doesn't really dominate the whole picture.
His trade value was higher last year and that is a fact.... I wasn't advocating trading him, I think he has been grossly underutilized for the most part.... I was extremely dissapointed at his play in the playoffs however, no excuses there for him IMO...he just flat out dissapeared.... But I am not paid GM, Kevin Pritchard is, he is the guy that has to recognize these issues before they become a bigger problem.....Rudy complained about his role last year, and wasn't happy with the way Nate utilized him...and what? Pritchard just thought that everything would blow over? He is paid to be GM, not #1 fan.....He either didn't recognize the problem and\or he greatly overvalued Rudy's potential\value to this team.... Like I said before, taken as a whole I think KP has done a good job, certainly good enough to KEEP the job, but it is not like he hasn't made mistakes....Not trading Rudy last year was a mistake.... Stop being a homer and least try to look at things objectively...I want KP to stay, I think Allen is showing a complete lack of professionalism in the way this is being handled...but Pritchard hasn't done everything right either....
You're saying that fans should recognize when a player's value peaks before the GM does. But he's the paid expert. He's supposed to be ahead of the curve that we laymen are on. It's similar to someone saying in response to LaFrentz criticism, can you figure out a good player we could have gotten for LaFrentz? That defense of Pritchard assumes it's the fans' responsibility to do the GM's job. He's supposed to be smarter than we are.
As I said, 20/20 hindsight manifested as criticism. We can do that with everybody in every instance. It's a sign of a lazy mind, IMO. We all do it, to some degree. Plus, you just admitted that you are a layman. I'll be sure to remember that the next time you ramble on about what's wrong with the Blazers.
