I wish we had gone with Terrico White instead of Williams. I have a real feeling about that kid. I know I've said it a bunch, but I just have the feeling like I did with Brandon Jennings, Tyreke Evans and Collison. We'll see, just something about him on the intangible side looks good. I will dig this up for a big laugh on All-Star weekend when he has 41 DNP-CD's.
I see him as a young guy coming off the bench. Get him as many shots as he can handle at either forward spot. If he flames out... big whoop. See ya. If he emerges as a force, he'll be a great trade piece, or allow us to trade Aldridge... or bring Aldridge off the bench as a 4/5. Buy low, sell high. Beasley is LOW right now. If we can get him for practically nothing: do it. Ed O.
I think Gomes might be a really good acquisition, he's only 27, very hard worker, smart, can shoot the three, rebounds, an ideal bench player. If the Blazers can't trade for a PG of the future, I guess the shotgun approach is as good as any. Hopeful on Babbit, I guess I wouldn't be surprised if he is great or if he is a bust, just don't have a strong feeling.
I went out and looked at the stats of each of the players Portland drafted in the college post season (NIT for both teams) and against top 25 teams. The results are pretty fucking depressing. They all appear to have posted good looking stats due to having poor competition. Whenever they played a good team or the game counted they faded. Williams was the worst, with Babbit the second worst. The WAC and Conference USA sucked last season and none of these players teams even made the NCAA? Sorry, but if you are going be a quality player in the NBA you should be able to get your team at least into the tournament. The grade would be a C- for these picks but adding in the KP clusterfuck it's an F.
I hadn't considered that. I'm pretty happy about the draft but thanks for pointing this out. I agree it might really be a source of concern. Ed O.
Well that is something to think about ... I guess I tend to trust the scouting abilities of KP, Born and Buchanan; if they say these guys are players then maybe they are. I guess we'll find out soon enough
A RealGM writer rates Blazers draft as "Good": http://realgm.com/src_feature_pieces/928/20100625/leroux\s_2010_draft_review/
Wait a few days (or weeks?) It all depends on whether or not any trades get consumated ... but off-hand I'd say it's damn unlikely that the Blazers carry Roy, Miller, Bayless, Williams, Rudy and Johnson into training camp (and you can scratch Mills off the list as an RFA).
If you look at successful NBA players from lower-level colleges, do their college stats not show the same effect? [I'm asking, I have no idea of the answer - but it seems possible this is completely normal?] barfo
I hope they keep the Williams guy. Haven't seen much, but I've liked what I've seen. Long and athletic. I likey. Seems like he could have some good potential on defense. Babbitt seems okay too, but Armon just seems like overkill to me. I suppose he could fill Diener's role. Come to think of it, the Blazers did carry 3 PGs last year. Miller/Bayless/Armon Roy/Williams/Rudy(prob gone) Batum(35 MPG!)/Babbitt/Cunningham(3 or 4, doesn't really matter) Aldridge/Pendergraph Oden/Camby Joel out for the year Am I missing anyone?
F because of Pritchard. It kinda ruined the whole thing for me to the point where I was thinking about not buying tickets earlier in the day. It's not even necessarily the fact that he was fired, but how he was fired I thought was completely classless. Also, for me...I overvalue Martell Webster compared to most. I thought he was a good player off of the bench, and filled in admirably in the starting role while Batum was out. A class act as well. That's the kind of guy I want on my team. I don't see Babbit being able to do that, although maybe he can with some more consistency. I think Gomes can fill in decently as well though. Honestly, after that I was lukewarm on watching the rest. Know some but not a ton about Johnson and Williams, but unless we swing another deal (hopefully but not necessarily counting on Paul), I think Babbit over Webster was just an odd move. Player Moves: Incomplete / C- Overall: F EDIT: Also, there is no reason Webster should be gone while Rudy remains, but I don't expect Rudy to be here much longer anyway.
If rudy stays, F. I dont understand why minny wouldnt want rudy over martell. It would be the spanish connection 2.0 (rubio). We should have offered martell and rudy and JPEC for the rights to rubio.
I think the team wanted and needed Martell to be that dependable kickout threat, and he never really became one. He became a better defender, better fullcourt player, rebounder, and even started putting the ball on the floor. But that stuff is just frosting...the Needed him to be their dependable, consistent kickout threat because this team as it's constructed vitally needs one, and it never happened. Not game to game. And he had plenty of chances to prove it. Course, who knows if Babbit can be, but they probably concluded Martell would never be. I heard Jaynes complain what happens if Batum goes down again? Martell is probably certainly more able to plug into the role. I just dont think you should construct teams with that always on the mind.
I like the Gomes acquisition because I expect them to not pick up his option and clear some capspace (thought I heard 4M)... agreed on the rest and gave it a B+ for doing a lot with a little. Their 3 picks were all good sized and superior run/jump athletes which is always a good way to go while Marty's mental flakiness had long worn on me. I was a bit disappointed when Seraphin came off the board though STOMP
I will have to check it out but it seems to me that they tend to get their mid-major teams into the tournament. Both the WAC and Conference USA have tournaments where the winner goes to the NCAA. Neither Nevada nor Memphis even made it to the finals of their respective conference tournaments. That tells me that even though they put up good numbers they didn't help their teams win even against inferior competition. The opposite kid was the dude from Butler, Gordan Haywood. He lead his team to a victory in their conference and got his team to the NCAA where he performed well. Babbit, Williams and the point guard kid all choked in the second round of the NIT. I have long been of the opinion that no team should ever draft a kid whose team didn't make the NCAA tournament. To be a quality NBA player you best have fucking dominated at the college level. If you didn't, the chances of you being a good player in the NBA are pretty damn bad. Further, I am no fan of drafting kids from small conferences anyway. Give me a role player from Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke, UConn and the like. Pretty much anyone from the Big East, the ACC, the Pac 10, the SEC or the Big 10. The play against the best players in America night in and night out. Guys like Babbit rolled up big numbers against scrubs who might make a team in the Polish League.
