At least we're not Denver. Their star wants out. Their second best player is a couple years from retirement. The rest of the team is an assortment of headcases.
I don't think they have much leverage actually. Everyone knows he wants to go to NY. Most teams won't trade for him because he's a free agent that won't sign with them.
That wouldn't comfort me at all, if I were a Denver fan. I don't think back to the Pippen/Sheed Blazers and think "At least they made the WCF" and feel cheered up.
It depends on what they get in return. NJ is still in the hunt and I really like Derrick Favors as a prospect.
Not to me. It's why I always want the team to gamble for the higher ceiling instead of going for the higher floor. Anything short of a championship is unsatisfying to me, so I'd rather take risks. If the risks fail, missing the playoffs is really no worse to me than making the playoffs but not winning the title. Just my experience.
Denver definitely looks like they're on the decline.. especially after giving up 54 to Indy in the third quarter the other day. Oh well. Tough for them.
No...but I wasn't talking about this team. I was saying that "At least [the Nuggets] made the WCF" is pretty meh to me. As it relates to this team, it's why I never wanted to trade Oden for a less-talented player who had a more certain future, like, say, a Joakim Noah. Bringing in Noah would have given the team more certainty (and we'd be better off today, I guess) but it also would have made it virtually certain that they wouldn't be championship-caliber. You need some big-time talents to win a championship and Oden at least offered that hope. That seems gone, now, but at least it was there, a chance. I'd rather the Blazers had boom-or-bust chances over solid-but-uninspiring.
I agree completely that we should take risks and shoot for the championship, but I'm not sure how or why you think this. You are comparing Greg's unrealized potential with Noah and thus Greg is better? We don't really know what Greg would have (will?) become so that's a tough one.
I'm saying that Noah is not a star or superstar and never will be. He's a very good player, perhaps on Aldridge's level, but not sufficient, in my opinion, to push a team like the Blazers over the top. Oden has the talent to be a true star or even a superstar. It wasn't certain, but that's where the risk comes in. As far as I'm concerned, Noah was certain to be at least good...Oden, due to his health issues, wasn't. Noah was also certain never to be great....Oden, due to his talent, wasn't (guaranteed never to be great). Therefore, since I felt the Blazers needed one more great player to add to Roy, I'd rather have gambled on Oden than taken Noah's certainty (certainty in both good and bad ways).
