For years I've harped on how we need experienced players to balance youth. Nash cleaned out the roster, as instructed by Oregonian-controlled public opinion. Then Pritchard rebuilt, but he was afraid of players who had already been in the NBA. All those gunslingers smoking pot from the barrels of their Uzis would turn off Oregon, the state whose motto is, "We're the flip side of a ghetto." Check your drivers license. It's there. So we had the youngest team in the league for 2-3 years, longer if you exclude players who didn't play. We had the 3rd-youngest all time NBA team, which some were proud of, but I saw as a disaster. Pritchard's rebuild depended totally on the draft. Youth develops from being around age. Players learn from each other, not just coaches. It was no surprise to me when our youth froze in time. Each young player showed great promise at first, but didn't improve over the years. One by one, we traded them at a loss. Which of our current players are our leaders? Camby, Miller, Matthews...notice a pattern? You have to be very lucky to rebuild through the draft. The only reason Pritchard's youth strategy hasn't destroyed us is that Paul Allen's overspending has counterbalanced.
This may be homerish and long-winded. There's your warning. The way I see it, our season has only remained afloat due to Miller, Matthews, Camby, and Aldridge. I don't know if I'm in the minority or not, but I believe 'Dre when he says he wants to play 'til 40. Watching him yell instructions and cheer on Mills the other night also implies to me that he wouldn't mind taking a back-up role over time. I don't care if he can't shoot threes, he's a damn good basketball player and I say keep him. He has been our MVP the last two seasons. Matthews has been just a ball of energy and it has been great to watch. I think you keep him as well unless there is a ground-breaking deal. Aldridge has shown lately that he can be "that guy". His rebounding will go down when Camby comes back, but if he can keep up some level of domination, whether it be directly shown in his stats or just by opening up the floor for others, he should be kept as well. Due to his recent surge, I've pulled a 180 on Rudy as well. Obviously, I think he has to sustain production (although not necessarily at this level) to warrant being held onto, but I've been very, very impressed. The energy level of our team as a whole has been great lately, and he's a large reason why. Roy isn't going anywhere barring a miracle due to his contract. He's a smart guy, and I hope he realizes sooner rather than later his limitations. As much as people here don't want to admit, he HAS had some good games this year. Problem is they were high in minutes. He has to change his game, that's the bottom line. He will realize it, and do that. I believe it 100%. I just don't know when that will be, or how good he will be during/after that process. The dude has put a ton of effort into being a great player, played injured, etc, etc and I think is receiving more criticism than necessary because fans are (understandably) upset at the lack of championships window that we were promised. Don't give up on Oden. Most of his injuries have been freak injuries. I still believe he can be a good player. If you expect 20/15/5, you're going to probably be disappointed, but I don't think we have much to lose by not giving up on him. It's not like we're wining a championships in the next year or two. I love Camby, I really do, but he's up there in years, and can probably do a lot more for a contender than us over the remainder of his contract. He's also mentioned retiring I believe, so counting on him sticking around past next year would be foolish. I make Camby, along with everyone else I haven't mentioned very available. Get good players, period. Don't worry about fitting with Roy, because he may only be playing 15 minutes per game. Get out of your heads now that we can make some awesome trades ridding us of Roy's contract, shipping out scrubs and space, and getting back some amazing player. That's why I balk at the thought of trading Miller. What are we going to get back? Who else can we get that will make this team run as well as he can? Probably no one unless we're giving away a lot of other players. No one on this team is untouchable, but I hold onto Miller, Matthews, and Aldridge (and maybe Rudy) and see what we can do.
^ I agree that it will not be easy finding a true PG as good as Miller. Trading him could effect the performance of LMA. Andre gets him easy baskets. For the reasons you stated, I also agree you hold on to LMA, Matthews, Roy, Camby and Oden. The problem is how do they get better? They need one more guy who can create his own shot. Someone who when the game's on the line can attack. IMO it has to be a PG or wing to do that. (Big men rarely are those guys anymore) So that leaves Batum, Joel and Rudy has the bait. (Along with a rookie or two) Rudy is playing well but he will always be a short timer in Portland. You might as well include him in a trade unless for some reason he has changed his mind on wanting to be here long term. (Doubtful) Maybe Batum, Joel, Rudy, Babbitt, and Elliot Williams for .....Iguodala. The salaries are close.
Yes. agree with everyone who says keep Aldridge, Batum and Mathews as a core. I would not be in a rush to made trades except in the case of Pryzbilla, I think he definitely needs to go before the trading deadline, he has no value after that. Miller's situation is interesting since he could be traded at draft time to a cost conscious team; since his last year is team option, a team could trade for him and release him; so he might have the most value at that time. Try to acquire younger players or draft picks or move up in the draft in exchange for these two. Obviously our biggest needs are point guard and a big athletic high energy PF/C. Then, I would try to identify a player (Deron Williams, Chris Paul?) on another team who would be approaching free agency in 2011-2012 and at that time try to get him with Camby (would be expiring by then) and whatever assets we had managed to acquire by then. If we can't find that situation then just try to go forward with those assets ourselves. I don't count on anything from Oden but even if he did come back we would still need another big so that doesn't effect the planning. I believe at best Roy could be a parttime role player so we also need to find someone who can shoot at a high percent, ideally find a PG who also shoots very well. One thing I am saying is that each of our most tradeable assets has maximum value at different times and the team should take that into account, even Przbilla who may have the most value right at the trade deadline (because of less salary or because he may improve by then.). It's possible that Cho is taking that into account and is not just sitting on his duff.
you cant trade camby .... not only is he our best center .... but hes a hell of a teammate. he said his goal is to get LA TO LA in this mornings paper.
If that is a response to my post, my plan is to possibly trade him at the deadline in the 2011-2012 season, so he still has time to get LMA into the allstar game.
I agree with this approach of moving players when they have maximum value. However, the pending lockout may screw that all up. I agree that, under normal circumstances, Andre Miller's value would be at a maximum come June or July, when he'd essentially be an instantly expiring contract. A team could do a serious salary dump by acquiring him from Portland and then simply not exercising the team option on his contract. But, the pending lock out may ruin that plan. In spite of all my recent posts defending Miller, I absolutely would not hesitate to trade him before the deadline, as long as we got something of comparable value in return. I absolutely do NOT want to see this team tank. I want them to fight to the bitter end to make the playoffs - even if that means keeping Miller and Camby through the end of the season. Why? The young core of this team desperately needs more playoff experience. The post season is totally different than the regular season. The intensity is at a whole other level, and teams have days to scout, prepare and make adjustments between games. Aldridge NEEDS a post season being the team's number one option. He needs to learn how to adjust to teams devising a game plan specifically around stopping him game, after game, after game. Batum NEEDS more playoff experience. After game 1 last season, he looked TOTALLY lost and confused. Wes Matthews is a second year player who needs more playoff experience. Our entire bench NEEDS playoff experience. Besides, tanking could be self-defeating. If we miss the play-offs, it pretty much guarantees that Hornets will make it. While it looked like they were falling fast, there for a while, they seem to have turned it around, having won 4 straight and 7 of 10. The pick we got from them for Bayless is what, top 8 protected? I'd rather have their high lottery pick, and our own in the mid to late teens, AND another year of playoff experience, that our own high lottery pick and theirs in the mid to high teens and no additional playoff experience for our young guys. BNM
