When Was The Last "Significant" Trade The Blazers Have Made?

what about when we traded for sergio?

 

You take as long as you want before calling him a bust.

Given your take on Oden, Babbit gets 4 plus years before you are ready to go out on a limb.

 

KP's "eff you" dance?

 

Ryan Gomes' contract which helped them get Wesley Matthews.

 

Looks like cho is trying to top bayless trade! Batum for late lotto picks!

 

Has the team really drafted that well? In the last 4 drafts, they have had a ton of first round picks....and Batum is the only one who might be part of the future core. The last 2 drafts - Claver, Williams, and Babbitt - were downright hideous. When you throw in Sergio, Freeland and Koponen, Oden's injuries, Rudy's rotten attitude, and the fact Bayless was traded for squat.....I am begining to seriously re-evaluate KP's performance as a GM.

 

A lot of the picks we've had have been in the mid to late 20s or early to mid 30s. These picks were bought, or traded for, on or slightly before, draft day. Because, other teams know it's always a crap shoot when you're picking that low (or lower). Half the guys picked that low don't amount to shit in the NBA. So, when you consider we got Batum at 25 (starter as a 19-year old rookie), Rudy at 24 (regular rotation player), Dante at 33 (regular rotation player) and Patty at 55 (now part of the regular rotation), I think we've actually done better than average. Yes, we missed out on a few guys. I would have personally taken Paul Millsap at 30 or 31 in 2006, and Dejuan Blair over Claver (22), Pendergraph (31) or Cunningham (33) in 2009, but it's not like we were the only teams that passed on those guys. Every year, there are one or two guys (Michael Redd, Monta Ellis, Paul Millsap, Wesley Matthews, etc.) that should have been drafted much higher, but there are also a ton of guys who end up totally worthless. The fact that we have one full time starter and three rotation players that were drafted 24 and lower seems to put us a head of the averages. And, although we didn't draft Mattews (no one did), the Blazers staff identified him as a desirable player worthy of a "toxic" offer after his rookie season and did what it took to get him.

At one point, I thought using late first round picks on Euros made sense, but things changed when players in Europe started earning salaries far above the NBA rookie scale. I think if Pritchard can be criticized for anything, it is failing to realize this and continuing to throw away first round picks on young, unproven European players (especially Claver) who will likely never play for the team. For the last three or four years, it has made much more sense to use early second round picks on international players, so they won't be bound by the NBA rookie pay scale. If KP was really high on Claver, it would have made much more sense to pick a US player (like Dejuan Blair) at 22 and then pick Claver at 31. That way, if Claver actually ends up being good, Paul Allen can simply open his wallet and pay him enough to get him to come play in the US. As it is, if Claver does pan out (not a given), he'll be locked into a long term, lucrative deal in Europe before the Blazers even have a chance to offer him a significant contract. And, it he doesn't pan out, it was a wasted pick anyway.

KP "lucked out" when he convinced Rudy to come play in the NBA for less money. And, after that, he seemd to think he could work the same "magic" on other young European players. Not so. They can make more money sooner, and play a much less strenous schedule, closer to home, by staying in Europe. Other than a burning desire to throw away millions to play in the NBA, there is no incentive for these guys to ever leave Europe. Shit, Minnesota can't even lure Ricky Rubio to the NBA, and as the 5th pick, they could actually offer him a very substantial contract. It's much hard to convince a guy taken in the mid-20s that he should come to the NBA when you can't even offer him $1 million a year to play here when he can make 2 - 4x that much playing over there.

BNM

 

1989 Sam Bowie for Buck Williams

 

Just stop.

 

And some even worse ones while he was still here:

Brian Grant for Shawn Kemp
Jermaine O'Neal for Dale Davis
Steve Smith for Derek Anderson
Clyde Drexler for Otis Thorpe

 

BNM, as always, voice of reason. Great analysis of late picks. And Portland has historically done well with late picks (Kersey, Duckworth, Clifford Robinson, Terry Porter).

 

I like an activist GM who leads the pack of GMs in seeking trades. So I liked Bob Whitsitt, who tried very hard. Pritchard was afraid of experienced players. After all, the black radicals might smoke grass and yell at a coach when the coach is being stupid (like Miller did with McMillan). We can't have that here in the Northwest. But while many hate dissension, I love it. So I opposed blowing up the elite team we had with Sheed, Pippen, Sabonis, and so many other good players, a team the rest of the league was afraid of.

Well that's history. Now we have an unknown, Cho. I always give a new guy time, e.g. I'm not down on Babbitt as others are. I want to see Cho do something good by the midseason trade deadline. If he doesn't, I'll get down on him, mildly, for the rest of the season. His second chance will be the draft and his third, the summer. I think he'll be alright, but if by then he's the new Pritchard, then I'll be spouting off.

Let's go Cho. And I'd rather have Whitsitt over Pritchard any day.

 

3 of those players tied his hands by very publicly demanding trades, and Smith for Anderson was not a bad deal. Just a couple of role players.