Before we discuss trades or how much to pay Oden and Batum we need to hear from PA. We need to hear how he views the Blazers currently. Are the Blazers once again his favorite toy where he gives Cho the magic checkbook and tells him to spend what he wants or is team one of his many businesses that must be ran at a profit or the very least in a break even mode? Honestly I couldn't really blame him if he doesn't want to go over the cap for a team that can't get out of the first round. As a fan of course I want him to spend like a drunken sailor in Vegas but I'm not sure if it's going to happen. If we're in breakeven mode we might not keep Oden if we can't get rid of Roy's contract. Even if we are in a win at any price mode do we spend $24 mill a season on two players who might give us very little to nothing? For once I wish PA would just open up and tell us what he wants to with the team.
If he was donald sterling i would be hoping he would talk about his plans, hes freaking Paul "ill buy all your draft picks and go 20mill over the luxury tax" Allen..
Larry Miller has said more than once that Blazers are to be run like a business. That means not going very far over the cap like we have in year's past. I'm not knocking PA, he's been a great owner. I an just really curious if Cho will be given the green light to spend whatever he wants to make this team better.
Permanently losing Brandon Roy, All-NBA player, and Greg Oden, a very good center when he can play, is a tough hurdle for any franchise to overcome. It's imperative to have at least one elite offensive player who can create offense for himself and others at the end of playoff games. Of the remaining teams, the only one without that player is Memphis, and I was stunned that Scott Brooks waited until he was 10 points down to start double-teaming Zach Randolph. If Brooks doesn't immediately double Zach in Game Two from the beginning, then he may as well resign as a coach. Make anybody other than Zach beat you. Then again, Brooks also doesn't double-team LMA in the last game against Portland this season, either, for reasons that I can't explain.
If were not breaking the team up I expect Oden/Batum to get nice contracts because without them were just a mediocre team that will sit at 40-45 wins that misses the playoffs every other season tell Roy is off the books. Oden is our only real hope of having an impact after the first round and unfortunately there are more questions about Oden then a drunken Irishman would ask trying to figure out quantum physics.
Three legitimate posts in this thread address the state of the team, and none of them are given a reply.
