My opinions are all about what I think. I'm pretty self-involved. Naturally. Nothing saying disinterest more than counting each instance of the thing you have no interest in. I predict the team will have a worse point guard next year. That's the prediction that, if correct, will back up my opinion.
What's the point of getting younger, if you also get worse? Yeah boy, that Raymond Felton is a below average NBA player, but at least he's younger than Andre Miller. I posted this in another thread: Miller 2009-10 Regular Season: PER = 17.8 ORtg = 111 DRtg = 108 WS = 7.0 WS/48 = 0.124 Raymond Felton 2009-10 Regular Season: PER = 16.6 ORtg = 108 DRtg = 111 WS = 5.4 WS/48 = 0.094 Miller 2010 Playoffs: PER = 18.9 ORtg = 114 DRtg = 117 WS = 0.4 WS/48 = 0.106 Raymond Felton 2010 Playoffs: PER = 11.2 ORtg = 94 DRtg = 111 WS = 0.0 WS/48 = -0.001 Felton's PER of 16.6 was a career high and was greatly inflated by playing over 2/3 of his games in D'Antoni's system. His PER in Denver was only 14.7, which is very close to his career average of 14.5. Yeah, Miller is older, but he's an iron man who is still more productive than Felton, who, other than 54 games under Mike D'Antoni, is, and has always been, a below average NBA player. If the goal is to win more games next season, I don't see how that accomplishes that goal. Can someone please explain to me how that does not make our team worse now than before this trade? If the only goal is to get younger, I'm sure we could have found an even crappier PG than Raymond Felton that's 4 or 5 years younger. At 27, Raymond Felton isn't our PG of the future, he's our PG of the present, and a very mediocre one at that. And, to land him not only did we have to give up a better player who plays the same position, we also had to give up drafting the back-up power forward this team has desperately needed for five years. We would have been so much better next season to have just kept Miller and drafted Faried at 21. But, instead, we have a worse starting PG and yet another tweener "combo" guard without an NBA position and still no back-up power forward. BNM
Yes, because Utah got a big euro and a combo guard, while Denver got a rebounder in the late first round of a weak draft. There's no stopping them now!
I still say Babbitt is miscast as a 3 and would be more effective as a stretch 4. Especially if he could bulk up a tad (although he's no weakling)--get up to say, 235-240--he could be passable defensively and effective offensively as LMA's backup. And if we keep Chris Johnson around (which I'm hoping for), it would still be a touch thin, but that wouldn't be a terrible frontcourt group.
Disagree, it's at worst even. Miller, as much of a warrior as hi is was starting to show his age later in the season. We got 9 yrs younger at PG - IMO that's a slight plus in evaluating plusses and minuses. Rudy was worthless, no loss there. Nolan Smith? who knows and only time will tell, our backup PG's simply sucked last yr so maybe a positive. Don't see how you can say we got worse.
cant really knock utah for drafting #3 and #12 and them getting the players they did...they might flop, but if they are good, we are hurting and denver was already stacked from last year, if they keep miller, they are markedly better...andre/faried/hamilton is a nice haul for their troubles
Still an unbalanced roster. Still too small baring Oden coming back. Really, still too small even if Oden comes back. I think that Portland will probably win one or two less games next year then this one, loose in the first round again, then loose Oden to free agency. That's sort of where Portland is headed.