I am willing to give Nolan Smith the benefit of the doubt....I don't think they should have picked him there, but if he turns into a solid rotational player then he'll have justified the spot IMO. What really irritates me is that POR basically swapped Miller for Felton and then gave away Rudy in the deal, plus the rights to Koponen, plus a future 2nd and (allegedly) the rights to draft Faried. IMO, this was bad negotiation by Buchanan or whomever was negotiationg this deal....POR made 2 division rivals stronger, while they arguably stayed at status quo, or got weaker if you consider the bench implications. DAL gets an inconsistent Rudy Fernandez and a prospect (Koponen) basically for a #26 pick which probably wasn't going to be a rotational player anyway....Rudy may end up being thier STARTER at SG, especially if they let Stevenson walk.... DEN, gets Miller, who while older is probably equally talented as Felton at this point, and a young prospect in Jordan Hamilton, who was predicted to go higher than he went by most draft prognosticators, and a future 2nd for a player (Felton) that they were going to trade anyway...he wasn't going to be with DEN for another year. Personally, I think POR mgmt panicked at the end and DEN screwed them over the details or "final sticking points" In essence Rudy is given up for nothing, or basically was a throw in (#26) to a deal... I don't have a problem necessarily with POR flipping Miller for Felton, but all the other stuff thrown in (Rudy, Koponen, 2nd, rights to draft Faried) is bullshit IMO. I don't have a problem with them trading Rudy either, his time had run its course here.... POR should have made the deal for Felton, drafted Faried there at #21...Then dealt Rudy\Koponen for the #26 and taken Smith. IF DEN required more assets than Miller and a 2nd, some other arangement could have been made instead of flipping Rudy for the #26 to seal the deal that was a mistake by POR front office. As for Buchanan's draft record...it isn't good. he will stand on babbit (whom he raved about last year, and specifically mentioned last night), Elliot Williams and now Nolan Smith... If niether of them show anything this next year, does ANYONE really want this guy running the show as GM in a possibly talent rich 2012 draft? Bottom line here is DEN got stronger last night... DAL got stronger last night..... and POR remained at status quo or got weaker, unless you think a bench of Batum, an inconsstent Roy and now Nolan Smith, Chris Johnson, Elliot Williams and Luke Babbit is stonger than last year, let alone comparable to a team like...oh, Dallas? Bench Scoring = still weak as shit and now relying MORE on rookies and 2nd year players Bigs = still woefully short on backups and now relying on a center with a history of injuries coming off micro fracture (Oden), a 37? 38? year relic who is rapidly fading in Camby and a pogo stick in Johnson who was in the fucking NBDL last year.... Yeah Chad let's tout Johnson's progress as a reason to not be overly concerned with the lack of depth in bigs....really? REALLY????!!!!?????
I agree, looks like the absence of an experienced GM hurt us; I also felt like they may have panicked at the end. Hard to say if they could have got better for Rudy or not, but you are right, would have been better if he went to another conference.
While I think I can understand the moves, the way it was handled made it seem like we kept having to throw more into the pot for Denver. Bottom line is we need a GM who is likeable enough for PA/Miller to keep him but willing to stand up and call them out when they are trying to manipulate things to much and be able to get deals done that don't make it seem like we just got @##$ in the @#$ with no lube and they didn't even have the common curtsy to give us a reach around! We did get younger at the PG position by giving away basically equal talent and getting in equal talent there and getting a decent backup PG (potentially). Did we pay to much for Felton? Yes especially when you consider we, as someone put it, gave up on Faried to for the trade and gave up on another backup 4 with the 26th pick. I was really mad at draft night and confused, I had my sights on Faried and wanted that pick quiet a bit. The Nolan pick still confuses me but if they feel we can improve our frontcourt a lot more in FA or with another trade then it makes it more understandable to draft the best available PG for a backup. Still no sure why they didn't do what Blaze said and get the deal done without Dallas then trade with dallas after the deal was completed.
While I mostly agree........ my opinion has changed somewhat since draft day. We overpaid for Felton. But Rudy was a cranky, overrated prick. So good riddance. Second, at 27, I don't know that we know what kind of a player Felton could be. He has improved each of his years in the league, and is just now entering his prime. I like what I saw from Felton last year. I loved Dre, but he wasn't getting any younger or better at this point, so why not roll the dice on a solid PG with room to grow? In this league, you have to roll the dice, take some chances, and put some faith that a player will blossom with your team. It happens every year that players unexpectedly blossom in a new system. At least the acquisition of Felton provides that hope. As for Nolan Smith, the guy is pretty solid. Again, we reached, and should have traded down several spots to acquire him to maximize the value of our pick. The guy is a solid player. College seniors are always drafted lower. I feel like this kid could really be something in a couple of years (some of the best PG's have taken a few years in the league to blossom - Billups, Nash, etc). If he doesn't pan out, it won't be from lack of ability or effort - I feel like it'd be a lack of opportunity. There have been some lower-rated PG prospects these last few years who have really flashed some NBA potential - maybe Portland feels like Smith could be another one of these.
I look at this way: We we're a 48 win team that got younger at point guard, but did it get appreciably better at point guard? I don't think so. Greg is reportedly not going to be able to play until December/January and our other front-court depth is shockingly thin. Tack on a lockout shortened season, which means less time to gel and show some cohesion and our prospects don't look so hot for a team that is supposedly trying to push all in for some kind of deep playoff run. So are we going to match last year's record, will we exceed it or will we continue to gradually lose ground? I don't know ... we'll see I guess.
Rudy was giving us nothing. Not saying it was his fault, I am just saying his contribution was minimal. So it comes down to Felton vs Miller. Probably not a huge difference, but I still would rather have Felton at this stage in their careers. In years past at this point we could still add a free agent in july. The last two years it was Wes and Miller while giving up nothing. Who knows if those options are available. But I assume we still will. There are too many free agents not to. We need two vets (PG and PF) and we will be better. Neither Smith nor Faried will/would make this team better, so I don't even take that into consideration. But overall I like our top 9 if they stay healthy: Felton, Wes, Wallace, Oden, LMA, Roy, Batum, Oden, and Camby. Again just add a Vet PG (Like I said last year) and find antoher big. Neither has to play big minutes.
