Some support for "pessimistic" posters:

The way I see it, it's been mostly bad news around the Blazers since the 2007 draft. I'd list them out, but it's too depressing and we all know the stories. Sure, there have been pluses too, but when so many of the bad breaks have been to franchise-level pieces, the gloom of that tends to outweigh the positive stories about overcoming odds, etc. It's understandable that there's a tendency to be a bit shell shocked by 4 years of hard knocks to what was supposed to have been a contending team by now. That said, I still think that Oden is the key to whether the Blazers can make it into the top tier of teams or not with this core group of athletes. For some, that statement is enough to say let's throw in the towel and rebuild. For others, it's a case of him being 23 and, unlike Roy, not having injuries that you know he's never to recover from. I'm still optimistic that we'll see 5 or more years of Oden being a beast and that putting him in a lineup with a front line that includes Aldridge and Wallace is going to terrorize the league during that time period. I think Felton is a lateral move from Andre, but he's young enough and good enough to fill the bill as the playmaker for the next 5 years. Optimism or pessimism aside, the Blazers will go as far as Oden's health can carry them.

 

Um.... as for the Paul Allen statements and this is his team and he can do whatever he wants yada yada yada.....

True...

At the same time Blazer fans could also not renew their season tickets, spending many thousands a year on them, drink 8 dollar beers, and buy 5x to expensive food while selling out the Rose Garden yearly and sporting a fan base other teams are envious of!!!! Including the World Champion Dallas Mavs.... This done while management withholds franchise players availability and accurate medical reports for the following year to sell those same season tickets, which is fraud on a certain level! ie"ODEN/ROY"

We Blazer fans are buying a very expensive product as season ticket holders, if this was a new car it would have been returned for factory defects and multiple ones at that.


So if PA wants to be a general manager/owner like Al Davis we can also choose not to show up and this team can become the Nets or Wizards in a years time and then see how quickly things change! PA is not respecting what he has here and he's shown that year after year.

PA has shown he's incompetent on multiple levels "to many to list" and yet the Blazer faithful have stood loyal to him like they have Oden for how long?? Now it's time for both of them to produce and show they deserve this BLIND loyalty, both have a lot to prove in the next few years. I have a ton more faith in ODEN than I do PA!

PA better realize that the fans can make or break him as an owner here. A new owner with a "basketball mind" will get the same response if not better from the Blazer Faithful. We have a product in Portland and it's called Blazer Fans and decades of sell out crowds are attractive to any entity looking to own in the future. So sitting out a year as a fan base to get a better owner might be the best thing the Blazers Nation could do long term. It's not like anyone believes we are going to win it all next year.

I think PA and Nate need to go ruin Seattle for the next decade and stop giving the best fans in the NBA such an ill thought out product. Hey they can sign ROY as their first player as a Sonic, wont even need to do a physical. HA!

 

List the team transactions of the last few years. Every step up has come from Paul Allen paying off another owner for an enormous contract, or throwing in $3 million, which most owners desperately need. Every step down has come from a mediocre draft choice. Sometimes the two were combined--Pritchard got Allen to buy him a pick, then squandered it on a bad choice.

With a normal cheap owner, all we have in those 4 years are the steps down, not any steps up. Without Allen constantly subsidizing this team, we are .300. The Oregonian loves Pritchard and hates Allen, twisting the perceptions of fans like you 180 degrees from reality.

Which owner with playing experience are you thinking of? The one who plays your fantasy games on your computer?

 

JLPRK

"With a normal cheap owner, all we have in those 4 years are the steps down, not any steps up. Without Allen constantly subsidizing this team, we are .300. The Oregonian loves Pritchard and hates Allen, twisting the perceptions of fans like you 180 degrees from reality."


I never said Allen was cheap anywhere. Your words! I said he makes poor decisions and his lack of basketball knowledge has been more than evident for years now. Very different points. Fire your GM on draft night and still have him pick for you, not smart! Fire your next GM who got ya Wallace for Dante and Joel also not smart... not having a GM of worth ready for this years draft and we got hosed, also not smart. That's three bone head manuevers in 14 months that make many wonder if Paul's ego is overshadowing the teams potential success. It's clear he's not easy to work for and that too will make it hard for this franchise to improve because who wants to work for a guy and be fired 6 months later?

This is what I'm referring to!

"Which owner with playing experience are you thinking of? The one who plays your fantasy games on your computer? "

Basketball minded owners, never said "playing experience" once again your words. A good owner should allow his GM's to do their jobs, PA doesn't! Cuban atleast knows enough to say I need to listen to my GM. Allen thinks he knows more than his GM's and relies on non basketball entities like the Vulcans to shape his opinions. Follow me now?

 

I don't think the draft would have gone any differently if we'd had a GM in place. It probably would have gone worse, based upon recent drafts when we did have one.

The good teams hardly use the draft. Their main players come from trades and FA signings. This glorification of the draft is an artifact from the Pritchard years. He did well the first time and everyone expected it to be Christmas thereafter. He was unable to do anything except scout the draft.

You don't like the way things went in the draft? With pick #21, I expected nothing and got it. Vulcans seem capable of making trades/FAs without a GM. They did last summer, and Cho was hired at the last minute and got credit.

 

The non glam cities all use the draft to build good teams.

SA, Utah, OKC, POR, and many others. Even teams like ORL, DAL, LAL, BOS, MIA used the draft to get their best player/core.

 

In general I would exclude draft day trades for draft picks from this kind of calculus (teams are still essentially using their talent evaluation process to identify draft the player they want). And even if a team did trade drafted players to get the players they wanted it's still necessary to draft quality players; collecting scrubs won't get you over the hump.

 

Please. The L*kers and the Mavs traded for their superstars on draft day. The Celtics traded players they drafted high for their current players as well. Teams are built through the draft 9 times out of 10

 

Whichever of those sides is true, my point is that now that we don't get high picks, we need to emphasize trades and free agents. The draft should be an afterthought, a means to fill out the bottom half of the roster and to gather chips to trade, or throw-ins in trades.

Bring back Bob!