It's hard to know what really happened, though. Remember that starting around February in 2010, Pritchard got banished from his seat next to Paul Allen. A month or so later, Tom Penn was fired out of the blue. The cynic in me thinks that Penn and Pritchard were trying to wrestle influence away from Bert Kolde and Larry Miller, and had their agent force Portland's hand. Paul Allen didn't blink, and in a few months, they were both fired. The entire Cho thing really soured me on Paul Allen and Larry Miller, and from an organizational standpoint, I wonder what Penn and KP could have accomplished without the Yes Men who whisper in Paul Allen's ear. If I have to blame one person in this organization outside of Paul Allen for the current state of the team, it's Larry Miller. He's the ultimate Yes Man, and I think a lot of the moves we've seen in terms of front office personnel have been influenced by his words and actions within the structure of the organization. Funny thing is, Larry Miller has all but disappeared this year. Is he next to get shit-canned?
I've always found it hard to believe that Pritchard ran that draft, and had the final say, after he had already been fired.
I've heard from a couple of people that LeGarie was the one involved in the "wresting influence", had Penn play PA against himself with the fake Timberwolves offer, then when PA found out about it he flipped on Penn and "banished" KP. Even at the Babbitt draft, "sources say" that PA gave KP a chance to ditch LeGarie and stay. KP declined.
I'm not so sure he passed on Blair multiple times becuase of health concerns. I just don't think Blair as a KP kind of player. Pritchard likes guys who are long and versatile that can play and defend multiple positions. He never drafted a wide-body banger the entire time he was here (and no, Jeff Perndegraph is not a wide-body banger). He passed on both Millsap and Blair multiple times. He always went for length over width (insert crude comment here), not just in the players he drafted, but also the ones acquired via trade (Channing Frye, Marcus Camby, etc.). BNM
Probably a good move on KP's part, considering the dysfunction in the front office since Pritchard was fired. The only person of authority left in the entire organization with any respect for their basketball experience around the NBA is McMillan, and if he's fired, I'm not not sure what the future holds. Cho and KP were both hired by competitors, Cho immediately, and KP after taking some time doing other things while still being paid by Paul Allen.
couldnt predict??? like kevin pritchard you need to do some research before you do/say something stupid. roy and oden both had serious injury questions and thats coming from a person whos all time favorite player is #7
he broke his hip when he younger....injured in college with a broken wrist. one leg was an inch longer than the other which cant be good for a guy over 7 feet tall. there were questions he was too briddle, which ended up being true.
I don't know how much harm was done by firing KP - maybe very little. OTOH, you would be hard pressed to present any evidence that firing him HELPED the team.
As long as we are piling on; I actually think one of his biggest mistakes was the 2009 draft. KP always said that they identify the guy they want and do whatever is necessary to get him. And I think they really wanted Ty Lawson, one of the most efficient offensive players ever in the NCAA and a guy Portland had worked out two years in a row. And a guy at a position that the Blazers desperately needed help. And yet they didn't do whatever was necessary to get him. They seemed so surprised when he wasn't there when they picked that they then chose Victor Claver.
Well, I know you detested him as a player, but I'd say he was a banger in that he recorded solid Rebound Rates (and much better than solid defensive Rebound Rate). He also often had good to very good scoring efficiency because he did all his scoring on the inside. He wasn't anything like a great scorer, but what scoring he did do was "banger" type scoring. I should clarify that I don't think Diogu is nearly as good as Blair, but I think he qualifies as a "wide-body banger."
Blair isn't a difference-maker and has regressed each season. His Reb% this year is 14.3, which puts him in the company of players like these guys, and while his PER is 16, that's inflated by a USG% of 21.4. His WS/48 is .12. I'm trying to figure out why Pop still starts him, considering Splitter is a much better player at this point, and it's really not even close. Hell, Splitter's Reb% is higher than Blair's this year, his PER is higher (19.4), his USG is lower (20), and his WS/48 is .177. Across the board, he is outperforming Blair, yet Blair gets 21.7 mpg, while Splitter is at 21.3. Hopefully Pop doesn't figure out and he starts giving Splitter 5 more mpg at Blair's expense.
Yeah, I suppose I should give the guy a break. I'm definitely biased against him based on his performance in Portland. He flat out sucked. His stats, both regular and advanced, were awful - the worst of his career. A low post player with a FG% of .316? It don't get much shittier than that. His PER (11.4) and WS/48 (.057) were the lowest of his career. The guy was (is and always will be) a complete black hole - which I'm willing to tolerate in a back-up power forward - if he can actually make some shots. He had a USG% of 21.8 with a 0.316 FG% and an AST% of .000. He also sucked on defense (111 DRtg). But is was an extremely small sample size. Unfortunately, it reinforced what I saw when he was on the court. He was a ball hog who was going to force up a bad shot, no matter what, and didn't play defense. I saw it in the preseaon, where he actually got some decent minutes, and then again in his limited regular season minutes. I didn't see him "banging" with anyone, just forcing up bad shots and not playing defense. I was probably too hard on him when he was here. I wanted Paul Millsap and I got Ike Diogu. I guess that pretty much guaranteed I was going to be disappointed. BNM
