Remember when the Blazers traded Jermaine O'Neal for the savvy veteran Dale Davis, thinking that he was the guy who would get them a championship? Indiana got the better end of that deal by far, as Davis's production fell way off in Portland and Jermaine O'Neal blossomed into a star in Indiana. Fast forward a few years . . . and we trade the savvy veteran Gerald Wallace to the Nets for the 6th pick in the draft, which turns out to be a spectacular young point guard named Damian Lillard. Wallace, meanwhile, is averaging only 8.2 points a game and 4.9 rebounds, and is a shadow of his former self. Thank you, Nets, for one of the best deals the Blazers have ever made.
Trading O'Neal was the right thing to do at the time. Davis was the only player in the league who had any success at all guarding Shaq, and the L*kers were the hurdle we kept tripping over. Jermaine would have been less likely to blossom here behind all the other bigs we had...
this oft expressed sentiment continues to baffle me. Brian exercised an out in his contract despite having 4 years at 8M per on it because he wanted to test the FA market and sign an even bigger/longer payday. In his 3 seasons in Portland he'd missed 74 games... to say that he was injury prone is like saying the water was wet. Miami signed him to a 7 year 86M contract and he continued to miss a ton of games. His athletic ability and game soon left him and he became arguably the worst performance to $$$ value in the league. Sure Kemp flamed out in a big way in PDX, but even so he was off the books in 2 seasons. Thank Jebus management didn't cave to BG's ridiculous demands STOMP
This part isn't really true. He missed 16 games in his four years in Miami, playing 82, 72, 82, and 76 games for them. I will say, though, that it was sweet that the Lakers got stuck with his two years of 15 million each after he broke down finally.
he signed a 7 year contract and was medically shut down after 6, but of course still was paid for year 7. During that contract, he missed 172 games. Even not including the 0.0 from year 7, when he was healthy enough to suit up during that span he posted a 12.4 PER. why anyone pines for that sort of dreck is beyond me STOMP
Brian Grant is why we have year limits on contracts now, true, but those first three years for Miami really cemented some regret that later years didn't erase. Especially that first year: 82 games, career high in points, PER, etc. He played career-high ball for Miami that first year, and I wonder if that's mostly what people remember.
I agree with all this. I loved Brian when he was here, and I think he's still one of my favorite Blazers of all-time, but I think people romanticize his time here because of one playoff series against the Jazz. The guy was extremely overpaid by Miami, and he was the one who wanted to leave. We got Kemp because it was either that or let him walk for nothing. Bob gambled that Kemp could regain his form and he didn't. We didn't need Brian. We had Sheed.
Isn't too late to bring O'Neal back. And Webster and Jack. Come back, Blazers! We didn't wait for you to bake!
Ever since we traded Jarrett Jack, Brandon Rush, and Josh McRoberts to the Pacers for Jerryd Bayless and Ike Diogu, they've been reaming us. Players going straight from us to them were Stephen Graham and Jeff Pendergraph. The player going straight from them to us was Travis Diener. The player using up our summer offer time was Roy Hibbert.
We also gave up a draft pick. So we can't really know the full extent of that trade until we see where that pick eventually falls. But barring some catastrophic injuries to our team next year, that pick is probably going to be in the mid-teens. Even if it wound up being a top 3 pick, I'd probably still make that deal. Lillard is worth it, and I want no part of paying a declining Gerald Wallace $42m over 4 years.
