Without the need for a SF the team doesn't trade for Wallace so no trade with Brooklyn for the pick that would become Lillard. Nicolas Batum gets relegated to a bench role, he would become a valuable trade piece and probably gets moved before he hits RFA. Would LMA have stepped his game up to his current levels or would he have stagnated as a second/third option like Bosh has in Miami? Does Roy have a longer career? Without Durant in the fold the need for him to come back early from surgery in the series against Phoenix is lessened and with more time to recover maybe he enjoys an extra few years in the association. Do McMillan and Pritchard get fired? Pritchard would have a much stronger position with the drafting of Roy/LMA/Durant and the team likely doesn't suffer the collapse in January that led to McMillans firing with Durant and LMA healthy. With better scoring options around him does Durant become the youngest ever to lead the league in scoring?
Durant probably would have taken longer to blossom. Roy probably would have lasted an extra season, but I bet his knees were already exploding when we drafted GO.
We would have kept ZBO. Durant would have probably gotten frustrated in Nate's offense. Batum wouldn't be here. LA would have kept on improving, but wouldn't be as dominant, he'd be a Bosh type player. Roy would probalby be a grant hill post injury type of player. I do think the Sonics would still stay in Seattle with the hype knowing Oden, a once in a generation center is coming to town. I still think Durant would have gotten injured somehow, just the Blazers luck. We would have gotten the chucking, can't bench 185lbs T-mac clone version of Durant.
How come no one talks about how the Blazers could have drafted Jeremy Lamb instead of Meyers Leonard? I knew we blew that one.
LaMarcus would be a perfect #2 to Durant's #1, in much the way Lillard and LA play but inverted (with Durant getting 22 shots and LA getting 13-14). We'd be winning a lot, probably with the same record OKC has now, and we'd be so so happy Oden didn't fall in our laps.
If we had drafted Durant he would have stood in a corner and taken threes until his knees gave way and he missed as many games as Oden did. We would then be watching Oden blow up into the next Shaq but with great D as well. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk
I disagree. Nico becomes the starting 2 and Wesley gets moved. Also, Brandon Roy coming back from surgery later would have had no effect on his knees IMHO. Once Meniscus is gone, it's gone.
Blazers would be having parades in downtown Portland for scoring titles instead of NBA titles. - Kevin Pritchard
I couldn't imagine the nuclear meltdown that would have happened on these (previous) message boards if we HAD selected Durant instead of Oden. I mean that "Fire Pritchard" thread would have been way way worse.
The team would look so very different. I'm not sure KD and Roy could have coexisted, and if you throw ZBO in there.... oh man. Not enough basketballs.