You have to remember that he is writing for the entire fan base, not just us, what, 50 people?, who spend the day in here talking basketball all day.
If that's the discussion then I'd have to concede that a local auto group would likely shell out more endorsement money in L.A. than in Portland, although I'm curious if anyone has the numbers on how substantial this difference is. However is a guy like Whiteside going to choose his team based on local auto group endorsements, or does he want national endorsements? I'm not arguing that there's no longer a gap in the amount of opportunity and publicity you can potentially receive based on market size. But the individual is what sells in the NBA more than the team. And social media, the internet and the way fans access the NBA are continuing to evolve and it's all helping to narrow the gap in the amount of endorsement opportunities for players in smaller markets.
Canzano is great at human interest pieces, and I generally enjoy them. Everything else he just sounds like a blowhard.
He conveniently left out the restricted free agents who signed offer sheets (and in doing so agreed to come here), then were matched by their teams. Millsap, Kanter, who else am I forgetting?
He was actually traded to Portland with Steve Kerr for Steve Smith. Portland's biggest FA signings to date are probably Rod Strickland, Kenny Anderson, Brian Grant, Andre Miller, and Wesley Matthews. All were average to good level starters but none of them were all star level players at the time. Portland has never had that level of free agent success but then relatively few active all stars ever actually go anywhere in FA. Jim Jackson and Jamal Crawford were kind of a biggish deal I guess, until they weren't. Hibbert and Millsap both at least signed offer sheets. Personally I think Portland's penchant for striking out on free agents is overstated. In the 90s we generally had some FA success due to the winning culture of the era and SPAM, but after that we struggled for awhile as overcoming the Jailblazers stigma was tough. I think now with a young playoff team led by a charismatic all star, the chances of getting another good level starter this summer are pretty high.
Kenny anderson was an all star two years prior to him signing with us. Which makes him our biggest fa signing.
It was a sign and trade. We could have signed him outright, but we were able to give him more money this way.
Saw nothing wrong with the article and pretty much agree with it all. Until we sign a stud, dude is right.
Yesterday Canzano was on the radio up here being interviewed about this story. The host said he didn't think there was anything to the story. Edit:. Sorry thought this thread was about the blazers moving to Seattle
Just like every Canzano article leads to, "Why won't Paul Allen sell the team? I can't believe that he won't follow my orders and sell to someone whom the Oregonian can control, as it did Pritchard."
