Portland All-Jilted Sometimes You Dodge the Bullet and Sometimes It Dodges You Team

I was thinking the same thing, but was feeling too lazy to write it up.

 

Charles Barkley

 

Steve Francis refused us

 

Kevin Durant

 

Actually, he didn't. We traded for him and immediately bought him out. Never let him anywhere near the team.

BNM

 

Here's one:

SG - Allen Crabbe

My only regret is that we didn't jettison his overpaid 1-dimensional ass a year sooner. We should have never matched BRK's offer. In the end, they were dumb enough to still want him, but it cost us $2.84 million in dead cap space for several years to get rid of him, when it would have cost us nothing to let him walk a year sooner. He has done nothing in his new "expanded role" in BRK to make me regret "losing" him.

Oh well, at least he's gone and we aren't buried under than ridiculous contract. Can you imagine how bad our cap/tax situation would be if BRK hadn't bailed us out. We'd be about $19 million into tax territory and year one of repeat offender status. It's going to be hard enough to resign Nurk, Ed, Shabazz, etc., let alone add anyone, as is. It would have been impossible with that boat anchor of a contract around our necks.

BNM

 

And here's another one, sort of:

SG - Anthony Morrow

I quickly admitted I was wrong about Morrow. I thought he'd be a MUCH cheaper Crabbe replacement. In addition to being a good 3-point shooter, prior to coming here, he had a reputation as a good locker room guy with a good work ethic. Guys who go undrafted and end up leading the league in 3-point shooting usually are hard workers. They play like they have something to prove.

Morrow in his brief time here was the exact opposite. His on-court play was listless and uninspiring, but it was his body language and lack of even trying to play defense that were the most disappointing. He really and truly acted like he didn't not want to be here. I'm glad the team recognized that, cut him loose and we ended up keeping Pat instead (remember how they kept extending Pat's "guarantee date" right up until the very last minute). Pat is a better player and a MUCH better teammate. Morrow's attitude and lack of defensive effort would not have mixed well with this young, hungry roster.

At least his signing was non-guaranteed. So, zero risk (good thing). In the end, it cost us nothing to audition Morrow. I'm just glad the powers that be made the right decision and cut him loose.

BNM

 

I agree as I was all for Morrow seeing as how like you said seemed like a good Crabbe replacement for cheap but I also saw the uninspired effort and totally agreed with moving on from him. I advocated going after Gerald Green and it seems he is paying dividends for the Rockets.

 

The Blazers tried so hard for so long to overpay free agent big men and front court players. Now that we have Nurk, Ed, and Zach, I hope they just stop with that shit.

 

my understanding is he demanded to be bought out...didn't want to play in Portland..we bought him out. ..

 

That would have been a good pick up had we done it early enough.

 

Ouch. You had to bring that up. Why don't you just give us paper cuts and squirt lemon juice on them.

 

Nope. The place Francis refused to play was Vancouver when he was drafted, forcing his way to Houston.

The Blazers didn't want him, but his salary was necessary to make the trade work. He was coming off the worst season of his career, when he missed 38 games due to injury, and he had a shitty attitude, often clashing with Larry Brown in NY. The Blazers were building a young team and didn't want Francis and his attitude anywhere near the team. They supposedly agreed to the terms of the buyout before the trade was even completed and told Francis not to report.

BNM

 

In a sense, there is a little bit of the butterfly effect in play here. If we signed all those guys maybe we win a championship, maybe we have Ben Simmons, or maybe Robin Lopez is our best player and we are the bulls.

Looking back though, it sure looks like pretty much everyone we targeted in FA the last chunk of years would have been a horrible get.

 

Enis Kanter would've been great after Lamarcus left

 

Meh.

 

disagree...he'd have flourished in Stotts system..guy is a double double machine at PF....way better than Monroe or Hibbert would've been. He's no center though.

 

Not sure if he would fit next to Nurk though. They both need to play close to the basket on offense and Kanter is a notoriously bad defender. I don't think I'd want him chasing stretch 4s on the perimeter. His best role on this team would be backing up Nurk, and I'd rather have Ed Davis at less than half the salary doing that.

Kanter is most definitely a center. His average FG distance is 3.7 feet (Nurk's is 6.0 feet). 90% of his scoring comes from within 10 feet of the basket. He wouldn't flourish in Stotts' system. He'd just get in Nurk's way. He also can't guard the power forward position. That's why he plays center in NY and everywhere else he's ever played.

BNM

 

I was referring to the time we made him an offer....way before the Nurk days but still I think a starting lineup with Dame, CJ, Mo, Kanter and Nurk would be a scoring, rebounding machine....Kanter fits next to a rim protecter like Nurk and Mo is a good defender. As it is I'm really happy with Chief and Big Ed

 

No Kanter doesn't fit well next to a rim protector. No way in hell can Kanter guard the PF position. Nurk would be in foul trouble twice as fast as he'd have to guard both of the opponent's big men. On offense, Kanter can't spread the floor. He NEEDS to play within 3 feet of the basket to be effective. He'd just clog things up, get in Nurk's way and allow his defender to clog the paint making it difficult for Dame and C.J. to get to the rim.

Where Kanter would excel is someplace like BOS, where he could play next to a versatile player like Al Horford, who can create the spacing Kanter can't. That's also a good reason Kanter fits well next to Porzingis who can space the floor and guard opposing power forwards.

BNM