The Blazers reside in Portland, Oregon. No free agents (nor their wives/significant others) want to move here. Therefore, thoughts/dreams of landing a championship team in this town are slim to none. Period. Sorry, this is just the reality. It affects ownership, GM's, Coaches, Players, and the like.
Sounds like an old song sung by someone at the Grand ole Opry. Certainly not anything you might hear that springs "Reality".
Do you remember posting this thread... http://www.sportstwo.com/threads/when-everyone-gets-back-and-fully-healthy.354010/
Look, I was as optimistic as most when it comes to the Blazers reaching The Finals.....someday. However, I'm now of the opinion the chances of that are slim to none. Trader Bob attempted the near impossible via ne'er-do-wells, and almost pulled it off, but the implosion came without real surprise. Face it, this is Portland, OR. Don't blame Neil.
We signed Melo, Andre Miller, and Jamal Crawford. But who cares if we draft well and we have drafted very well. Made some good trades too. The Stotts/Dame/CJ/Nurk core can win it all with experience together over the next few years.
I would not Blame NO for being unable to persuade top tier NBA stars to sign here. I do blame NO for who he does sign and what he does with the players / contracts he signs, and brings in.
Why are you upset today of all days? We won a big game last night. We’ve won 6 of our 8 last games. Beaten 4 playoff teams in this streak.
this is precisely why Portland must re-sign guys like Whiteside, Ariza and Melo while they are here and all happy. You wait and you lose them. Forget the free agent market. Build this team through the draft and via trades. Having space to pursue a free agent is not going to work! Never has and never will.
You know what's funny.... for a long time people said that UO couldn't sign top flight recruits because it's Eugene..... and then Mario Cristobal came along and now they're taking recruits from Alabama.
People love to bitch about their team. That's probably 90% of this forum's content. The fact is, that NO took some shots on FA's and missed. Were they bad decisions in hindsight? Sure. But he did the best he could with what we've got here. This entire goddamn forum, including me, couldn't do any better. But I guess we can all continue to bitch about it...
You have to admit. Getting a certain coach can make a huge difference in FA signings. Not sure Stotts has that kind of reputation? Not sure he will ever get it? But i do believe certain coaches do have a way of influencing people's decisions.
