Anyone else tired of the "What if" narrative with Oden and Roy?

The team knew Roy's knees were ticking time bombs when we drafted him. That was the reason he did not go higher. Pritchard wanted to guard the team and his max contract negotiations went for quite awhile knowing what he did.

Oden was fitted for an orthopedic shoe shortly after drafting him to compensate for his legs being unequal length.

The narrative should be "What if"

1. We build around LA. He was definitely sensitive. However, first year all he heard was how Roy was the savior. Then, we draft Oden. Nate even has all three over for dinner and tells LA he is going to be essentially the third wheel. May not made a difference when he became a free agent but it would not have hurt.

2. Following up on #1, we let someone else get the few years of Roy and take Rudy Gay. Gay had a pretty good career and would have fit with just about any team.

3. Assuming the ping pong balls still fall our way after the first two, what if we decide Durant is less of an injury concern and draft someone LA endorses?

4. When we trade Zach, what if we realize Penn was wishful in his thinking that releasing Miles for injury will not come back to bite us and accept the Knicks offer to also take Miles? David Lee or Paul Milsap would have been far more valuable pickups over Andre Miller. Heck, even after we exhausted our cap space that summer, it would have been possible that no one else had anything better than the MLE we would have been able to offer. I liked Miller but he was definitely not the PG we needed for the future.

Assuming we still draft Batum, how would that lineup look?

Lee Or Milsap, LA, Durant, Gay, (PG to be determined) with Webster, Outlaw, Blake and Batum coming off bench

Could also play this scenario with us drafting Paul instead of Webster but there is probably no way we would be bad enough to get LA or Durant.

Or we keep lamenting that guys that had huge medical red flags got injured.

 

A "what if" Roy and Oden were able to stay healthy? You have never heard that hundreds of times?

 

what if Walton & Lucas had stayed healthy?
what if Portland drafted Jordan and moved Clyde to SF?
what if Sabonis came to Portland 6 years earlier to join the Drexler teams?
what if Portland had traded Kersey and Robinson for Barkely? Porter-Clyde-Charles-Buck-Sabonis?
what if Portland had drafted Giannis instead of CJ?
what if my wife was an only child and I didn't have to deal with in-laws?

 

What if we drafted Jokic? There are a lot of what ifs for every team. It’s part of history and we’re here to talk about it because we are gluttons for punishment.

 

Those are legit what ifs. I compare the what if Roy and Oden stayed healthy to wondering what if one did not lose their digits turning on a garbage disposal with their hand in it. The expected outcome happened.

 

I try not to think about this kind of thing.

To add to Wiz's list:

What if the coin flip had gone our way and we had gotten Hakeem?

What if LMA wasn't a giant douche?

 

Thee only "what if" that bothers me is the current one....what if it takes 3 years to make the playoffs. This is my least favorite storyline in Blazer history...the mythic, we need to suck to get better line which is every game these days. I hate losing and hate tanking even more. I knew the Oden, Roy promise was dead when they fired Nate. Chauncey is quickly piling up probably the worst win loss record in Blazer history as a head coach. That is troubling to me these days.

 

Dwelling on the past leads to depression
Dwelling on the future leads to anxiety
Being in the present is the only true way to have peace. (cough, cough)

 

A healthy Roy/Aldridge/Oden core probably gets us a championship or a couple finals appearances. I don't dwell on the "what if" because it's painful lol.

 

Relax.
Go outside
take a deep breath
And get some fresh
Weed.

 

I never cared much for coulda, woulda, shoulda narratives.

 

some folks have way too much time....

 

Oh the memories... I do miss Mike and Mike!

 

Yes