Is Kevin Pritchard ‘Pritchard-Slapping’ the league again? All his moves seem to be ones that make a difference. His leash was way too short in Portland.
I honestly think this Pacers team is going to face the same issues that the young Lillard team faced after LMA left. They got a little too good too early. They probably needed one more chance at a lottery pick before making their run. IMO
Yeah. I don’t think it’s as much of a cake walk for the Celtics as others. I don’t see pure dominance with any of these teams.
Nope. Paul Allen just decided to fire him right before the draft and put Chad Buchanan in charge of the draft. Then hired Rich Cho who did Jack shit and lasted a year before Olshey was hired.
Aldridge walked which was an epic failure by Olshey. Pacers are young and have a lot of tradeable assets if they want to shore up their roster. Even Pritchard’s late in the draft picks are paying dividends. The ballsy Halliburton trade. The guy is a way better GM than anybody we’ve had in the 14 years since he was canned.
Siakam next to Lillard would’ve been interesting. Zero balls ever displayed in our front office since Pritchard though. Fucking gamble! You’re a small market you have to!
Though Kevin did make one of the worst draft blunders of all time, taking Oden over Durant. There were warning signs about Oden's knees. I remember people talking about it before the draft.
Yeah Joes last two first picks better pop. Or the Dame trade puts us in as deep of hole we've ever been. Just my opinion
As I recall it had something to do with Tom Penn. My guess is Pritchard took advantage of Paul and paid his friend too much without Paul knowing. I have a friend who was very close to PA back in those days. Paul was very generous to everyone, but when you took advantage of him..... he cut you out of his life.
there was some reporting that KP and Tom Penn worked together in an underhanded way to maneuver Paul Allen into giving Penn a promotion and raise. When PA found out about it, that was slow-moving curtains for KP
I mentioned it above that the reporting (rumors) were that what KP and Penn did was a lot more underhanded than PA just getting butthurt
Indy traded 3 picks to get Siakam. That was supposed to be a Cronin move. We were also told Billups, Dame, & Jerami were going to lure Myles Turner to Portland. That did not happen either. It must have been tough to be a Blazers seller. The media became so blind, we were told to wait 2 weeks for Gary Payton to fix the defense. Selling the Blazers rebuild is easier. Stop complaining, enjoy the rookies.
I want to add, in regards to KP and Penn being fired, the Vulcans had their fingerprints all over it, so the truth of the situation is likely muddled. IIRC, Penn, with KP's help used a phantom offer from Minny to leverage Seattle into a promotion and raise: https://www.slamonline.com/archives/blazers-exec-fired-for-being-dishonest/ how factual that is I don't know but I remember reading the rumors at the time that KP was part of it
