And that makes sense. Broken wrist that a guy played through being about as much of a worry as a leg being shorter than another (which can be compensated for with an orthotic). Of course, that's just my completely uneducated guess. I could see holding the medical staff accountable, but it's tough to blame the guy who listened to them. Jared Sullenger has a leg an inch shorter than the other, and has had a fairly healthy career if not for a broken foot that required surgery, I believe couple of times.
He completely revamped that Pacers team by making ballsy acquisitions. Way better than any executive we’ve had since.
eek... old Jason Quick articles. run away !! run away !! Reading the Oregonian is like getting pelted with livestock from angry Frenchman.
Steve Patterson was a mess with the Blazers and elsewhere. Hard to believe he got anything right, at least on purpose.
probably, but he was the GM during the draft. He may have had input or he may have just signed off on KP's selections. I know that I am not good at guessing the NBA future of college prospects, but as bad as I am, I wanted the Blazers to take Roy (I had seen him play a lot) and Aldridge. That was not a good draft class There were other decision makers in the office of player personnel and the Blazers had team scouts. But I do remember KP taking all the credit. I also remember him kind of encouraging the pritch-slap nonsense that I imagine rankled other front offices. He did make draft day entertaining; trades galore
Your point is well made and I'm not disagreeing. I have no clue who really called the shots. It's similar to the debate on if Olshey deserves the credit for drafting Dame because he was the GM on draft day or if we should give weight to others based on different reporting. KP was a self-promoter and no doubt he pissed off PA with the Tom Penn negotiation.
rebuild like the Pacers !! the Blazers have already crossed a "we give up" tanking threshold that does not resemble anything Indiana did. Pacers had 1 tanking season. They drafted Mathurin & Nembhard, then went right back to playing competitive basketball. Previous to that mini tank, you have to dial up 1988 to find a sub .300 Pacers team. They gootched that draft by selecting George McCloud over Tim Hardaway & Shawn Kemp.
The Pacers converted their superstar into Oladipo and Sabonis. They then flipped Sabonis for Haliburton. The Blazers held onto Dame too long.
I always thought the Clippers trade was kind of the end of the building a winner around Dame era - so really we probably should have traded him then. Although he was injured so I'm not sure the return would've been any greater as he came off a great offensive season last summer. Glad we were able to trade Dame when we did - as all those assets are a heck of a lot better than nothing or what the Wizards got for Beal, etc.
Oh I agree. I’m glad we got what we got. I just think that if we want to compare rebuilds with the Pacers, we needed to trade Dame back in like 2021.
Indiana didn't trade PG13 until after asked to be traded. They didn't trade him proactively without a trade demand
And he was a superstar wing. And he was going to be a free agent. And he was only 26 when the Pacers traded him. I get that it wasn't apple to apples, but I'm saying that we waited until much too late in the game to get the kind of haul that Indy got.
Oladipo and Sabonis doesn't seem like that great of a haul - I mean Sabonis had shot 39% FG and 32% 3's as a rookie with defensive limitations as the #11th pick. Oladipo was more accomplished but has had the worse career since. Jrue has more value now than Oladipo did back then. I'd rank the Dame haul better at the time the trade was done. After the trade Sabonis was worth a lot more, our GS pick is worth more, and Brogdon/Timelord seem to be worth less but there is always a variance in hindsight. The other picks we got could make our haul way more valuable or way less valuable depending on how they turn out.
Dame with Aminu/Harkless is the best team we’ve had in almost 25 years. It was getting rid of them while watching Collins and Hood get hurt that did us in.
what "haul"? all they got was Oladipo, arguably coming off his worst season as a pro, and Sabonis who had just finished a rookie season when he averaged under 6 points and 4 rebounds while shooting under 40% on FG's. They didn't get a 1st round pick; they didn't get a 2nd round pick. Just those two players. We know what Sabonis has become now but that was not his value in 2017
Oladipo became a two time Allstar immediately after getting to Indy and Sabonis was also a two time Allstar by his third season in Indy. So either the Pacers got extremely lucky or they knew what they were trading for.
I guess I misunderstood the discussion. I was thinking it was about how Portland could emulate Indy's rebuild. Maybe it was an alternate universe about how Portland could emulate the rebuild if they would have done something that Indy didn't do and that was trade their superstar when he still wanted to be on the team. Indy had offered PG13 extension(s), he refused to sign, AND demanded a trade. Big difference besides that, Olshey was NEVER going to trade CJ and Dame unless they demanded a trade
