Blazers....What If? Draft Edition

I suppose this would be like a "good guy" version of the Rockets that went small-ball, though Nurk is significantly taller than Tucker (I still give the edge to Tucker though).

 

the Blazers would launch 70 triples a night. Nobody could handle that. 150 point team scoring average = dynasty

 

getting Sabas over 6 years earlier and drafting Jordan

Porter-MJ-Drexler-Kersey-Sabonis....with Cliff and Ainge on the bench

and of course there was the trade Portland turned down: Kersey and Robinson for Barkley

Porter-MJ-Drexler-Barkley-Sabonis....yikes!

 

I need to look more into that botched trade...WTF were the Blazers thinking. I loved Cliffy, but Barkley was a beast.

 

And Barkley requested that trade. He actually came to Portland and asked Blazer management to make that trade.

 

it was said James "Hollywood" Robinson could dunk it from the FT line. The long-lasting quest to redeem the botched Michael Jordan draft was still hammering at Blazers management. The idea of "you can dunk like Mike, we want you to be like Mike" didn't pan out like it was supposed to with James Robinson.

 

Barkley's reputation has been embellished by his years as a broadcaster. He was known as a selfish player. Teammates like Julius & Hakeem disliked his playing style, and played less hard.

Revisionist history reminds me of Paul McCartney. He now takes credit for writing most Beatle songs. When John was alive, it was considered a team effort.

 

Good point. Maybe Clyde vetoed it?

 

I can't believe scouts, GM's, "talent acquisition", etc. can be allowed to be so risky in some instances such as this. I know we see it all the time and it essentially is all risk, but are these jobs like weathermen in where they just are allowed to be wrong constantly, yet still have their jobs? I'm in the wrong profession....

 

Excellent points! Often the "what could be" situation can become overlooked due to talent, but as we know chemistry seems to play the biggest part in why a team becomes most successful. To me it is apparent not only in the NBA, but also at the international level. "Great teams gel while others don't do well" (Did I just make that up?)

Now about Paul, that is nuts and hurts me deep down to hear that. Why did he have to go that route? Just be a legend. Just...Let It Be...

 

Yeah John and Paul wrote approximately the same amount of songs. Paul just wrote most of the big hits. Early on it might have been a team effort, but they only wrote 16 together.

 

Does no one remember that they wanted THREE starters off of a WC championship team?

 

I don't. What I remember is that Philly was 'reported' willing to trade Barkley for Kersey and Robinson but Portland declined

 

Which starters?

PHX traded Jeff Hornacek, Tim Perry and Andrew Lang

I think Kersey and Robinson is a better return.

 

It's been a while, but Kersey and Porter were in there.

 

You still make that deal all day long. You still had Drazen and Cliff coming off the bench.

 

Drazen, Clyde, Cliff, Barkley, Duckworth lineup?

Probably pretty freaking good

 

Probably, but TP was a much better facilitator than Drazen.

 

Yes. And better defender.

 

But Barkley was a MUCH better post presence than anybody we had....