Re: 15th Roster Spot (non) News Still not sure which part of my post was not totally accurate, but even if it was, the point is the same. As to your point, it's a bit silly. We can have 15 on the roster who are all allowed to practice together. We only need to announce a few hours before the actual game which 12 are going to be allowed to play that day.
Re: 15th Roster Spot (non) News Myabe they signed Mills because they figured Pendy needed a rehab buddy?
Re: 15th Roster Spot (non) News It's nice not to have the "rehab buddy" imply something like shawn kemp and vin baker spending time together at a clinic, isn't it?
Re: 15th Roster Spot (non) News No worries I knew what you meant but I was feeling like being overly meticulous on technicalities.Having to read Maris does that to me.
Udoka cut I just heard on KPTV that the Blazers cut Udoka in favor of Mills. I wonder what Bayless thinks now?
Re: Udoka cut KGW reported the same thing at 11:24 pm PST on 10/21/09. Udoka and Collins will be cut based upon ESPN sources from KGW. Mills is the final roster spot.
Heres some old Mills footage from 2008-09. [video=youtube;nMV0y4z5pJM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMV0y4z5pJM[/video]
Call me ignorant, but I don't think for a second that this decision came from a "higher-up". Meddling in a 15th roster spot decision is the kind of micro-management I think this team has avoided. It seems more plausible to me that KP & Nate told the players it was going to come down to how they played in preseason and it was going to go to one of them. Then KP & Nate compared how those guys played to Mills' ability/potential and decided to sign Mills. To save face it gets blamed on "higher-ups". PA/Vulcan takes the blame because they don't deal with the players...so any ill will about how the preseason "tryout" was handled gets blamed on Vulcan...problem solved.
I highly doubt this was a McMillan-KP planned move, it's a poorly kept secret that Allen gets wood from seeing young point guards play for the Blazers and I have little doubt that he had a fairly direct hand in this roster move. Regardless it's still just for a player fifteenth on depth chart so I don't really care too much one way or another ... even though I think Ime could have been useful at times during the season when the team needed a truly tough veteran wing defender on the court, especially come playoff time.
Here's a perspective from Blazer's Edge: There's a possible explanation for the Mills/Udoka/Collins decision that I don't think has been mentioned yet. I thought it deserved a fanpost by itself because it perhaps triggers discussions about what kind of organization the Portland Trailblazers are running. This explanation has nothing to do with internal politics, whether people or Vulcans are making the decisions, or whether Paul Allen said that he pays the money and he gets to decide. Rather, it is a question about "culture". The mantra for several years has been that the Portland Trailblazers want to "do things right." One of the things that the team has tried to emphasize is that this organization watches out for its players. Players are not just "hired hands", they are valued people who are taken care of as people. Note the Pendergraph signing. Some people questioned whether we should have signed him after his injury. Note the Martell signing after his injury. If he hadn't been extended, we might have been able to sign him for $2-3 million a year this summer -- would anyone have offered him much more than that? There was some head-scratching on Bedge when he was given that contract after his injury, it looked risky to some, but instead of leaving him hanging out to dry they took care of him. Perhaps it will cost the team a lot. Perhaps it will pay off. Martell is a happy player. Note the comments KP has made about wanting to take care of Brandon and LaMarcus. On a more controversial point, note the comments KP made about not wanting to have it on his conscience about playing Darius. It has been part of the "culture" the team is trying to create that they take care of their players. Patty Mills was injured in a Blazers practice. He hadn't yet been offered a contract. His injury almost certainly cost him the chance of getting a job in Europe this year -- their season has already started, and he still can't try out. He was stuck in a bad way -- out of school, perhaps unable to make a team anywhere this year. All because he got injured in a Portland practice. Most comments on Blazersedge have been looking at this from a basketball perspective, but we've been told it wasn't for basketball reasons. Perhaps this was just about taking care of a player who got hurt in one of our practices. Do we want players without a guaranteed contract to be willing to come work out over the summer? Yes, we do. Do we want to have the reputation of an organization that takes care of players and doesn't leave them twisting in the wind if something goes wrong? Yes, we do. Do we want players to be saying, "I tried out for Portland, got hurt while I was there, and they did nothing for me?" Obviously not. The cost here is negligible, in NBA terms. It is not that there is a hard and fast ethical responsibility to keep Mills, but there are some real pluses from a cultural and organizational standpoint going forward. If we want to attract free agents, we want a reputation as an organization that takes care of people. If we want current players to sign reasonable extensions, we want them to feel good about this organization and the way they run their business, rather than demanding a premium because they hate the organization. We want this to be an organization that players want to be part of, rather than one where they can't wait to finish their contract so they can leave. Players are people, not simply assets to be moved around on the basketball court. They like to be treated as people, and they like to see other players treated that way as well -- it gives them confidence that if the situation ever arises where they need to be treated as a person rather than a basketball asset, this team will be there for them. If one of our centers goes down, and we can't swing a trade for a big man, we may have to pick up a D League guy who can probably play as well as Collins, anyway (I mean, really, we're talking Collins here, this isn't hard). To do so, we might have to end up waiving Mills after all. But if so, he'll have had a few pay days anyway, and everyone will know that we did what we could for him, but we had to get a big man. Collins reportedly has a job in Phoenix. Ime has a job somewhere. Where was Patty Mills going if we cut him? Mills needed this spot more than the other guys did, and he needed it because he got injured on our court playing under the supervision of our coaches getting ready to play for our Summer League team. I don't know if that is what drove this decision or not, but it might be a big factor. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this is all just because Paul Allen likes Mills (as some have speculated), and he made the decision. Maybe it's simply to save a few hundred thousand dollars, but if that were the case, the spot might just as well have been left open and save a few hundred thousand more. Maybe my idea here is all wrong, and the team stumbled on the right decision for the wrong reason, but the decision to keep Patty Mills is still the right one. As a basketball fan, I think both Collins and Udoka were more likely to see the court this year, more likely to be able to contribute a little bit (though the chances of any 15th man contributing at all are pretty slim). In addition, I love Ime's game, his history, Ime the person, and it would have been great to see him on the team again. But as a human being, I like retaining Patty Mills, and I would like my team's management a little less if they
Wait... I remember Pendergraph got hurt while working out under the supervision of Blazer coaches - but I thought Mills got hurt on his own? In fact, some sources speculated he was injured *before* the draft.
Not accrording to this: http://www.nbamate.com/2009/07/11/patty-mills-breaks-his-foot-will-miss-summer-league/
That seems like a valid point, the wanting to take care of a guy who got injured trying out for you. That's great. What does it say for future people who try out for us, however? Come here and bust your ass to make the team, and get beat out by a guy who never practiced, and had a broken foot. Be told that there is a competition, but reall there isn't, or wasn't. I think it works both ways. Great, we take care of some guys, but also don't give others a realistic or fair shake. And that isn't to say I disagree with the choice. I like the risk you take on Mills, low risk, really, high reward. Just saying if the argument is to be made that we take care of our guys, then it has to be fully examined.
