bada bing. and Maris comes back and puts Bayless down after crying his eyes out all night about Sergio
Just the opposite. He's everything I expected. A very solid SG prospect. Those with unrealistic expectations of him as a PG are the ones who make him look bad when he can't be something he isn't.
Once they did the Sergio and the Dallas trade, that sent a signal to me that it is about clearing enough money to try to get who we want in FA or in a non-salary matching trade. I think KP knows about how much he needs to make his plan work and all the moves are about that and not about adding more rookies that won't play much if his plan is executed on. I still think our plan is Hinrich or Miller AND Hedur b/u power forward will be an inexpensive vet who will be happy with 10-15 minutes and playingfor a contender.
Well it's nice to see everyone coming down off of the ledges today. I was trying to say it at various points throughout the draft last night, that us shedding salary and not making a big splash in the draft was a good thing ... maybe even a great thing, because it probably meant KP is committed to doing his damage this summer in trades and free agency; which is exactly what a good playoff team should be doing to improve itself.
Or it could be both. Sign Hedo, sign and trade for Andre. On the bigger point, you are right on. KP has a plan, has had it for a couple of years, and he's executing it to perfection. Trading Sergio frees Bayless and frees money. Stashing a Euro frees money. Soon, Pritchard will spend the money and once again a cheer will be herd across the land: "In KP we trust!"
Well, I agree the team has a plan and that they stuck to their plan on draft day. I am not sure that the plan was not to take on any more rookies. I think they know we do not have a good situation at point guard, now only an average Blake and a backup who has not shown any real indication that he can be a PG (or a shooting guard). And there are not any point guards on the free agent list who are outstanding defensively and with outstanding speed. Given those facts I think the Blazers wanted to get Lawson or at least Collison. (I believe they will be going after a free agent PG but also wanted insurance in case they can't get who they want and/or they want to have someone on the team who can develop into the kind of player they really want). They hoped that one of them would fall to #22 because they didn't really have the assets to move up any higher. I at first thought that they could have traded a future first to get Lawson (as Denver did) but then read that Denver traded a Charlotte pick that they owned, which of course should be a lot higher pick. I think this is why the mood was somber, almost depressed (as described or implied by Nate Mc Millan) after the draft. It is true that they got the players they targeted, they just didn't get all of them. And this explains why Claver went at such a high pick; I believe the original plan was to take Lawson/Collison, at 22, Claver at 31, Pendergraph at 32 and either hope Cunningham fell to 55 or make another small trade to try to get him.
I'd say I was more confused than disappointed, but KP must have had his reasons for picking the players he did, and he's been right so far.
