Honestly, who is doing that? I think the "KP is the worst thing to hit the Blazers and ruined the team" side is the one overreacting and not being fair.
Re: This new debating point that the contract was signed 3 months before the league deadline...Before Papa even invented this point, my long post had answered it. To repeat: Pritchard had already destroyed any framework of possible negotiating positions. It's a psychological game of coddling the player you want, but not too much, and he had already promised Roy the maximum. Had Miller, Allen, or the Vulcans reversed this position, Roy would have been very angry, and would have walked. Pritchard had raised his expectations sky high. He knew he could get almost as much from any other team. Some posters in this thread say that with 3 months left, Pritchard's superiors should have reversed course and renegotiated. But Roy wouldn't have renegotiated. He would have thought, rightfully, that some GMs would think like Pritchard and pay him big bucks. This was obvious to team management, and it's obvious to me. They were stuck. Then to ensure that Pritchard would win, he went to the media to raise fan ire against what his superiors wanted. He Pritchslapped his boss.
Sadly Roy walking would have been a good thing at this point. That's not exactly helping your case. If the team knew his knees were that bad they shouldn't have signed it, plain and simple. It's inexcusable no matter who you want to place the blame on. If the alternative was letting him walk(the suns just did this with Amare) then so be it. Sometimes you have to make a stand and not fold like a wet paper bag like the Blazers did. What makes it worse is they were right, yet they still folded. That worries me.
Roy could not have walked. He was would have been an RFA - and the Blazers would have had at least a year to trade him while his value was sky high. The reality is that Pritchard was removed from the negotiations and they gave Roy everything he asked for after. Logically, this points to KP being the one that held out for a better deal and the Vulcan's caving in. I do not see it that way. KP went to the media and told them Roy deserved the max but there were issues that had to be addressed. The issue was clearly his knees, and giving Roy the Max with a team option is still the max. KP wanted not to alienate Roy while still working on the details to give the organization some leverage. It seems that the Vulcans could not wait - and in their rush to get it done - screwed themselves more.
Perhaps you missed the part where I said that Pritchard should have been fired, and you start over? Also, it isn't exactly a shock that a 2nd team All-NBA player in his 3rd year would think he is worth a max contract. Or did this thought only occur to Roy when Pritchard waxed poetic about it in the media? Hell, since Miller knew about Roy's knees and admitted it, the best thing they could have done is not sign Roy to an extension and let him play out last year and then offer him a QO (or don't). Instead, it seems as if they threw their hands up ("well, KP sure messed this up for us! No choice now but to sign Brandon, bone-on-bone and all."), sighed, and caved in to Roy, at least if I'm to believe your amusingly interesting theory. If your GM forces you into such a bad decision, and if he hamstrung his owner, then keeping Pritchard would seem to be an egregious mistake.
RR7- Roy can barely walk right now and every announcer around the league has said it too.... "he's not the same player" you're telling me over the summer you heard there was a chance that Roy could be traded or a permanent bench player by Xmas because of knee concerns? NEVER HAPPENED!! People something is a miss here! You don't fall apart that fast in both knees unless they were way more banged up than you let on. I've said this before, the organization and BRoy both are to blame here. Both marketed a product that doesn't exist three months later.
The RFA point being brought up now is a pretty big deal imo. The team certainly could have let Roy play the year out like they did with Oden this year. Too bad they caved under pressure.
Brandon Roy played at a very high level last year with the same bone-on-bone condition in his left leg. Clearly - they had concerns, but the fact is - they gave him the contract. The CBA contains provisions to protect a team if a player hides medical information from them. If Roy did that - the team would have found a way to wiggle out of it. The fact that you never hear about it tells you the organization knew exactly what happened to him - and they took the risk.
You mixed up Yardape and me. I didn't say that the team knew how bad his knees were. I'm saying that even with good knees, Pritchard's superiors felt he wasn't worth the maximum. But they were boxed in by Pritchard's actions and couldn't reverse course, despite 3 months left. 1) Roy was milking public opinion (many posters on many boards were demanding that he and Aldridge be immediately signed to the max). 2) Normally, if you don't get a deal done by the first week of the season, you wait till the next summer. This October deadline isn't the real one practiced. Players often refuse to deal with financial negotiations once they need to concentrate on playing. 3) Roy's public whining was making it obvious that a long delay would affect his morale and quality of play for the season. For example, Aldridge now says that he played like crap in the early months last season, even after his contract was signed. These guys are big babies and must be coddled. They've never had real jobs.
Realizing that we're dealing 100% in opinion right now, I'd still like to know why Pritchard wasn't fired after botching the Roy extension. Also, LaMarcus Aldridge signed his contract extension on 10/22/09, just 9 days before the October date that you claim no one actually uses. So, that gives the Blazers 2.5 more months to work on Roy's deal, since they proved to go out to 10/22.
Is PapaG and "Gramps" (who does the Prediction thread) one in the same? Didn't think so but now I'm confused. Can anyone clear this up for me? Thanks (no offense Gramps!)
Ha ha!! You think you might have offended Gramps by confusing him with PapaG. No, they're not the same. Their personalities come across in writing as very different. I would guess that they accelerated the Roy contract negotiation to provide time to negotiate with Aldridge. Pritchard did his giveaway, management felt burned, and slowed the Aldridge negotiation even further, so it ended Oct. 22. I remember that everyone expected Aldridge to get the max and they cut it down somewhat. So delay paid off. But the bad side of the late date is that Aldridge said (I think on Picture Day, before practices began) that in last year's early season he was unmotivated because he was mad his contract hadn't been finalized. He said his rebellion continued even for a long time after the signing. Signing stars before the season starts, or they'll play badly, is one of the 3 reasons I gave for management not reversing Pritchard's course by starting over, as some in this thread criticize management for. In summary, I earlier said that 1 of my 3 reasons for management not restarting the Roy negotiations was that signing a contract after the season starts can make a player play badly, you answered, here's an example of an Oct. 22 signing, and I have now answered, yes, that proves my point about player morale. And a 2nd reason for the late date was that this was the 2nd giant contract of the summer, plus they slowed it down because they felt burned by hurrying on the Roy contract. This post needs a rewrite, but to hell with it, Papa will be able to figure it out.
