I am shocked that it took this many years for all of you to finally agree with me and ride this bum out of town on a rail. After Nash and Patterson had done the Oregonian's dirty work and dumped all the good players, the paper turned on them. Those two deserve a second chance to tar and feather Canzano. See ya Pritchard! Don't let the door hit your big butt on the way out! http://espn.go.com/page2/s/webb/020612.html
The speculation could all be inert, harmless gas fuming from a story-hungry columnist, but in the season of evaluating team components, I think the spotlight should probably come on Allen himself this time. If Pritchard is open to second-guessing, what about Allen? Zero championships in what? a 21, 22 year tenure? For a guy purported to be the "best" owner in sports by some, is that acceptable? And in a season of second guessing, how many hindsight mistakes has his administration made? Under his watch he prematurely dismantled two championship caliber clubs. This might be the beginning of his third. Maybe he should hire a consulting firm to evaluate his performance.
What about the fanbase? Supposedly, the blazers have great fans, but they haven't won a championship in more than 30 years. This has been consistent over many lineups, many coaches, many GMs, and at least a couple of different owners. Is this acceptable? It seems clear that the fanbase has failed and needs to be replaced. Or at least a consulting firm should be hired to evaluate. barfo
THAT would be quite the expenditure though. Evaluating every fan's performance. In these tough economic times, I can sympathize with Allen starting and ending with only himself.
IF, and imho it's a monumental if, they are replacing KP with Jerry West, then I would take back all the negative things i've said.
Jerry West is old and cranky, and drafted Drew Gooden over Amare Stoudemire. I like the rumor about Sam Presti MUCH better.
True, as the Grizzlies GM Jerry West did a hell of a job for the Lakers. Were he to become the GM here, I would expect a B-Roy for Luke Walton, Sasha and 2 first round draft picks swap within a couple of years. Jerry West looked good because he was the GM of the Lakers. That team sells itself to prospective free agents. Getting guys to come to Portland is a much different chore.
There's no way Presti is coming here. First, it would be a lateral move, so there's no upside. Second, he has cap space and multiple 1st round picks to play with. It means he can build his own team rather than tweaking KPs. Third, after seeing the way KP has been humiliated over these past months, who would want to take it? No one worth his salt would come to Portland seeing how mercurial the ownership is.
I have no idea whether these rumors are true or not, but the refusal of KP, Larry Miller or anybody at Vulcan to comment certainly isn't conducive to a conclusion that all is on an even keel in Blazersville. I like KP. I attended last year's get together with him that ABM arranged and he seems like a good guy working hard at doing a very tough job. The Blazers have drafted well under his leadership and the turnaround from league punchline to a playoff team speak well of his abilities. That said, I don't think that a lot of the Vulcan-bashing that some have been engaging in around here is necessarily on-mark. I find it very difficult to believe that the rumored grievance with KP is about (or at least predominantly about) drafting Oden over Durant. I do wonder, however whether there may be some significant displeasure over KP's inability to turn RLEC into a significant trade to help push the team into contending status. I do wonder whether there may be some truth to the rumors that KP is viewed as an outsider by other GMs and executives around the league...perhaps the "Pritchslap" description has hurt his ability to make deals. I think Paul Allen, given his investment in the team, particularly given his recent health issues, deserves to have whatever GM at the helm that he trusts to push the team into true contender status. If he doesn't have that trust in KP, then it would behoove the team's future for a change to be made ASAP. There has to be trust between the GM and the owner in order for moves to be made rapidly when opportunities arise.
I agree it is highly unlikely for Presti to come here, but there is a way. Money. If Paul wants to double or triple what he's making... barfo
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/feat...insider.espn.go.com/nba/features/rumors#16518 ESPN insider mentioned something about West, but I don't subscribe.
I've posted it before, but Paul Allen can't get out of his own way. He seems to thrive on conflict and uncertainty. Thanks for rebuilding the Blazers, Pritchard. Hopefully your next owner won't have small dick syndrome and let's you make your own decisions.
I don't buy the conspiracy theories that West engineered the Pau Gasol trade just to help the Lakers. I think that's extremely silly (and continuing the canard that Memphis made an all-time bad deal, when the main piece in that deal, Marc Gasol, has gone from fine prospect to excellent player). West almost built a great team in Memphis. He had a deep team with a star in Pau Gasol and was sitting on a draft pick that could have been #1 in 2004. Due to deal from before he became GM (I believe) the pick had been traded but was #1 protected. The pick ended up #2 and therefore went to Detroit. Had it come up #1 instead of #2, imagine that 50 win Memphis team with LeBron James on board with a young-prime Gasol. As it worked out, he merely built a good team where only crap had existed before (and since). Jerry West is an excellent GM. He's one of the few GMs whom I wouldn't be too disappointed in seeing Pritchard replaced with (though, I'd still probably rather have Pritchard, due to age...I have no idea how long West would be interested in remaining as the GM at this point).
