It would be pretty depressing for the Magic when they found out what they'd been sold. (And actually Carter has their best +/-). Or if Roy could actually turn it around, I could root for him in the Finals...
I really don't get the Cousins obsession. He's not all that. Maybe he could be if he wasn't a total headcase, but you could say that of half the players that crash and burn out of the NBA in three seasons.
I'm so glad the Blazers traded a young player in Bayless during this rebuilding phase! Great idea, Choad! Armon sure looks great out there! His near 1/1 assist-to-turnover ratio is awesome, not too mention his ugly outside shot!
To be fair, we weren't rebuilding when he got traded, and Bayless's A/To ratio and outside shot are equally ugly. Remember the tiny arms jokes?
That was Bayless as a 19-year-old trying to basically learn a new position. Big difference. He's far from a finished player. Armon's ceiling otoh is so limited compared to Bayless' it's not even funny. Unless the Blazers find a steal with that 1st round pick it will end up being a terrible trade. Oh yeah, let's not forget Bayless averaged 14pts/4asts in the playoffs last year and went for 31/7 the one time in his career he was told to run the show. He has more talent in his left pinky than Armon has in his entire body.
I would love to hear the real story behind the Bayless trade. Opening up more minutes for Rudy would be an obvious, but silly, reason. I also wonder if this was a case of giving Roy what he wanted. Roy didn't like playing alongside Jack, so I can see where he wouldn't like playing with Bayless either. Who knows....maybe Cho was traumatized watching Jurrasic Park, and Bayless' T-Rex arms gave him the heebee-jeebees.
It's a poorly kept secret that Bayless had quietly asked for a trade during training camp, and this probably had as much to do with Wesley Matthews slotted to absorb about 30 minutes a night at the two spot and not much more than table scraps for Jerryd. In other news Marc Stein mentioned it on the BS Report the other day that Bayless was moved again because he wasn't fitting in very well and was turning into a potential problem because of his lack of minutes in New Orleans. Bottom line: it was time for him to move on and him still being here would have had very little impact on the win-loss column IMO.
Frankly, I'd rather be in the Wizards position. The crucial step is finding cornerstones. Playmakers. And they have one, and he's super young. Maybe it takes them 5-7 years, but I'm pretty confident we'll do nothing over those same 5-7 years unless we find a new cornerstone. Interesting, you indirectly propose a good question: retool on the fly or blow it up? I don't think there's an absolute answer. Whitsitt's run with the Blazers is a good example of retooling. But, let's face it, we were contenders only because of the gift of Sabonis left over from the previous regime. That was like hitting the first pick in the draft. But aside from that, he did a terrific job of building a contender on the fly without drafting a top lottery pick. I can't recall many other re-tool jobs that didn't require getting a cornerstone player via the draft (or trade/free agency for the big market teams). Buckwalter/Petrie regime did it, but that was a long time ago. Few success stories.
Excuse me, but what are you talking about? Johnson has more potential than Bayless because of his defense, his size and oh yeah, he actually has a position. The only skill Bayless has is getting fouled. Johnson is already better at defense, better at running an offense, and basically on par with Bayless in shooting. The stats would show Johnson is actually better at shooting, but since it's a small sample size, I thought I'd leave that out.
Give Whitsitt the credit for Sabonis, too. He would never have left Europe if not for Whitsitt's initiative and skills of persuasion. When Whitsitt started here, Sabonis was widely seen as a wasted 1st round pick of the past. Beautiful. Correct. Bayless sucks. I'll make one up. McMillan could see from the start that Bayless sucked, but he knew he couldn't win until Pritchard left. Then he started asking that Bayless be traded.
It's got nothing to do with clout. It's about being a fringe player and posing the threat of being a distraction. If he was an elite talent team's would be much more reticent to move him simply because he asked for it.
Johnson has more potential than Bayless because of his size? As if Bayless isn't 6-3 as well? And sure, he has a true position. Too bad he's not terribly good at it. Bayless trying to learn a new position is still better than Armon at his natural position. Sad, isn't it? After a nice start to the season for Armon he's been absolutely terrible. He's 4/20 in his last 6 games and has as many turnovers as he does assists. Other than possibly slightly improving in a few areas the Armon you see right now is basically what you're going to get from him. His ceiling is Bayless' floor.
'Cause we all know that every rookie player is exactly fully developed 20 games into their first NBA season. GTFO
Your high man. Johnson can't run the offense right now if Nate played it for him. Do you even bother to think back to last year when Roy went down and Bayless stepped in and got us big wins in places like San Antonio on the road? No fucking way Johnson steps up to that level of play, not this year, not 3 years from now.
