Against a high-tech enemy like the Oregonian, the best strategy is what the military calls GITT, the guerilla infrared tiptoe strategy, formerly known as the Pussyfoot strategy. They have sensors everywhere, on the ground and in the sky. Keeping our leadership secret will help us resist long-term. The imperialists need not know who makes our draft decisions and whom to credit for our free agent raids on other cities. The Oregonian would just target our key decision-makers and pick them off one by one. The TT strategy is proving effective by our current early success in the war, with victory forecast around June 2012.
You sir are the Mohammed Said al-Sahhaf of this community. They're coming to surrender or be burned in their tanks. "We are not afraid of the Oregonian. Allah has condemned them. They are stupid. They are stupid" (dramatic pause) "and they are condemned." "The American press is all about lies! All they tell is lies, lies and more lies!" (*) (*) .. and by American, we mean the Oregonian.
I think in the NBA a long term plan is about 3 years. (Maybe 4) After that because things change so quickly with injuries, I am not sure it worth worrying about. Maybe the President of the Blazers has as good of a plan than any GM we could bring in, and we just need someone to excel in player personnel. But like you guys said, who really knows. But I will say that the moves they have made beginning with the signing of Matthews in July of 2010 have been pretty good. How good Nolan Smith turns out to be will be big factor in their over all grade.
I can only judge his vision based on some of the draft picks he's had a hand in helping to select as the team's director of college scouting and as interim GM, since I don't know what his pro personnel philosophy is. (Excludes foreign draft picks because those are mostly under the auspices of Jason Filippi) Greg Oden Luke Babbitt Armon Johnson John Diebler Jerryd Bayless Nolan Smith Patty Mills Eliot Williams Dante Cunningham Jeff Penergraph Taurean Green Josh McRoberts Et al. Blerg.
That's kind of my point. Just because he hasn't told you or me his long term vision (if he has one), doesn't mean it is a bad one. However, it does appear that he had a hand in putting together a very competitive team for this season, on short notice, and after some pretty disastrous news (Roy and Oden), while maintaining a potentially large amount of cap space to work with next summer. It will be very interesting to see, if he is still the interim GM, what he does with that flexibility. At that point I think we'll be better able to judge his long term vision.
Whatever they've been doing since Cho left they should continue doing. At least until they do something I strongly disagree with. Seriously, though, how many GM's have real long-term plans? I mean beyond: A. Let's go for a championship this year! B. Let's go for a championship in the next year or two C. Let's tank, trade for youth, and try to be relevant before I get fired D. Let's continue to trot out a mediocre product because, hey, it sells tickets With injuries, lottery balls, dog fights, surprise stars, surprise failures, etc, it's really hard to plan much more than that in the long-term. (Unless of course you are Miami and have the mega good fortune of having 3 superstars do most of your planning for you.) Portland is clearly trying to figure out if it's Plan A or Plan B. I don't know that hiring an official GM will clarify that. They are on a nice little run of making sound decisions, though, so I see no hurry to screw that up by putting an official GM in place.
