Fez's summer plan: The bullet points

I wouldn't be averse. It would certainly make us more fun to watch.

Presumably this is the MDA connection. I still don't see him leaving Phoenix. I'd settle for Dragic (happily) or even just drafting Marshall.

I guess... He really is short, though. I'd take him over Lamb, though.

What makes you think this will be necessary? How in hell are they going to out-tank us?

I like this idea a lot. And besides, drafting a PG is a Blazers tradition.

Of course.

I wonder if that will be harder if we keep Hickson. He doesn't like the idea of a minutes squeeze. He's already behind Aldridge at PF, and being third in line might not appeal, especially if Barcelona tries again to sign him.

No. He's a one-trick pony. Leave him in Greece. Try to sign Claver, though - he's much better.

Maybe AFTER you sign Freeland.

Sure, why not? I have a feeling he might turn it down, though. He's an East Coast kind of guy.

This is the one area where Paul Allen's money really should give us an advantage. Just offer them three or four times what they're earning to come over. PLEASE.

My unrealistic dream:
Clear up cap space by trading the picks alongside Wesley and Shawne Williams (and Nolan, if you like, and DEFINITELY Jamal if he opts in) and try to sign BOTH D-Will and Eric Gordon, kind of like LeBron teaming up with Bosh (only on a tinier scale). Mike D'Antoni would be part of the recruitment effort, letting them know it would be run'n'gun fun in the sun.

Failing that: try to pry Rondo off Boston for the picks plus maybe Hickson. And/or pursue a trade of Aldridge for Harden and/or Ibaka just to shake things up. A lineup of Rondo, Harden, Batum, Hickson and Freeland/Kendrick Perkins (part of the Harden trade) would be fun to watch, especially if MDA was coaching.

 

Paranoia would be if I thought our bad luck was the result of a conspiracy. You mean negativity. But after the past few years have turned out to be so much worse than any of us imagined, I don't know if it counts as negativity any more.

 

Ahhh, the two year mentorship that always helps so much with developing young PGs.

Looking at the top PGs in the league, just working backwards from assists per game......

Assists Per Game
1. Rajon Rondo-BOS 11.6............Starting by the end of his rookie year. No mentor.
2. Steve Nash-PHO 10.9
3. Chris Paul-LAC 9.0................. Has started every game of his career.
4. Jose Calderon-TOR 8.8.........."Mentored" by TJ Ford.
5. Deron Williams-NJN 8.7...........Starting by half way through his rookie year. No mentor.
6. Ricky Rubio-MIN 8.2....................Starting after 10 games. No true mentor.
7. John Wall-WAS 7.7.................Starter since he was drafted.
8. Tony Parker-SAS 7.6.........Has been basically a full tyime starter since he was drafted.
9. Kyle Lowry-HOU 6.8................No true mentor in Memphis or Houston.
10. Mike Conley-MEM 6.7..........Started most of his games, no true mentor.
11. Andre Miller-DEN 6.6.................Starter by end of his rookie year. No true mentor.
12. Ty Lawson-DEN 6.6
13. Raymond Felton-POR 6.5.........Starter most of his rookie year, and ever since. No mentor.
16. Ramon Sessions-TOT 5.7
17. Brandon Jennings-MIL 5.7.........Started every game as a rookie. No real mentor.
18. Jameer Nelson-ORL 5.6
20. Russell Westbrook-OKC 5.4...Started every game.


Wow. Looks like a GREAT track record of guys that truly needed two years of development behind a better PG in order to develop into a good one themselves.
More than anything, looking at the landscape of PGs in the league, what it has shown me is getting a guy out there, trusting him, and allowing him to learn with starters has BY FAR been a better track record to "developing" your PGOTF. But we can keep searching for a guy to develop for 2 years. It's been successful so far, for us and the league.

 

Name 2 very good defensive players that D'Antoni had on his team?

Amare and Nash are TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE defenders. So, the only way a team with those two could be any good defensively is if they had a DPOY on the squad, and the rest of the rotation were above average defenders.

You can't escape your personnel.

 

Raja Bell and Shawn Marion?

 

Damn you

Shumpert Fields and Chandler as well

 

Who was their Ben Wallace dominator on defense?

Didn't have one.

Who was the 3rd very good defender?

Didn't have one.

How many seasons were Marion and Bell playing together in Phoenix?

Two. 2005-2006, 2006-2007.

What was the Suns record those years?

54 Wins (with Amare out all but 3 games). 61 Wins.

What happened in the playoffs?

2006: No Amare. 6 man rotation took the Mavs to 6 games in the WCF. Before he got hurt Amare was a fucking beast. The most explosive scoring big in the NBA. The Suns did well without their superstar.

2007: The infamous series with the Spurs where Amare and Diaw got DQ'd for game 5, and the Suns went on to lose the series to the eventual World Champs. Amare was the single best player in that series with a 30 PER.

Yes, the Sun blew their best chance to prove that SSOL could win. But, did Jordan win every year he was in the league? Did Shaq? Did Bird? Of course not. The Suns put together a very good SSOL roster for only 2 seasons, but because Amare got hurt only were able to run it for one season. That isn't enough of a run to test the principle.

All other years the Suns management failed to provide D'Antoni enough defense to go with Nash/Amare to make the thing work.

 

IMO, if they provided him with "enough defense", then his SSOL wouldn't work.

 

I don't understand. Bell was a capable offensive player. Marion was a great offensive player, especially in the system.

Why can't you get more players that offer defense AND offense?

 

because good 2 way players are tough to find? I dunno. In order for the mismatches to work well in SSOL, Amare played C, when he's really a PF. Thus, Diaw was their PF. Maybe they could have found a "Ben Wallace", but, many teams would love to have one. To just say oh, they sucked because they never had an elite defensive big is a little ridiculous, IMO. SSOL works well running apick and roll with Nash/PG and a big, and spreading the floor with shooters. It's not always tough to find good wing defenders that can shoot the 3. Finding Cs that are defensive anchors that are also either spreading the floor, or an offensive powerhouse on the pick and roll is extremely difficult, which is probably why the system struggles defensively at times. Or, offensively, if the defense is better.

 

I don't think this is true. The SSOL wont work if you don't have a PG and if your main offensive threat is a ball-stopping, ISO heavy player. The NYK roster was a disaster waiting to happen for MDA.

 

Either way, you're wrong that providing him with more defense ruins the SSOL...

 

Hopefully they are not only active but know what they're doing. If they have another Smith-over-Faried type of fiasco I think the 3.4% will only rise.

Yeah? Well, just say no to combo-guards!

 

Remind me, but didn't a lot of teams pass on Farried and that fat guy in San Antonio that everybody has a crush on? Not just us right?

 

It's more about their ability to evaluate talent.

Faried was CLEARLY the better player/prospect than Nolan Smith. Duke Basketball message boards were shocked that he went in the first round.

Our scouts took a player who should have went undrafted (or mid-late second round at best) in the first round.

Talk is cheap, Mrs. Mensah but making dumb decisions doesn't help your case to sell fans on this team and management.

 

Smith wasn't projected as Undrafted, he was projected anywhere from the 20th pick to the 42 pick depending on what site you went to. I'd be more worried about there talent evaluation if Babbitt didn't show he could shoot the lights out. Here are our picks for the last 3 drafts
2009
Victor Claver 22nd: Is playing good overseas haven't seen him in the NBA or Summer league
Dante Cunningham 34st: Currently with the Grizz
Jeff Pendegraph 31th: Pacers
Patty Mills 55th: SA
2010
Luke Babbit 16th:
Elliot Williams 22nd:
Armon Johnson 34th: 10-day contract with Nets
2011
Nolan Smith 21st:
Jon Diebler 51st:
There is no real Bust in that group of players. Everyone except for Johnson will be in the league in 3 years. Babbit has shown he was a lot more to offer then most of this board thought, Williams is an enigma with his flashes of brilliance/bone headed plays and constant injuries. Claver hasn't come over yet but is having a promising career overseas. Smith has had a very small and inconstant sample size. Will never be a star might be develop into a role player.
We passed on a few players but a lot of people did, if anyone knew Faried would be this good he would have been a lotto pick. A lot of us wanted him on this board and we didn't pick him but it wasn't just us who passed on him. You can take a look at any team and nit pick there drafts to make them look like they can't evaluate good talent. I'm not saying this is a great organization for recognizing talent but I don't think were a horrible one. I am in no way saying Smith was a better player/prospect then Faried.

 

Rhal, have you lost your mind?

POR drafting the last 3 years has been atrocious...there is no way around it and no sugar coating it...

Nolan Smith was not projected as a 1st round pick anywhere I saw, he was projected as a 2nd round pick and by REACHING for him POR passed up on Faried who WAS well regarded by a lot of scouts AND was a need (b\u PF) for the team. FURTHERMORE there were other highly regarded players (Marshon Brooks, Norris Cole) on the board....it was a horrible pick, no other way around it, and to make matters worse not only has Nolan Smith generally looked bad and shown that he is likely more of a "combo" guard\SG than a PG but those three players taken after him all have looked good this year, particularly Faried. Buchanan is a bad scout...his reasonings were need, senior, came from big time program, character....all stupid reasons to select a player for the NBA....You don't use those as your main "selling\reasoning" points and outweigh them over talent & NBA position....

Luke Babbitt has finally shown that he may have some use as an off the bench scorer, but he was a reach at #16....particularly when you see guys like Chase Budinger and Chandler Parsons for HOU, both similiar players, taken in the 2nd round and who have played better to date....just a stupid reach pick, and Buchanan's comments were basically 50\40\90...just dumb, especially when you had some good PG prospects like Avery Bradley & Eric Bledsoe who were available?

Elliot Williams has shown some flash of good potential, he will be an undersized SG but he has shown talent as possibly being an off the bench scorer, but here is the problem...He can't stay healthy, he has Roy\Oden syndrome...I hope he can come back and stay healthy, if so then this pick looks better...

Armon Johnson was\is HORRIBLE what a waste of a pick, instead of addressing a PG at #16 which they should of done they tried to bandaid it here, should have gone BPA here and I refuse to believe that Johnson was BPA, if he was then POR scouts really are awful...Fields, Stephenson, Jeremy Evans...Ainge (Bradley, Harangody), O'Conner (Hayward, Evans) and Walsh (Rautins, Fields & J.Jordan) all potential GM candidates fared much better than POR

and then you have 2009....the punting of a pick (Claver) who may never even come over to the NBA, you don't think Casspi, Beabouis (worked out in POR at least twice) or Taj Gibson would have helped? Then we take Cunningham & Pendergraph with high 2nd round picks, both end of bench NBA types over a guy like Dejuan Blair (projected 1st round consensus pick) Why b\c of injury? really? and that didn't preclude them from picking guys like Roy, Oden and Williamns? Seriously? That was a no brainer pick with one of those 2nd rounders and they flubbed it...Also where was the scouting on guys like Marcus Thornton? Chase Budinger? Jonas Jerbeko? Take Budinger in this draft and they would have saved themselves from the Babbitt pick fiasco....

So sorry, but anyone defending Buchanan must be either insane or a serious homer, his track record is horrible...

Out of those NINE players taken in THREE years, you have ZERO starters and possibly 2? 3? rotation players and that is being very generous....So it is obvious to see why this team has a talent deficiency gap, they just have failed miserably in the draft of adding young talent to this roster and this with more picks in the last 3 drafts (9) than a lot of other teams.

This is one of the more important aspects of a being a GM, talent evaluation\draft and Buchanan has failed in the last 3 years he was the guy....and don't give me the bs about Pritchard in 09', he was fired BEFORE it began, no way he was making those picks, and Cho wasn't even on board in 2010 and was fired before 2011. I have ZERO doubt that Buchanan was the guy giving the talent evaluations that led to these picks, and his track record fucking sucks. How anyone could defend him or incredibly want him to be the GM is incomprehensible....

If he is the guy leading the evaluation then it likely won't matter where\what picks POR has they will fuck it up...guaranteed, just look at the track record....

 

Blaze01 nailed it.

Our international scouts have been 'meh' as well.

Mike Born made two good picks in Batum and Freeland but has wasted a lot of picks on players who may never see an NBA court -- And getting Freeland away from FIBA teams like Barcelona is another problem. Picking Euros haven't been kind and stashing prospects has backfired (Freeland has options).

 

I'm not over the moon about the players we've collected, but let me try to coat some sugar.

First: I agree that Nolan was a dodgy pick, although I think he has turned out worse than could reasonably be predicted.
HOWEVER: the pick does not prove that Buchanan is a bad scout. We don't know that this was Buchanan's call. While it's conspiracy theorizing to lay EVERYthing at Nate's feet, this pick does smack rather of McMillan. He has long worked with Coach K (the original one) for team USA and probably wanted a senior from a big program whose coaching he felt he could trust. Coach K had plenty of time to sell Nolan up.
I'm not convinced that Marshon Brooks or Norris Cole are better picks. Brooks makes Jamal Crawford look pass-first and Norris Cole has cooled off massively since looking vaguely good while playing with the Miami 3. I bet Nolan could look pretty good in that situation (in fact, it would be ideal for him, as Wade or James could handle the ball.)
Faried is making us look stupid. But not just us.
However, the player I continue to think we really should have drafted is Nicola Mirotic, who has just become the first player ever to win back to back "rising star" awards in the Euroleague, and looks like an only-slightly-poor man's Pau Gasol.
Finally, remember: picked BEFORE Nolan were such greats as Jimmer Fredette (10), Marcus Morris (14), Chris Singleton (18), Tobias Harris (19). Some of those might turn out decent, but so might Nolan (in the right situation) and they've certainly done little so far.

Don't we have Pritchard to thank for Luke Babbitt? Didn't he sing his praises on the way out the door?
I was dead against Budinger, I remember, as he had a "soft" label, and I still don't think he's all that. And Parsons went undrafted, so EVERYBODY whiffed on him (and signed with Houston as a free agent). I'm with you on Bradley, who has turned out to be very useful for Boston, although he's not a "PG prospect" at all. The reason he sank so low is because he, like Bledsoe, cannot run a team. Bradley is only having success now because he's playing with a veteran team with a ton of scorers, and alongside Rondo.

True.

Funny that you sing the praises of Bledsoe and trash Armon, when both are pretty similar. Good to great athletes who are too short to play SG and have no PG skills. And no pick in the second round is EVER terrible, because 90% of players in the second round are out of the league in 2 years. Okay, that stat was made up on the spot, but I bet it's not far off. Let's look at the two picks before Armon, shall we?
32 Oklahoma City Thunder Dexter Pittman C, 6-11, 303 Texas
33 Sacramento Kings Hassan Whiteside C, 7-0, 235 Marshall
I rest my case.

Beaubois is ANOTHER short shooting guard. He looked good for a while for Dallas, but they've cooled on him considerably. Casspi has also pretty much disappeared. Taj Gibson was a "boring" pick - Ed O would've screamed, because I think he was 23 when he was drafted. Clearly Chicago (who've picked up Gibson, Asik and Mirotic, all with low picks) are doing something very right. I get the impression that Claver was a fallback when (a) ALL of the PGs the Blazers wanted went in the five picks before Claver (seriously, by the 16th pick they had to be thinking "we're BOUND to get ONE of the PGs we want" and then this happened:

Code:

17.	76ers		Jrue Holiday		PG
18.	Timberwolves	Ty Lawson		PG
19.	Hawks		Jeff Teague		PG
20.	Jazz		Eric Maynor		PG
21.	Hornets		Darren Collison		PG

...so Claver was picked just so the Blazers didn't have to fill a roster spot right now. Stashing is a time-honored Spurs tradition.

Jesus, do we have to rehash Blair AGAIN? YES because of injury! See your comments about Elliot Williams. And remember, the Blazers' doctors had declared Darius Miles' knees unfit to play, so we couldn't really go endorsing Blair. In fact, I seem to recall hearing he got a medical red flag from just about every team.

Why do people say "sorry" when they don't mean it?
Buchanan hasn't looked awesome, that's for sure. But in every draft, there are worse picks above him, and most of your complaints are about THE SECOND ROUND, which is where basically they let the interns make the picks because IT REALLY DOESN'T MATTER. If you get a half-decent pick in the second round you know you're incredibly fortunate. If your player is a dog, it's what you expect!

Let's look at some lottery picks in that time:

Code:

2009
2.	Grizzlies	Hasheem Thabeet		C
6.	Timberwolves	Jonny Flynn		PG
8.	Knicks		Jordan Hill		PF
11.	Nets		Terrence Williams	SG
12.	Bobcats		Gerald Henderson	SG
13.	Pacers		Tyler Hansbrough	PF
14.	Suns		Earl Clark		SF

2010
2 	Philadelphia 76ers  	Evan Turner SG, 6-7, 214 Ohio State 
3 	New Jersey Nets  	Derrick Favors F, 6-10, 246 Georgia Tech 
4 	Minnesota Timberwolves  Wesley Johnson F, 6-7, 195 Syracuse 
8 	Los Angeles Clippers  	Al-Farouq Aminu F, 6-8, 210 Wake Forest 
11 	New Orleans Hornets  	Cole Aldrich C, 6-11, 245 Kansas 
12 	Memphis Grizzlies  	Xavier Henry G, 6-6, 210 Kansas 
13 	Toronto Raptors  	Ed Davis F, 6-9, 215 North Carolina 
14 	Houston Rockets  	Patrick Patterson F, 6-8, 223 Kentucky 

2011
2.	Timberwolves	Derrick Williams	PF
3.	Jazz		Enes Kanter		C
4.	Cavaliers	Tristan Thompson	PF
6.	Wizards		Jan Vesely		SF
7.	Kings		Bismack Biyombo		PF
10.	Bucks		Jimmer Fredette		PG
12.	Jazz		Alec Burks		SG
14.	Rockets		Marcus Morris		PF

Feel better?

 

I will feel better when POR has a new GM and his name is NOT Chad Buchanan.