QFT That was one of the reasons our early 90's teams died out was because we had no young talent after the vets got older.
It sounds like the Blazer will pick up the options on Blake and Outlaw . . . which I believe is a two year option. But I agree, I think Blake and Outlaw are good trading chips . . . "good value" as I say (while drunk off my ass) during fanatsy draft.
I would like to correct you. More impact talent is good. If the talent you bring in is mediocre, you just end up with a really deep mediocre team. Right now, the Blazers are a really deep mediocre team. For example, when Sergio and Bayless got minutes there was not let off. But at the same time, there was no increase in team impact though either, so the net gain was little. The fact are, that high level talent wins in this league. The trades you want are multiple generic run of the mill players for a higher level talent. The average players can be replaced easily, and now that the salary caps are starting to leave a lot of free agents looking for teams late in the year, they are easy to replace with a known quantity. For instance, late last year, we could have signed Joe Smith. I can guarantee you he is better than any of our reserve forwards on the team, instantly. I find more and more lately that I am worried about KP's "overloyalty" to the players on the team than anything else. When it comes to trades, the only thing he has going for him are draft day trades for picks. When it comes to bringing in veterans, he really has nothing to run on. Maybe he never will, it might not be his stick.
I don't mean "talent" in the generic sense, like you and I are basketball talent, just crappy talent. I meant "talent" as in talented. In other words, good players. Not really. Roy, Aldridge and Przybilla/Oden (combined) give Portland some top production at those three positions. Point guard and small forward (Blake and Batum) are essentially average players. Three positions near the top of the league and two average players is an excellent starting five. Rudy and Outlaw are both excellent reserves. Portland is a talented team. Bayless is a potential impact talent, even if he isn't currently an impact player. Newly drafted players are rarely impact players, but they shouldn't be expected to be. Portland already has a good set of players who are impact or close to being impact players. Drafted players should be for depth (depth is for giving some good minutes when your impact players rest, not necessarily for impact themselves) and the chance that they can develop into impact players in the future, when you need players to fill in holes created by players leaving.
Lost the stats now, but we shot the same percentage of outside shots that the World Champions (Boston) did last year. We are not "too perimeter oriented." I also strongly suspect that Oden will improve our inside potency next season - we are a legit championship contender. It actually blows my mind sometimes. If we had a playoff matchup with just about any other team than Houston, we'd be in the second round of the playoffs, and excelling.
Had James Posey made a free throw at the end of the Hornets' final regular season game, Portland would have been the #3 seed, played the Hornets in round 1 and Denver in round 2. I think that would have meant a Portland first-round series win and a good fight with Denver for a chance to go to the WCF. So close.
Your assumption that the two are mutually exclusive is silly - but we do know that we wasted a championship opportunity this year. If I was advocating bringing in someone who was 36 to play a role, your argument MIGHT have some merit. I'm not, and it doesn't.
It's really got nothing to do with how this team matched up against the Rockets (although it certainly magnified the holes we suspected this team had). Furthermore, the main differences between the Celtics and the Blazers is the fact that the Cs had a legitimate top 5 big man in KG and the best defense in the league. In addition, their inside game setup their outside game, (the Blazers do it the other way around) not to mention the fact that they have 3, maybe 4, guys who can create off the dribble versus the Blazers who have 1 or maybe 2 if you count Travis (though he tends to only create for himself and those are usually long range 2 pointers; the worst shot in basketball). I think this team is close to having the parts needed to be a legitimate championship contending team, but right now they are probably 2 or 3 years and 2 or 3 pieces short of completing the puzzle ... and part of that puzzle isn't just potential and raw talent maturing, it's the right 'personality' and a certain "je ne sais quois" -- that indefinable quality is sort of like pornography, I can't define what it is, but I know it when I see it. For instance, the Cavs have "it", the Lakers have "it", the Nuggets have "it".
