He's old in the sense of wanting a 5 to 6 year $50m contract. At times, Ariza made him look old and slow and moved him all over the court during the Finals.
The last year of his contract he will be an asset not a liability, unless they remove the salary cap in the next 4 years, so really you only need to get 10m a year of productivity for 4 years, and that is well within the reasonable window of players his age. Agreed on the possible Bowie allegory to a point, but I do not think anyone is ever going to compare Durant or Noah to Jordan in terms of polarity of draft value, so it is a bit over stated. Durant is good, but I don't think we will be talking about him and the HOF in 20 years. As for the "grand scheme" our goal is to win a championship, not simply get the very best player possible out of every draft. You may have a different set of priorities than me, but I am definitely not ready to label his tenure a failure because he didn't draft Law, that is just laughable.
Ariza made Rudy lay on the ground for a while, are you ready to write off Fernandez as old and frail and send him to a convalescent hospital?
Granted, I didn't watch the finals, but didn't Hedo increase his shooting % and scoring average in the finals?
Is the original post from your blog, Mas? I know stuff seems like it's more legit if it's elsewhere on the Interwebz, and I'm trying to wrap my head around whether it's your opinion that you simply posted there. Ed O.
It's from mine and Webster's Dictionary..he wrote it all except for My Take. its easier to compile my thoughts and opinions in one spot & then distribute them around. Also, it was more of a reassurance...KP is a great GM..we are all armchair GM's
San Antonio had the same record we did last year in spite of a myriad of injuries to their three best players. Duncan, Manu and Parker all missed big stretches. The odds of them being entirely healthy are very slim this year, but they will likely be more healthy than last year, AND they added Richard Jefferson, who's no all-star or anything but is still a pretty good player. I think that the Spurs are going to be in a position to challenge for the best record in the NBA next year if things go well in terms of health. Ed O.
I don't think the Spurs will ever be in contention for the best overall record, that is not Pop's M.O. He'll rest the big 3 when needed, probably give them a few days off here and there and have them rested up for a playoff run. At this point in their career's, it would be foolish to try and push for HCA throughout, because they are already injury prone and would break down in the 1st or 2nd round.
I think any alleged trade talk will have to wait on this deal becoming official. If there is a trade out there, say Blake and Outlaw for [insert preferred point guard], it might have to wait because Hedo will take all of the cap space, and any contract coming back in a trade will likely be more than the contracts going out. I like this deal. I think at best Hedo makes Portland an offense that doesn't always run through the play making abilities of Brandon Roy. At worst, a few years down the road Hedo comes off the bench for Batum and is an expiring contract after that. Not a fantastic defender, but Orlando survived the Eastern Conference with him guarding LeBron James, Paul Pierce, and Andre Iguodala, so maybe it can be done despite him.
So, you're faulting Pritchard for making the same choice 29 of the 30 GMs in the league would have made? You're faulting him for not predicting Oden would need microfacture surgery before the start of his rookie year? You're faulting him for drafting Greg Oden over Acie Law and Al Thornton???? Yeah, right. There goes your credibility. Any GM that had chosen either of those two over Oden would have been fired on the spot (and probably committed). That's some crystal ball you have there. It must be nice to be able to predict Hedo will be a failure before he plays one second of basketball for the Blazers. Do you actually expect people here to take you seriously, or are you just trolling to fill some emptiness in your life? BNM
we got totally owned in Round 1. Spurs had an injured duncan..but they addressed the need for scoring by getting Richard Jefferson.
ok, so lets just stand pat and do nothing while other teams get much much much much better. yeah, great plan.
I think Pritchard just wanted to get rid of Randolph without taking back a bad, long contract, to preserve flexibility. I don't think the plan was ever really to sign an impact player, but if the chance to use that space to add someone came along, great. I think the "plan" of that Randolph deal was just to ship him away. I wasn't a big fan of that deal, personally. I do still hope that the cap space can help land someone useful.
