http://trailblazers.realgm.com/articles/135/20090622/30_teams_30_days_portland_draft_preview/ Roughly halfway down the page is a section titled "Picks Over the Past Five Years". There are only 3 Players that the Blazers have drafted since 2004 (out of 19) that are STILL Blazers. While this is sort of symantics, since Ty Thomas for instance was traded for LA instantly, it's still interesting to me and shows how truly active the Blazers have been during draft time.
It's been great on a few fronts... First of all, activity in and of itself is fun. If I have a choice to have the Blazers make three trades or no trades, I'll vote for the former almost every time (even if I don't particularly like the trade). Secondly, the Blazers have made GOOD trades. Trades where we got picks and players for essentially nothing (see: Sergio, Koponen, Freeland). Trades where we got superior players without much cost (see: Roy and Aldridge and Bayless). Thirdly, the team has improved as a direct result of the activity. It makes it a very exciting day for us, but sure sets the expectation bar level pretty high, doesn't it? Ed O.
