Actually it doesn't tell me anything about the likelihood of drafting a franchise quality player, it tells me a whole lot more about just how much the NBA has been dominated by a handful of player/teams. In the last 20-25 years that Magic, Isiah, Jordan, Kobe and Duncan have been racking up titles, I'd say that there have been quite a few 'championship quality' players who just happened not to win a championship. Bottom line, even with great talent there are no guarantees, just raised odds.
I'm completely going by a foggy memory on this one, but didn't Amare bristle when his name was brought up last year at the trade deadline in some Portland talks? New York has a decided advantage over a team like Portland. They can attract a star FA, and they can attract a soon-to-be FA like Carmelo Anthony. I think the paradigm shifts for teams in smaller markets. Building through the draft, or trades on draft day, seems to be a better road map to a title. San Antonio is kind of the blue print for that, since large markets or ideal markets (Miami, for example) are winning titles with the exception of the Spurs. That's one of the reasons why "missing" on players like Jordan or Durant is even more difficult for a franchise like Portland to overcome. No fault to Bowie or Oden, but rarely is Portland going to get a shot at a #1 pick while already having a team loaded with potential.
Which gets to the trade or free agency avenues. And there are similar lists of successes on each of those routes too (well, it's pretty much just Shaq as far as free agency goes), but again, few and far between. What this means is not that drafting and trading are useless (even free agency is not useless, though by far the worst way to try to build a champion), but those avenues are rather overrated in terms of likelihood of success. I think when people say "Let's just forget Oden, he's a bust, move on" they're severely overestimating what they're going to get from "moving on." Not because Cho is a bad GM (it's yet to be determined how good Cho is) but just because all of those routes pan out once a generation, if lucky, for a franchise. I'd rather pin my hopes to a clearly talented player with no permanent afflictions to get healthy than to a once-a-generation-or-less proposition. That's my essential thesis.
Bingo. Small market teams have more "inertia" to overcome when it comes to landing free agents and getting a player 'excited' about being traded to them than the New Yorks, Miamis and LAs of the world. Superstars are typically trying to get away from places like Portland, not go to them and that makes roster building different and certainly more difficult.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... wake me up with an NBA deal goes down. So far its been a rather boring trade deadline. Hopefully things pick up around the league in the next 24 hours.
I didn't read the rest of this thread I'm just on page 16, so I'm not sure if you've sorted it out yet. But, I remember Kobe saying in the past that the only way he was going to go to college was to play for Coach K. He said it was one of the reasons he was so excited to play for Team USA and was even weighing in when there was Coach K to the NBA rumors.
It was dead as soon as he caught wind of it as a rumor. I swear, Quick has NEVER broke a damn thing since he's been the Blazers beat writer. It baffles me that he's even quotable. Atleast Canzano is just an opinion.
just in case anyone was listening to BFT.. that guy from Hood River who called wasnt me.. but I know who he is lol!
Al_Iannazzone In all likelihood Devin Harris will be traded to Dallas, I have heard. But Portland remains a possibility.
That is a good sign. Especially for a GM like Cho. I wonder who Canzano's source is? Steve Patterson?
Thats those strict Southeast Asian ideals at its finest. Methodical for a reason. If he tells someone, he will have to eat their brains. Very 'fragrant'.
Chris_Broussard I'm told there's a 100 pct chance of Devin Harris being traded. Dallas and Portland likeliest spots. Mavs offer Caron's exp contract.
Why does NJ want all these expiring contracts? I don't think many free agent are going to be excited about going there now that they lost the Melo sweepstakes.
Nobody in Vulcan would talk to Crapzano. Unless they didnt care about getting fired if they got caught. Crapzano, Quick, Vance, Jaynes etc. sources are all VERY over rated. They use the term "sources" loosely.
