The Miles part, though, sounds like KP wanted it, but Allen did not. Can't blame the GM for an owner falling in love with a crappy player.
+1 ...and as others have noted, deciding that the team was greater then it's untrustable top player was definitely not a conservative move STOMP
Tanking is what got Pritchard high picks 2 years in a row. We lost a lot of games by playing the young guys like Telfair over Stoudamire to see what they could do, and by elongating each player's missed games due to injury in the last month of each season to get higher draft position. Post #s 3 and 6 are opposites--Pritchard carefully considered Durant, vs. it wasn't Pritchard's decision and he was just acting. I think he carefully considered Durant. The Zach trade was considered a giveaway, not a good move. The Blazers were simply dumping him for less than nothing. You leave out the $30M Paul Allen paid to make Pritchard look good. Everyone knew Durant would be a superstar forward. It was all over the media that this would be a rare draft with 2 superstars. No gut instincts involved. It was done the usual way, by analyzing opinions from the scouting system. No hunches. That's why he took his time thinking about Durant. Are you aware Zach was on the all-star team this year? That he has a higher PER than Roy? http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=300214032
Why? What did New York get out of the deal? Randolph is on his 3rd team post-Blazers. None have made the playoffs as of yet.
I laugh at people who still think the Zach trade should be considered a bad move. It was clear he had to go with Oden and Aldridge emerging as the "twin towers" for Portland. Do you really want to overpay Zach to come off the bench? Or let him play over Aldridge? Take the ball out of Roy's hands? You can try and make the argument all you want that they didn't have to rush it since Oden ended up being injured anyways and maybe wait for Randolph to up his value, but it's obvious that Randolph had no value throughout the league so it'd be a waste of time. That's why he's been traded 3 times in 3 years for scraps. His contract is a joke and he doesn't come close to justifying it, and he's on the books through the 2010 FA, a year that like half the league is targeting. Zach's gone and the Blazers haven't missed him one bit.
For all of Zach's warts (and there are plenty) he's a far more effective player than Rudy (neither plays much defense so I leave that out of the comparison) And I don't really care what New York did with him after they traded for him, the issue is 'are the Blazers better off for having traded him for what we got in return'? I don't know that you can confidently say yes to that question.
This is another what has he done lately thread. Zbo went to several teams and stunk it up until he went to Memphis, and now supposedly he has changed? I don't see Memphis in the playoffs. Remember we got to see Roy and Zbo play together. It didn't work so well.
The two players have literally nothing in common in their games so this comparison is pointless. Here is the one thing they have in common as basketball players: Neither player gets a ton of blocks. That's it. Zach was then, is now and will always be a loser. He will put up good numbers on mediocre to bad teams for his whole career. I don't know about you, but I would gladly trade a 20/10 guy to make the playoffs now and again.
in general (not just concerning these two) bad D from an inside player is far more detrimental then bad D on the perimeter. On the other end, when Zach was in Portland I argued forever that he should be utilized off the ball working the offensive boards... he's a monster in that role. Unfortunately thats not how he was used/how he played as more and more he epitomized a selfish black hole. Zach on 5. Good team offense is largely dependent on spacing and both Zach and Greg looked to be on the low block. That's not why ZR was shipped out, but they didn't project well together. Conversely Rudy's offensive game has been very team oriented. He moves the ball, runs his man off screen after screen and spreads the court with a high percentage deep threat. Hopefully he enjoys a run of good health and we get to see how good he can be. STOMP
Additionally, if we'd kept Zach, we would have had no salary cap room, I believe. So, no Andre Miller. I'd much rather have Andre than Zach.
