When KP was at the helm, it was always fun leading up to the draft, 'cause you never quite knew what he might do.....and speculation ran rampant......my guess is probably more than any other team at that time. In the context of my statement, I'm in no way speaking of KP's other perceived shortcomings/foibles.
I loved KP but I have no reason to believe Olshey is going to be deficient in that area. I think he's going to make some things happen this summer.
lolwut? Roy and Oden were franchise-caliber players derailed by injury and Miller continues to be a stud even at his age. Trading Miller for Felton was a bigger mistake than acquiring Miller. Rudy was one of the best players in Europe, we got him for nothing, and he had a very promising rookie year. You're delusional if you think any of those guys are marks against KP's resume.
It was KP's decision to gamble on players with an injury history. Should've picked Durant. And there was a reason Roy was picked 7th.
So KP has your ire because he happened to be the one in charge and picked the same player 95% of present or former GMs would have picked. And Roy was picked 6th. In fact, even with Roy's career literally over, the only other player from that top 10 I'd trade his career for might be Rudy Gay, who still has a lot of years left as an near-elite scorer. I'd rather have had a few years of Roy than Bargnani (now considered a worthless overpaid soft big man), Tyrus Thomas (out of the rotation on the worst team in basketball), Randy Foye (replacement-level combo guard), Morrison, Shelden Williams, Patty O'Bryant, and Mo Sene (all out of the league). I'd say KP found the two gems of that lotto. Rondo, Roy, and Aldridge are the only players from that ENTIRE DRAFT to make an ASG.
KPs biggest failure was his reliance on cap space. It made him essentially lame duck until that point. He was scared to trade RLEC because he valued it so much and when it came time to use. .. it was worthless. hoop fam
Honestly, I think the unraveling of KP's master plan was when Miles got signed by MEM (in addition to the cap not going up as high as thought, leading to the CBA being reworked a year later), and it took our "Imaginary Cap Space" from about 22M (at one point, 32M) to about 12-13M. That Hedo didn't want, Millsap tried to take, Ariza had already signed and Miller eventually accepted. Here's the BrianFromWA guess on the conspiracy theory: K*be had his "Trade Me!" summer in 2007 (in fact, West agreed to trade him to the Piston for Rip, Prince and a #1--K*be used his no-trade clause to nix it), about the time that Oden was drafted. KP decided to set up the Z-bo trade and dumped Franchise. Miles was well on his way to a disability ruling, RLEC was already in effect (though it wasn't the RL "Super" EC until insurance kicked in in 2008) and the projections were sunny for up to $32M in cap room (assuming that Outlaw and Webster and Frye would be renounced). Oden hadn't yet had his preventative microfracture surgery. I think that KP was setting up to go hard after K*be in 2009, when he had his ETO available. The plan would be, from 2009-onward, a core of K*be/Roy/LMA/Oden and another 10M or so for whichever of Iverson/Andre Miller/Kidd/Crawford/other PG-ish type there was going to be and to fill out the bench (which at the time consisted of Jack/Sergio, Rudy, Przy). Now, hindsight would make you think "hm...if you would have drafted Durant and kept Z-bo, could you have offered RLEC, fresh-off-Rookie-of-the-Year Roy, Outlaw and some draft picks for K*be in the summer LA traded him to DET?" Jack (or Blake)/K*be/Durant/Z-bo/LMA(or Przy) might have been pretty formidable from 2007-now. Alas, Miles got put back on the books, MEM decided to trade Pau to LAL for pennies on the dollar, the cap number went down, and LAL made the Finals two years in a row before free agency 2009, Oden had been injured (twice). Roy had become an All-Star but K*be was happily ensconced in LA for life. Agree with El Pres that, by trade deadline Feb 2009, he should've known what he was going to be able to do in FA. The trade rumor of Vince Carter, Mo Ager and the 2011 GSW lotto pick owned by NJN (which ended up being the 3rd pick in the 2011 draft) for RLEC and Outlaw (or Frye, depending on which rumor) would've helped the Blazers both that playoff year and going forward. EDIT: had not read the debate on the "Playoff Thread Monster" before this. Sorry to rehash some points.
Pritchard did nothing all year except to prepare for draft day. Talking down to people helps you with an admiring peanut like Quick, but hurts you in negotiating with GMs. He couldn't consummate a trade without a $3 million Allen bribe.
LA cannot receive players in that are S&T'd (unless they drop below the threshold), but they are able to S&T their own unrenounced free agents.
I really think we need to consolidate and sticky all of BfWA's threads on CBA, cap, etc. I'm sure all of us would like to have direct access to those instead of having to search for them.
Intriguing. Not as splashy as Howard, though, and they do have a ton of young players they can/have already played at PF, viz: Thomas Robinson (just acquired, with much fanfare) Greg Smith Terrence Jones and, of course: Royce "have they cut him yet?" White. Not to mention Donatas Motiejunas. I wonder what Atlanta thinks of Smith. Will they panic and offer him the max, a la Joe Johnson?
http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm#Q89 "receive" is the only restriction. They can trade away guys I believe.
If we land the #1 pick I'm calling Detroit for Monroe. He's a center through and through and with Drummond they want to play him at the 4.
I like the idea of calling detriot too but i'd offer it for Drummond/singler. We can easily get a better Monroe in Al Jefferson this off season.
