He is still young. But, what part of his game do you think still has a lot of upside? To me, he's an undersized shooting guard with alligator arms that needs a lot of space to get his jumpshot off. He might thrill you with a great drive to the basket and 1, but he'll disappoint you just as easily with a careless turnover doing the same thing.
Crap. I thought I'd fixed my whoopsie before anybody caught it. I should know that never happens around here.
His defense and shooting, mostly. I also think that it's within the realm of possibility that he develops the ability to find an open shooter off his drives, though that's more iffy.
I don't "hate" Cho - I've never even met the man. History is what it is. The Blazers started the season with one of the worst benches in the league. This lack of depth, and the fatigue it caused, was an obvious handicap to the team. That's on the GM. And for the record - I don't for one minute buy the nonesense about how Cho "couldn't possibly have known" that Oden and Roy had health issues.
Wasn't the pick we got in the Bayless trade used to get G.Wallace...? IMO Bayless wasn't growing here in Portland and we had too many guards anyway.
It was, but since it wasn't a top pick, it seems unlikely that it couldn't have been replaced with a different pick. More to the point, in terms of evaluating his performance as a GM, I viewed the first deal as "not a good one." Unless Cho was already talking with Jordan and knew he needed the pick to get Wallace, it makes more sense to view them as individual deals....one poor deal (in my opinion) and one great one. If Cho traded Aldridge for Thabeet and then, next year, used Thabeet and others to get LeBron James, would that make Aldridge-for-Thabeet a good deal? I would certainly say no...it was still an awful deal, but his later deal was an amazing one. I wouldn't merge them into one Aldridge-and-others-for-LeBron. Well, our opinions on that are different. Bayless was only here two seasons and his PER jumped from year 1 to year 2. Additionally, his three point shooting percentage and Assist Rate both increased from year 1 to year 2. Both have increased again this season.
You consider a bench of: Rudy Camby Joel Matthews Bayless "one of the worst benches in the league"? Interesting.
The fact we still have Roy instead of a more physically able player doesn't make Cho look all that stellar as a GM. Trading Bayless to free up PT for Patty and Rudy and Wes was a wise move, as was getting Wallace it seems. We still have no PGOTF, or reliable COTF. The Choad so far seems cautious and methodical, refusing to be pressured into making a mistake. I hope he completely addresses our needs this summer. I give him a B-.
Please suggest some trades that might have worked for moving Roy, considering Roy's health and contract.
Well actually the Blazers (Miller) had been talking with the Bobcats for a couple years now. I would venture to say that Rich Cho knew he was going to need some extra assets to make a deadline splash. Cho strikes me as a long term thinker, therefor I conclude the Bayless trade was made with the intent of using the pick down the line for a star piece. IMO they are indeed connected: http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2010/07/blazers_rich_cho_introduced_as.html
If he made the deal with the specific Wallace deal in mind, I agree that they should be merged that the Bayless deal shouldn't be evaluated alone. If Cho made the Bayless deal just to have a first-round pick as future trade ammunition, but didn't already have the Wallace deal mapped out, then I still think the Bayless deal deserves to be judged individually.
I don't think thats too far-fetched of an idea. Cho comes from this new generation of GM that believes in collecting as much assets as possible for options down the road. People are crazy if they think that Bayless was any kind of difference maker on this team.
Yes, because every other GM in the league is looking to give up physically able players for one with two bad knees and a huge contract. Cho inherited Roy's bad knees and bad contract. Hard to blame that one on him. Or that fact he didn't pull off TWO damaged-goods-for-gold trades at the deadline. Esepcially, since this one would have been damaged goods with a 5 year max. deal, rather than damaged goods with an expiring contract. BNM
What's not too far-fetched an idea? That he was working on the Wallace deal since the day he made the Bayless deal or that he was just collecting fungible assets for the future but with no specific deal yet in mind? The second definitely isn't far-fetched...in fact, it's the overwhelming likelihood in my mind. The first seems unlikely but certainly not impossible. If it was the second, then the two deals should be viewed and evaluated independently, IMO.
Bayless was traded. Joel was far from 100% recovered from injury. Camby and Matthews were starters. What is your point?
Swap Camby for Oden. Oden on the bench makes your statement of "worst bench" even more ridiculous. Matthews was a starter? Laughable. Do you follow the Blazers? My point is that you are just digging deep to hate on Cho. You said: Either: 1) You are just making up reasons to hate on Cho 2) You honestly think that a bench of Rudy, Joel, Camby (or Oden), Matthews and Bayless is one of the worst in the league... which gives a good indication of your lack of credibility when evaluating basketball talent.
Dude, put down the crack pipe. Your statement only makes sense if you assume the Blazers had no idea Oden, Roy, and Joel were hurt. If that's your argument, you are the one with no credibility.
Who expected him to be a difference-maker at age 21? He's young and he's shown bursts of very good production. His net present value was higher than a mid-first rounder, IMO, and that is why it was a bad deal at the time, and (a) the Blazers' utter lack of quality backup PG play, and (b) Bayless's play this year at age 22 both reinforce my feelings at the time. Ed O.
