Going after Walter Davis rather than Dell Curry wasn't really the problem... trading Drazen was (considering he was EASILY the best of those three players).
Dell Curry was a hell of a player back in the day. The Hornets were exciting back then with Zo, LJ , Curry, Bogues, Kendall Gill I think. Curry had a pretty sweet and quick release. I wonder how he would've fit with us on that team.
Perfect. While reading the book, Rick knew the team wasn't a great outside shooting team so I think adding Curry would have contained some of the offensive droughts they were prone to have
in hindsight yes, it was...but getting ainge fucked everything up. Neither player, ainge or petro, could handle the ball and were only spot up shooters, so they couldn't be on the floor together. From his thoughts, it didn't sound as if Rick was too high on Petro or Euros in general back then
I'm not trying to "knock" on Dell Curry here... the guy had a solid, solid NBA career. That said, he was still an inferior player when compared to Petro'. I'm not sure how much you remember of Drazen, or if you ever saw him play, but the guy was an INCREDIBLE basketball player. R.I.P. PETRO'!
Dell Curry and Petrovic were pretty similar caliber players. Petrovic was a magician in Europe, but merely an above average player in the NBA, like Dell Curry. Walter Davis was the best talent of the three...until he reached Portland. Then, for some reason he collapsed. He was out of the league soon after. Portland basically had bad timing on that one. Of course, when you acquire a guy in his late-30s, you can't be too surprised when he falls off a cliff.
Agree to disagree here, I guess. In my opinion, Petro' was certainly a cut-above someone like Dell Curry. From the late 70's until the mid-to-late 80's he was, sure. But he'd been steadily declining for a couple of years (four or five) prior to his arrival in Portland. That "reason," of course, being that he was born in 1954.
I was aware of Petro back in the day. Probably not with the same eye for players that I do now, but I knew Drazen was a real good player who flourished in NJ. But Curry would've been a much better acquisition for us than Davis. But I agree that out of the 3, Drazen was certainly the best.
That might be the definition of viewing a glass half empty. I choose to follow the NBA from a different perspective because your outlook doesn't sound very fun.
Well, the reason I said for "some reason" was that he was quite good that same season for Denver, prior to the deal (which, presumably, is why Portland wanted him). He collapsed during the season with Portland. And then he rebounded the following season for Denver. (And I'm looking at pace-adjusted numbers, so no worries about being fooled by how fast Denver played.) So, yes, age clearly was a factor, which I mentioned in my post. Puzzling, though, that he was so bad in Portland when he had been pretty good in Denver that year. And the following year.
I agree... I won't only judge success or failure based on a championship. Why would I put myself through that sort of hell? Ed O.
[video=youtube;HcPzk4b-Go8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcPzk4b-Go8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcPzk4b-Go8[/video] HolyBackboard If this doesn't put a smile on your face than you have no soul
Loved 2 hot to stop it, and 1, 2 , 3 Go Rip City, and all those songs. Classic. I hope someday they do it with the current group of guys now that we're... actually good again.
I had a tape of all those songs, the one song I seemingly haven't been able to find is "Blazers in the House"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-pJ__aA7aA Courtesy of HolyBackboard I was but a wee lad at the time, 6 (still watched the games but cant remember anything in detail), so was the whole city freaking out about a potential game 5 loss and being the 1st 1 seed to lose to an 8 seed? Did everyone think our playoffs were going to be tougher and chances of winning it all decreasing b/c of going to 5 games with an 8 seed? Or did people just shrug it off as playing a rival tough and move on to the next round?
The Seattle series showed the Lakers how to beat Portland that year: hard-nosed defense, making the Blazers play half-court sets, and forcing on-the-fly decision making on the court.
