Never forget, Wes was signed to be Brandon's backup. He developed into the player that earned that Dallas contract based on his excellent play and work ethic he developed here.
Hahahaha! Yes, I am an arrogant prick. I was just having some fun with you. Do you even read your own posts? More importantly do read posts in threads that you don't create? This is how you started off this thread, What the hell is going on??? Am I the only one who is stunned by all of these Blazer free agents signing with other teams? Come on Shooter, there are 1000s of posts in threads from people who are upset over what has happened this off season and you actually start a thread asking if anyone is upset or stunned?!? I thought it was funny. A little strange and myopic but funny. If you want to slam your fist against your chest and declare some sort of victory then great! You were right. Not sure what about but if you need to be told that you were right then I'll stroke that ego.
What we have now is room. Room for minutes. Room for competition. Room for players to develop. The next couple of years are going to be about seeing what we have. Some players may step up and become starting quality. Some others may show they weren't worthy of their contracts. This team is built around Lillard now. It's all about him. We build around his strengths and weaknesses. At least we now have a clear strategy.
What we have now is a shitty team. Attendance will drop and rumors of the team moving to Seattle will resurface.
Meltdown? Only because of the heat outside. Blazers/Olshey didn't choose for Aldridge to leave for Spurs. But, once he was undecided and days went by, the prospect of keeping Matthews and Lopez went out the window. Can you imagine if he'd have been so stupid as to listen to fans on this board demanding we keep those guys for $13-$16M per year? And then not to get LMA? Wow. Olshey showed great restraint and poise in getting the assets he got for Batum, #23 and Blake. Seriously! I agree its an offseason of great monumental change, but we knew it was possible. It never was a consideration that we would keep Rolo or Matthews without Aldridge. That would have been stupid. So, here we are, back to acquiring assets for future trades and draft picks. It is what it is.
Listen to yourself! Only a Sith deals in absolutes! I'm not stunned, because none of these developments were unexpected. Is losing 4/5ths of a successful starting lineup in one offseason unusual? Sure. But none of the moves came out of left field. I'm probably most surprised by the Batum trade and even that doesn't register very high on the shocked/stunned scale.
I started my thread right after we learned that Lopez and Matthews were definitely leaving. That's basically when we all knew this crap was real. It's also worth pointing out that the first person who responded to this thread said that he was about to make the same kind of post, but that I had beaten him to it. But go ahead and "have your fun," my friend. You aren't important enough to waste any more time responding to.
You expected to lose Aldridge, Matthews, Batum, Lopez, Afflalo, and Blake after the season ended?? Sorry, go sell that shit somewhere else because I'm not buying.
There's actually a significant difference between what I said and what you interpreted, even though the word "expected" was principle in both. I didn't specifically expect every one of those moves, no, but all of them (with the exception of the Batum trade which I specifically singled out) was pretty well known to be a possibility. It was reasonable to think Robin Lopez would price himself out of what the Blazers were comfortable spending...there was plenty of speculation about that. The same was true of Wes Matthews, exacerbated by his torn ACL. Aldridge was always considered a significant flight risk. Who cares about Affalo and Blake? I had no expectations one way or the other about them. As I said, the Batum trade was the one move that wasn't particularly telegraphed ahead of time, but it wasn't a shocking deal. So while I didn't specifically predict all of these things, since they were all within the realm of reasonable expectation, this off-season hasn't left me stunned in the least.
Hate to say it because it's pretty unpopular around here, but I am pretty excited about the team. Many on these boards thought of Rolo as a "backup" because he wasn't a regular starter before this. However, he wasn't given a chance. When we gave him that chance, he excelled. I think the same thing applies to a lot of our new players. Athletic Lottery picks who have some experience, but not a chance for prime time. Maybe the best running and dunking team since the Drexler Blazers.... and we still have Lillard. In fact, we have him locked up for 6 more years.
I remember on a TV broadcast, the commentator was saying how Nick Young of the Lakers got a huge contract, because the Lakers had to use up their cap space for the year. So will we be giving Alonzo Gee and Joel Freeland max deals?