So, we pretty much gave up nothing for nothing. Barton and Robinson had both played their way out of the rotation. So, we gave up guys who weren't even playing for a a 6th man who was forced into a starter's role due to an unfortunate and untimely injury. If you want to play that game, I'd say Drazen Petrovic for Walter Davis was a much worse trade. It looked good on paper at the time. Davis was a veteran scorer, that in spite of being 36 years old, was averaging 18.7 ppg on PER = 17.1 for Denver. Petrovic was getting almost no PT with Drexler, Ainge and Porter eating up all the backcourt minutes. So, adding a proven scorer off the bench to back up Kersey seemed like a good move. The Blazers also had the best record in the league and were in win now mode. Unfortunately, Davis never fit in and after a sub-par 32-game rental was back in Denver the next year where he, again, put up much better numbers than he did in Portland. And, of course, Drazen went on to become a lights out shooter who averaged over 20 ppg for NJN. Ironically, the veteran Davis was brought in for a deep playoff push in place of the younger, inexperienced Petrovic, but it was Petrovic who averaged 24.3ppg for NJN the playoffs the following year - the season we lost to the Bulls in the finals. We sure could have used that extra scoring punch off the bench against Michael, Scottie and company as we saw our team scoring average drop by almost 15 ppg (compared to our regular season average) in that series BNM
Guys like Boumtje^2 hardly count in my book. They play so little, their suckage doesn't really impact the team's won:loss record. To me, other than off court behavioral issues, to qualify as "worst" Blazer ever, it had to be someone who played significant minutes at a truly inept level. I haven't gone all the way back to the pre-championship years, but in recent (for me) memory, I'm thinking of someone who played at least 1000 minutes with a single digit PER. Jeff McGinnis played 1311 minutes in 2002-03 with a 10.0 PER (that's pretty sucky, but not QUITE single digit). He was the first guy I thought of as my nominee for worst Blazer ever - as someone who played big minutes, but did so exceptionally poorly. Going back just three seasons ago we had the absolutely suckiest bench in NBA history. None of our bench guys met my 1000 minute/single digit PER criteria, but just look at all this sucking: Will Barton - 894 MP, PER = 9.1 Victor Claver - 812 MP, PER = 7.0 Luke Babbit - 730 MP, PER = 9.4 Sasha Pavlovic - 528 MP, PER = 6.2 Ronnie Price - 510 MP, PER = 6.8 That's a whole lot of minutes going to guys who really just flat out did not produce - and that doesn't even include Jared Jeffries and his stellar 2.4 PER in 350 MP. I'd hate to label him the worst Blazer ever, because he did put up a solid 14.4 PER playing next to Brandon Roy on the 54-win 2008-09 team, but last season Steve Blake played a whopping 1529 minutes with a single digit PER of 9.5, which faded to 2.9 in the playoffs So, can anyone find any other former Blazers who played at least 1000 minutes with a single digit PER? BNM
If that trade was awesome, then Greg Oden was an AWESOME draft pick. Because, after all, he was great BEFORE the draft, and if it hadn't been for an inconvenient injury, he would have been GREAT!
They were all free agents at the end of the season. Afflalo almost wasn't, but praise be! He opted out. So basically, we gave up a draft pick and lost minutes for CJ. Maybe Afflalo won us one or two games. Which meant we missed out on Bobby Portis.
He had known injuries before he was drafted. That was a calculated risk by the front office to choose him over Durant. This was a decision to shore up a bench that EVERYONE said was porous, and to have a backup to a guy who NEVER missed games. It's a no brainer. One does not equal the other. That argument holds no water.
>Yep...Bill Walton was entering his suck up to the great Boston Celtics stage. When he became a broadcaster I immediately disliked his personality. He declared himself basketball God. What a self centered huge asshole.
The actual worst Blazer is probably some D-League scrub that got called up for a ten day contract that I completely forgot about. The one Blazer whose career made me hate basketball for a couple of years and forced me to take a break was Oden. Never has the gulf between expectations and contribution been so wide - probably in the running for the most disappointing number one pick ever.
Just FYI They were both moves that should have been good and ended up being crap. The fact that they should have been good does not make them good. The fact that they were crap makes them crap. Scratch that: unlike Oden, Afflalo just wasn't that good anyway. He had a good year one time, but he was pretty shitty for Denver last season before we traded for him. He's a high volume shooter who does NOTHING ELSE. He didn't even play good defense, which he was supposed to be good at.
Shoot, some people are still defending the Moses Malone trade. Some thought Felton-for-Miller was a good deal. Results matter.
If it's any consolation, his experiences no doubt made him hate basketball more than it made you hate basketball. Besides: that had nothing to do with the player and everything to do with the fact that God hates Portland. He wasn't even the most disappointing number one pick of the Blazers, let alone ever. Short version: two words, Len Bias.
On paper. The complaint about Miller was that he couldn't be effective alongside Roy because he couldn't hit the three. Felton was a better outside shooter, and would theoretically give Roy more room to work by making defenses pay for cheating towards the middle. When Roy retired and was replaced by Crawford, it changed the entire dynamic of the team and put Felton into a situation which, much like his uniform, didn't fit very well.
My inclusion of Bowie in the category of "Most Disappointing" isn't a knock on him personally, but rather my own disappointment. He was a perfect piece to that '84 team after making the lopsided trade to get Kiki V. He had great talent at the rim and on D. It was disappointing to not see him be able to play the game without incurring injuries while a Blazer. I'll say further, that had he stayed healthy, that team (Valentine, Paxson, Kiki, Thompson and Bowie)(Clyde as 6th man) would have given the Lakers some annual anguish in the postseason!
Again, as my post above points out, this is not meant as a personal attack on Bowie's character. I actually got to meet him, at our church, and I KNOW he is a good man, from very humble beginnings. My including him on this list is for the disappointment I HAVE in not being able to see him play with that team and stay injury free. Same for Oden. I think it could have been ('77, '78, '90, '91, '92, '00) special!!
