[Adrian Wojnarowski] Pritchard “agitated”, “panicked” and even “desperate"

What are yo.... WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!!!

 

You just quoted yourself and replied back to yourself. Did you forget your cofee this morning?

 

Well, the Battier/Brooks to Portland rumors certainly make a lot more sense now, in light of this article.

 

AB trade rumors to Portland? Hadn't heard any of those.

 

This is hilarious!!!!!!!

 

If I had to guess, I would think that Portland's plans have to be very contingent on whether the Jazz match for Millsap or not. For instance, if the Jazz don't match on Millsap, you suddenly have a glut of bigs and can trade someone like Joel Przybilla for a SF. Conversely, if the Jazz match, you might look to trade from other strengths for your SF.

What the author describes as inaction may not be that at all. It may just be that the wheels are moving behind the scenes out of sight while the clock ticks down to zero on the Jazz and Millsap. A good chess player needs to plan 2 or 3 moves in advance when possible.

Additionally, if I were Portland I would hesitate to add Odom as a veteran presence to my young team as well. He fits in many ways on the court but not so much off the court/in the locker room.

 

According to the Boston Globe, Pistons turn down Boozer for Prince.

 

Why do people think Pritchard is a genius anyway? The only great move he made was Brandon Roy; drafting Rudy Fernandez was a very good move, I think, but Fernandez still has lots to prove. After those two I have a hard time finding another good move, I guess you could say Aldridge since he avoided drafting Morrison, I've got a feeling Aldridge is about to be overpaid very soon.

Lets do a comparison: coming into the 2007 draft, the Rockets and the Blazers both had 2 stars, one in the front court and one in the backcourt. The Blazers had the 1st overall pick, bought a number of other picks, and ended up with:

Greg Oden
Rudy Fernandez
Petteri Koppenen
Josh Mcroberts

The Rockets ended up with Brooks and Landry. Call me crazy, but that's a fairly even haul unless Oden turns into a monster.

 

I don't mean to say that Pritchard is a terrible GM, it's just that he doesn't deserve the genius label either, save that for Presti and Morey. Presti has not messed up with a high pick yet, awesome considering the Westbrook pick, while Morey has found real steals late in the draft. Presti and Morey combined would be the genius that Pritchard is described to be. Pritchard himself comes no where close.

 

Wouldn't it be nice if we could parlay Battier into Rubio through Portland sending out young talent to Minny while we give them a future #1 unprotected and take back Songaila and Telfair?

Come to think of it, Songaila would fit in real nice with Adelman.

 

What the previous poster was saying is true, he wasn't saying Pritchard got Roy and LMA by luck, he knew those guys would be good which is why he traded for those guys. What Pritchard probably didn't know was Roy would be THIS good, good enough to warrant a max contract just a few years after he was drafted. I doubt anyone could have predicted Roy would become a superstar, he wasn't this good in college.

I also believe Pritchard is overrated, he seems good at picking assets up but doesn't seem to know how to combine those assets into a meaningful team. Either that or nobody wants to trade with him since he seems like a real arrogant sob.

As it stand the Blazers are looking at another 1st round exit, and would have to start paying those "assets" some serious cash after next year. There's Roy and LMA, and after that you have Oden, Bayless and Rudy Fernandez as guys who want way more than the MLE. Ironically they still have a hole in sf postion, Outlaw and webster don't really look like keepers to me. What's even laughable is that they didn't even go after Lamar Odom, he is clearly better than Turkoglu inconsistent or not.

Rather than Pritchard, the one guy I put on par with DM the GM is Sam Presti. That guy is the poster boy for the up and coming Gms in the league IMHO.

 

I wouldn't call any of them geniuses. When you look at where they started, Pritchard has brought the Blazers further than Morey has the Rockets or Presti the Thunder. One move he made that doesn't get much discussion is turning Z-Bo's $66 million contract into a $30 million buyout. That's pretty good math.

I guess genius is in the eye of the beholder. I'm not willing to call any GM with a 2-year tenure anything like that unless their team actually accomplishes something. The jury is still out on all 3 guys.

So because you "have a feeling" Aldridge is about to be overpaid, it makes the trade of the #4 pick for him less brilliant?

I will indeed call you borderline crazy because if 32 GMs had to choose between AB + Landry vs. Oden + Rudy, probably all 32 would take Oden + Rudy, even if Oden doesn't turn into a monster. But everyone is entitled to their opinion.

 

If Roy, Aldridge, Rudy, Oden and Bayless all improve, the future looks extremely good for the Blazers. If not, paying Oden, Rudy and Bayless won't be a big issue when the time comes. It's one way or the other.

Pritchard might be overrated. We'll see. Ditto for Presti, who's starting to get the same love Pritchard was getting last summer even though his team hasn't done zip. It's all about which guy can close the sale and turn accumulated talent into a championship contender.

I'm rooting for both of them. I am a HUGE! KD and Roy fan. They are two of my five favorite players in the NBA. If the Rockets fall short, I would love to see a Thunder vs. Blazers WCF in 2011.

 

This made me LOL, great representation!

 

Maybe all 32 GMs would take Oden + Rudy, GMs like to go with upside. Let me say it a different way. Compare the actual contributions that AB + Landry have made to their team to the contributions Oden + Rudy have made and it's a pretty wide gap.

You are right about the jury still being out, I'll just say that Pritchard is the only one out of the 3 with a glaring mistake on his record.

Pritchard did unload Zach Randolph. The Knicks traded Randolph for Mobley + Thomas (Mobley immediately retired allowing them to collect insurance money). The Clippers traded 33 mil of Randolph for about 10 mil in expiring contracts. The lesson here is that it's pretty easy to get rid of Zach if you really want to.

 

It's not as clear cut as you make it seem. Say Oden shows promise in the last year of their rookie contract, finally making it through injury free. They'd have to top dollar to keep Oden. GMs have a funny way of overpaying their own guys that they have drafted and developed, it's like this somehow validates the decision to draft the guy in the first place. Bargnani and Andrew Bynum are perfect example of this, half a year of good play and these guys get above 10 mil.

We'll see how Portland plays it with the Aldridge negotiations. I think he's going to get a max contract, making him overpaid. Aldridge is going to want more than Bargnani, just about everyone agrees he's going to get more, including the Blazers FO. Other teams are going to come after Aldridge, even if it's just to screw with the Blazers some. I dont' know who Colangelo was bidding against for Bargnani, but there will be plenty of teams ready to drive up the price on Aldridge. Finally, Aldridge's camp knows the Blazers have the money, the difference of 5 mil a year is nothing to Paul Allen. There are times when having a rich owner is a bad thing.

 

Aldridge and Roy should be paid the max. Aldridge is the best young PF in the league along with Big Al and he may actually be one of the top 3 or 4 PFs in the whole league anyways despite his youth.

 

Oden and Rudy played their first year in the NBA last season, so it's easy to say AB & Landry made bigger contributions so far. If I had to rank these 4 in order, Landry would clearly be at the bottom. Forget GMs, if you asked non-Rockets, non-Blazers fans who they would take, 99% of them would take Rudy (24) + Oden (21) over AB (24) + Landry (25). Just an opinion, but I think it's very obvious.

The Blazers have improved from 32/50 to 41/41 to 54/28 since Pritchard arrived. The Thunder have gone 23/59 to 20/62 to 31/51. Speaking of "potential", all this talk about the great job Presti has done is based purely on potential because the Thunder have done nothing at all. The Blazers have improved by 9 games and then by 13 more games. How is there any argument that Pritchard hasn't accomplished more than Presti?

jopatmc, completely agree with you. Aldridge made big strides last season and it's easy to see how much better he will get. I thought the Bargnani contract was a good decision by the Barneys and giving Aldridge his 5yrs/$65MM is the right decision for the Blazers. Players like him don't grow on trees.

 

whoa, whoa, whoa...

which teams have more than one GM??

 

Going from a bad team to a good team is not a hard thing to do in the NBA. If you hit on a pick while you are bad, like the Blazers did with Roy, then you're going to improve in a hurry. The hard part is going from a good team to a contender.

The Blazers had a real chance to become a contender when they received the break of a lifetime and scored the #1 pick in the draft after having #2 and #5? the year before and drafting the clear best player in the class. The last time a team got that lucky, getting a #1 after getting the clear best player in last year's class, was when Orlando got 2 #1 in a row. Lets just say that the Blazers did not seize on their good fortune, their path is much harder now.

If you judge a team by regular season wins, then of course Presti hasn't accomplished much. If you factor in payroll, drafting, decision making, Presti has done better than Pritchard. Both of them have inherited tough situations and have teams that look to be on the rise. But when you are playing with Paul Allen's money, you are judged by a different standard.