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

Personally, if I were pritchard, I would do nothing with my roster except minor things. People will criticize his deal or apparent deal for hedo, but if hedo left a team that was ready to win now in portland and Orlando for a million or so, that's not what you want. I like hedo alot , but to go to toronto vs portland is a head scratcher. People are also critical of offering milsap the money. I understand the deal and rotations of what that will do. What it will do is give the team the ability to trade Pryzbilla and have a 3 man rotation with La,Milsap,and Oden. That's a very good and young athletic 4/5 combo. They have good depth with webster coming back along with outlaw,fernandez,and batum and also the Koppen guy from last year might come over and contribute. Blake is just a stop gap and they hope bayless really pushes him forr that spot. McMillan would be a fool to leave himself open to getting booted from this roster. There will be coaches praying to work for a owner like allen and have a young talented roster like pofrtland has. I like nate and all, but is nate a better coach than avery? They should panic and trade any of their young players. Roy will be taken care of as well as LA.

 

No, it isn't.

Toronto is putting together a decent roster. Not as good as Portland, true. But never underestimate the value of Toronto's international flavor to the basketball players who come from countries where soccer is #1. And there are a lot of Turks in Toronto.

And his wife was leaning in that direction.

How did Jeff Foxworthy say it? "If she ain't happy, you ain't happy."

 

I spoke to my Turkish friend about Hedo the other day over Bayti and Ayran, he said, "There are Turks everywhere, if you're making 50 million dollars, you don't have to worry about getting Turkish food." I'd say the wife has more to do with him signing in Toronto than anything else.

 

Could someone please please PLEASE tell me why there is so much hype behind the Raptors? The Nets, Bucks, and Bobcats had better records last year, it's not like this team is showing loads of potential. Their losing wing depth in Anthony Parker and possibly Jamario Moon and all they've done to improve is sign Hedo.

With all the analysis out there, I can't believe people are overlooking how awful this team is defensively. Their not good on offense either. It seems like people are just fascinated with a team that plays an unorthodox style with athletic jump shooting "bigs". I'll take a short tough big man who rebounds and scores easily around the rim like Carl Landry over a 7 footer who scores about as efficiently as a 2 guard like Bargnani.

 

Bosh, Bargnani, Hedo and Calderon make a decent core. I think they'll be good offensively, their players' skillsets complement each other well now. Defensively they're going to be bad, the best you can hope for is average with Calderon and Hedo in there. I guess they're just saying screw it, we'll worry about the offense first.

They've got real problems with depth and need a starting 2, if Derozen works out that solves some problems for them. Colangelo is pretty good at finding players you never heard of, he'll probably bring over someone else from Europe.

 

Responding to YOUR response to my earlier post:

I have little interest in the Raptors. To tell the truth, I don't see much interest in the team from other posters here, except when we talk about trading for Bosh, or if I say, I wish we had a real starting PG like they have. But the team? Who cares?

I used to live overseas. I haven't been to Toronto, but from what I hear, it's got a lot of Europeans, a lot of South Americans, a lot of Asians. The makeup of the city is attractive to foreign basketball players, maybe for the same reasons that it appeals less to American players---great place for a vacation, when can I go home?

 

http://www.sltrib.com/sports/ci_12829703

 

In my household and the one I grew up in, i'm the king who makes all the major decisions. So if i'm making the money and i'm the man, i'm going to portland, but much like these softies that call themselves men who are really metrosexuals, they probably are swayed insteade of being the hammer. If its about winning and money, how can anyone say toronto roster is better now or in the near future. What happens when bosh leaves and they get nothing and its bargiani,hedo,and calderon? Good luck with that one.

 

He made more money in Toronto......

 

Have faith in Morey to do the right thing. He can take advantage of the situation in Portland and obtain pieces to propel the team to greater heights this season. I still believe that He will pull off a deal that would save this season.

 

A_3PO, I'm assuming you're a big portland fan so I think you can answer this question for me:

Why is Pritchard hesitant to give a max contract to Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge? Sure the economy's going to hell, the salary cap dropped, and the current CBA is about to expire but all this seems to be a moot point when your owner was/has been willing to spend money to keep players in town (e.g. all those JailBlazers from the days of yore). Granted, Roy is their only All-Star player and Aldridge isn't quite a 20/10 guy yet but if you're going to promote and believe that these two guys ARE your franchise, then why play hardball?

Is it because Pritchard salivates at the cap room flexibility he has now that he dreads looking at max contract figures?

Is it because he want to haggle for every cent because he simply thinks he can?

Is it because he still has Greg Oden to retain and sign an extension to in a few years?

I don't live in Portland and I don't know how Paul Allen manages his team but I'm assuming that the man isn't going to shortchange his team, especially a team that has been turned 180 degrees from it's dogged days in the late 90s-early 2000s.

 

his contract is $3US million more than the one portland offered him. So basically it's another $500K per year he's getting.

 

Nobody is sure why Roy's contract isn't done and some Blazer fans are nervous. Supposedly Roy wants a player option for the 5th year and the Blazers want only 4 years. Everyone assumes Pritchard will cave. Some think he's hardballing Roy so that when he gives in and talks to Aldridge, it will make it easier to hardball him and agree to less than a 5 year max deal. Let me repeat that Roy and Aldridge have the same agent.

 

I have trouble buying this one. The plan is to eventually cave into the agent's demands for Roy's contract, and then tell the same agent Portland... isn't going to cave in again? What? I don't see how this would affect negotiations for LA, except maybe encourage the agent to persevere in holding out for a bigger deal for LA.

I only see Roy and LA having the same agent being an issue if the agent is using Roy as leverage to get a bigger contract for LA, but this doesn't seem to be the case (and if the agent tries it, he's playing with fire as it would then be in Roy's best interest to fire him).

 

A) Toronto offered him $3 million more
B) How can you judge someone you don't know for his employment decisions, made from reasons you can't possibly access?
C) The spouse should have a say in these matters, considering it affects where she has to live by thousands of miles

Besides, the decision was worth it just because of the hissy fit Pritchard and the annoying internet Blazers homers threw.

 

If there is a logical explanation for what Pritchard is doing with Roy, I challenge anyone out there to enlighten us all.

Seriously though, I think Roy and LA will be buttoned up before the end of August. Maybe Pritchard just doesn't want a deal done right now. He wouldn't be the first GM to stall and delay the inevitable a few weeks. Roy's public barking about it sure is roiling Blazermia.

 

Aldridge is not a max player, roy is. playing hardball with the savior of the team is stupid, save it for the guy who is replaceable, or at least someone you can live without.

 

Aldridge is worth more than Bargnani.

 

Roy was arguably the best player in college in 06. He was just underrated for whatever reasons. I'm really starting to doubt whether the Blazers will be able to sign Roy, LMA and Oden.

 

bargnani is overpaid for his production so far. i think colangelo is forcasting out a few years hoping he'll be worth the money they'll be paying him.