It's scary how any team can do a 180 age-wise in 2 or so years and still stay pretty much a winning team and not one of the dregs of the league.
Being a dreaded Blazers fan, this comment got me thinking. So what I did was take the top 7 "young" players from each team and average their ages @ the start of next season. Here's what I came up with: Rasheed Wallace Bonzi Wells Derek Anderson Ruben Patterson Damon Stoudamire Zach Randolph Erick Barkley Average age: 25.1 years Steve Francis Cuttino Mobley Maurice Taylor Eddie Griffin Shandon Anderson Kenny Thomas Kelvin Cato Average age: 24.9 years So basically my argument is if you peel back a few veterans, the Blazers are left with a young team. Anyone care to argue that either of these cores, if kept together, will be significantly better than the other in a few years?
you forgot to figure morris in for houston, which should bring down the average, though of course he may not be part of the young 'core'. i suspect he will be, especially down the line (cato, anderson are nearing 30)
ok... blazer guy.. comparitively by position: PG- Francis vs. Stoudamire/ Barkley- I don't think a comment is necessary here. SG- Mobley/Shandon Anderson vs. Derek Anderson/Bonzi Wells- I'd probably give it to the Blazers.. I love Mobley but both DA and BW are awesome. I think Shandon is the weakest link here. SF- Griffin/Tmo vs. Patterson - Griff baby.. the skypilot is ok, but won't ever be a star like Griff.. I hope Griff doesn't dub himself the Kobe stopper though! Tmo is gonna surprise some people. PF- Mo Taylor/ KT vs. Rasheed/ Zach Randolph- Definitely have to give the nod to Rasheed, plus Zach Randolph looks like he's going to be a stud. Mo T and KT are solid though, just not superstars C- Cato vs. No Young Blazer available- I'll probably take the Blazers on this one too... I still think the Rocket's future looks brighter. Francis is going to be one of the top 10 players in the league and I'm willing to bet Rasheed won't be in a Blazer's uni after a couple more years. That's my take.
I'm not interested in a blow-by-blow analysis of those guys, but I will say that Erick Barkley is a scrub who doesn't belong on either list, and Patterson is a felon. Also the Rockets have the freedom to add players to their core as needed, where the Blazers have dead weight like Kemp and Quitten who bloat their salary cap.
High plains,I was thinking the exact same thing,I hate the blazers because of pippen,but looking at their situation they are not in bad shape like the spazz or spurs,just take quitten out of there!! Match up: (I'm predicting starting linups with just these players) C-wallace vs cato:Hmmm... Adv por.Dont want to elaborate. PF-Randolph vs Mo T:If zach stays in shape and lives up to his potential maybe portland has the edge,but Mo T will also improve and his offense is allready great so right now Adv hou. SF-Wells vs Griffin:I may be biased but I think griffin owns this one.I like bonzi but what eddie is gonna bring to this team in a year or two will be unmacthable. Adv Hou SG-Anderson vs Mobley:Fair matchup.Explosive players but derek has more defense and mobes has more offense.TIED PG-Stoudamire vs Francis:Just some years ago the mighty mouse was going to be OUR pg and I was very excited,thank god that didn't happen because we got franchise Damon can surely play but francis will overpower him definitly. Adv Hou Bench: Anderson/K9 thomas vs Barkley/Patterson Because of experience I think we have a better bench.Anderson against patterson(similar players) give's us an advantage and it's always better to have a very good back up 4 than a good back up 1.
Yes, but Pippen, Kemp, and Davis will all be off the books in a couple of seasons if they aren't retained. That could allow for a litttle wiggle room....but if you can continue bringing in guys like Patterson with the mid-level exception and guys like Derek Anderson via sign-and-trades, who needs cap room?
exactly hpd, why pay scumbags like Kemp and Pippen 16-20 million per year when you can pay scumbags like Derek Anderson or Ruben Patterson 4 or 5 per year? How can you even compare the Rockets and Blazers? Wallace - whiny *****. Stoudamire - whiny *****. Patterson - rapist. Derek Anderson - whiny *****. I'll take what the Rockets have created, every single day, thank you.
Well, I don't really intend to get into a petty argument about which players are better. I disagree with some of your depictions of Blazer players , those are your opinions. But I think that we all agree that at least the Blazers (unlike maybe the Jazz and Spurs) aren't doomed to mediocrity in a few years when the older guys start to leave...
Vrene, is that you?? verne this english guy that lived on my floor freshman year took 6 years to graduate. and he got a degree in rocket science seriously he also sold about a pound of weed a week to the other freshman on my floor. very cool kid
Portland has a young, talented player at every position for the future, other then center. Stoudamire, Anderson, Patterson, and Wallace. If Bonzi Wells gets healthy and close to what he used to be before the injury, they might be able to package him for a decent big man. They won't be nearly as deep as they used to be, but they would have the cap room to get reasonably deep. Definitely the Blazers have a bright future. The good thing is the Rockets, with 2 franchise players, and very good players in Mo and Mobley, they would probably be ahead of Portland because they would have proven go-to guys. But Portland's future is secure.
