[HoopsWorld]The Blazers Report Sep 22, 2003
Welcome to the long delayed issue of The Blazers Report. For a technological
reason unknown to me, I have been able to access, but unable to take any
action within the Hoopsworld common gateway interface (“CGI”). Merely
knowing what that term means is a major advancement for me. Either way, this
article is being sent directly into Hoopsworld in hopes that it gets posted
and if you are reading this, I have been successful. I do appreciate all the
e-mails I received asking me where the reports have been. I was struck by how
emotional many people were over the lack of reports. Some people accused me
of being constantly tardy, others were very personal in attacking me for not
posting, and many were supportive and said they missed the regular reports.
I appreciate all the comments and it simply amazes me that 12 readers can
have such vastly differing emotions. Well for all of your emotions, here you
go.
Luckily since the last report, one month ago, there has been very little
actual news to report. Unfortunately there has been tremendous activity
underneath the news to talk about, really for the first time since early
summer. The majority of the summer has been spent with the Blazers virtually
silent in both activity and rumors. They have been “talking” to many teams
but only had remotely substantive conversations with Memphis. New Jersey and
Toronto after their dalliance with Dallas, Milwaukee and Indiana early in the
summer. Let’s get to the news.
Blazers Trades
There have been many rumors involving Portland, Toronto, New Jersey and
Memphis and let’s take a moment to sort these trades out.
The Blazers went into the season with a big void at point guard due to the
uncertainty and erratic play of Damon Stoudamire and the loss of Scottie
Pippen. Additionally, the Blazers desperately need a small forward who can
shoot the ball and a center who can block shots. They generally eschewed the
free agent market looking for players in trades due to the Blazers relatively
deep squad hoping to fill their holes.
The Blazers started out the offseason looking to acquire Gary Payton and were
relatively convinced they had a deal worked out with Ruben Patterson and Jeff
McInnis to Milwaukee for Gary Payton. The Bucks balked a little at Ruben’s
contract and wanted Sabonis for the relief. The Blazers balked at $40 million
for Gary and the rest is hopefully not a Lakers championship story.
The Blazers next moved Indiana and discussed acquiring Brad Miller in a
package that would have included Sabonis, but when Miller’s price went up to
$70 million, the Blazers decided to once again stand pat and could not offer
a cheap replacement like Scott Pollard.
As we discussed in an earlier article, I firmly believe the Blazers are
making the right fiscal moves as well as basketball moves in turning down
these deals. The Blazers cannot constantly lead the NBA in payroll and be a
profitable enterprise without raising ticket prices which will then cause a
rift in fan support. As for the basketball deals, it is rare that a long-term
contract works out and I do not believe that Gary at his age or Brad Miller
at his talent are worth the money being tossed around and the inflexibility
that will result.
The Blazers moved on from these failures to then approach Dallas about various
deals that would involve Arvydas Sabonis with an eye on Nick Van Exel and
Michael Finley. The Mavericks were unwilling to break up the big three of
Finley, Nowitzki and Nash and the Blazers could not offer for Van Exel enough
in salary without losing players such as Rasheed or Bonzi, which the Blazers
were unwilling to part with. The Mavericks and Mark Cuban were in a buying
mode on salary issues, one which I think will ultimately be the downfall of
the franchise in 2-3 years. Despite Nowitzki, this franchise will really
struggle when Finley, Nash and Jamison reach the down points of their careers
in 3-4 years despite still making huge salaries.
At this point in July, the Blazers began what was to be a 3 month discussion
with the New Jersey Nets, Memphis Grizzlies and Toronto Raptors that would
involve several different players and scenarios from Sabonis and Rasheed for
Kenyon Martin and Mutombo to a more complicated trade. The Oregonian reported
that a four-team deal was nixed by Paul Allen’s unwillingness to take on
certain salary. My information suggests that the four-team deal was never
that close to fruition and as we have stated all along, no matter how many
teams are involved, Paul Allen’s reluctance is in general to taking on
salary and Steve Patterson and John Nash have not been in favor of bringing
on Antonio Davis’ salary, which has been the stumbling block in all trade
scenarios with these teams in which Toronto is involved.
I have heard from various sources with ties to Memphis that the Grizzlies
got out of the sweepstakes once Mike Dickerson started to seriously think
about retirement. The former Federal Way, Washington high school star has
had continued struggles with his groin and it does not help when your team
would encourage you to retire rather than make it back because they would
like to see your salary go away. If Dickerson does retire, the Grizzlies
strategy changes as they do not need to move Gasol to be a player in free
agency next season. The team right now projects to have about $32 million
in salary next season minus Dickerson and with Swift and Miller receiving
reasonable raises. With a draft pick that will be relatively high, the cap
will be around $35 million and with a $42 million cap, that’s $7 million.
Moving a player like Battier will give the Grizzlies serious room to be
players in the market and is a dangerous proposition for the league with
a number of high profile players on the market and a nucleus of Gasol,
Miller, and Swift to build around along with serious complimentary players
and will look for a shooting guard, point guard or power forward in free
agency. My prediction is you will see the genius of Jerry West next season.
This leaves the Blazers with the Raptors and Nets. There has been talk about
a 3-way deal, but for the first time all summer, the Blazers are not the
ones driving the deal. The Raptors would like to move out Antonio Davis and
are comfortable receiving Mutombo in return to accelerate the payments if
they can get something for their talent loss. The Blazers are now focused on
retaining Rasheed for the season and are reasonably comfortable that Kenyon
Martin would be available midseason if he is available now and the Blazers
want to make that move.
This leaves the Blazers with very little change entering a season where
offseason overhaul was not overtly promised, but was on the tips of every
season ticket holders tongues as they received their Rose Garden renewal
forms. The player the Blazers most desperately want to move, Ruben Patterson,
is proving impossible to move and this time it is really not due to anything
he has done. Ruben was involved in the fight with Zach Randolph from which,
Ruben really had very little fault, but it hurt his already troubled label.
The high profile angst of Ron Artest has hurt Ruben as people associate Ruben
with the same type of anger trouble. Finally, the trouble of Stoudamire hurt
Ruben as he is guilty by association whenever any of the Blazers get in
trouble as he has the most serious troubled past. I am not here to defend
Ruben or his past actions, but he has been relatively trouble free in
Portland, sans domestic violence and I cannot speak to someone’s personal
home life, however reprehensible the actions I believe are as it is an
entirely different situation. Nevertheless, I am interested to see how Ruben
reacts to playing in Portland this year. The Blazers seem very resigned to
sit him right next to Damon on the bench in the “doghouse”, a reference
that backfired last year as Damon thought that meant the Snoop Doggy Dog
type of doghouse where one could associate with former pimps and carry bags
of marijuana through the airport like it was a music video. This has forced
the Blazers to rename this area as “Purgatory” hoping that Ruben and Damon
will instead associate their punishments with negative action.
The moral to this story is that barring a parting of the Red Sea, the Blazers
roster you see today is the Blazers roster you will see in November.
Blazers Lineups
The Blazers enter training camp very disappointed with the lack of offseason
shuffling and now face a difficult decision. They have wonderful depth at 2
positions: shooting guard and power forward, two troubled point guards, no
starting caliber small forwards and one center who does not block shots
particularly well. The team still cannot shoot and has lost leadership. Here
is hoping that David Aldridge constantly saying that the Blazers had to many
generals and not enough soldiers was correct because I am not optimistic.
On a sidenote, I am seriously disappointed that LeBron James comes to the Rose
Garden at the same time the Ducks will be tipping off at Husky Stadium. I just
wanted to mention that. Big win for the Ducks by the way, but I cannot tell
if they are for real or if Navarre was that bad. From the TV it was hard to
tell, give Oregon credit for I am extremely happy for the state. As a Husky
fan, I am curious if this was a combination of factors or actually a really
strong Oregon squad as they looked it against Michigan but not against
Mississippi State. I really look forward to the game against WSU and then at
Utah to answer those questions. If WSU loses to Oregon and with them coming
to Seattle, they will struggle to stay in the Pac-10 race leaving only the
Huskies, Ducks and Trojans unless I am really wrong about ASU which does not
look very good. And another thing, does Oregon really not play USC? Wow, that
is fortunate for the Ducks if true.
Back to the Blazers. The Blazers are now looking at training camp with the
likelihood that they will start out with Damon or McInnis at the point, DA
at shooting guard, Bonzi at small forward, Rasheed at power forward and Dale
Davis at center. McInnis, Woods and Randolph will come off the bench and
Patterson will fall behind Woods on the depth chart and Boumtje Boumtje will
receive some playing time, but not significant unless foul trouble forces the
issue. The Blazers expect nothing from Outlaw and will either carry him as a
12th man or on injured reserve. This will leave 1-3 spots to be earned during
training camp. Either the recently signed Scott Padgett or Tracy Murray will
likely receive one spot as the “Dell Curry” memorial position and I expect
Mamadou N’Diaye to receive another position. This will be a departure from
the Blazers decision to keep a Caucasian center on the roster as a never used
backup, a tradition which has carried all the way back to a second round pick
in 1983 named Granville Walters who last broke this tradition and would give
the edge to Jason Jennings, but I think the Blazers will depart from the
tradition again this season.
In future reports we will report on the progress of the camp roster. The
major roster focus with Portland will be finding ways in which Rasheed and
Zach can play together, particularly with Rasheed at the 3 leaving Bonzi at
the 2 and either DA or Damon at point.
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