1999 Blazers: Balance & Depth

[KingSpeed]

I was thinkin about one of my favorite Blazers of all time- Isaiah Rider- and it made me look up his stats. What struck me was the 1999 season in which Rider only scored 13.4 ppg but led the team in scoring. You don't see that in the league nowadays. We were deep as hell so only Damon Stoudamire and Brian Grant averaged more than 30 mpg and 10 players averaged at least 12 mpg.

We had five players score in double figures:

Rider 13.4
Sheed 12.8
Damon 12.6
Sabonis 12.1
Grant 11.5

We had two formidable, playoff-worth teams:

Starters:

PG Damon
SG Rider
SF Walt Williams
PF Brian Grant
C Sabonis

Second Team:

PG Greg Anthony
SG Jim Jackson
SF Stacey Augmon
PF Rasheed Wallace
C Kelvin Cato

Oh and we had Bonzi Wells and Jermaine O'Neal too.

Remember how GOOD Brian Grant was that season? He was a monster on the boards. He had a three game stretch early in the season in which he averaged 17 ppg and 20 rpg. I believe he got hurt midseason and though he continued to play, he was never quite the same after that. And I think that was that team's undoing. For the first 35 games of the season, we never lost back to back games. We were a really great team. Everyone talks about the 2000 team but I think we had an even better shot in 99. We just had a little slide at the end of the season that kicked us down to the #2 seed (the highest seed we've had since 1992).

We dispatched of the Suns and Jazz easily in the first two rounds of the playoffs. We were in Game 1 against the Spurs in the WCF. It just didn't go our way. Then, in Game 2, we raced out to an 18 point lead and we looked like we were in great shape. Unfortunately, Sean Elliott hit that shot with his heels over the out of bounds line and with Sheed right in his face and that put us in an 0-2 hole. It broke our spirits and we just couldn't recover. Had Sean not hit that shot, I think we might've won it all. We could've beaten the Knicks in the Finals.

Go Blazers

 

[jlprk]

That team would beat today's team, even with Oden and Joel back.

Who got us all that talent?

 

[julius]

That team would beat today's team, even with Oden and Joel back.

Who got us all that talent?

same guy who got us Ruben Patterson, Shawn Kemp, and brought back Detlef Schrempf and Rod Strickland and derailed the team 2 years later.

 

[TripTango]

You had me at Isaiah Rider.

 

[Draco]

same guy who got us Ruben Patterson, Shawn Kemp, and brought back Detlef Schrempf and Rod Strickland and derailed the team 2 years later.

Fact remains he was the only GM to build a Blazer team that got past the first round since the early Drexler era.

 

[julius]

Fact remains he was the only GM to build a Blazer team that got past the first round since the early Drexler era.

True. But he also go out of the first round twice in his whole tenure. And had a significantly higher starting point than KP did. And if you go based on how long they each were GM, KP still would have 2 more seasons as the GM to reach the WCF's, to match Bob's post-season success of getting to the WCF's 2 times in his first 6 seasons.

Bob was hired as GM in 94, didn't make it out of the 1st round until 99. He also didn't ever have the injuries that this team had last year.

Also, KP's teams had 2 straight 50 win seasons, something TB lead teams didn't get until his 5th and 6th season (unless you pro-rate the strike year, then it'd be 4th and 5th seasons).

 

[Draco]

Joel/Greg/Brandon and LA all had major injury history before becoming Blazers and are prone to getting injured. You can't give a GM credit for getting these talented players than remove criticism when they continue to repeat their historical injuries.

Yes the 2010 season had more injuries for us than we should expect on average but last year in 08-09 we were very lucky to be extremely healthy. I didn't hear anyone say we were really a 48 win team last season instead of 54 because we had extremely lucky low amount of injuries.

 

[OddEnormous]

Fact remains he was the only GM to build a Blazer team that got past the first round since the early Drexler era.

And helped start the decent into it's worst form ever...

 

[RoyToy]

Fact remains he was the only GM to build a Blazer team that got past the first round since the early Drexler era.

And then he traded Jermaine O'Neal for Dale Davis and Brian Grant for Shawn Kemp, effectively ruining the team. Good for him.

He went on to ruin the Seahawks after he was fired from the Blazers.

 

[julius]

And then he traded Jermaine O'Neal for Dale Davis and Brian Grant for Shawn Kemp, effectively ruining the team. Good for him.

He went on to ruin the Seahawks after he was fired from the Blazers.

Well, the Seahawks do a good enough job at ruining themselves that you can't pin that on solely on Bob.

 

[TripTango]

Well, the Seahawks do a good enough job at ruining themselves that you can't pin that on solely on Bob.

The Seahawks are a fantastic team. They've just had horrible luck with injuries!

 

[jlprk]

True. But he also go out of the first round twice in his whole tenure. And had a significantly higher starting point than KP did.

Good points. Who was coach can be underrated. Pritchard inherited McMillan, while Allen thrust Carlesimo upon the new Whitsitt for his 1st 3 years. Dunleavy was the coach who got out of the 1st round twice in his 4 years.

He went on to ruin the Seahawks after he was fired from the Blazers.

The next season after he was fired, they made the SuperBowl, using his players.

 

[BGrantFan]

Dunleavy was the coach who got out of the 1st round twice in his 4 years.

Dunleavy just got fired ... again.

 

[OddEnormous]

I have first hand knowledge* (Mike Dunleavey -> My Dad -> Me) that BW had a huge hand/say in who started, how many minutes players got and match ups etc. when Mike D was head coach.

It kind of bummed me out when I heard cause I liked Mike and thought highly of him.

*(Actually that might be 2nd hand knowledge)

 

[STOMP]

Joel/Greg/Brandon and LA all had major injury history before becoming Blazers

Greg had one single injury prior to becoming a Blazer, a torn wrist tendon he suffered in HS... I wouldn't consider that major injury history

STOMP

 

[STOMP]

And then he traded Jermaine O'Neal for Dale Davis and Brian Grant for Shawn Kemp, effectively ruining the team.

the Kemp for Grant deal wasn't a straightforward swap of talents but rather a matter of Bob rolling the dice on acquiring something for an outgoing asset. Though he had 4 years remaining on his 8M per deal, the then 28 year old oft injured Grant had an out in his contract. He made it clear he wanted to be reupped (at much higher #'s) despite coming off a season with knee and foot injuries that caused him to miss 18 games and saw his numbers fall to 21MPG 7.3 Pnts & 5.5 Rbs. While Kemp didn't work out for Portland by any measure, he only had a couple of years left on his deal. What would have truly ruined the club would have been if TBob had given in to Grant's contract demands the way the Heat did to the tune of 7 years 86M. Dude absolutely sucked for most of those years before finally being bought out to just go away. For quite a few seasons he was probably the worst production to dollar player in the league.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/g/grantbr01.html

In retrospect it would have been better for Bob to have just let BG walk, but acquiring Kemp for him hardly ruined the team. It certainly hurt not to have another productive Big still on the roster, but Brian Grant clearly wasn't the one who got away

STOMP