Bill Simmons owes me a new monitor!

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chris_in_pdx

chris_in_pdx

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I spewed coke all over my monitor when I read this gem:

http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/chatESPN?event_id=26579

Matt (Olympia): Bill, What should the Blazers do to get themselves to the next level? They have something like 5 draft picks...can they package some of those to get a veteran? Who would you want to put with their core of BRoy, Aldridge and Oden(other than Durant)?

SportsNation Bill Simmons: I think their talent has been vastly overrated - they have 2 keepers (Roy and LA) and I'm not sold on anyone else on that roster except Rudy. Outlaw, Blake, Pryzbilla, Oden... **these are all bench guys**. I thought they made a serious mistake not using Raef's contract to get a blue-chipper this year. They look better on paper than they actually are...
Click to expand...

Oh it's going to be so fucking sweet to jam his face in this pile of hater shit for the next decade.
 
Well until somebody else steps up, he is right. I don't see eye to eye with Bill often, but he is right.
 
I partially agree with him. I am still very frustrated that we didn't trade for a player like Gerald Wallace (assuming he was available) for raef, batum and fillers. Batum has a lot of upside, but Gerald Wallace is a borderline allstar who flirts with triple doubles often... He is what we can only hope Batum gets close to being. I am going to hold judgment until I see what KP pulls off during the off season.
 
Simmons has held a grudge against Portland since the day they got the #1 pick when Boston had the best chance to get it. Even though everything has worked out fine for the Celtics since that point in time, he's had this weird vendetta against Portland and has struggled to say anything positive about the franchise.

Fuck him.

-Pop
 
Interesting since Blake and Joel had career years, and would start on just about any other team in the NBA. And Oden was a freakin' rookie with unreasonable expectations, especially coming off microfracture surgery.

Sometimes I think Blazer Fans won't be satisfied without 12 All-Stars/All-NBA players on the roster, and even then, they'll bitch.
 
SodaPopinski said:
Simmons has held a grudge against Portland since the day they got the #1 pick when Boston had the best chance to get it. Even though everything has worked out fine for the Celtics since that point in time, he's had this weird vendetta against Portland and has struggled to say anything positive about the franchise.

Fuck him.

-Pop
Click to expand...

You are correct, sir!:drumroll:
 
Mediocre Man said:
What exactly did he say that is wrong? Travis is a bench guy. Blake is a bench guy. Joel is a bench guy. Oden for last year was a bench guy.
Click to expand...

What he said wrong is that he used the word talent to describe their play.

Sure, Batum, Oden and Bayless played like bench guys - but they are rookies - their talent level is higher than bench guys.They are not developed talent - but the talent is there. The question is - will it be developed properly? Personally - I think we have seen a lot from the coaching staff to show us that they can develop talent.

People said Roy is OK but will never be a star. LMA is a softie that will never be a star. Wrong and wrong again. I am willing to bet that in a year or two the unrealized talent of Oden, Batum and Bayless and Rudy's continued transition to the NBA will leave the Blazers with at least 6 good starter-level developed talents on the roster - but the talent is already there.

The funny thing is that if Bill is right and the talent on this team is not good - it means that Nate and his staff are absolute magicians to get this no-talent, youngest rotation in the league to 54 wins...
 
chris_in_pdx said:
Interesting since Blake and Joel had career years, and would start on just about any other team in the NBA. And Oden was a freakin' rookie with unreasonable expectations, especially coming off microfracture surgery.

Sometimes I think Blazer Fans won't be satisfied without 12 All-Stars/All-NBA players on the roster, and even then, they'll bitch.
Click to expand...

Name 10 teams that Blake would start for (keep in mind you actually said "just about all of them"). Joel would start on several maybe, but not Blake.

I am not saying that Oden won't be good, or anything like that. I am saying regardless of circumstances, Oden played well below expectations coming out of college.

Here are the teams and who I think Blake would start for, assuming everyone was healthy

Blake
Eastern Conference

Atlanta - Nope (Bibby)
Boston - Nope (Rondo)
Charlotte - Nope (Felton)
Chicago - Nope (Rose)
Cleveland - Nope (Williams)
Detroit - Nope (Stuckey)
Indiana - Nope (Ford)
Miami - Nope (Wade or Chalmers)
Milwaukee - Nope (Sessions)
New Jersey - Nope (Harris)
New York - Nope (Duhon)
Orlando - Nope (Nelson or Alston)
Philadelphia - Nope (Miller)
Toronto - Nope (Calderon)
Washington - Nope (Arenas)

Western conference

Dallas - Nope (Kidd)
Denver - Nope (Billups)
Golden State -Maybe (Ellis or Crawford)
Houston - Nope (Brooks)
LA Clippers - Nope (Davis)
LA L*kers - Nope -(Fisher)
Memphis - Nope (Conley)
New Orleans - Nope (Paul)
Oklahoma City - Maybe (Westbrook)
Phoenix - Nope (Nash)
Sacramento - Maybe (Udrich)
San Antonio - Nope (Parker)
Utah - Nope (Williams)
 
SodaPopinski said:
Simmons has held a grudge against Portland since the day they got the #1 pick when Boston had the best chance to get it. Even though everything has worked out fine for the Celtics since that point in time, he's had this weird vendetta against Portland and has struggled to say anything positive about the franchise.

Fuck him.

-Pop
Click to expand...
I just spewed imaginary coke all over my monitor.
 
SodaPopinski said:
Is that what you kids are calling it these days?

-Pop
Click to expand...
I'm not currently drinking any Coke, so therefore it is imaginary. I laughed at your post, I guess is the main bullet point of this presentation.
 
Simmons DID go on to compliment McMillan...


Bill Simmons: Also like Nate McMillan (despite how he messed up Round One) and I actually think Mike Brown, who was once shaky, has evolved into a really good coach. They are still painful to watch offensively at times but defensively they are superior, and he has to get credit for their chemistry at least a little.
 
Yeah, youngest playing rotation in the league and 54 wins. Talk about overrated. :rolleyes3:
 
cloudydays said:
Simmons DID go on to compliment McMillan...


Bill Simmons: Also like Nate McMillan (despite how he messed up Round One) and I actually think Mike Brown, who was once shaky, has evolved into a really good coach. They are still painful to watch offensively at times but defensively they are superior, and he has to get credit for their chemistry at least a little.
Click to expand...

Yeah, he complained about McMillan not drawing Yao out of the paint with Aldridge at C. He thinks we should have gone small ball and used a lineup of something like this:

Blake
Roy
Rudy
Outlaw
Aldridge

We could have run the pick n pop with Roy & Aldridge and got Yao drawn out to 18 feet. It wouldn't have been bad on offense but we would have been abused on defense. Scola and Yao would have had a party in the paint all game long with that lineup of ours.
 
Mediocre Man said:
Name 10 teams that Blake would start for (keep in mind you actually said "just about all of them"). Joel would start on several maybe, but not Blake.

I am not saying that Oden won't be good, or anything like that. I am saying regardless of circumstances, Oden played well below expectations coming out of college.

Here are the teams and who I think Blake would start for, assuming everyone was healthy

Blake
Eastern Conference

Atlanta - Nope (Bibby)
Boston - Nope (Rondo)
Charlotte - Nope (Felton)
Chicago - Nope (Rose)
Cleveland - Nope (Williams)
Detroit - Nope (Stuckey)
Indiana - Nope (Ford)
Miami - Nope (Wade or Chalmers)
Milwaukee - Nope (Sessions)
New Jersey - Nope (Harris)
New York - Nope (Duhon)
Orlando - Nope (Nelson or Alston)
Philadelphia - Nope (Miller)
Toronto - Nope (Calderon)
Washington - Nope (Arenas)

Western conference

Dallas - Nope (Kidd)
Denver - Nope (Billups)
Golden State -Maybe (Ellis or Crawford)
Houston - Nope (Brooks)
LA Clippers - Nope (Davis)
LA L*kers - Nope -(Fisher)
Memphis - Nope (Conley)
New Orleans - Nope (Paul)
Oklahoma City - Maybe (Westbrook)
Phoenix - Nope (Nash)
Sacramento - Maybe (Udrich)
San Antonio - Nope (Parker)
Utah - Nope (Williams)
Click to expand...

And he won't start on the Blazers next season, after we sign Andre Miller :devilwink:
 
SodaPopinski said:
Simmons has held a grudge against Portland since the day they got the #1 pick when Boston had the best chance to get it. Even though everything has worked out fine for the Celtics since that point in time, he's had this weird vendetta against Portland and has struggled to say anything positive about the franchise.

Fuck him.

-Pop
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure you're over-thinking it. It's more likely he's just an idiot.

It hurt to lose the lottery that year, but I haven't come across anybody that was bitter about it after the KG trade.

I sometimes think about what it would be like to have Rondo-West-Pierce-Jefferson-Oden, which I think would be a great team, especially with Perkins and Big Baby coming off the bench. But I wouldn't trade the feeling I had last year when the Celtics won for anything.
 
andalusian said:
The funny thing is that if Bill is right and the talent on this team is not good - it means that Nate and his staff are absolute magicians to get this no-talent, youngest rotation in the league to 54 wins...
Click to expand...

:sigh: I've been saying this for 2 years. The "Nate sucks" brigade is delusional about how good some of our players are. Nate got as much as possible out of this team. (during the regular season) Give the guy some credit!
 
Mediocre Man said:
Name 10 teams that Blake would start for (keep in mind you actually said "just about all of them"). Joel would start on several maybe, but not Blake.

I am not saying that Oden won't be good, or anything like that. I am saying regardless of circumstances, Oden played well below expectations coming out of college.

Here are the teams and who I think Blake would start for, assuming everyone was healthy

Blake
Eastern Conference

Atlanta - Nope (Bibby)
Boston - Nope (Rondo)
Charlotte - Nope (Felton)
Chicago - Nope (Rose)
Cleveland - Nope (Williams)
Detroit - Nope (Stuckey)
Indiana - Nope (Ford)
Miami - Nope (Wade or Chalmers)
Milwaukee - Nope (Sessions)
New Jersey - Nope (Harris)
New York - Nope (Duhon)
Orlando - Nope (Nelson or Alston)
Philadelphia - Nope (Miller)
Toronto - Nope (Calderon)
Washington - Nope (Arenas)

Western conference

Dallas - Nope (Kidd)
Denver - Nope (Billups)
Golden State -Maybe (Ellis or Crawford)
Houston - Nope (Brooks)
LA Clippers - Nope (Davis)
LA L*kers - Nope -(Fisher)
Memphis - Nope (Conley)
New Orleans - Nope (Paul)
Oklahoma City - Maybe (Westbrook)
Phoenix - Nope (Nash)
Sacramento - Maybe (Udrich)
San Antonio - Nope (Parker)
Utah - Nope (Williams)
Click to expand...

And yet we still won 54 games with a below average point guard and a ton of "bench players". Sorry it's not like are a below .500 team with promising talent, something apparently went very right and it seems that Simmons is having a hard time coming to grips with that.
 
chris_in_pdx said:
Interesting since Blake and Joel had career years, and would start on just about any other team in the NBA. And Oden was a freakin' rookie with unreasonable expectations, especially coming off microfracture surgery.

Sometimes I think Blazer Fans won't be satisfied without 12 All-Stars/All-NBA players on the roster, and even then, they'll bitch.
Click to expand...

Dude, be serious.

If you put those 2 guys on the trading block tomorrow, Joel would draw significant interest. Blake? You could count the teams on the fingers of one hand. He would only be of interest to a coach who would be willing to give up the things a PG usually does, in favor of a designated 3-point shooter. Even at that, they would likely see him coming off the bench - not starting.
 
oldmangrouch said:
Dude, be serious.

If you put those 2 guys on the trading block tomorrow, Joel would draw significant interest. Blake? You could count the teams on the fingers of one hand. He would only be of interest to a coach who would be willing to give up the things a PG usually does, in favor of a designated 3-point shooter. Even at that, they would likely see him coming off the bench - not starting.
Click to expand...

Blake was/is a stop-gap for the PG position until we upgrade. There is no question that he is much more valuable to our team than others, so it's easy for people to overvalue his skills.
 
ppilot said:
Blake was/is a stop-gap for the PG position until we upgrade. There is no question that he is much more valuable to our team than others, so it's easy for people to overvalue his skills.
Click to expand...

Dead on. :clap:

BTW, always nice to see some new blood. We promise not to spill it! (much) ;)
 
oldmangrouch said:
Dude, be serious.

If you put those 2 guys on the trading block tomorrow, Joel would draw significant interest. Blake? You could count the teams on the fingers of one hand. He would only be of interest to a coach who would be willing to give up the things a PG usually does, in favor of a designated 3-point shooter. Even at that, they would likely see him coming off the bench - not starting.
Click to expand...

Yep. Steve Blake is the new Steve Kerr.
 
Mediocre Man said:
What exactly did he say that is wrong? Travis is a bench guy. Blake is a bench guy. Joel is a bench guy. Oden for last year was a bench guy.
Click to expand...

Joel would start for most teams - including the Celtics, and Simmons knows it. That's BS.
 
In all fairness to Simmons he is just saying the team's talent is overrated, not bad. And they are a good team, but have been called a great team. I have heard commentators say Portland is a sure fire "Future Dynasty". Those people are fucking delusional. It is possible, but no sure thing.

So yeah, our team has been overrated by some commentators and many fans.
 
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