While he would have been overpaid, I don't think Hedo in Portland would have been nearly as disastorous as Hedo in Toronto. Other than Bryan Colangelo's infatuation with soft, jump shooting Europeans who don't play defense, I never did understand why he swooped in and snatched Hedo from the Blazers. Hedo made no sense at all in Toronto. He was totally redundant. They just added more of what the already had (soft, perimeter oriented, no defense, jump shooter) to a roster full of the same.
Hedo was at his best when paired with a dominant low post player. He posted the best stats of his career playing with Dwight Howard in Orlando (the first time). The two of them were great at running the side pick and roll. They milked that all the way to the NBA finals just a couple weeks before Pritchard tried to sign Hedo. And, I'm sure visions of Hedo running the same side pick and roll with Greg Oden figured heavily into Pritchard's hot pursuit of Hedo. Keep in mind, the Blazers had just won 54 games with one of the youngest teams in NBA history and were looking to add a veteran roll player to help take them to the next step - advancing in the play-offs, and Hedo had just helped the Magic advance all the way to the finals. He seemed like a good fit for what the Blazers were looking for at that time, and they were prepared to overpay to get him. Fortunately, Toronto, who had missed the playoffs and needed much more than a veteran roll player to help them contend, was inexplicably willing to overpay him even more - thanks goodness. And while his PER was still low, Hedo's WS/48 in Orlando last season was exactly the same (0.143) as it was the same year he posted his career best 17.8 PER in Orlando.
Of course, I'm thrilled that we have Gerald Wallace and would take him any day of the week over Hedo, but even with Oden injured, I'm not sure Hedo would be a poor fit in Portland. Even though his PER was down last season, he shot 0.410 from 3-point range. With Oden out, his most lilely roll in Nate's offense would be to stand ot the 3-point line and jack-up jumpers as the shot clock expires - a roll he's well suited to.
Again, I'm not trying to say I WANT Hedo, or that he's better than who we ended up with (Gerald Wallace). I'm just pointing out that Hedo may not have been the same total failure in Portland that he was in Toronto. It's all about fit. Hedo was a horrible fit in Toronto. Toronto didn't have a dominant low post player for Hedo to feed. In fact, their starting center is just a taller, worse passing version of Hedo. Hedo + Bargnani = totally redundant = total failure. Hedo + Greg Oden = interesting inside/outside combo running side pick and roll, or Hedo + LaMarcus in Beast Mode (or Brandon Roy pre-injury) = lots of wide open 3-pointers for Hedo. While the latter two may not be perfect, they are a LOT better than Hedo in Toronto or Hedo in Phoenix (playing next to 3-pont specialist Channing Frye).
BNM
