Grantland's Zach Lowe puts a dagger in the back of the Blazers in his Anthony Bennett column

[chris_in_pdx]

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/r...uyout-guarantees-his-ignominious-no-1-status/

"Cleveland lost value by reaching for Bennett at no. 1, but it wasn’t an insane pick at the time, and none of the reasonable alternatives are going to inspire “what if?” stories for the next 30 years. This is not LaRue Martin over Bob McAdoo, Greg Oden over Kevin Durant, or Sam Bowie (at no. 2, of course) over the G.O.A.T."

All picks by the Blazers. Ouch.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

Well, he's not wrong.

 

[ripcityboy]

Our stock is peaking right I tell you .... peaking!

 

[BonesJones]

Screw him

 

[Blazers Roy]

People love to make fun of the Blazers for their stupidity at the draft, however they forget about the brilliancy of getting Terry Porter at the 24th pick, Drexler at the 14th pick, Alderidge for freakin' Tyrus Thomas (!) , Brandon Roy for Randy Foye, Damien Lillard for the cold body of Gerald Wallace,Wesley Matthews for nothing,Batum at the 25th pick, Z-Bo for the 19th pick and so on.

That's the stuff i can pull out of my head right now, i'm sure there were a lot more in our history.

 

[JfizzleBlazer]

People love to make fun of the Blazers for their stupidity at the draft, however they forget about the brilliancy of getting Terry Porter at the 24th pick, Drexler at the 14th pick, Alderidge for freakin' Tyrus Thomas (!) , Brandon Roy for Randy Foye, Damien Lillard for the cold body of Gerald Wallace,Wesley Matthews for nothing,Batum at the 25th pick, Z-Bo for the 19th pick and so on.

That's the stuff i can pull out of my head right now, i'm sure there were a lot more in our history.

You forgot the best one. Sabonis

 

[Blazers Roy]

You forgot the best one. Sabonis

I sooooo wanted to include him because he WAS one of the best centers in the world when he was at his prime, but unfortunately he didnt play for us for a few years because of his issues with USSR.

Imagine Sabonis at his prime, pressing the soft spots of opposing Centers around the league, ESPECIALLY Chicago's soft spots. We only got a glimpse of what could have happened:

 

[HailBlazers]

Despite the (perceived) dig , good article and breakdown of Bennett.

 

[Draco]

Who are worse #1 picks? Maybe Olawakandi but he wasn't picked over a hall of fame player.

If we had lost in the 77 playoffs Walton might've made a list. So many injuries and forced his way off the team. He didn't play terribly much more than Oden.

 

[BBert]

People love to make fun of the Blazers for their stupidity at the draft, however they forget about the brilliancy of getting Terry Porter at the 24th pick, Drexler at the 14th pick, Alderidge for freakin' Tyrus Thomas (!) , Brandon Roy for Randy Foye, Damien Lillard for the cold body of Gerald Wallace,Wesley Matthews for nothing,Batum at the 25th pick, Z-Bo for the 19th pick and so on.

That's the stuff i can pull out of my head right now, i'm sure there were a lot more in our history.

Great post.

 

[PtldPlatypus]

People love to make fun of the Blazers for their stupidity at the draft, however they forget about the brilliancy of getting Terry Porter at the 24th pick, Drexler at the 14th pick, Alderidge for freakin' Tyrus Thomas (!) , Brandon Roy for Randy Foye, Damien Lillard for the cold body of Gerald Wallace,Wesley Matthews for nothing,Batum at the 25th pick, Z-Bo for the 19th pick and so on.

That's the stuff i can pull out of my head right now, i'm sure there were a lot more in our history.

Pointing out good picks that we've made doesn't negate the multiple "Top-2-bust-over-hall-of-famer" picks we've had. The fact is that since 1960, there have been exactly 5 players picked in the top 2 with 85 or more win shares fewer than the player picked immediately after him; the Blazers own three of those picks--more than the entire rest of the league combined. ICYWW, the other two guys in the top 5 are Darrell Griffith in 1981 (over McHale) and Glenn Robinson in 1995 (over Kidd). Darko ('Melo) and Thabeet (Harden) are likely to eventually join that illustrious company, but they're not there yet.

As it stands, Portland has picked 3 of the 5 biggest top-of-draft busts of the past 65 years relative to the guy picked right after--a couple good picks in other drafts don't erase that.

 

[BlazerWookee]

"Dagger," lol.

 

[Natebishop3]

"Dagger," lol.

"lol," lol...

 

[Mediocre Man]

People love to make fun of the Blazers for their stupidity at the draft, however they forget about the brilliancy of getting Terry Porter at the 24th pick, Drexler at the 14th pick, Alderidge for freakin' Tyrus Thomas (!) , Brandon Roy for Randy Foye, Damien Lillard for the cold body of Gerald Wallace,Wesley Matthews for nothing,Batum at the 25th pick, Z-Bo for the 19th pick and so on.

That's the stuff i can pull out of my head right now, i'm sure there were a lot more in our history.

None of which equal 2 three peats

 

[Blazers Roy]

Pointing out good picks that we've made doesn't negate the multiple "Top-2-bust-over-hall-of-famer" picks we've had. The fact is that since 1960, there have been exactly 5 players picked in the top 2 with 85 or more win shares fewer than the player picked immediately after him; the Blazers own three of those picks--more than the entire rest of the league combined. ICYWW, the other two guys in the top 5 are Darrell Griffith in 1981 (over McHale) and Glenn Robinson in 1995 (over Kidd). Darko ('Melo) and Thabeet (Harden) are likely to eventually join that illustrious company, but they're not there yet.

As it stands, Portland has picked 3 of the 5 biggest top-of-draft busts of the past 65 years relative to the guy picked right after--a couple good picks in other drafts don't erase that.

You are 100% correct sir, i'm just pointing out the fact that it wasn't all bad. This organization is not a joke.

We missed 2 hall of famers but won several surprising all-stars\superstars which helped build great teams and besides, you can't know how things would have gone down had we picked MJ\KD:
It's possible that MJ could not have won anything without Pippen and Phil or maybe he would've broke his foot again while playing for Portland and the same goes for KD who could've had problems with the city so he'd leave in free agency after LMA and so on and so fourth. That's life.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

So if we get #1, are we gonna get shit for picking LaBissere over Simmons? :MARIS61:

 

[Blazers Roy]

So if we get #1, are we gonna get shit for picking LaBissere over Simmons? :MARIS61:

Only one solution to this problem: secure the #2 pick as well!

 

[Sinobas]

Portland's "woulda" team. Fuck, this could have happened. That bench would have been an upper tier playoff team.

Porter/Holton
Jordan/Petrovic
Drexler/Kersey
Moses Malone/Robinson
Sabonis/Duckworth

 

[Rhal]

Ehh it sucks to think of "what if we drafted this guy" I prefer to think of it as "What if this player hadnt been injury riddled".
Larue Martin was a bust because he sucked, Oden/Bowie were busts because of injuries. Not everyone sees a difference but I do.

 

[Natebishop3]

Ehh it sucks to think of "what if we drafted this guy" I prefer to think of it as "What if this player hadnt been injury riddled".
Larue Martin was a bust because he sucked, Oden/Bowie were busts because of injuries. Not everyone sees a difference but I do.

I agree with this sentiment, but I think the only argument that could be made is whether you think the team should have been able to predict that Oden would have injury problems. I think I've read somewhere that there were red flags before he was drafted, but KP ignored them. Not sure if that's true.

 

[Rhal]

I agree with this sentiment, but I think the only argument that could be made is whether you think the team should have been able to predict that Oden would have injury problems. I think I've read somewhere that there were red flags before he was drafted, but KP ignored them. Not sure if that's true.

There were red flags and every team knew about them but those red flags have taken on mythik status. Every team save maybe Orlando would have taken Oden first. Wings and guards hadnt taken over the NBA at that point yet so the bias was still bigs win championships.

 

[BlayZa]

well, at least we're consistent

 

[jlprk]

Pointing out good picks that we've made doesn't negate the multiple "Top-2-bust-over-hall-of-famer" picks we've had. The fact is that since 1960, there have been exactly 5 players picked in the top 2 with 85 or more win shares fewer than the player picked immediately after him; the Blazers own three of those picks--more than the entire rest of the league combined. ICYWW, the other two guys in the top 5 are Darrell Griffith in 1981 (over McHale) and Glenn Robinson in 1995 (over Kidd). Darko ('Melo) and Thabeet (Harden) are likely to eventually join that illustrious company, but they're not there yet.

As it stands, Portland has picked 3 of the 5 biggest top-of-draft busts of the past 65 years relative to the guy picked right after--a couple good picks in other drafts don't erase that.

Several newly-discovered stats. Before I praise you, do you have links to rank them, like from Basketball-Reference?

 

[PtldPlatypus]

Several newly-discovered stats. Before I praise you, do you have links to rank them, like from Basketball-Reference?

Pulled the data from basketball reference, but it's not something I can link to because I had to pull everything into a spreadsheet and calculate the differences myself.

 

[Draco]

There were red flags and every team knew about them but those red flags have taken on mythik status. Every team save maybe Orlando would have taken Oden first. Wings and guards hadnt taken over the NBA at that point yet so the bias was still bigs win championships.

Yes. Oden beat nearly all PG including Aaron Brooks in the agility drills. He was strong as a prime Shaq but much faster. He was thought of as highly as Anthony Davis. At the time he was the clearly superior prospect to Durant. Obviously it didn't work out but it's different than Bowie over Jordan where many thought MJ was superior.

 

[jlprk]

Pulled the data from basketball reference, but it's not something I can link to because I had to pull everything into a spreadsheet and calculate the differences myself.

I gave in and "Liked" it. I was hoping to see evidence, calculations, and lists of runners-up.

 

[PtldPlatypus]

I gave in and "Liked" it. I was hoping to see evidence, calculations, and lists of runners-up.

In all honesty, you don't know how much the incredibly rare like-from-jlprk means to me.

 

[jlprk]

Someday, somewhere, my men will call upon you to repay these two favors. In the meantime, save your money, birth no beneficiaries, and preserve your thumbs in case I must collect nonfinancially.

 

[riverman]

Someday, somewhere, my men will call upon you to repay these two favors. In the meantime, save your money, birth no beneficiaries, and preserve your thumbs in case I must collect nonfinancially.

Classic! This is why I come here and read!

 

[jlprk]

Why? Do I amuse you?

My men will be over to ask you.