Jaynes: List of Blazers' mistakes in landing Hedo

Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Register Log in
alex42083

alex42083

Thanks Brandon
Joined
Sep 20, 2008
Messages
7,789
Likes
47
Points
48
Dwight Jaynes had a pretty good summary of the Blazers' mistakes this past week. And as always with him.. a sometimes brutal, but to him, honest look at things.

http://www.dwightjaynes.com/one-last-look-at-the-whole-hedo-thing-in-the-rearview-mirror

Hindsight is the clearest of all visions. The Trail Blazers may have learned some big lessons here. At least I hope they did. But even if Hedo Turkoglu completely double-crossed them, the Blazers made some real mistakes. A few random observations:

– First, you never, NEVER bring a guy to town in a free-agent situation unless he’s going to sign. It’s just not done, at least in a public way like this one. And if you’re not sure he’s going to sign and you need to bring him in, you don’t turn it into a media event.

There was no excuse for that to turn into a media opportunity. Fly him in on the team plane and keep him out of sight. It’s most often done that way. I keep thinking of poor trainer Jay Jensen, standing there sheepishly in the airport having to hold up that sign welcoming Hedo in two languages. Ugh. This was so unnecessary.

My goodness — this isn’t some goofy college deal where you bring the kid into the gym and show him his jersey hanging in the rafters and make a big fuss. I’m not even sure you send all the brass to meet him at the airport. You recruit NBA free agents with your checkbook, not a guide to your city’s best restaurants and nightspots. That stuff comes after he signs. It’s a business.

...
Click to expand...
 
don't disagree with anything Dwight said.
 
*Sigh*... I guess our players aren't the only ones with inexperience on the Blazers.
 
MrJayremmie said:
*Sigh*... I guess our players aren't the only ones with inexperience on the Blazers.
Click to expand...

Yeah.. it may be the first time or the most significant time that KP hasn't got what he wanted. Everything up to this point had been pretty good but this may have been a harsh reality check.
 
Call me stupid I don't think this is what cost us signing Hedu. I think players like to be wanted and anything that strokes their ego's helps. How many times have we hear players talk about being respected and wanted? We lost Hedu because his wife didn't want to live here, it has nothing to do with KP/Blazers or anything we did to court him.
 
The sign at the airport was stupid. Just like all the signs at games are stupid. But in the end neither makes any difference.

Bringing up Miles' contract from 5 yeares ago? What ever. If we would have not signed him we probably would have signed someone else in the last 5 years. But lets just pretend we didn't. Who could we have signed this summer that was a free agent that we can't sign now? Or is it the same players but we would really be over paying them? (Which would hurt us more down the road)
 
Pretty hilarious. He writes this:

You recruit NBA free agents with your checkbook, not a guide to your city’s best restaurants and nightspots. That stuff comes after he signs. It’s a business.
Click to expand...

...after pretty widespread reports that Turkoglu and his wife preferred Toronto as a city. I can imagine his "list of mistakes" had the Blazers not flown Turkoglu in and he had picked Toronto:

Recruiting NBA free agents is not just about dollars and cents, it's about showing potential free agents that they're wanted and selling them (and their families) on where they will be living. The Turkoglus, apparently, liked the city of Toronto. Did they even see Portland? This is one of the most livable cities in the US, ranking high on any list on the subject. You have to at least fly them out here to see it and show them around, that's standard. That's how it's done in the big leagues.
Click to expand...
 
What this should be saying to everyone is....... Hedo is all about the paycheck and not about getting a ring! You don't go to the Raps over a team like Ptown if you're a winner! It's that simple! Hedo did us a huge favor, he's not in it for the championships.
 
This is more of Dwight again railing against Portland and Oregon's small town mentality. He mentions anything that can allow him to made some sort of semi-connected rant about the topic at least three times a week. It's pretty hilarious to see someone get so riled up over being small-town. OH NO NOT SMALL TOWN.
 
Yardape said:
What this should be saying to everyone is....... Hedo is all about the paycheck and not about getting a ring! You don't go to the Raps over a team like Ptown if you're a winner! It's that simple! Hedo did us a huge favor, he's not in it for the championships.
Click to expand...
This. I had a bad feeling in my gut throughout the Hedo thing. Get Battier instead!
 
As if the overly red-carpet treatment caused Hedo to not sign.
 
Didn't New York fly Jason Kidd out to chat with him about a possible offer? Typical small town naivete. If only they had the wisdom of sophisticate Dwight Jaynes.
 
Minstrel said:
Didn't New York fly Jason Kidd out to chat with him about a possible offer? Typical small town naivete. If only they had the wisdom of sophisticate Dwight Jaynes.
Click to expand...

Was that for a meeting or for a multi-day extravaganza? The Blazers talked about how they weren't going to take Hedo to Mt Hood because there "wasn't enough time".

The whole flying him out and giving him the grand tour thing struck me as very weird.

I don't think that it drove him off, but any FA you have to try to CONVINCE that Portland as a city will work for them probably isn't going to be willing to come to Portland.

Ed O.
 
Yeah, Dwight pretty much missed on this one.

Please tell me, though, that Jay Jensen wasn't really standing there looking like a limo driver. :lol:
 
The funny thing about Dwight's piece is that this so-called "mistake" of laying out a publicized red carpet has absolutely nothing to do with landing or losing Hedo -- only with saving face and looking cool. Yeah, we're a small town at heart. That's not going to suddenly change just because the Blazers start talking with their checkbooks, as Dwight calls it. If the biggest mistake here was that we acted too goofy and hospitable, so be it. There's no way in hell that some naive kindness at the airport is what cost us the right to sign a free agent.
 
Last edited:
Ed O said:
The whole flying him out and giving him the grand tour thing struck me as very weird.

I don't think that it drove him off, but any FA you have to try to CONVINCE that Portland as a city will work for them probably isn't going to be willing to come to Portland.
Click to expand...

It doesn't strike me as weird at all. It seems like I've read quite a bit about teams flying "major free agents" in for wining, dining and showing them around. More in baseball, but that's generally because there's much more free agent movement in baseball.

I, personally, don't consider Turk a "major free agent," but that seems to be the billing the media is giving him.

If the Blazers wanted him, I don't see the harm in doing it. It may not make much difference positively, but it sure isn't going to hurt their chances of signing him. I guess it gives writers like Jaynes something silly to obsess over, but it would be a mistake for a front office to make their decisions based on how reporters characterize it.
 
I know that Ed O brought up the question Thursday why Turk was brought to Portland and why it was all so public. I commented that this was probably KP's first and only opportunity to recruit a big free agent. This would be his dog and pony show. It obviously was a mistake. I can not disagree whith Dwight here. Even what he says about the small town mentallity. There was no need for the dog and pony show. KP and Co. were a bit to confident. It happens.
 
What were the circumstances regarding the pursuing of Trenton Hassell? Other than the fact that Hassell wasn't a 'B' type player, didn't the Blazers go after him, publicly think/state they had him, only to then learn that he slipped between the cracks to the T-Wolves?
 
ABM said:
What were the circumstances regarding the pursuing of Trenton Hassell? Other than the fact that Hassell wasn't a 'B' type player, didn't the Blazers go after him, publicly think/state they had him, only to then learn that he slipped between the cracks to the T-Wolves?
Click to expand...


He didn't slip between the cracks. He was a restricted free agent and Minny matched. Nash had no business doing a press conference. Luckily Minny matched though, because hassell is still on that offer we gave him and has sucked every day.
 
BIG Q said:
I know that Ed O brought up the question Thursday why Turk was brought to Portland and why it was all so public. I commented that this was probably KP's first and only opportunity to recruit a big free agent. This would be his dog and pony show. It obviously was a mistake. I can not disagree whith Dwight here. Even what he says about the small town mentallity. There was no need for the dog and pony show. KP and Co. were a bit to confident. It happens.
Click to expand...

Sometimes when you swing big, you miss big. It happens. Would the "dog and pony show" have been an issue if Hedo had stuck with us? The Turkoglus wanted Toronto, for any number of the reasons already mentioned ad nauseum. We got played, sure, but it's not like Toronto came out smelling like roses; that contract is ridiculous, as noted even by some Raptor fans.
 
ABM said:
Yeah, Dwight pretty much missed on this one.

Please tell me, though, that Jay Jensen wasn't really standing there looking like a limo driver. :lol:
Click to expand...

Yes ... yes he was and if you watch the video posted up on Oregonlive.com you'll wince when you see it and say to yourself "minor league"
 
Nikolokolus said:
Yes ... yes he was and if you watch the video posted up on Oregonlive.com you'll wince when you see it and say to yourself "minor league"
Click to expand...

So, what do you call Bryan Colangelo getting worked over for a ridiculously bloated contract? Is that "major league"? This will go down as a poor decision for that franchise.

Another link to help soothe our small-town egos: Hedo to Toronto for 12 mill a year?
 
TripTango said:
The funny thing about Dwight's piece is that this so-called "mistake" of laying out a publicized red carpet has absolutely nothing to do with landing or losing Hedo -- only with saving face and looking cool. Yeah, we're a small town at heart. That's not going to suddenly change just because the Blazers start talking with their checkbooks, as Dwight calls it. If the biggest mistake here was that we acted too goofy and hospitable, so be it. There's no way in hell that some naive kindness at the airport is what cost us the right to sign a free agent.
Click to expand...

I think that was more of it than actually turning Hedo off with our sales pitch. Dwight seems intent on focusing on public perception in most of his takes, including everything that's happening with PGE Park and the Beavers.

There was a weird sense of overconfidence from the whole thing with the interviews with Hedo immediately when he stepped off the plane, I think we all just assumed he was coming here but as we know, the deal was far from done. And in the event Hedo did turn us down, we weren't going to look good in the end.
But there was nothing the Blazers did to turn Hedo off.
 
alex42083 said:
I think that was more of it than actually turning Hedo off with our sales pitch. Dwight seems intent on focusing on public perception in most of his takes, including everything that's happening with PGE Park and the Beavers.
Click to expand...

Agreed. You've got to love the fact that the one bolded sentence in his article was about baseball:

Think SkyDome vs. PGE Park. That’s the difference between Toronto and Portland.
Click to expand...

Jaynes is suffering from Big Stadium Envy, no doubt about it.
 
TripTango said:
So, what do you call Bryan Colangelo getting worked over for a ridiculously bloated contract? Is that "major league"? This will go down as a poor decision for that franchise.

Another link to help soothe our small-town egos: Hedo to Toronto for 12 mill a year?
Click to expand...

Just because I'm dogging KP for being a little "small town" doesn't mean I think Colangelo is making a good move either, in fact a couple of days ago when I saw the rumors that Toronto might waive 5 players to sign Hedo for up to 60 million dollars I openly mocked him for being an idiot. Frankly the whole Hedo soap opera has been a comedy of errors on all sides.

I'm just glad that this part is over and hopefully KP will skip the public displays and get down to business instead of treating the process like a college recruiting trip
 
I don't see the big deal in making it public, although I feel for Jay Jenson.

My problem with the whole thing is that the actions of KP and Company at the trade deadline and then again at the draft all revolved around them having capspace this offseason and signing a good FA, yet they seem to have put all their eggs in the Turkey Basket and now they're left holding their jocks. Whether this was any fault of their own or not, if you plan for a single event for an entire year you better get it done. They didn't.
 
Erroneous Subterfuge said:
I don't see the big deal in making it public, although I feel for Jay Jenson.

My problem with the whole thing is that the actions of KP and Company at the trade deadline and then again at the draft all revolved around them having capspace this offseason and signing a good FA, yet they seem to have put all their eggs in the Turkey Basket and now they're left holding their jocks. Whether this was any fault of their own or not, if you plan for a single event for an entire year you better get it done. They didn't.
Click to expand...

The first bolded section is you not seeing why it was a big deal for them to make his arrival public, the second bolded section explains why it is a bigdeal and why you shouldn't unless you are 100% sure it's going to work.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
Back
Top