Remind me what we got for Zach Randolph.

[Minstrel]

How about this.

Defense wins championships. Zach Randolph is one of the worst, if not the single worst, low post defender in the NBA.

Therefore, Zach Randolph is not a useful player on a team that is looking to win a title.

Team defense is definitely part of winning championships. Every player doesn't have to be a good defender. Especially if Randolph comes off the bench. The '80s Detroit Pistons won titles with a great team defense despite their key player off the bench, Mark Aguirre, being a terrible defender.

Again, you're not going anywhere with Randolph as your top player and you likely aren't winning a title with him as one of your two best players. That's a very different thing from Randolph being valueless to a good/great team.

 

[OddEnormous]

all-star Zach Randolph?

Yes, nobody but Zeke Thomas, one of the worst GM's in the history of the game, wanted him.

Then, he traded him away to the 2nd worst GM of all time, because still.... nobody wanted him.

Then the guy who traded Pau Gasol for Kwame Brown took him on.

And now All Star Zach Randolph is toiling away on the 10th best team in the West.

FUCK!!!!! WHY DID WE EVER TRADE HIM?!?!?!?!?!?!?

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

I know. we could use some scoring and rebounding.

 

[RR7]

Imaginary scoring and rebounding!

 

[Wizard Mentor]

1) This deadline, Memphis will have a $17.3 Million expiring contract, which could be quite valuable (or ignored a la RLEC).

2) Championship level teams can afford to have a single knucklehead on their team, and several have.

 

[BrianFromWA]

Conveniently forgotten right now are the facts that, in July 2007, a) Pritchard thought K*be would be an ETO last summer, among other players who would be available...b) Darius Miles' contract was going to be voided, adding another $9M to the bounty we'd have, and c) that the cap would be higher (why wouldn't he? it had been going up steadily each year).

So instead of the "7M" false number being tossed around in here, trading Zach as part of that plan was to get around 26M in space (by letting RLEC expire, trading Zach for Francis, voiding Miles due to his retirement, lining Blake and Outlaw's contracts up for a 2009 team option). You can agree or disagree with the plan, obviously, but trying to twist this into "we traded Zach for 7M of Imaginary Cap Space" is, well, misinformed and misleading. If we came out of this year's FA period with Miller, Millsap and Turk there'd be different tunes being sung.

 

[Luther]

...and yet, he was traded twice more. He was a desired commodity, and still is. We got rid of him to extinguish the JailBlazers image, pure and simple. The trade accomplished that goal, but some of us wanted more than that.

Normally when players are a "desired commodity" teams will do what they can to KEEP that player on their team to build around. He has improved his attitude and off court conduct enough to get SOME GM's to give him a look but he hasn't played for a winning team in how long? That should give you an idea of how much he is desired around the league....I agree we MIGHT have been able to get more out of the ZBo trade but all in all I would say it worked out pretty well for our franchise. Sometimes you have to cut your losses and move on...That is what we did.

 

[BrianFromWA]

Is Memphis lining up an extension for "All-Star Zach Randolph" right now?

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

Conveniently forgotten right now are the facts that, in July 2007, a) Pritchard thought K*be would be an ETO last summer, among other players who would be available...b) Darius Miles' contract was going to be voided, adding another $9M to the bounty we'd have, and c) that the cap would be higher (why wouldn't he? it had been going up steadily each year).

So instead of the "7M" false number being tossed around in here, trading Zach as part of that plan was to get around 26M in space (by letting RLEC expire, trading Zach for Francis, voiding Miles due to his retirement, lining Blake and Outlaw's contracts up for a 2009 team option). You can agree or disagree with the plan, obviously, but trying to twist this into "we traded Zach for 7M of Imaginary Cap Space" is, well, misinformed and misleading. If we came out of this year's FA period with Miller, Millsap and Turk there'd be different tunes being sung.

That's why the cap space was imaginary in the first place. The actual usable free cap space was $7 million. And that is AFTER letting RLEC expire. So the $$$$ effects of the ZBO trade are probably less than that.

Cap Genius!

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

Normally when players are a "desired commodity" teams will do what they can to KEEP that player on their team to build around. He has improved his attitude and off court conduct enough to get SOME GM's to give him a look but he hasn't played for a winning team in how long? That should give you an idea of how much he is desired around the league....I agree we MIGHT have been able to get more out of the ZBo trade but all in all I would say it worked out pretty well for our franchise. Sometimes you have to cut your losses and move on...That is what we did.

how did it work out well for our franchise?

 

[RR7]

Is Memphis lining up an extension for "All-Star Zach Randolph" right now?

Probably not with him looking for an extension equivalent to Gasol's.

 

[Minstrel]

Imaginary scoring and rebounding!

We don't know how many points and rebounds he would have given us, so it's imaginary. We don't need imaginary points and rebounds.

 

[RoyToy]

No one seems to be putting enough emphasis on how bad Randolph's contract is.

One, he's grossly overpaid.
Two, it runs through 2010 FA, the year like half the league has been targeting

You aren't going to get much in return for a player that dominates the ball and isn't particularly the best at it, plays no defense, questionable character, and has an absurd contract he doesn't deserve that runs through 2010 FA. Sorry.

Pritchard got the best deal for Zach he could and went with it because it was the necessary move. Not the best or worst, but necessary. Zach couldn't stay and the Blazers have not missed him one bit.

 

[RR7]

how did it work out well for our franchise?

Because we're a 50 win team, have been the last two years, a playoff team, young and improving. And we didn't have to deal with him.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

Because we're a 50 win team, have been the last two years, a playoff team, young and improving. And we didn't have to deal with him.

not contenders. need to be.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

No one seems to be putting enough emphasis on how bad Randolph's contract is.

One, he's grossly overpaid.
Two, it runs through 2010 FA, the year like half the league has been targeting

You aren't going to get much in return for a player that dominates the ball and isn't particularly the best at it, plays no defense, questionable character, and has an absurd contract he doesn't deserve that runs through 2010 FA. Sorry.

Pritchard got the best deal for Zach he could and went with it because it was the necessary move. Not the best or worst, but necessary. Zach couldn't stay and the Blazers have not missed him one bit.

nope. not necessary. Paul Allen is rich as fuck, its not like his contract would have held us back all that much, would it?

 

[RR7]

not contenders. need to be.

Zach has never been. We're closer than when we had him. Show proof we'd be where we are with him still here.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

I'm still convinced that ZBO trade and the false hope of the imaginary cap space is what got Penn fired.

 

[Minstrel]

nope. not necessary. Paul Allen is rich as fuck, its not like his contract would have held us back all that much, would it?

It depends. Not in terms of NBA rules, but if Allen's enforcing a budget through Vulcan, then it would. More money to Randolph means less for other players like Oden or Batum.

 

[BrianFromWA]

Correct, the "actual usable space" was $7.7M, after added the draft hold and keeping Outlaw and Blake. Trading the pick and letting those contracts go would've had us at $17M in cap space. Big difference. And that's AFTER the cap went down almost 2M, instead of going up like in 24 of the past 26 years.

We didn't "just get Miller" with the cap space. We also got Blake and Outlaw, since their team options cut another 7.6M out of our space. Maybe KP saw that there wasn't anyone he wanted from this FA class to spend 17M on more than keeping Blake and Outlaw. But that wasn't part of the plan when Z_Bo was traded.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

Zach has never been. We're closer than when we had him. Show proof we'd be where we are with him still here.

No proof. But we could use some rebounding off the bench versus having nothing at all.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

Correct, the "actual usable space" was $7.7M, after added the draft hold and keeping Outlaw and Blake. Trading the pick and letting those contracts go would've had us at $17M in cap space. Big difference. And that's AFTER the cap went down almost 2M, instead of going up like in 24 of the past 26 years.

We didn't "just get Miller" with the cap space. We also got Blake and Outlaw, since their team options cut another 7.6M out of our space. Maybe KP saw that there wasn't anyone he wanted from this FA class to spend 17M on more than keeping Blake and Outlaw. But that wasn't part of the plan when Z_Bo was traded.

There was no plan. It was a dump for nothing at all. It cost Tom Penn his job.

Sadly, it may end up costing Pritchard his.

 

[RR7]

nope. not necessary. Paul Allen is rich as fuck, its not like his contract would have held us back all that much, would it?

He didn't get anything of value with the money he was spending on Zach. Imaginary rich.

 

[BGrantFan]

not contenders. need to be.

It was assumed that Oden would be contributing. Let's ignore this obvious fact so we can all bitch and moan some more about how awesome Z-Ro was viewed by the other GMs in the NBA in 2007.

 

[BrianFromWA]

I'm still convinced that ZBO trade and the false hope of the imaginary cap space is what got Penn fired.

Really? Why wouldn't he have been fired before the Free Agency period, when the team picked up Outlaw and Blake's options and cut our space in half? That's a pretty big "eff you" to a "cap space" plan. Or after the Miles fiasco, which cut another 9M out of our space? Or right after FA period, when we're all saying "so, Z-Bo and RLEC gave us...Miller?" Doesn't make sense.

 

[RoyToy]

No proof. But we could use some rebounding off the bench versus having nothing at all.

Yeah, it's too bad both centers went down to injury. Last year the Blazers were the best rebounding team in the NBA. Sorry the Blazers don't want to pay Randolph $16M to come off the bench and rebound.

 

[Ed O]

Is Memphis lining up an extension for "All-Star Zach Randolph" right now?

No. Extensions are generally for suckers. At least from a team's perspective.

Ed O.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

Yeah, it's too bad both centers went down to injury. Last year the Blazers were the best rebounding team in the NBA. Sorry the Blazers don't want to pay Randolph $16M to come off the bench and rebound.

and score! points in the paint are needed!

 

[Ed O]

Yeah, it's too bad both centers went down to injury. Last year the Blazers were the best rebounding team in the NBA. Sorry the Blazers don't want to pay Randolph $16M to come off the bench and rebound.

Much better to pay Pendergraph to waive a towel or Howard to be dramatically below average, huh?

Ed O.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

Really? Why wouldn't he have been fired before the Free Agency period, when the team picked up Outlaw and Blake's options and cut our space in half? That's a pretty big "eff you" to a "cap space" plan. Or after the Miles fiasco, which cut another 9M out of our space? Or right after FA period, when we're all saying "so, Z-Bo and RLEC gave us...Miller?" Doesn't make sense.

Probably seeing how things shaped up before making a decision? The anti-thesis of KPs decision making that day?