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Jerry Zgoda's Sunday Insider: The Trail Blazers' rise, and fall
Only a few years ago, Portland seemed like a team stamped for greatness. Oh, how quickly things have changed.
By JERRY ZGODA, Star Tribune
Last update: January 17, 2011 - 7:10 AM
The heir apparent to the Lakers and the Spurs and the Mavericks, the next great team destined to compile 60-victory seasons and lengthy playoff runs for the next decade?
If it seems like it was only yesterday, well ...
You're not that far off.
Remember when the Blazers in successive drafts plucked away future perennial All-Star Brandon Roy from the Timberwolves in a 2006 draft-night deal, then the next summer lucked out and won the lotto and the right to select center Greg Oden?
Back then, just a year or two ago, the Blazers' marketing campaign implored fans to "Rise With Us."
It said so right on a massive advertisement right outside the Rose Garden.
Then Oden, drafted ahead of a kid from Texas named Kevin Durant, suffered a succession of knee injuries -- and surgeries -- that have wiped away nearly three complete seasons and convinced the Blazers not to extend Oden's contract, a decision that will make him a risky, but intriguing, restricted free agent next summer.
And now comes word that Roy will undergo arthroscopic surgery on both knees. The surgery can't restore cartilage to knees that have little or none left but is intended to give just enough relief so he can perhaps return to play later this season with less pain.
On Thursday, the Blazers both announced Roy will have surgery and sent a mass e-mail to season-ticket holders offering slashed ticket prices -- $4.50 for upper level seats, $17.50 for lower level -- to three games this week in an attempt to keep the franchise's 132-game sellout streak alive. That includes Monday's meeting with the Wolves.
That same day, the Blazers' official Twitter account sent out this message:
It is what it is.
Kind of a far cry from "Rise With Us," isn't it?
Nonetheless, it's a poignant message to the Wolves and rebuilding organizations elsewhere that sometimes even meticulous decision-making and draft-lottery fortune aren't enough.
Durant, not Oden, became the franchise player who rose from that 2007 draft, and now the Thunder -- after making a series of astute personnel decisions and committing financially to its star player, like the Blazers did -- appears poised to ascend in the West and become for the next decade what the Lakers have been in the past one.
Rather suddenly, the futures of the Grizzlies, Clippers, Warriors and Wolves all appear more promising long term than a Blazers organization stuck with Roy's bad knees and huge contract that will pay him $62 million over the next four seasons.
Yes, those knees are the same ones that scared away the Wolves enough on draft night that they chose to forge their future with Randy Foye instead.
Roy's contract might be the only certainty for a Blazers franchise that continues to compete -- playing .500 ball without either Roy or Oden -- but could endure more upheaval come summer.
Most of the front-office staff's contracts expire then, and there's speculation that coach Nate McMillan will choose not to rise in Portland but rather return home to Charlotte to become the Bobcats coach when his current contract is done then.
Hey, you know what they say: It is what it
I found it funny he thinks the wolves and warriors have better futures. LA, Batum and Wes over their core any day. And the whole taking Foye over Roy is laughable!
Only a few years ago, Portland seemed like a team stamped for greatness. Oh, how quickly things have changed.
By JERRY ZGODA, Star Tribune
Last update: January 17, 2011 - 7:10 AM
The heir apparent to the Lakers and the Spurs and the Mavericks, the next great team destined to compile 60-victory seasons and lengthy playoff runs for the next decade?
If it seems like it was only yesterday, well ...
You're not that far off.
Remember when the Blazers in successive drafts plucked away future perennial All-Star Brandon Roy from the Timberwolves in a 2006 draft-night deal, then the next summer lucked out and won the lotto and the right to select center Greg Oden?
Back then, just a year or two ago, the Blazers' marketing campaign implored fans to "Rise With Us."
It said so right on a massive advertisement right outside the Rose Garden.
Then Oden, drafted ahead of a kid from Texas named Kevin Durant, suffered a succession of knee injuries -- and surgeries -- that have wiped away nearly three complete seasons and convinced the Blazers not to extend Oden's contract, a decision that will make him a risky, but intriguing, restricted free agent next summer.
And now comes word that Roy will undergo arthroscopic surgery on both knees. The surgery can't restore cartilage to knees that have little or none left but is intended to give just enough relief so he can perhaps return to play later this season with less pain.
On Thursday, the Blazers both announced Roy will have surgery and sent a mass e-mail to season-ticket holders offering slashed ticket prices -- $4.50 for upper level seats, $17.50 for lower level -- to three games this week in an attempt to keep the franchise's 132-game sellout streak alive. That includes Monday's meeting with the Wolves.
That same day, the Blazers' official Twitter account sent out this message:
It is what it is.
Kind of a far cry from "Rise With Us," isn't it?
Nonetheless, it's a poignant message to the Wolves and rebuilding organizations elsewhere that sometimes even meticulous decision-making and draft-lottery fortune aren't enough.
Durant, not Oden, became the franchise player who rose from that 2007 draft, and now the Thunder -- after making a series of astute personnel decisions and committing financially to its star player, like the Blazers did -- appears poised to ascend in the West and become for the next decade what the Lakers have been in the past one.
Rather suddenly, the futures of the Grizzlies, Clippers, Warriors and Wolves all appear more promising long term than a Blazers organization stuck with Roy's bad knees and huge contract that will pay him $62 million over the next four seasons.
Yes, those knees are the same ones that scared away the Wolves enough on draft night that they chose to forge their future with Randy Foye instead.
Roy's contract might be the only certainty for a Blazers franchise that continues to compete -- playing .500 ball without either Roy or Oden -- but could endure more upheaval come summer.
Most of the front-office staff's contracts expire then, and there's speculation that coach Nate McMillan will choose not to rise in Portland but rather return home to Charlotte to become the Bobcats coach when his current contract is done then.
Hey, you know what they say: It is what it
I found it funny he thinks the wolves and warriors have better futures. LA, Batum and Wes over their core any day. And the whole taking Foye over Roy is laughable!
