Ugh. Who was responsible for letting James Jones go?

[KingSpeed]

Another former Blazer playing well in the playoffs.

We could've beaten the Mavs if we had him. An actual shooter. Ugh.

 

[PapaG]

I TOLD YOU SO!!! :MARIS61: :MARIS61: :MARIS61:





Not re-signing James Jones is why the Blazers lost to the Mavs.

 

[cdub503]

I was actually thinking the same thing. Any way to get him back somehow?

 

[XXPrimusXX]

I saw James Jones at the PDX Airport toward the end of the 07-08 Season, I think he had just got hurt, and flew back home while the team was playing in Indiana. I told him that I hope he stays with Portland for awhile.

Then he left. lol

I TOLD HIM SO!

 

[fumanchu]

For real. Just imagine what our team could have been if it weren't for all these silly trades and draft choices- Brandon Roy, Lamarcus, James Jones, Zbo, Chris Paul, Kevin Durant, Rasheed Wallace, Jermaine O'neal, Channing Frye, Clyde Drexler, Drazen Petrovic, and Sean Marks.

Dude, we would have like 20 championships by now!

 

[KingSpeed]

For real. Just imagine what our team could have been if it weren't for all these silly trades and draft choices- Brandon Roy, Lamarcus, James Jones, Zbo, Chris Paul, Kevin Durant, Rasheed Wallace, Jermaine O'neal, Channing Frye, Clyde Drexler, Drazen Petrovic, and Sean Marks.

Dude, we would have like 20 championships by now!

We couldn't have gotten Frye while keeping Randolph.

 

[KingSpeed]

It is pretty crazy, though, that we ended up with Babbitt instead of Chris Paul. So sad.

 

[RoyToy]

He averaged 6pts in the regular season and shoots nothing but 3's. That works if you have LeBron/Wade/Bosh on your team.

Posters lacking basketball knowledge itt.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

In answer to your question: James Jones. He wanted to go to Miami, he was a free agent, they offered him money.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Just think if we'd listened to Zach Randolph on draft night 2007: he was convinced all we needed was a SF because he was (obviously) a fixture at PF and LaMarcus could play C, so we were going to draft Durant. Your starting frontline for the Portland Trailblazers:
Durant, Randolph, Aldridge.

 

[KingSpeed]

He averaged 6pts in the regular season and shoots nothing but 3's. That works if you have LeBron/Wade/Bosh on your team.

Posters lacking basketball knowledge itt.

He's one of the best three point shooters in the league. We needed someone in the playoffs who could knock down the open shot to take the pressure off LaMarcus.

Learn the game, then post

 

[oldmangrouch]

He averaged 6pts in the regular season and shoots nothing but 3's. That works if you have LeBron/Wade/Bosh on your team.

Posters lacking basketball knowledge itt.

Oh please. The guy also understands team defense and little things like ball movement.

I said at the time he had better fundamentals than either Webster or Outlaw...and nothing has happened to make me change that opinion. He isn't a "star", but he contributes more than just treys.

 

[jlprk]

In answer to your question: James Jones. He wanted to go to Miami, he was a free agent, they offered him money.

Not true. We could have kept him. Like Juwan Howard, he looked elsewhere only after we rejected him.

When Pritchard acquired experienced free agents, he had an attitude about them. He intended from the get-to to dump them after one season. We always had one of the most inexperienced teams in the league until Pritchard left.

By the time Pritchard was canned on draft day (which was the best day to can the bum, great decision by Paul Allen) Juwan Howard was out the door. Pritchard had to be dragged into signing Andre Miller. He wouldn't trade LaFrentz because he couldn't bring himself to accept something as repulsive as an experienced starter.

I was on the ESPN board, and I complained about how we dumped James Jones without a thought. I know he was chronically injured, but he was such a great game winner for us that I thought we should at least consider keeping him. There was no cost-benefit analysis, nothing. Pritchard had it all planned from the beginning to get rid of him.

Meanwhile, it looks like we're willing to pay $10M a year to keep Oden forever.

 

[shamelessblazer]

He probably doesn't want to leave at this point, and they probably won't let him go with the Mike Miller experiment not working so well, but would any of you want to bring him back in a real limited role again?

What if we signed Aaron Brooks this offseason, or traded Rudy/Patty/Claver, and a pick for him or something (that's about three million, not sure he's going to get a ton more), then brought Jones on board. I wonder if Howard would be willing to come back for depth too?

Miller/Brooks (Johnson)
Roy/Matthews (Williams)
Wallace/Batum (Jones)
Aldridge/Wallace (Howard)
Camby/Aldridge (Oden)

I feel like if that team could stay remotely healthy we'd have some nice depth at every position. That's assuming Oden could play at some point though, and Camby and Roy are shoe ins to miss some time, so maybe there wouldn't be enough depth. I excluded Babbit just because I don't have any faith in him ever really doing anything. There'd be a lot of vet saavy on that team.

 

[jlprk]

It's pretty risky to sign Jones, but Oden is much riskier and we're going to do that. It was risky back when we had him. I wasn't sure even then, but I said that we should at least consider it. By that I meant make him an offer, and if he goes, he goes. But Pritchard didn't want him even at a low amount. Jones wound up getting good money from Miami, but I think we could have kept him for less than that.

In summary, I don't know. (heh heh)

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Not true. We could have kept him. Like Juwan Howard, he looked elsewhere only after we rejected him.

That's not how I remember it. I'd like you to prove it.

 

[julius]

If a player wants to play elsewhere, it's not like Portland can force them to play here if they're a UFA

 

[Rhal]

I really missed Jame Jones but getting Rudy his rookie year made up for it... now Rudy can't shoot. damn you basketball gods for injury Rudys back, taking away Roys knees and everything with Oden. I'm gonna go get drunk and Root for ZBO (Never thought i'd say that again) to win the OKC series.

 

[3RA1N1AC]

it was me, im sorry

 

[PapaG]

KPEE'S FAULT :MARIS61: :MARIS61:

Still wondering why I had an "I told you so" thread regarding Brandon Roy locked when this type of lame thread is still open.

 

[3RA1N1AC]

ill tell you now so i can say i told you so later

draft the stache

 

[BrianFromWA]

You DO realize, right, that Jones' PER (and I'm using that as the sum total of his game, since his D is on the Roy level right now) has been 8, 8, and 11 since he left Portland (after a career-high 13.6!). BTW, it's not as if he's overextended, b/c he's averaged about 15 mpg the last 3 years. But I guess those 5 pts per game would really be the difference in our game right now!

Maybe you didn't realize that. Maybe you're taking one game samples and extrapolating HoF greatness. But if we had James Jones playing significant enough minutes on this team for his shooting to matter we probably don't make the playoffs each of the last three years. So we've got that going for us.

On the other hand, if you combine his PER with Juwan's you almost get an average NBA player. How the $%W$ did we let them go take the minimum to go ring-chasing?!!?

 

[magnifier661]

Really? I can think of 100 reasons.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

Tom Penn, Cap Genius, Esq.

 

[jlprk]

That's not how I remember it. I'd like you to prove it.

We could have kept Jones had we torn up his $3.1M option year and replaced it with 2 years and a $1M raise per year (to $4.17M per year).

In case we needed him, we strung him along till draft day 6/26/08 with the possibility of an offer. That day, he declined his $3.1M player option year with us. (He obviously thought he could make more.) On 7/9/08, he signed with Miami for 5 years, but only the 1st 2 years guaranteed. After those 2 years ($8.33M total), they signed him at minimum this season ($1.07M). So in 3 years, Miami paid him $9.4M for 157 games (40, 36, 81).

Like I said, I don't know--I'm not firmly saying we should or shouldn't have signed him (so he could be healthy in 2/3 the games). I just wanted to make an offer (minimum would have been 2 years at $3.1M per, then Miami gave him 2 years for $4.1M each), because he was truly one of the league's best shooters, and not subaverage in other facets like some great shooters barely in the league. One could say that he missed a third of the games, but one had better be against re-signing Oden to be consistent. (I'm mostly there about Oden, but not 100% sure.)

http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2008/06/james_jones_im_definitely_open.html

 

[magnifier661]

We could have kept Jones had we torn up his $3.1M option year and replaced it with 2 years and a $1M raise per year (to $4.17M per year).

In case we needed him, we strung him along till draft day 6/26/08 with the possibility of an offer. That day, he declined his $3.1M player option year with us. (He obviously thought he could make more.) On 7/9/08, he signed with Miami for 5 years, but only the 1st 2 years guaranteed. After those 2 years ($8.33M total), they signed him at minimum this season ($1.07M). So in 3 years, Miami paid him $9.4M for 157 games (40, 36, 81).

Like I said, I don't know--I'm not firmly saying we should or shouldn't have signed him (so he could be healthy in 2/3 the games). I just wanted to make an offer (minimum would have been 2 years at $3.1M per, then Miami gave him 2 years for $4.1M each), because he was truly one of the league's best shooters, and not subaverage in other facets like some great shooters barely in the league. One could say that he missed a third of the games, but one had better be against re-signing Oden to be consistent. (I'm mostly there about Oden, but not 100% sure.)

http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2008/06/james_jones_im_definitely_open.html

Wow you be smart! Are you really Whitsett? LOL

 

[Boob-No-More]

We couldn't have gotten Frye while keeping Randolph.

Or James Jones. I find it funny that the same posters who are bitching that we didn't get enough for Zach are now bitching about losing the players we got for Zach. People are bitching that we need better outside shooting when we had it (Frye and Jones, both acquired as a result of the Zach Randolph trade) and let it walk for nothing.

BNM

 

[PapaG]

Or James Jones. I find it funny that the same posters who are bitching that we didn't get enough for Zach are now bitching about losing the players we got for Zach. People are bitching that we need better outside shooting when we had it (Frye and Jones, both acquired as a result of the Zach Randolph trade) and let it walk for nothing.

BNM

I hope you know that my post was sarcastic. KingSpeed clearly doesn't understand the salary cap chain after trading Zach.

 

[jlprk]

I hope you know that my post was sarcastic. KingSpeed clearly doesn't understand the salary cap chain after trading Zach.

You always say someone is dumb in about 1 sentence, without posting refutation of the other guy's facts.

I find it funny that the same posters who are bitching that we didn't get enough for Zach are now bitching about losing the players we got for Zach. People are bitching that we need better outside shooting when we had it (Frye and Jones, both acquired as a result of the Zach Randolph trade) and let it walk for nothing.

I see nothing inconsistent about complaining that we didn't get enough for Zach, and prove it by noting how few years Frye and Jones were here.

Wow you be smart! Are you really Whitsett? LOL

Just snowing the guy with numbers because he's mostly right. Thanks for the Whitsitt mention. Another dollar from Uncle.

 

[KingSpeed]

Or James Jones. I find it funny that the same posters who are bitching that we didn't get enough for Zach are now bitching about losing the players we got for Zach. People are bitching that we need better outside shooting when we had it (Frye and Jones, both acquired as a result of the Zach Randolph trade) and let it walk for nothing.

BNM

We didn't get James Jones directly in the Randolph deal. Furthermore, can't I complain about losing a player we got after trading ZBo?? That makes it worse. We lost BOTH! One and then the other! Kinda like getting Webster instead of Paul and then letting Webster go. All we have now is Babbitt! Horrible horrible management of our team.

And as for talk of his PER, blah, blah, blah... He just won an important PLAYOFF game for the Heat. That matters more than regular season PER.