Worst Blazer Ever

[Strenuus]

Just FYI


They were both moves that should have been good and ended up being crap. The fact that they should have been good does not make them good. The fact that they were crap makes them crap.

Scratch that: unlike Oden, Afflalo just wasn't that good anyway. He had a good year one time, but he was pretty shitty for Denver last season before we traded for him. He's a high volume shooter who does NOTHING ELSE. He didn't even play good defense, which he was supposed to be good at.

We'll agree to disagree, I suppose.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

The one Blazer whose career made me hate basketball for a couple of years and forced me to take a break was Oden. Never has the gulf between expectations and contribution been so wide - probably in the running for the most disappointing number one pick ever.

If it's any consolation, his experiences no doubt made him hate basketball more than it made you hate basketball.

Besides: that had nothing to do with the player and everything to do with the fact that God hates Portland. He wasn't even the most disappointing number one pick of the Blazers, let alone ever.

Short version: two words, Len Bias.

 

[BlazerWookee]

Shoot, some people are still defending the Moses Malone trade. Some thought Felton-for-Miller was a good deal.

Results matter.

Felton for Miller was a terrific deal, until Brandon Roy decided to retire.

Circumstances matter.

 

[oldmangrouch]

Felton for Miller was a terrific deal, until Brandon Roy decided to retire.

Circumstances matter.

Under what possible set of circumstances could that situation been termed "a terrific deal"???

 

[Chris Craig]

The actual worst Blazer is probably some D-League scrub that got called up for a ten day contract that I completely forgot about.

The one Blazer whose career made me hate basketball for a couple of years and forced me to take a break was Oden. Never has the gulf between expectations and contribution been so wide - probably in the running for the most disappointing number one pick ever.

Kwame Brown had a better career then oden that's sad

 

[Nikolokolus]

Felton for Miller was a terrific deal, until Brandon Roy decided to retire.

Circumstances matter.

How was it "terrific?" How are you measuring value here? I'm at a loss.

 

[BlazerWookee]

How was it "terrific?" How are you measuring value here? I'm at a loss.

On paper. The complaint about Miller was that he couldn't be effective alongside Roy because he couldn't hit the three. Felton was a better outside shooter, and would theoretically give Roy more room to work by making defenses pay for cheating towards the middle. When Roy retired and was replaced by Crawford, it changed the entire dynamic of the team and put Felton into a situation which, much like his uniform, didn't fit very well.

 

[Harry's Raincoat]

Great list. I agree totally except for classifying Bowie as a "biggest disappointment". He started out fairly well in Portland and gave us way more than Oden. Plus, injuries aside, he had a reasonably "long" career in the league. But most importantly, we turned him into Buck Williams, still one of the best trades in Blazer history. To call Bowie a big disappointment is rather harsh.....I mean, it's not like we coulda had Michael Jordan or anything....

My inclusion of Bowie in the category of "Most Disappointing" isn't a knock on him personally, but rather my own disappointment. He was a perfect piece to that '84 team after making the lopsided trade to get Kiki V. He had great talent at the rim and on D. It was disappointing to not see him be able to play the game without incurring injuries while a Blazer. I'll say further, that had he stayed healthy, that team (Valentine, Paxson, Kiki, Thompson and Bowie)(Clyde as 6th man) would have given the Lakers some annual anguish in the postseason!

 

[Harry's Raincoat]

Agree Bowie does not belong on list.......No way does a person with that kind of attitude belong on a worst of anything list. He sounds like a pretty decent, level headed person, and frankly he's right. Life has been good to him.

Again, as my post above points out, this is not meant as a personal attack on Bowie's character. I actually got to meet him, at our church, and I KNOW he is a good man, from very humble beginnings. My including him on this list is for the disappointment I HAVE in not being able to see him play with that team and stay injury free. Same for Oden. I think it could have been ('77, '78, '90, '91, '92, '00) special!!

 

[BlazerDuckSeahawkFan94]

The corpse that was Voshon Lenard

 

[jlprk]

If you want to play that game, I'd say Drazen Petrovic for Walter Davis was a much worse trade. It looked good on paper at the time. Davis was a veteran scorer, that in spite of being 36 years old, was averaging 18.7 ppg on PER = 17.1 for Denver. Petrovic was getting almost no PT with Drexler, Ainge and Porter eating up all the backcourt minutes. So, adding a proven scorer off the bench to back up Kersey seemed like a good move. The Blazers also had the best record in the league and were in win now mode. Unfortunately, Davis never fit in and after a sub-par 32-game rental was back in Denver the next year where he, again, put up much better numbers than he did in Portland. And, of course, Drazen went on to become a lights out shooter who averaged over 20 ppg for NJN.

Ironically, the veteran Davis was brought in for a deep playoff push in place of the younger, inexperienced Petrovic, but it was Petrovic who averaged 24.3ppg for NJN the playoffs the following year - the season we lost to the Bulls in the finals. We sure could have used that extra scoring punch off the bench against Michael, Scottie and company as we saw our team scoring average drop by almost 15 ppg (compared to our regular season average) in that series

Petrovic would have remained nothing had we kept him. It was Nets coach Bill Fitch who made him into something.

Fitch is the 2nd-greatest human being ever, after Bob Whitsitt and right above Shawn Kemp.

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

Ever? You can pick so many for that title.

Ha Seung-Jin - His suckage is legendary. He sucks too much even for the KBL where Peter John Ramos flourished.

Nolan Smith - Chad. Buchanan. Nolan and Armon are on the same tier of suckage.

I liked Slavko Vranes for the fact that he was an oddity.