I haven't had the pleasure of posting here in quite some time, so I feel the need to reflect on what has happened to the Blazers in the last month or so.Personally, I'm not sure what to make of what the Trail Blazers did at the trading deadline yet, but at least it was interesting, right?
On March 15, 2012, the Blazers dramatically and definitively changed the course of the entire franchise. They shipped Gerald Wallace to New Jersey. Not long after that, they sent Marcus Camby to Houston. Then, if you had any question about how serious the Blazers were about shaking things up, head coach Nate McMillan was canned.
For Wallace, the Nets sent Portland their 2012 first round draft pick, Mehmet Okur, and Shawne Williams. And for Camby, the Blazers became the proud owners of Jonny Flynn and Hasheem Thabeet. By design, none of the players they got back seemed to be part of the future in Portland. All except that nice little first round pick in 2012. That pick was most likely what the Blazers brass started out the day targeting.
Oh and in what seemed like a cherry on top of the dismantling-of-the-team sundae, Portland released Greg Oden to make room for the players that were sent back in the trades.
The roster has been stripped down and it's no secret what the plan is for this team moving forward. No one at the top of the organization will say the exact words, but the team is preparing to rebuild. The million dollar question is just how long will the "rebuilding" phase last for this team.
Hopefully, it's not too long, but it's probably going to be a little longer than most Blazer fans would like it to. As Big Suke said on Primetime a few days ago, this is going to be as quick as trying to turn around a battleship.
Here's what I think about it all. I think the Blazers were 100% correct to send Camby and Wallace out of town. Lets face it, neither one of them were going to be in Portland for very much longer. Wallace probably would have exercised his player option for financial reasons only, but Camby and his expiring contract was gone either way. And as the trade deadline rolled around, both guys seemed to have beef with Coach McMillan, and were 2 of the 4 players rumored to have a problem with Nate McMillan.
So yeah, losing the production of Marcus Camby and Gerald Wallace sucks (I guess?), but the Blazers' progress of the season had stalled anyway.
The only disappointing part about the trading deadline moves that Portland made, was that they didn't make a move to get rid of Raymond Felton and Jamal Crawford. They should have cleaned house completely. It's kind of funny that they couldn't find any takers for Felton after calling every team in the league! But whatever, Crawford and Felton are gone at the end of the season anyway, so I suppose it's not the end of the world to be stuck with them for the rest of the season. Still, it would have been interesting to see what, if anything, the team could have gotten in return for Felton and/or Crawford.
So what does the future hold for the Blazers? Well, you can never be sure, but if if you're a Blazer fan and want things to go as good as they possibly can go, it should go something like this. Spend the rest of this season "developing young talent" (wink, wink), finish with a not-so-stellar-record, hope for the highest draft picks possible, make quality draft picks, and begin next season with "future of the franchise" players firmly in place.
Sounds like a good plan, right? Sure does to me.
But something peculiar and somewhat troubling has been happening. The Blazers seem to actually be trying to win. Which is completely foolish. In the 9 games since the trade deadline, the Blazers are 4-5, with wins over Chicago, Memphis, New Orleans and Golden State. Sorry to say it folks, but Portland should have had a record of 1-8 in these last nine games. And the one single victory is because let's face it, it's hard to lose to the Hornets, even if you try your best to lose that game.
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| Yeah, NOW he actually starts trying. |
The fact that Raymond Felton is playing hard now is offensive. (No, not the good kind of offensive basketball skills.) And it kind of pisses me off, to be quite honest. Where the hell was all this talk about playing hard before the trade deadline and before Nate McMillan was fired? Oh that's riiiiight. Raymond Felton hated Nate McMillan and wanted him to get fired. It totally makes sense now.
Let's not pretend that part of the reason McMillan was fired was because Felton bitched and moaned enough to get everyone's attention (negatively affecting at least a couple teammates in the process), Nate wouldn't give him his way, and Nate was shown the door. (The players always will win a showdown with the coach, but that's another post for another day, I suppose.) Ray Felton had this to say, when asked about how some fans in Portland are totally fine with the team tanking to get the best draft pick this summer:
"It's kind of like a spit in the face...that's motivation to me. To hear it -- and everyone's starting to hear it more -- you can see it in everyone's eyes 'let's prove everyone wrong.'"
Well that's just great. Thanks a lot Ray Felton. Where was this motivational charge to "prove everyone wrong" back when y'all lost to the Wizards by 15 at home, or when you lost to the Pistons when you should have won, or when you got whacked by Minnesota two times in four days? That motivation was seemingly nowhere to be found.
So yeah, it's hard not to chuckle when I hear all these quotes about "not giving up" or "we're still going to play hard" or "our goal is still the playoffs."
As I saw the other day on Twitter, and forgive me but I can't remember who said it, but they said something to the effect of hey, for this team from here on out, "losing is winning." And it's true. It sounds bad when you say it out loud, but sometimes the truth is not so pretty. The more this team loses, the more the future of this team wins.
So thanks a lot, Raymond Felton. The fact that now you're playing hard for your next contract is a "spit in the face" to Blazer fans everywhere.
