I thought I’d written about him for the last time this summer but he just won’t go away.Yes, he says he won’t report to the team. He’s daring them to suspend him.
This time he’s really overplayed his hand. The Blazers will probably be happy to do that. It’s much easier to be selective about trading him if this goes into the season and the team’s got him on the suspended list and isn’t paying him.
Rudy, my boy, that will not be a problem.
What is a problem, though, is that it’s entirely possible the Trail Blazers are once again going to overestimate the value of one of their players and end up not getting full value for him. For me, a middle first-round pick would have been fine at this point. Somewhere around 15 to 20 would have worked. I think they could have had that.
The problem is, Rudy’s value continues to diminish. Do not forget that his European options make it difficult for another team to take him on knowing that after just one season he might just bail and head back to Spain. I’m not sure you can expect another team to give up a whole lot knowing that he might just be a rental player for one season.
In the meantime, Rudy’s become quite the whiner. And that’s just no fun at all.
Gotta be alert for the cameos, but you can catch him about a minute and a half in and then again at the end. Not much mystery about the message of this video. Not safe for work, either.
OK, my e-mail buddy Greg nudged me over the weekend with the Rasheed Wallace retirement story. Not much, he said, is being made of the fact that a pretty good player says he’s retiring. And, oh, by the way, he is telling people he may decide to make his post-NBA home in Portland.
It got me thinking. Let’s say Wallace decides to settle with his family here. How will he be received? Let’s say he becomes a regular at the Rose Garden for home games — will fans boo him? Will they cheer him? How do Trail Blazer fans perceive him right now? Do they hate him? Hey, will this guy join Jerome Kersey, Terry Porter and Dale Schlueter as a Blazer ambassador some day? Doubt it.
For me, I’m guessing Wallace will become a fan favorite, if he wants to be. Portland fans want to love their ex-players — all of them. The big question, of course, is will Wallace want it?
As we get ready for the world championships, Rudy is still making it clear he wants no part of returning to Portland (tried to hit the translated link but it won’t let me, sorry. But it’s pretty easy to get one one the web somewhere). He says he’s frustrated and either wants to come back to Europe or be dealt to another team that plays the style of game that will take advantage of his skills. Mostly stuff we’ve all heard before.
But I thought this part was a little more pointed than some previous stuff:
P. Do you think that all were to blame McMillan? Have you made self-criticism?
R. Of course all the fault is not theirs. The coach holds the reins of the team and has to think about what is best for the group. That does it. It also has a philosophy of play and sometimes I did not fall. It is true that I have in front of Roy, who is a superstar and accumulated many minutes on the track. But I do not understand is that I have promised many things they are not carried out. I do not need someone telling me to go all day I’m very good or he sees me playing very well so that the end does not give you the role you expect. Those things hurt you mentally. Affect you because you said one thing and does the opposite. You start thinking about what you have done wrong, what is it that did not like … Accumulate all that and you just eat a headache to the point of not seeing you able to help the team and prefer to be on the bench.
I have to tell you, he’s going about this all wrong. It doesn’t have to be public. But at the same time, he does need to go someplace where he will play — and play his game. Otherwise, given how much money he’s losing by playing over here, he’s wasting time and money playing in the NBA.
Dragging this dispute into training camp would not be beneficial to anyone. In fact, it would be a big mistake for the Blazers that will only be a camp distraction — and it won’t become any easier to trade him later.
We have 20 minutes with him that we recorded yesterday afternoon — discussion about the Rose Quarter and Memorial Coliseum. It will start this morning at 7:35. You can find it on 95.5 fm this morning in the Portland area and 955thegame.com on the very computer you’re using right now.
Also, OSU football coach Mike Riley will join us at 8:30.
Ben is the guy who makes Blazersedge.com a whole lot more than a fan site. The guy’s a legit reporter without a lot of access the mainstream media has. Today he’s got info on Scott Zachry’s new job, the search for a replacement for Rebecca Haarlow and two assistant general manager names:
And, in case you missed it yesterday, Michael Cunningham of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports Hawks Director of Pro Personnel Steve Rosenberry could be one of Rich Cho’s Assistant GMs.
Update (3:01PM): Another name to watch for Cho’s Assistant GM positions is Bill Branch. Branch has a long history in the NBA as an assistant coach, director of scouting and, now, as Director of Pro Personnel in Oklahoma City. He worked with Cho in both Seattle and Oklahoma City.
Ben will be on the MSP this morning at 8. It’s a big day on the show. Deadspin.com editor Drew Magary joins us at 7 and DJ Steve Porter, the genius who puts together those great Press Hop videos (you can find one below), will be with us at 8:35.
The show is on 95.5 FM in the Portland area and 955thegame.com always.
Man, what a classic “dog-bites-man” story this is. I mean, seriously, is anybody surprised that Rudy Fernandez wants to be traded? Or that the team is trying to accommodate him?
Man, things change. And this is one of those times when the team definitely waited too long to deal him. A year ago this guy was thought to be a rising star and considered quite possibly to be one of the best young shooting guards in the world. Now? The Blazers will be lucky to get much for him.
I wrote a piece for Oregon Live last summer about Rudy and suggested the team should consider moving him. It’s worth a read just because it reminds us all how much we thought of the guy after his rookie season. And I may be the only one around who still believes he has a chance to be a very good NBA player.
All the reasons for Rudy to want out of here were easy to see coming down the track, like a freight train headed toward Portland. But man, I took a ton of flack for that piece and I ask that you take a look at the poll that accompanied it.
Nobody liked the idea. I was called an idiot every which way in the comments section of this blog. I know Kevin Pritchard didn’t like the idea because he told me so.
But these are the sorts of decisions that GMs are supposed to make earlier than fans. They’re the kind of decisions that are supposed to be made while a player still has value. I’m not sure Portland is going to get all that much for Fernandez, who seriously devalued himself with his work — or lack of same — in the playoffs last season.
There’s a lesson here — for fans, GMs and everyone else. And this is why general managers get paid upwards of a million bucks a year.
I was in error previously when I talked about the Trail Blazers getting Paul to agree to extension prior to any deal. I do not now believe that is possible. You can’t get a player to sign an extension until the final year of his deal, which Paul is a year away from. And when he gets to that final season, we’re going to be in a lockout, so you likely won’t be able to get him signed then, either.
Without having him for longer than two seasons, I’d be real careful about giving up any young and promising players for him. Most teams would. Man, you might get him for only a season and a half if that lockout lasts as long as some people think it will next summer.
People getting all over Paul for wanting his team to acquire better players may be ignoring how many other players who have done the same thing over the years. Kobe Bryant did it just a couple of seasons ago. And to a degree I sympathize with players caught on teams that are in the midst of salary dumps and obviously aren’t trying to win.
At the same time, I grew up in an era when players were stuck with one franchise for their entire careers, if the teams wanted to keep them. Ever hear of Ernie Banks? Stuck with the horrid Cubs forever. Never whined and never complained. Just wanted to play two every day. It isn’t a player’s god-given right to win a championship, you know.
David Stern is distressed over the whole idea of his superstars congregating on three or four teams. So are many owners. And there’s a new collective bargaining agreement coming up soon. Don’t be surprised if the owners don’t try to make it tougher on players to leave a franchise. This, of course, is going to be difficult to do in that the owners want to shorten the length of max contracts, too.
I’ve said this before and people in Portland are livid with me about it, but if all things were equal — if Roy weren’t a base-year player, if his salary matched up with Paul and they had the same number of years left on their deals — I’d trade Roy for Paul in a heartbeat. I mean, if you’re going to have one player dominating the ball all the time, who wouldn’t pick Paul over Roy?
The sooner this Paul talk is shut down, the sooner the Blazers can get back to a deal they can actually make — not some pipedream — to improve their team.
Never mind the fact that the Hornets haven’t yet said they’d shop him — although Paul’s making it easy for them to justify it to their fans because he’s asking out (which makes it possible for the team to turn the player into the villain and make a deal with less criticism). And never mind there may be other teams on Paul’s list that could make better offers than the Trail Blazers.
Everybody wants Paul and they want him now, darn it!
But you have to give up something to get him. For just two years, too, quite possibly. I’m not at all convinced that he doesn’t have a plan to bolt wherever he is as soon as he can and head off to join pals in New York or Miami.
Anyway, would you surrender Greg Oden to get him? Would you give up Oden and Nic Batum? How about Brandon Roy?
The guy has two years left — and a player option for another. And that player option means it’s really a two-year deal.
You willing to deal Nic Batum for a guy who could be gone in two years? I’m not sure. I’d be real careful about thinking I could convince him to extend that deal to stay in Portland within two seasons. Not sure it would happen. This guy just signed on with LeBron James’ marketing company, folks. Is that the first step toward him heading off to join the superheroes in Miami?
Also not sure Nate McMillan’s willing to turn his offense over to Paul, which is what he’d have to do to win with him — and to keep Paul happy.
You may remember me from my 25 years at The Oregonian and Oregon Journal. Or my stint at the Portland Tribune or appearances on local talk radio. Well, times change and so have I. Right now, I'm still watching the world float by, but only when I have the time.
They call me "The Godfather" now, especially in the mornings, from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. on the "Morning Sports Page" with Chad Doing and Antonio Harvey, on Portland's No. 1 sports station, 95.5 The Game.
And I answer to that, too, in my other job, as combination host/panelist on Comcast Sportsnet's "Talkin Ball" show. You'll find us talkin' ball after every Trail Blazer game shown on CSN this season, as well as assorted other days during the off-season.
A lot of people ask me where I get those great ties I wear on television. Well, they come from Estes, a uniquely Portland store that provides personal service I've never found anywhere else. It's located at 16th and Northwest Glisan and I'd advise you to check it out.
NBA, Trail Blazers | Dwight Jaynes | August 19, 2010 | 
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