OK, it’s open season now on NBA free agents. . .
But I find this situation a little bit ironic:
A week ago, when all you could do was talk to free agents, suitors were lined up at the door at midnight. Mark Cuban flew into New York to speak with Jason Kidd, the Trail Blazers had Hedo Turkoglu’s agent on the phone, there was all sorts of activity — just a few seconds after the talking period began.
But now, when you can actually get somebody’s name on the dotted line, there’s no rush. I expected to wake up this morning and read about four or five players who had already signed. But no, apparently no hurry today.
If I had an agreement with someone, I think I’d be out there pretty fast getting his name signed to it. People can change their mind, you know. Nothing’s binding until you get it inked, which I guess Trail Blazer fans already understand.
Which kind of reminds me that Brian Wheeler said on his radio show yesterday that Turkoglu’s commitment to the Trail Blazers last week was so strong that he’d already selected his uniform number (I think he said it was going to be 26, but I must admit that for me uniform numbers are so insignificant, I couldn’t be 100 percent certain).
I believe there are still some people in the Trail Blazer front office who are very upset with Hedo Turkoglu.
NBA, Trail Blazers | Dwight Jaynes | July 8, 2009
Dwight Jaynes, Hedo Turkoglu, Jason Kidd, Mark Cuban, Portland Trail Blazers
Hey, this is a little off topic…but why are all of Kerry Eggers articles off the Portland Tribune website? Is Kerry still with the Tribune? Anyone know?
Kerry is on vacation… Not to worry. He’s still there.
The stomach felt sour this morning, like drinking Drano or eating rotten meat, as I read Antonio Mcdyess came to terms with San Antonio…. Jesus, how deep does that team need to be? While absolutely loathing the Spurs for their casual competance I can’t help but sit back and admire the savvy this franchise continues to show, while all the while bitter with envy.
The Spurs seem to be making the subtle changes, like they always seem to do, to keep them on top. Getting older? No sweat, trade bench fodder for a high tempo starter and take a flier in the Second Round on a player with Lottery talent and questionable knees….. nothing to loose. Need to keep Duncan fresh, well shucks, how bout gobbling up the most seasoned, and productive, Veteran big man on the market. No sweat, they grab their lunch pales and load up the old .44 with some brand new bullets and head back to work…
Which just makes a little queasy, and while I don’t think teams are greatly seperating themselves from the Blazers, talent wise, thus far in free agency, I do feel ill at our one and done approach to free agency thus far.
The teams the same as it ended, just a bit younger and less experience on the bench. Sure, there is loads of babble and hope that the failed economy will bare the fruits of The Lopsided Trade, but lets be honest; We all thought the experation of Raef was the golden ticket…. till it wasn’t.
There are Wants and there are Neccesities; We all want to get Chris Paul for only Blake and Outlaw, in our eyes it seems like a fair and perfertly logical deal, never mind the gooey brains from 7 days awake gobbling dirty mushrooms down at Country Fair…..
But what we Need are a couple productive Vets to back up Aldridge and to ensure we don’t get Aaron Brooked again in the playoffs. Truly, a petty haul of Mcdyess and Ramon Sessions without giving up any assets would have saved many from Pepto Abuse and nicotine poisoning while watching the rich get richer on the court while we horde enough cash to buy an average yacht or pay for a memorial for some pervert in L.A……
Just a note to Pritch; Slow that big brain of yours down and just Get on base…. Stop swinging for the fences, eat some Aderol, slow your roll, or speed it up, whatever works…. Go and get us some bullets and stop searching for a Nuke in a suitcase….
My guess is that you didn’t see the news headlines about signings this morning partly because of red tape. Probably attorneys/agents on both sides need to review and change things once or twice before making things final. Maybe the league office needs to review things as well. Just guessing.
I think you are making the Hedo thing bigger then it was. We went after the top free agent, he didnt’ bite. Most people in the loop were saying he’d go to Toronto anyway, for security and money. Now we seem to be after the 2nd most attractive FA, Lee. This is about assests and not loyalty, I really doubt anyone in the Blazers front office is still upset.
He went back on a commitment to them. It wasn’t as if they didn’t have a shot at him. He said he was coming, only to reverse himself. That’s what upset them.
We’d actually have been fine against Houston if we hadn’t gotten Carl Landried.