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Dwight Jaynes Just watching the world float by…
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And if anyone ever tells you there was a lot of sentiment in Portland to take anybody in that 2007 draft but Greg Oden, well, show them this. It was an incredible sight.
No wonder this year’s draft didn’t seem all that exciting.
Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Greg Oden, NBA Draft, Portland Trail Blazers
That’s the next meaningful date for the Portland Trail Blazers.
Yes, they can speak to free agents on July 1, but they can’t sign any. And until July 8 they can’t do an unbalanced trade — a deal that allows them to spend cap space rather than players to balance out salaries. They will find out the cap number sometime on July 7 and be able to move at midnight. This same situation seems to be affecting all the various Amare Stoudemire trade scenarios.
Everyone is talking about free agency for the Blazers but Kevin Pritchard admitted Thursday night that it’s just as likely the cap room the Blazers have — still uncertain because the cap figure could drop from last season — could be used in a trade as be used in a free-agent signing.
Pritchard also said the team already has a list of players in mind it will target and will not necessarily limit itself to signing or obtaining just one player. There’s no doubt that point guards are high on the list.
All in all, a pretty dull night for Blazer fans, who obviously are accustomed to a lot more drama. But whatever. We’re going to have to wait a couple more weeks for that.
One small farewell: I’m going to miss Sergio Rodriguez. He was a real fun player to watch operate when he had the freedom to wheel and deal. I hope he has a great career in Sacramento.
Tags: Dwight Jaynes, free agency, Kevin Pritchard, NBA Draft, Portland Trail Blazers, salary cap, Sergio Rodriguez
The NBA ought to change its free agency date so that it could have a major extravaganza on draft night. It would be cool to have open season on free agents the same day as the draft — it would lead to a real three-ring circus of activity and a lot more publicity for the league.
Plus, teams could wheel and deal draft picks more using cap space, if it is available. A lot of times, the free agent stuff doesn’t get the publicity in July it should get — but having it part of a big night like this would help a lot. Plus, it would help the thing from becoming a four-hour snoozefest, which it was last night.
Everyone is confounded by Minnesota taking the two point guards. But I’m sure Jonny Flynn was the guy the Wolves wanted and Rubio falling in their laps was too much to resist.
I would assume that they’d like to hold Rubio up for auction to the highest bidder. He’s certainly the most marketable player in the entire draft and maybe the only legitimate ticket seller of the bunch. The guy’s magnetic, on and off the court.
But I’d be concerned that Rubio is magnetic enough that the Twin Cities are already geeked up about seeing him and it’s already resulting in the phones ringing to buy tickets. You better trade him quickly before everyone is too in love with him.
This draft was a real sleeper. For all the blockbuster trades made prior to it, the draft itself provided very little drama. I did like David Kahn’s interview with Stu Scott, though. Funny stuff — and yes, he used to play all the time in those noon games at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center. I know because they used to happen right after the Trail Blazers’ morning practices there. He wasn’t much of a point guard, though — at least according to the guys who played with and against him.
Tags: David Kahn, Dwight Jaynes, Jonny Flynn, Minnesota Timberwolves, NBA Draft, Ricky Rubio
Feel free to post your dream for today as a Blazer fan — just try to keep it somewhat realistic. I don’t really want to hear about any LeBron James-for-Steve Blake trades.
My wish:
No more hotshot rookies. Draft one and trade him — that would be great. But if this team is really going to compete next season, it won’t be with a rookie in the regular rotation, will it? Besides, I’m kind of tired of the whole developmental thing.
Didn’t Paul Allen say “Go for it”?
I will be at the Blazer practice facility today with the rest of the media, but I’ll also be taking part in some way in the Comcast-95.5 The Game coverage of the draft.
I’ll be jumping in once in a while with Brian Wheeler live from the PF, with updates, speculation or just goofing around. If you want the local, Trail Blazer spin on the draft, I’d advise you go tune to 95.5 in your cars or Comcast Sportsnet on your TVs for complete coverage from start to (well past) the finish.
If something big happens, I’ll get a blog post up, too, and will try to get a few Tweets up on the Twitter page just to stay in touch.
Tags: 95.5 The Game, Brian Wheeler, Comcast Sportsnet, Dwight Jaynes, NBA Draft, Portland Trail Blazers
Perhaps this is true, that the Chicago Bulls point guard is telling friends he believes he’s being traded to the Trail Blazers. But all I can tell you is that Portland could have had him back at the trading deadline — and very cheap, too. The Bulls were ready to practically give him away at that point of the season.
Maybe the Blazers were convinced by the solid playoff series Hinrich had against the Boston Celtics. Or perhaps Kevin Pritchard — who has always liked Hinrich — finally won his argument with someone else in the organization who has been adamantly against the move.
Tags: Chicago Bulls, Dwight Jaynes, Kevin Pritchard, Kirk Hinrich, NBA Draft, Portland Trail Blazers
I hate to keep pounding away at this, but the Shaq trade on the heels of the Richard Jefferson deal reflects the reality in the NBA: There are plenty of very good players available out there if you’re merely willing to pay their salaries.
There are teams trying to win and then there are teams trying just to stay afloat. There are teams trying to win championships and teams just trying to “clear cap space” — which in the case of many of those teams, means just saving money.
There has never been a better time to pluck a great player off someone’s roster just because you’re willing to pay his salary. I’m saying this because I’m assuming the Trail Blazers have that willingness.
It may not show up in today’s draft because the Blazers’ cap situation won’t be clear until about a week into July. But at some point in the next few weeks, they should be able to pluck a very nice player off some poor team’s roster — possibly even the final piece of a championship puzzle.
As Blazer fans, I believe you have a right to expect a very good player.
Like the Los Angeles Lakers (Paul Gasol) and Denver Nuggets (Chauncey Billups), the San Antonio Spurs have managed to add a very good player to their roster (Richard Jefferson) without giving up much of anything but a little garage-sale junk from the basement.
Jefferson will help the Spurs a lot and San Antonio gave up three expendable players with expiring contracts, including Fabricio Oberto, who will probably — after a buyout — end up back with the Spurs.
This illustrates again that if teams in the NBA want to take on big contracts, they can get players for virtually free. I know the Bucks will sit back and tell their fans that they’re going to be in great shape after next season because of a lot of cap room, but it’s likely they won’t ever convince a free agent to go there anyway. I think such deals, long term, are bad for the NBA. It’s seemingly increasing the distance between the haves and have-nots.
But the Trail Blazers are supposed to be one of the haves. I know they had no interest in Jefferson because they’ve turned him down since last season’s trade deadline. But there must be somebody out there they really want and in this financial climate, I would expect them to add someone in a onesided trade. Seriously — it’s THE way to get better right now in the league.
Portland needs to take advantage of this situation while it exists. It’s the strong preying on the weak and the Blazers better be working toward their own private feast.
If good players are being given away by NBA teams, I expect the Trail Blazers to be up in front of that line. One warning, though — nobody knows what the salary cap is going to be yet and any trade involving a lot of cap space may not be possible for Portland until sometime in July.
That means we might see things in this draft that don’t make sense right away but will be clearer whenever that cap number is made clear.
Tags: . Milwaukee Bucks, Dwight Jaynes, NBA Draft, Portland Trail Blazers, Richard Jefferson, San Antonio Spurs
You don’t need to see the entire 10 minutes of this to know what an attraction Ricky Rubio is going to be:
I could see him being the best trade piece a team could acquire in this year’s draft. And at last report, he may be falling toward No. 5, as Sacramento has grown a little recluctant because of all the buyout issues. If the Blazers are looking to move up and grab a player they could use to trade for an established point guard, this is the piece.
Man, this kid could sell some tickets for a team in economic trouble.
Tags: Dwight Jaynes, NBA Draft, Portland Trail Blazers, Ricky Rubio, Sacramento Kings
It says here that the Blazer owner has told his general manager to “go for it.”
So before this, they weren’t going for it? Who knew?
Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Kevin Pritchard, NBA Draft, Paul Allen, Portland Trail Blazers, The Oregonian
