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The Trail Blazers have enlisted a private headhunting firm to research and reach out to potential general manager candidates, according to Yahoo! Sports.
This confirms that GM Kevin Pritchard may not last the summer in Portland, apparently because he "lost a power struggle with Blazers president Larry Miller." Inquiries have been made about at least two current GMs, including Sam Presti of Oklahoma City. The Pacers were rumored to have interest in hiring Pritchard, who has done a solid job in Portland and should have no trouble finding another gig.

rotoworld

I saw this and I got really excited. How awesome would it be to see us get Larry out of office, and put a proven GM like Pritchard behind the wheel? I think he would make some deals and get us back to being a contender very quickly, unlike what Bird is trying to do.

What would you guys think of making this move?

How reliable is this source?

I say there is no way we get rid of Bird any time soon. It is clear that he is currently pretty much in the middle of his rebuilding plan, so it's too early to tell how good of a job he is doing. If we can get him in to work along side Bird I say we have to pull the trigger. But I just don't see either happening any time soon.

Can Morway!

omg omg omg omg i just peed my pants. GET PRITCHARD!!!

kdawg531 wrote:How reliable is this source?

I say there is no way we get rid of Bird any time soon. It is clear that he is currently pretty much in the middle of his rebuilding plan, so it's too early to tell how good of a job he is doing. If we can get him in to work along side Bird I say we have to pull the trigger. But I just don't see either happening any time soon.

I personally think it's pretty clear that Bird has no clue what he's doing in Indiana. He says he's rebuilding, yet most of his players are older, or don't have much talent. Even Granger is almost past his point of rebuilding at 27. I'm sorry, but if we keep Larry Bird much longer, he's going to waste the career of Granger, and the next few seasons that we watch. Let's move on and get a proven winning GM like Pritchard. Bring winning back to the Indiana Pacers!

I'm not sure there has been a gm use the draft as effectively as Pritchard in the last 5 years. If we hire him I hope its before the draft. Hiring Pritchard could be the Pacer's version of the Bill Pollium.

All that said since Walsh I think Bird's moves have been defensable if not particularly creative.

jarrettjackfan wrote:

kdawg531 wrote:How reliable is this source?

I say there is no way we get rid of Bird any time soon. It is clear that he is currently pretty much in the middle of his rebuilding plan, so it's too early to tell how good of a job he is doing. If we can get him in to work along side Bird I say we have to pull the trigger. But I just don't see either happening any time soon.

I personally think it's pretty clear that Bird has no clue what he's doing in Indiana. He says he's rebuilding, yet most of his players are older, or don't have much talent. Even Granger is almost past his point of rebuilding at 27. I'm sorry, but if we keep Larry Bird much longer, he's going to waste the career of Granger, and the next few seasons that we watch. Let's move on and get a proven winning GM like Pritchard. Bring winning back to the Indiana Pacers!

Bird has been at the helm for what, two years? How can you say he is doing a bad job when he has plenty of young talent to build on, not to mention 3 pretty significant expiring deals coming off the books in a year? A year from now we will be able to tell exactly how good of a job he has done, but it is still too early to tell. And I am almost positive that most inquiring minds who know about the NBA as a business will who read this post will agree with me.

I'd say so far he has done a good job. Look at the mess he was left with when Walsh left and tell me along every step of the way where he could have done a better job? Aside from some draft picks, (even though drafting in the middle of the first round every year is a crap shoot), and with the resources he had, I see no better way of going about rebuilding that team.

After all, Pritchard didn't rebuild the Blazers overnight, it took about three good years, how can you expect it to be different for Bird?

I still have faith in Larry. We're on the final stage of the "3-year plan" he and Obie's been doing so i'm optimistic Larry will do good this offseason making significant moves because they know they're on thin ice.
I like Pritchard, but like kdawg531 said, it also took him years to build the Blazers team. I'd like to see Bird's plan in full bloom first before i join the "Fire Larry" bandwagon.

jarrettjackfan wrote:

kdawg531 wrote:How reliable is this source?

I say there is no way we get rid of Bird any time soon. It is clear that he is currently pretty much in the middle of his rebuilding plan, so it's too early to tell how good of a job he is doing. If we can get him in to work along side Bird I say we have to pull the trigger. But I just don't see either happening any time soon.

I personally think it's pretty clear that Bird has no clue what he's doing in Indiana. He says he's rebuilding, yet most of his players are older, or don't have much talent. Even Granger is almost past his point of rebuilding at 27. I'm sorry, but if we keep Larry Bird much longer, he's going to waste the career of Granger, and the next few seasons that we watch. Let's move on and get a proven winning GM like Pritchard. Bring winning back to the Indiana Pacers!

Bird has had a long term plan, 1st was to clean up the roster of the thug/criminal element, that brought us Murphy, Dunleavy, Ford who all expire after this season and Foster is the one really older guy on this team. Granger will be the lead vet on this tean come 2011 and the Pacers will have a lot of cap space, assuming they don't deal one or 2 of those 4 guys and let them all expire. I personally think there will be one player dealt maybe 2 and next season we'll see the youth movement for real.


Now If Pritchard is available I'd like to see him in our FO.

Why is everyone talking about firing Bird when he isn't the GM?

Watch what you wish for! Prichard is an egomaniac, & won't have Paul Allen's checkbook tp "buy" a good draft as he has in the past. Read this:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_yl...yhoo&type=lgns
Not something the Prichard family have hanging on the refridgerater, or Kevin carries in his portfolio, I assure you!

That said, Peter Vecsey has commented on a link between Prichard & the Pacers in the past:
http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/more_...yfKOIOFaooKa5J
Then again, it's Peter Vecsey....

If this were to happen, I wonder when? Pre-Draft is too soon IMO.
Also, I wonder if Prichard would want to bring G.Oden home w/ him (giving Oden another shot to justify Prichards selection of him over K.Durant), and hope to pair him w/ his old PG M.Conoly? Both are FA's in '11.

8305 wrote:I'm not sure there has been a gm use the draft as effectively as Pritchard in the last 5 years. If we hire him I hope its before the draft. Hiring Pritchard could be the Pacer's version of the Bill Pollium.

All that said since Walsh I think Bird's moves have been defensable if not particularly creative.

Sam Presti in OKC...he's the top dog in my opinion.

Presti has created something special. Barring injury and a chemistry breakdown, that team will be in the playoffs for a good decade.

Larry as president and Pritchard as GM? That'd be quite formidable. Seems like Larry has a winning forumla, just needs a better eye for talent.

Starkiller wrote:Larry as president and Pritchard as GM? That'd be quite formidable. Seems like Larry has a winning forumla, just needs a better eye for talent.

The way the Pacers front office is setup as of now, with Morway being the GM, it seems he is more or less there for salary issues and Bird is doing all of the trigger pulling and decision making.

When I met with Morway last year, it was him and two lawyers that comprised his little group and that was basically the tone that I got from him.

Yeah, generally it seems that Bird is the "Michael Scott" (big picture) of the office, whereas Morway is the "Jim Halpert" (day-to-day, nitty-gritty detail guy).

If that is the case, there is no way the Pacers are hiring Pritchard just to sit behind Bird and watch what he does....

Yea I thought Morway was being mentioned as an up and comer. Pritchard isn't coming here. Now if its to replace Bird that is another story.