Who will be back for Fall camp '08?

[Discovery69]

Billy, thanks, good to be on this site too. You guys do a good job of moderating this site.

You need to come up on draft day and join TBPup and I at the draft party. We will probably have our standard advance rumors from our sources. Should be another fun time on draft day of surprises, good byes to existing player(s) and cheers of new player(s).

As draft day draws closer keep an eye on OJ Mayo and Kevin Love as both seem to fit what Pritchard is looking for in finding intelligent "basketball players", students of the game willing to put in the time in the gym and study game tapes, known for having high basketball IQ and team players. Of the two OJ Mayo could be attainable through trading up.

Going back to comments Pritchard made a couple of years ago before he drafted Aldridge and Roy. He would take an intelligent "basketball player" with above average skills over a highly talented player with a poor work ethic.

[SalemStoner]

The more I watch of Kevin Love the more I'd love for the Blazers to get him. In fact as much as I love LMA, I'd consider doing something like Rose for LMA and then pick up Love at 13. I'd be doing that move as much on my impression that Love is just about everything we want in a PF right now, and that I believe Rose is an elite PG prospect on the level of Paul and Williams. Both have proven willing to be part of a team concept on teams full of other nearly(or possibly more) as talented players - something ANY player we acquire will have to be able to do. In fact I'd trade anyone on the roster besides Roy and Oden to get those 2 players. A core of Oden, Love, Rose and Roy would be hellacious. I'd happy with just drafting Love at 13, then moving Outlaw, Frye, Jack and our 2009 1st for a PG(Mayo being the #1 option here - I wouldn't trade LMA to get Mayo however) too. I don't think it'd be quite as good in the future but it'd probably be better in the short term.

[mojomarc]

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I don't think there is much doubt about having to part with some players they like.

I suspect however, that there may be a difference of opinion between Nate and KP on just what players to part with.

KP is high on Frye and Rodriguez but Nate seems to vote the opposite way with playing time. On the other hand, Nate says he's high on Webster, yet KP tried to trade martell last summer.

I'm not sure there is a difference. Certainly based on playing time alone we can't say there is. That could simply be a difference in how "ready" the player is perceived as being, which is different from the question of which players are keepers for future games.