Hoopsworld: Wark to PDX 75% chance of happening

[TBpup]

Amazing the short memory of some of the fans around here. Do any of you who are actually promoting Wark back to Portland remember the years he was here? Jailblazers ring a bell? Do I need to quote this again?

He was here but that was Bob Whitsitt's crew, not Wark's. I know Mark was basically let go when he was adamant about not taking Telfair and wanting Al Jefferson instead. He was not shy about his opinion with that pick.

[mojomarc]

Maybe Dolan wants to buy picks?

[Khazim]

Amazing the short memory of some of the fans around here. Do any of you who are actually promoting Wark back to Portland remember the years he was here? Jailblazers ring a bell? Do I need to quote this again?

He was here but that was Bob Whitsitt's crew, not Wark's. I know Mark was basically let go when he was adamant about not taking Telfair and wanting Al Jefferson instead. He was not shy about his opinion with that pick.

Bob may have been in charge, but it's not like Wark had no part of it. Besides, his work at his next stop doesn't exactly convince me he values character and chemistry either.

If he does end up here I'm guessing his first order of business will be to implement a "must wear headbands" rule, then follows it up by trading Oden, Batum, and Dante for Michael Beasley.

[hondaaccord]

Kp deserves to get fired. Odense over Durant is inexusable. Durant is MVP caliber. You don't pass up talent like that and get away with it

Every GM would have taken Oden then.

Do you want all of them to be fired ?

We do not know if that is true.

Ever heard of the philosophy of "Draft the best player available, no matter what? "

Case studies like Oden v Durant are the reason people buy into this philosophy.

To me I had doubts about the Blazers drafting Oden, as I wasn't impressed with his play at Ohio State. And I have yet to be impressed by his NBA play.

There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that Oden is even close to being on the same level as Durant.

Durant was College Player of the year

Now Durant is second in MVP voting.

Durant has ALWAYS been the better player. KP decided to follow the outdated Spurs model of "build around David Robinson and win a ship"...

Only problem with this philosophy is that many teams have won a championship without an elite center. Boston did it, Detroit did it, Spurs did it without Robinson....

[ebott]

I'm gonna be pissed off if we fire KP and the best we can do is bring in Bob Whitsitt's lacky.

[hondaaccord]

Wark to Portland and Pritch to NY seems like a great fit.

We need a GM who isn't bound by sentiment who can make the big deal to put us over the top. IMO Pritchard would love the NY spotlight and NY needs a guy who can make something out of almost nothing.

I don't know that KP to NY is such a great fit...the Knicks seemingly have traded away all their 1st round picks from here to eternity, and KP loves those 1st round picks

I hope KP goes to new york. He will probably trade LeBron to us for Victor Claver.

[ucatchtrout]

Hoopsworld doesn't know jack about whats going to happen or not happen.
They are not really a good source for anything. They make up the headline and then write the story.

[Shem]

I hope KP goes to new york. He will probably trade LeBron to us for Victor Claver.

The sad part of this statement is you actually believe it.

[monopoman]

Yeah what a fool KP was he should have bought that crystal ball they only cost like 50 bucks.

Then you get a psychic and bamn you know which players are the best from every draft forever. You can also see a guys injury future for the next 20 years.







/Above statements might be riddled with sarcasm.


I swear Honda has to be the most negative fan on the planet. He probably would trade Roy if he had one fully injured season or had trouble shooting for 3 months because Roy would then be a "injury prone player" or "suck".

Nate could win a championship and he would still call for his head saying that it took him far too long. If we had another coach we would have had 3 more championships easily.

Of course he will give KP a tongue lashing if he trades Rudy for something mediocre and Rudy goes on to be a an all-star saying that KP screwed up again. Never mind that he would get rid of Rudy in an instant if he was the GM.

[dreamcloud]

WOW, wtF! KEEP PRITCHARD! FFS.

[blazers73]

As noted Wark seems to take problem children and hope they work out. Isn't that what we just got out of not too long ago? Pritchard has helped build a team with a great culture. I would hate to see it all come crashing down again with a guy who has a history of attaining malcontents.

I like Pritchard. Everyone has weak points and overvaluing his talent is obviously one of them. If we can attain someone as good as Pritchard I wouldn't be heartbroken. But I don't think this is the guy.

[DusterBuster]

Anyone saying KP made a mistake ON DRAFT DAY by drafting Oden over Durant is delusional. Granted, Durant turned out to be a far better player, but NO ONE and I mean NO ONE would have drafted Durant over Oden at the #1 spot. There was a reason the 2007 Draft was called "The Oden Draft". Almost every NBA expert at that time said the Blazers would be crazy to take Durant over Oden and thought the Blazers were silly for even creating a debate over who they should pick. Those of us who were are willing to remember things how they actually happened back in the summer of 2007 know this.

Moving on from one ridiculous statement to another, these doomsayers claiming the Blazers will plunge back into the JailBlazers under Wark are also going off the deep end. There's no denying Wark has borrowed from the Whitsitt philosophy during his time in Denver. But he also isn't running a team that's overly concerned with character. You don't here Denver media in an outrage over a couple of the bad seeds they have on the Nuggets. Wark would be working under a totally different set of circumstances here in Portland. I'm sure Paul Allen and Larry Miller are still committed to keeping Blazer players off the police blotter. As such, Wark wouldn't be allowed to bring in guys like that.

As a person, I like KP a lot better. I believe Wark to be pretty underhanded guy with the way he's been smearing Pritchard in the media. HOWEVER, if the Blazers are dead set on firing Pritchard, I don't think Wark is a bad replacement. I believe he's just as good a talent evaluator as KP and he's willing to change something when it's clearly not working. Pritchard seems to allow his personal connections to players and staff to keep him from making the changes that need to be made to take this team to the next level. My hope is that KP keeps his job and is able to prove me wrong by trading Aldridge and some other pieces for a legit All Star, but if that doesn't happen and KP get's fired, I'd think the Blazers could do a lot worse than Wark.

[The Emcee]

Very intriguing...and hondaaccord just landed himself on my ban list.

[monopoman]

I also like his laughable claim that the many teams have won championships without an elite center.

Boston won 1 championship without an elite center. This was mostly due to the ridiculous trades they made in one year to get 3 all-star calibur players on the same team as they entered their decline years.

Detroit won 1 championship without an elite center. Again this is a similar case to the Boston situation a lot of very talented players playing well together and many were former all-stars.

1 championship is not a ridiculously huge deal, obviously its great to get any championships but look at all the dynastys.

Lakers 3 championships with Shaq and 1 with Bynum and Pau
San Antonio 4 championships with Duncan

So yeah thats like 8 of the last 12 or so years of championships have been won with an elite Center or a big man.

The only man to truly defy this claim of don't need a big man is Michael Jordan.

As of now Jordan is infinitely better then Durant. Durant needs to prove a hell of a lot more to even get in the same conversation as Jordan.

[mojomarc]

Kp deserves to get fired. Odense over Durant is inexusable. Durant is MVP caliber. You don't pass up talent like that and get away with it

You're an idiot who lives based on hindsight.

It's fine to say he lives based on hindsight, but you don't need to call people "idiot" on here.

[farzi]

I'll edit it out

[The Sebastian Express]

What about a potato head?

[Khazim]

Moving on from one ridiculous statement to another, these doomsayers claiming the Blazers will plunge back into the JailBlazers under Wark are also going off the deep end. There's no denying Wark has borrowed from the Whitsitt philosophy during his time in Denver. But he also isn't running a team that's overly concerned with character. You don't here Denver media in an outrage over a couple of the bad seeds they have on the Nuggets. Wark would be working under a totally different set of circumstances here in Portland. I'm sure Paul Allen and Larry Miller are still committed to keeping Blazer players off the police blotter. As such, Wark wouldn't be allowed to bring in guys like that.

Since I'm one of these "doomsayers" I will respond. I do agree that it's likely going overboard by saying that we would plunge back into the depths of Jailblazerdom just because Wark is back. However, if you are a recovering alcoholic, is it a good idea to start hanging out at the bar again with an old drinking buddy? It may not necessarily make you start drinking again, but it does increase the chance pretty dramatically, and it's certainly not going to help.

We have something very good here. KP is a large part of that. If for whatever reason he isn't going to be here going forward, at the very least please don't replace him with a blast from the past, especially when that particular past was udder crap.

[Butter]

I have been a KP fan for a long time. However, I do agree that his biggest down fall is his apparent attachment to his favorite players. Or maybe a better way to say that is the way he over-values the potential of some players. However, he has traded Sergio (I thought KP loved that kid), Blake (Nate Fav), and Travis (locker room favorite).

If KP is retained, this will be a big off-season for him. With his cap guru gone, and the biggest FA summer in a long time, KP needs to hit several home runs. I think he needs a consolidation trade or two, at least.

I am not a fan of dumping KP...yet. I hate to sound like a...well...hater. But in my perfect scenario, the Blazers would upgrade some of the talent on this team and get a new coach to implement a better offensive scheme. To me, if KP wants to keep his job long term, he needs to show that he's ready to do whats best for the franchise.

Bottom line:

1) Move some of the players he's attached to
2) Bring in a more creative coach that can get the maximum out of his current roster

[SalemStoner]

I look at the roster of pieces that Wark helped Whitsitt assemble here.
I look at the roster of pieces that Wark has assembled in Denver.

I see many of the same issues, and mistakes on both of those rosters. I don't like the way the pieces fit together, I don't like the number of players whom are generally just douche bags on those two rosters.

For ****'s sake I reference the Nuggets as the Thuggets regularly.

I'm not one to say character is end all be all of roster building, but I'm certainly not of the opinion of Wark either. This guy clearly doesn't give a damn if you're douche bag or not, or if the pieces make any sense together on the roster or not. He just tries to upgrade upgrade upgrade endlessly, to the point of damaging the roster's makeup in chemistry, balance and fit.

If KP needs to be fired for some reason(and I'm not sure that's the case), then I really hope Wark isn't the guy we turn to. I'd much rather go after Daryl Morey from HOU if I was going to chase another team's exec. That guy is the f'n man imo, and if I was Paul Allen he'd be the guy I'd be considering first if I was going to fire KP.