1. Each thread will be open for 48 hours. After 48 hours have passed, the thread will close if a single player receives a majority of the votes. If not, the top 2-3 candidates will enter a runoff period of 24 hours. During this period, you may switch your vote to one of the reduced list of candidates if you voted for someone else.
2. When making a formal vote, please include the player's name in bold. This helps me keep track. Please include a justification for your choice. It may be brief, but simply writing the name of your choice will not be a counted vote.
3. You may switch your vote, but please emphasize this in bold.
4. Please only consider each player's performance with Portland.
5. We all have our favorites, and we all have our own criteria. I believe the discussion and learning from this project will be more important than the placement of the individual players.
6. Have fun!
Runoff Guidelines:
Spoiler:
If at the end of 48 hours, no single player has more than 50% of the votes cast, the top 2* candidates will enter a runoff vote.
1. Original votes for one of these 2 players still count.
2. Those who voted for one of the candidates outside of the top 2 must cast a vote for one of the top 2 candidates for their votes to count.
3. Those who did not vote in the first 48 hours are still welcome to vote in the runoff.
4. Anyone is welcome to change his/her vote if swayed by the arguments of others.
* If there is a tie, more than 2 candidates may enter the runoff. In this case, please list your preferred order among all of the candidates, and a point system will determine the victor. The points will be allocated as follows (using a 3-player runoff as an example): 3 points for 1st place, 2 points for 2nd place, 1 point for 3rd place. If votes don't make a preference beyond #1, the remaining candidates will get the average points for the other ranks. If at the end of this process, there is a tie, the winner will be the player with the most preferences in a 1 on 1 comparison.
Who will lock up the last spot in the top 10?
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #10
Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2015 12:43 pm
by Moonbeam
Leaning Kersey again here, but open to suggestions about others. We're definitely getting into the main bell of the curve of Portland players at this point, so a lot of candidates seem viable:
Petrie Wicks Hollins/Gross/Twardzik? Mychal Thompson Calvin Natt? Jim Paxson Kiki Vandeweghe Jerome Kersey Buck Williams Kevin Duckworth Cliff Robinson Rod Strickland J.R. Rider? Scottie Pippen Zach Randolph? Wesley Matthews? Nicolas Batum?
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #10
Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2015 2:54 pm
by a_sensei
Mercy, Mercy, Jerome Kersey The heart and hustle of the greatest Blazers run. 11 seasons as a Blazers. Often amongst the leaders in steals, good rebounder, blocked shots, thunderous momentum building/shifting dunks. Kersey's longevity (2nd most games in franchise history behind Clyde) leads to total numbers that rank high in many categories. At his peak he was consistently going 17/8.5 on a championship contender which aren't Sidney Wicks numbers but are still very good.
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #10
Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2015 3:19 pm
by Masterfully
Sticking with Kersey. Long term success. Solid player. Great fashion sense.
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #10
Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2015 3:45 pm
by zzaj
After some consideration, for me it comes down to Thompson, Petrie, Kiki, Jerome, Paxson or Cliffy at #10.
I think I'm going with Petrie if he wouldn't have gotten hurt he would be much, much higher on this list. Plus he's the "original Trailblazer" and was a massive part of establishing the franchise.
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #10
Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2015 8:52 pm
by PDXKnight
Jerome Kersey gets my vote here. He did the little things to help the Blazers win and he deserves the 10 spot imo. Close second is Buck Williams
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #10
Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2015 10:20 pm
by Brandon-Clyde
Jim Paxson- He was a two time all star for Portland, a third team all NBA player, scored over 10,000 points as a Blazer and at one p was the teams all time leading scorer. He was the top player on some good quality teams
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #10
Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2015 1:43 am
by Norm2953
It would seem to me this is where either JK or Buck fits. I'll go with Buck for the Drexler led teams did not win until Buck arrived from NJ in a trade involving Sam Bowie.
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #10
Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2015 4:27 am
by mojomarc
Geoff Petrie. He was the first draft pick the team made, the first all-star and league award winner, he set most of the key scoring records such as points per game, most points in a game, and career scoring averages. No offense to Kersey, but I said it before and will say it again: he's a likeable player who was usually the fourth (and sometimes the fifth) best player on the court during the team's peak with him. He is overrated here. I get the sentimentality, but Petrie, Vandeweghe, Pippen, Buck and Cliff Robinson all deserve votes above him. What's next? Larry Steele at 11 because he was a fan favorite hustle guy role player that got his jersey retired?
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #10
Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2015 6:00 am
by Moonbeam
mojomarc wrote:Geoff Petrie. He was the first draft pick the team made, the first all-star and league award winner, he set most of the key scoring records such as points per game, most points in a game, and career scoring averages. No offense to Kersey, but I said it before and will say it again: he's a likeable player who was usually the fourth (and sometimes the fifth) best player on the court during the team's peak with him. He is overrated here. I get the sentimentality, but Petrie, Vandeweghe, Pippen, Buck and Cliff Robinson all deserve votes above him. What's next? Larry Steele at 11 because he was a fan favorite hustle guy role player that got his jersey retired?
I'm not sure I'd ever put Kersey behind Duckworth (All-Star appearance for Duckworth aside), and I think he's right there with Buck Williams as the 3A/3B of the early 90s contenders. Is that overrating him? It's hard to say, but Kersey always struck me as a guy whose positive contributions weren't captured by stats as well as those of other guys (like Duckworth). +/- data showed him to be a positive impact player even well past his Blazer days as an old reserve. Kersey is my all-time favorite Blazer, and I am certainly as prone as anyone to look at my favorites with rose-tinted glasses, but I think a case can certainly be made for him here.
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #10
Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2015 10:55 pm
by JasonStern
tough call between Paxson and Petrie. I guess I'll vote Jim Paxson as I view the early to mid 80s as a tougher era of basketball than the early 70s.
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #10
Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 10:43 am
by Moonbeam
I'm keen to consider Paxson, but I'm a little worried that he could be a bit of an empty stats guy. Those who watched him play, can you comment on his strengths?
From 1981-87, in games he missed, Portland sported an SRS of 3.687 better than when he played. He does have nice accolades, and Portland was a decent team with him as a main (the main?) piece. But those numbers are a little disconcerting.
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #10
Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 12:46 pm
by mojomarc
Moonbeam wrote:I'm keen to consider Paxson, but I'm a little worried that he could be a bit of an empty stats guy. Those who watched him play, can you comment on his strengths?
From 1981-87, in games he missed, Portland sported an SRS of 3.687 better than when he played. He does have nice accolades, and Portland was a decent team with him as a main (the main?) piece. But those numbers are a little disconcerting.
I viewed him as more of an empty stats guy. He was better than Jon, but the delta wasn't good enough for the sort of role he played at the time. He was one of those guys that was very smart, so Ramsay's system made him look better than he was overall. A good player, but not a great one.
And as for Kersey--his stats may have overshadowed his contributions, but they also don't disclose that his lack of BBIQ often caused him to be a prime reason for losses. His performance against Scottie Pippen in 1992, where Pippen just completely destroyed him on both ends, was probably more important to us losing that series than MJ performing better than Clyde.
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #10
Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 10:16 pm
by Moonbeam
I'll keep my vote for Kersey for now. Everybody has flaws at this point. Kersey is the leading candidate remaining in a lot of legacy stats, and he was an important piece during their successful run of the early 90s.
It's a 3-way runoff with Kersey, Petrie, and Paxson.
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #10
Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 10:21 pm
by Moonbeam
Anyone can vote in the runoff, whether they voted already or not.
A reminder of the rules for a 3-player runoff:
Please list your preferred order among all of the candidates, and a point system will determine the victor. The points will be allocated as follows (using a 3-player runoff as an example): 3 points for 1st place, 2 points for 2nd place, 1 point for 3rd place. If votes don't make a preference beyond #1, the remaining candidates will get the average points for the other ranks. If at the end of this process, there is a tie, the winner will be the player with the most preferences in a 1 on 1 comparison.
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #10
Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 10:36 pm
by zzaj
1) Petrie 2) Paxson 3) Kersey
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #10
Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 11:15 pm
by Norm2953
I thought I had two votes...
In terms of value to the franchise, I'll vote for Petrie who was the face of the franchise prior to the Walton led teams and indirectly in a trade with Atlanta, was responsible for Maurice Lucas becoming a blazer.
2) Paxson nine very solid years in Portland, second team all NBA 1985 3) JK
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #10
Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2015 12:11 am
by mojomarc
1) Petrie 2) Kersey 3) Paxson
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #10
Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2015 1:41 am
by kdawg32086
1) Kersey-->(My rationale: Longevity in his career as a Blazer and a very key player on the great early 90s teams) 2) Petrie 3) Paxson