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.
It seems pretty wide open still. If you haven't voted before, feel free to vote! I know it's hard to pick a single player, but this project is more about learning and sharing information in my view.
Pretty even between these five. I'm going to stick with Bob Gross because he contributed the most in the regular season and the playoffs.
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #17
Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2015 8:13 pm
by JasonStern
vote: Kevin Duckworth
2x all-star center in an era of dominant centers, 7 seasons with Portland, winner of the most improved player award, Trail Blazers Community Ambassador and active in Portland's community after his retirement - hell, he died on the way to host a free children's basketball camp. his importance to the Blazers franchise was high enough that the Blazers even funded a scholarship in his memorial.
I'm at work and will write more later but will vote for Larry Steele for the good role players oftentimes are what winning teams need to conpete.
One thing to note is with the passing of Moses Malone over the weekend, I could argue if we had kept him in 1977, he might be first on this list. Blame owner Larry Weinberg for insisting he be traded despite the pleas of his daughter and the fans who in early preseason play could see he was going to be a dominant player in the league.
I like Duck. IMO he was the coolest Blazer of that bunch (as far as fan interactions.) My dad ran into him along with a few other Blazers from that team. They had every reason to keep on moving and ignore him. In fact all of them did, except Duckworth, who stopped to talk to him for awhile and signed stuff for me. I considered him here along with Pippen and Stoudamire and the other championship team players. But that link you provided shows why I voted for Gross. Statistically, Gross blows Duckworth away.
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #17
Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2015 3:39 am
by kdawg32086
My vote goes to Kiki Vandeweghe. A guy that averaged more than 25ppg as a Blazer until he got injured (and then traded). At spot 17, he's a major value.
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #17
Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2015 4:39 am
by PDXKnight
Im gonna go with Damon Stoudemire here. He was a Blazer for a relatively long amount of time compared to some of these other guys mentioned, he was an important player on a solid team in the late 90's and holds the record for points in a game as a Blazer.
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #17
Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2015 1:39 pm
by DaVoiceMaster
I'm going with Hollins for the same reasons I went with him at #16. Good leader and he grabbed that last rebound in Game 6 and headed up court as time ran out. 'Nuff said!
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #17
Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2015 9:45 pm
by rasta_marley
Oden2 wrote:Im gonna go with Damon Stoudemire here. He was a Blazer for a relatively long amount of time compared to some of these other guys mentioned, he was an important player on a solid team in the late 90's and holds the record for points in a game as a Blazer.
I havent voted in a little bit however I have been thinking that mighty mouse needs some love, he was very important to that teams success.
vote: Damon Stoudamire
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #17
Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2015 10:45 pm
by a_sensei
I'm voting Rod Strickland. For me it came down to Kiki V's three full seasons and Strickland's four. Despite Kiki's humongous scoring numbers I'm going with Strickland. Although never an all-star he developed into one of the best PGs in the game, first as Porter's backup then as the team's lead, he put up 17/8 and almost two steals in 33 min through his Blazers career. Unfortunately the mid 90s Blazers with consistent play from Strickland and Cliff Robinson never amounted to much. First playing through Clyde's late Blazer career injuries and the decline Terry, Jerome and Buck then later sharing the floor with heavyweights like the disappointing Harvey Grant, young Aaron McKie, James Robinson, Gary Trent and Chris Dudley the team made the playoffs every year but never out of the first round. Still I think Strickland contributed to keeping the Blazers relevant through the transition period and ultimately his greatest contribution was being traded to Washington for Rasheed Wallace.
I'm still pretending he never came back and the meltdown of 2001 never happened.
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #17
Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2015 9:55 am
by Moonbeam
I'm going to stick with Bob Gross. We're at a tough part of the voting, because so many candidates have legitimate shots, but Gross has a very good argument based on Portland's championship season.
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #17
Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2015 9:58 am
by Moonbeam
Tally:
Bob Gross (2): Masterfully, Moonbeam
Damon Stoudamire (2): Oden2, rasta_marley
Kevin Duckworth (1): JasonStern
Larry Steele (1): Norm2953
Kiki Vandeweghe (1): kdawg32086
Lionel Hollins (1): DaVoiceMaster
Rod Strickland (1): a_sensei
Runoff between Stoudamire and Gross!
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #17
Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2015 3:24 pm
by DaVoiceMaster
Gross won a championship, Stoudamire was around longer and had a decent career (not great). I'd probably give the nod to Stoudamire, even though I don't care for him much.
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #17
Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2015 3:52 pm
by Norm2953
There's not much to choose from for Gross was supporting cast and benefited from playing alongside of Walton and Lucas while Damon played with the Jail Blazers and was busted 3 times for pot. I don't hate Gross so I'll vote for Gross.
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #17
Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2015 11:39 pm
by rasta_marley
I don't see any reason on hating on someone for smoking pot, thats a poor reason to not vote for him.
Damon Stoudamire he was a good player who did what we needed of him.
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #17
Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2015 12:07 am
by a_sensei
rasta_marley wrote:I don't see any reason on hating on someone for smoking pot, thats a poor reason to not vote for him.
Damon Stoudamire he was a good player who did what we needed of him.
Coming from you that's shocking! I agree, though. That being said I'm voting for Bobby Gross. I have him one spot above Damon on a preliminary list I made so I'll stick with that.
Was busted at least 3 times for pot and a key leader on the Jail Blazers who were universally hated by the fans. I don't truly hate the guy but hated those teams for if one must pick one of the Jail Blazers, pick Z-Bo who really has been a really good player in his 14 year career. That episode at the airport with Damon is enough for me to not vote for him.
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #17
Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2015 11:07 pm
by JasonStern
not thrilled with the two choices, but I guess I'll pick Damon Stoudamire in the runoff.
Was busted at least 3 times for pot and a key leader on the Jail Blazers who were universally hated by the fans. I don't truly hate the guy but hated those teams for if one must pick one of the Jail Blazers, pick Z-Bo who really has been a really good player in his 14 year career. That episode at the airport with Damon is enough for me to not vote for him.
true, but the options are him or Bob Gross, whose numbers as a Blazer are worse than Batum's.
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #17
Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2015 1:38 am
by Norm2953
That's the problem for I wouldn't have picked Gross and think picking one of the leaders of the Jail Blazers is a non starter even at #17. Those teams had really turned off the fans with their antics which put a lot of pressure on the rookies from 2006 draft (B-Roy and LA) who were up to the task. If I had it over again, any of those other guys who got one vote is preferable to Gross or Damon.
Re: Greatest Blazers Ever: Vote for #17
Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2015 1:40 am
by PDXKnight
Norm2953 wrote:That's the problem for I wouldn't have picked Gross and think picking one of the leaders of the Jail Blazers is a non starter even at #17. Those teams had really turned off the fans with their antics which put a lot of pressure on the rookies from 2006 draft (B-Roy and LA) who were up to the task. If I had it over again, any of those other guys who got one vote is preferable to Gross or Damon.
What exactly did the jail Blazers do, smoke weed? Sure there were other incidents but if weed smoking is the primary "issue" of the jail blazers era I think with hindsight it wouldn't be entirely unfair to say that the "issues" on that team were greatly embellished.