Offseason Project: Greatest Blazers ever

[Moonbeam]

Four years ago, we had a project here to identify the best Blazers ever. I think enough time has passed to revisit this. Given that the Blazers will play their 50th season in 2019-20, I thought it might be fun to try to come up with the forum's take on the greatest 50 Blazers ever. Here is my idea of how it might work:

Every 2-3 days, I'll post a poll with 10 options, and the leading vote-getter after that period will make the list. Members will be asked to pick among the options the listed player, based on play with Portland only. Ties will be broken based on any prior poll results.

In each poll, members can discuss their choices, but this is not necessary to vote in the poll - I think the discussion aspect might have made the last project stall out once we hit 20 players.

In each poll, members will nominate a player they believe should join the set of 10 options for the next poll. Ties will be broken by career Win Shares with the Blazers.

If we started this project soon and left each poll open for 3 days, this would take us to the middle of October to reach 50 players, right in time for the start of the season.

Nothing is set in stone, so I'm keen for any and all feedback and criticisms you may have, as well as to gauge interest. It's a project for everyone, so while I am hosting it, I'd like to cater to what most people think would work best.

For anyone keen to participate and wanting to go through some comparisons, I've put together this Google Sheet which tracks things like regular season and playoff statistics and awards. I've included a "Score" in the main sheet entitled "Players" as a guide for my own list, but it may be meaningless to anyone else.

[deanwoof]

Meyers lemons

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[Norm2953]

I'd be first to say I think by 2025, the best player in team history will be Damian Lillard.

[Moonbeam]

I'd be first to say I think by 2025, the best player in team history will be Damian Lillard.

I agree (and hope so).

[Moonbeam]

Any other comments or ideas?

[Norm2953]

50 players is a lot of players for lots of merely good players like Dave Twardzik would end up
on the list. Nurk might already be on the list of greatest players.

[Moonbeam]

50 players is a lot of players for lots of merely good players like Dave Twardzik would end up
on the list. Nurk might already be on the list of greatest players.

I had thought that 50 might be a bit ambitious, but it can be an optimistic goal if participation keeps up. I think Nurk would be a lock for the top 50, but celebrating those types of guys (Brian Grant, Joel Przybilla, etc.) would be fun too given their places in Blazer lore.

[monopoman]

I think past the first 20 or so you are really splitting hairs, I mean at that point personal preference heavily comes into it and a lot of us wouldn't have even seen some of the more reasonable candidates play at all.

If everyone on this forum had a great deal of experience with the Blazers since their inception I could see top 50 being a thing.

[Dzon Dilindzer]

50 players is a lot of players for lots of merely good players like Dave Twardzik would end up
on the list. Nurk might already be on the list of greatest players.

I had thought that 50 might be a bit ambitious, but it can be an optimistic goal if participation keeps up. I think Nurk would be a lock for the top 50, but celebrating those types of guys (Brian Grant, Joel Przybilla, etc.) would be fun too given their places in Blazer lore.

as long as dame is here, i think nurk will be too

nurk loves the franchise, fans, portland, oregon and the fans love him

i can easily see nurk staying here 10+ seasons if the blazers keep him

[Moonbeam]

One last thing before we start - for the first poll, I have to choose the 10 candidates. I'm thinking of going with the top 5 finishers from the 2015 project we did plus the top 5 remaining players by win shares with Portland. Does that seem fair?

The 10 players would be:

LaMarcus Aldridge
Clyde Drexler
Jerome Kersey
Damian Lillard
Maurice Lucas
Terry Porter
Brandon Roy
Rasheed Wallace
Bill Walton
Buck Williams

I doubt many people would think someone outside of this list is the greatest Blazer ever, so I think it should be ok, but are there any glaring objections?

[d-train]

One last thing before we start - for the first poll, I have to choose the 10 candidates. I'm thinking of going with the top 5 finishers from the 2015 project we did plus the top 5 remaining players by win shares with Portland. Does that seem fair?

The 10 players would be:

LaMarcus Aldridge
Clyde Drexler
Jerome Kersey
Damian Lillard
Maurice Lucas
Terry Porter
Brandon Roy
Rasheed Wallace
Bill Walton
Buck Williams

I doubt many people would think someone outside of this list is the greatest Blazer ever, so I think it should be ok, but are there any glaring objections?

CJ is better than some players on this list. Heck, Nurkic is better than at least 1 player on the list.

[Moonbeam]

One last thing before we start - for the first poll, I have to choose the 10 candidates. I'm thinking of going with the top 5 finishers from the 2015 project we did plus the top 5 remaining players by win shares with Portland. Does that seem fair?

The 10 players would be:

LaMarcus Aldridge
Clyde Drexler
Jerome Kersey
Damian Lillard
Maurice Lucas
Terry Porter
Brandon Roy
Rasheed Wallace
Bill Walton
Buck Williams

I doubt many people would think someone outside of this list is the greatest Blazer ever, so I think it should be ok, but are there any glaring objections?

CJ is better than some players on this list. Heck, Nurkic is better than at least 1 player on the list.

I'm not saying that these guys are or should be our top 10. I'm just suggesting these as an initial pool of players to select #1. I doubt anybody things CJ or Nurk is the greatest Blazer ever. The one guy missing from this list that I think could get very fringe support would be Sabonis, but I've got to start somewhere, and the top 5 from the most recent poll 4 years ago plus the 5 players with the next highest Win Shares seemed like a good starting point.

[Norm2953]

I love Buck Wiliams but his best years were in NJ and would put Sabonis ahead of him.

[DaVoiceMaster]

Some others to consider:

Michael Thompson
Jim Paxson
Sidney Wicks
Geoff Petrie
Fat Lever
Kiki Vandeweigh (sp?)
Calvin Natt
Arvydas Sabonis
Damon stoudamire
Brian Grant
Zach Randolph
Kevin Duckworth

[PDX MM]

Lever was just a back up as a Blazer so are you counting what he did in Denver as well? Darnell Valentine and Steve Blake shouldn't be listed but they did have better numbers as Blazers which is why I am asking. Maybe Steve Smith if we count his Atlanta days.

[d-train]

I think you should reconsider how you do this. There isn't enough participation on this board to get a good result. There was barely enough participation last time.

I think you should take the top 10-15 from the last vote and update the position of Lillard, CJ, and Nurkic.

For example, I believe Walton was #1. We can vote to supplant Walton with Lillard, CJ, or Nurkic.

The ballot would look something like this:
#1 Walton
Lillard - no
CJ - no
Nurkic -no

#2 Drexler
Lillard - no
CJ - no
Nurkic -no

#4 Rasheed
Lillard - no
CJ - no
Nurkic -no

#5 LaMarcus Aldridge
Lillard - yes
CJ - yes
Nurkic -no

So, Lillard and CJ move ahead of Aldridge.

[Effigy]

Was this really four years ago?! Wow!

[pootbrah]

I think you should reconsider how you do this. There isn't enough participation on this board to get a good result. There was barely enough participation last time.

I think you should take the top 10-15 from the last vote and update the position of Lillard, CJ, and Nurkic.

For example, I believe Walton was #1. We can vote to supplant Walton with Lillard, CJ, or Nurkic.

The ballot would look something like this:
#1 Walton
Lillard - no
CJ - no
Nurkic -no

#2 Drexler
Lillard - no
CJ - no
Nurkic -no

#4 Rasheed
Lillard - no
CJ - no
Nurkic -no

#5 LaMarcus Aldridge
Lillard - yes
CJ - yes
Nurkic -no

So, Lillard and CJ move ahead of Aldridge.

As if you rate CJ over Aldridge

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[Najee12]

I'd be first to say I think by 2025, the best player in team history will be Damian Lillard.

Better than Clyde Drexler? Damian Lillard will have to start getting some MVP considerations and lead a team to the NBA FInals like Drexler did.

Here is my top 20 list:

1.) Clyde Drexler
2.) Bill Walton
3.) Damian Lillard
4.) Terry Porter
5.) LaMarcus Aldridge

6.) Maurice Lucas
7.) Jerome Kersey
8.) Brandon Roy
9.) Mychal Thompson
10.) Clifford Robinson

12.) Rasheed Wallace
12.) Sidney Wicks
13.) Buck Williams
14.) Kiki Vandeweghe
15.) Jim Paxson

16.) C.J. McCollum
17.) Arvydas Sabonis
19.) Calvin Natt
19.) Geoff Petrie
20.) Zach Randolph

Even though Lillard is ranked No. 3, the gap between him and Drexler and Walton is pretty significant. Walton did have a brief run where he was arguably the best center/player in the NBA (against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, no less), won a league MVP award and did lead the 1976-77 Blazers to a title (the only one in franchise history and in an upset over a loaded Philadelphia 76ers team). As injury-prone as Walton was, he did more or less put the Blazers franchise on the map.

Drexler, in my opinion, is one of the top five shooting guards in NBA history. Drexler is only of one four players in NBA history (John Havlicek, LeBron James and Oscar Robertson) with 20,000 points, 6,000 rebounds and 6,000 assists in a career. Only Michael Jordn would be considered a better shooting guard during Drexler's prime from the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s. Drexler's inclusion on the Dream Team and as a first-ballot hall of famer also will make it nearly impossible for Lillard to overcome him, in my opinion. Not to mention Drexler's three top six MVP voting seasons (including finishing second to Jordan in 1992).

[Moonbeam]

Going to start this up now that we've hit free agency. Stay tuned!