Greatest Blazers ever: Vote for #5

[Moonbeam]

Brandon Roy was voted in as the 4rd greatest Blazer. Here is the list so far.

Who will be voted in as the 5th greatest Blazer ever? If the last poll showed anything, it's that it seems pretty wide open for the next few spots!

How to participate:

1. Vote among the polled players for the player you feel has had the best career as a Blazer.

2. Nominate an unlisted player to join the pool of players eligible to be voted in the next thread.

3. Feel free to argue your case for the players you are voting for and nominating, but do not use this as a platform to belittle the opinions of others.

You are welcome to participate in any and all of these ways. Above all else, have fun!

Project guidelines and links:

Spoiler:

Polls will be remain for 48 hours. Ties will be broken by votes in previous rounds, and failing that, total Win Shares with the team.

Do not consider the careers of players while they were playing for other teams. For example, we're not evaluating LaMarcus Aldridge for his entire career, just for his career with the Blazers.

Do not consider any non-playing roles some former players have had with Portland after their tenure as players. So don't consider Maurice Lucas for his role as a big man coach, just what he brought to the team while he was a player.

This spreadsheet may be a useful resource - it contains information about all 330 Blazer players, including statistics from the regular season and playoffs, all-star appearances and other awards, and MVP vote shares.

Here is a link to the overall 2015 project, which contains links to each of the chosen players.

[Moonbeam]

I went with Porter last time, and I'm still leaning that way, but LMA and Sheed in particular are appealing choices, too. Going to mull it over a bit.

[monopoman]

Rasheed Wallace for me, he was a huge part of that team that made the WCF for the Blazers.

[Masterfully]

By almost every measure Porter is the #2. His career is overshadowed by Clyde even though he was often better. Porter is an easy choice here.

[Effigy]

By almost every measure Porter is the #2. His career is overshadowed by Clyde even though he was often better. Porter is an easy choice here.

I think Lamarcus beats him actually. More all star appearances, more all nba selections, was actually our best player for a while and took us to the playoffs. Remember the Houston series?


I nominate Geoff Petrie

[Wizenheimer]

easy choice for me....Porter

for the guys not on that list...hmmm...nominate Mychal Thompson

[JasonStern]

I get why people love Sabonis as a player, but most of his accolades came well before he put on a Blazers jersey.

Meanwhile, Duckworth remains criminally underrated by fans. Guy was a 2x all-star, won MIP, became a Heritage Ambassador and was active in the community after retirement, etc.

[Masterfully]

By almost every measure Porter is the #2. His career is overshadowed by Clyde even though he was often better. Porter is an easy choice here.

I think Lamarcus beats him actually. More all star appearances, more all nba selections, was actually our best player for a while and took us to the playoffs. Remember the Houston series?


I nominate Geoff Petrie

Going by Winshares LMA was Portland’s best player 3 times, same as Porter. It’s true that LMA does have 2 more all star appearances. But if we are talking playoffs (which we should) then Porter is hands down the winner. 2 finals runs, 3 WCF runs. LMA only got past the first round once. LMA has 2.0 playoff Winshares to Porter’s 10.3.

[Norm2953]

I'm going to vote for LA for that Portland team in the early 90's was really solid with Clyde,
Jerome, Duck, Cliff while LA's time in Portland was filled with injuries and a transition from
Roy to Dame. From a total career POV, LA has had the better career over TP.

[Effigy]

By almost every measure Porter is the #2. His career is overshadowed by Clyde even though he was often better. Porter is an easy choice here.

I think Lamarcus beats him actually. More all star appearances, more all nba selections, was actually our best player for a while and took us to the playoffs. Remember the Houston series?


I nominate Geoff Petrie

Going by Winshares LMA was Portland’s best player 3 times, same as Porter. It’s true that LMA does have 2 more all star appearances. But if we are talking playoffs (which we should) then Porter is hands down the winner. 2 finals runs, 3 WCF runs. LMA only got past the first round once. LMA has 2.0 playoff Winshares to Porter’s 10.3.

Porter has more playoff wins because he was on a better team.

As a Blazer, Lamarcus averaged: 19.3 points, 8.4 rebounds, 1.9 assists, .8 steals, 1 block, 20.2 PER
As a Blazer, Porter averaged: 14.6 points, 3.4 rebounds, 6.8 assists, 1.5 steals, .1 blocks, 17.4 PER

Lamarcus also has 3 all NBA appearances to Porter's 0.

Personally, I think LMA has a clear advantage.

[Masterfully]

I think Lamarcus beats him actually. More all star appearances, more all nba selections, was actually our best player for a while and took us to the playoffs. Remember the Houston series?


I nominate Geoff Petrie

Going by Winshares LMA was Portland’s best player 3 times, same as Porter. It’s true that LMA does have 2 more all star appearances. But if we are talking playoffs (which we should) then Porter is hands down the winner. 2 finals runs, 3 WCF runs. LMA only got past the first round once. LMA has 2.0 playoff Winshares to Porter’s 10.3.

Porter has more playoff wins because he was on a better team.

As a Blazer, Lamarcus averaged: 19.3 points, 8.4 rebounds, 1.9 assists, .8 steals, 1 block, 20.2 PER
As a Blazer, Porter averaged: 14.6 points, 3.4 rebounds, 6.8 assists, 1.5 steals, .1 blocks, 17.4 PER

Lamarcus also has 3 all NBA appearances to Porter's 0.

Personally, I think LMA has a clear advantage.

That argument doesn’t hold up. Porter’s playoff WS/48 is .164. Nearly double LMA’s. We aren’t merely talking about lack of opportunity. Porter was a much better playoff player and the team’s playoff success reflects that. Also, LMA played with the #3 and #4 Blazers. Not exactly bad company.

And LMA’s all NBA awards are unimpressive. He has been 3rd team 3 times. There wasn’t even an All NBA third team until well into Porter’s career.

[Effigy]

Going by Winshares LMA was Portland’s best player 3 times, same as Porter. It’s true that LMA does have 2 more all star appearances. But if we are talking playoffs (which we should) then Porter is hands down the winner. 2 finals runs, 3 WCF runs. LMA only got past the first round once. LMA has 2.0 playoff Winshares to Porter’s 10.3.

Porter has more playoff wins because he was on a better team.

As a Blazer, Lamarcus averaged: 19.3 points, 8.4 rebounds, 1.9 assists, .8 steals, 1 block, 20.2 PER
As a Blazer, Porter averaged: 14.6 points, 3.4 rebounds, 6.8 assists, 1.5 steals, .1 blocks, 17.4 PER

Lamarcus also has 3 all NBA appearances to Porter's 0.

Personally, I think LMA has a clear advantage.

That argument doesn’t hold up. Porter’s playoff WS/48 is .164. Nearly double LMA’s. We aren’t merely talking about lack of opportunity. Porter was a much better playoff player and the team’s playoff success reflects that. Also, LMA played with the #3 and #4 Blazers. Not exactly bad company.

And LMA’s all NBA awards are unimpressive. He has been 3rd team 3 times. There wasn’t even an All NBA third team until well into Porter’s career.

I’m not putting that much stock into win shares. As mentioned, it requires you to win, so it is somewhat dependent on your teammates. For another, it factors in offensive pace. The higher a team’s offensive pace compared to the league average, the better it is for win share, and the reverse is also true. And I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that Portland routinely finished at or near the bottom in offensive Pace during most of LMA’s tenure under Nate McMillain.

Yes, LMA did play with the 3 and 4 best Blazers on our list. But 1) He didn’t really play with either player in their prime. Roy got hurt just as he was entering his, and LMA took off before Dame hit his. 2) You are somehow overlooking that Porter played with the number ONE Blazer and for his entire prime 3) LMA didn’t play with Roy and Dame at the same time, and honestly who knows how far down the list we’re going to have to go before we get a second player LMA played with at the same time? Conversely, we are sure to see Buck Williams, Kevin Duckworth, Jerome Kersey AND Cliff Robinson all on this list, probably all in the top 15. So your own argument hurts you there.

[DaVoiceMaster]

I didn't get here in time to vote or I would have gone for Porter. I think he meant a whole lot more to this organization than LMA

[Moonbeam]

I didn't get here in time to vote or I would have gone for Porter. I think he meant a whole lot more to this organization than LMA

You can still vote in this one!

[d-train]

I voted for Rasheed. I nominate Scottie Pippen.

I noticed Rasheed had only 3 votes while Sabonis had 5 votes, which is laughable. Almost the entire time Sabonis was a Blazer, Rasheed was the best player on the team. Rasheed led the Blazers to 2 WCF's, nearly winning the 2nd in an almost successful comeback from a 3-1 deficit against one of the greatest of all-time Lakers team. Sabonis wasn't even the 2nd best player on that team. Pippen was that team's 2nd best player and he isn't on the list while Sabonis is getting 5 votes. I don't get what people are thinking. That's like voting Nurkic to be our current team's best player.

[Moonbeam]

Voting is closed! This was another tight race, with a 3-way tie for first between LMA, TP, and Sabas. Because he accrued the most votes in previous rounds, LAMARCUS ALDRIDGE squeaks in as the 5th best Blazer ever.

There were 4 nominations for 4 different players, each of which also had one previous nomination, so we have a 4-way tie. The next tiebreaker is career win shares, which are as follows for the players in question:

Mychal Thompson: 42.0
Geoff Petrie: 26.1
Kevin Duckworth: 25.8
Scottie Pippen: 22.4

Therefore, MYCHAL THOMPSON will join the pool of eligible players to be voted as the 6th best Blazer.

Thanks for your participation, everyone!

[JasonStern]

Steve Blake led the Blazers in win share one season. Seems like a great tie breaker metric.

[Norm2953]

It would be fascinating to have this poll in January if LA ends up back in Portland