Jerome Kersey was voted in as the 11th greatest Blazer in a close one. Here is the list so far.
Who's going to round out the top dozen?
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.
I voted for CJ. Pippen and Buck are the only others worthy of consideration this early. Wicks being on the list is an absolute joke. I also believe it's to early for Petrie and Paxson on to be on the list. Hollins, Strickland, and Wes should be on the list.
I nominate Hollins.
Edit: Actually, Hollins and Strickland could be reasonably considered this early and they aren't even on the list. It's a flawed system that doesn't allow voting for the best players. Strickland was the best player on teams Cliffy and Sabonis played for in their prime.
Of the guys on this list, Mychal Thompson had a very sold career as a Blazer. CJ in a couple of years will be ahead of the guys on this list but Mychal's biggest problem early on was he wasn't Larry Bird who was available as the sixth pick when Portland had the first pick. Good guy and still is a part of this community.
Nominate Wesley Matthews. I also agree with Dtrain in that voting for Wicks is nuts for he was hated when he left town, almost as much as Raymond Felton. It was said it showed how good a coach John Wooden was at UCLA, he won national championships with Sidney Wicks.
Thompson was a solid big man on mediocre team. He was an underrated defender and a good high-post big. But, he was never a key contributor to one of our better teams. We don't have to wait any longer for CJ to be a key contributor to one of our best teams.
Mychal indeed was a very solid big but he arrived at time when the championship team began to come apart which was when Jim Paxson arrived. Those teams wern't bad teams but no team would have beaten the showtime Lakers, who made every team (but the Celtics) mediocre.
I went with Buck - I almost picked him last time over Kersey but Kersey's longevity won out for me. Buck was a big part of why Portland became contenders - his toughness on D and boards was massive, and his willingness to become the 4th option was another big part of that.
I'll join the nomination train for Lionel Hollins.
d-train wrote:I voted for CJ. Pippen and Buck are the only others worthy of consideration this early. Wicks being on the list is an absolute joke. I also believe it's to early for Petrie and Paxson on to be on the list. Hollins, Strickland, and Wes should be on the list.
I nominate Hollins.
Edit: Actually, Hollins and Strickland could be reasonably considered this early and they aren't even on the list. It's a flawed system that doesn't allow voting for the best players. Strickland was the best player on teams Cliffy and Sabonis played for in their prime.
I'm a gigantic Rod fan, and you're right he was, but he just wasn't on the team long enough IMO. 4 years just wasn't enough to get him there for me yet. But I am planning to nominate him after Wes.
Voting is closed! CJ MCCOLLUM eked out a win with 3 votes compared to 2 for both Buck and Duck.
Both Wesley Matthews and Lionel Hollins received 2 nominations, so the tiebreaker goes to most nominations in previous polls. That is also a tie! The last tiebreakers is Win Shares, which means that WESLEY MATTHEWS will join the pool of eligible players for #13.
