Blazers Wanted Ammo Over Roy?

[BigSlam]

http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archi ... _over_roy/

Just the validation guys like Fats have been longing for.............

Wish they had picked 3rd over all. Then we might have "fallen" into a player that was actually good..............like Sheldon Williams!

[countryboi]

bobcats fans always look back at the morrison draft like monday morning qbs....alot of teams in the bobcats position would drafted morrison and that every player in that draft had major flaws. morrison could have easily been legend and roy could have been the bust....at the time no one knew

[chrbal]

I normally would agree with this idea, but this is one time where everyone (that posted on this board before and after that draft) really wanted a SG and Roy was high up on that list. In all honesty, I think it was Rudy Gay: 1, Brandon Roy: 2, and Randy Foye: 3.

The Bobcats had just been through a year where; Kareem Rush was waived in March, Keith Bogans was traded for Lonny Baxter, Matt Carroll and Bernard Robinson, Jr were the two "best" options.

At least with Rudy Gay, he could play the 2 guard and Wallace could stay at SF. Drafting Morrison, a player who is only a SF, when the team had Gerald Wallace starting to come into his own seemed redundant.

Imagine if you were a Magic fan in 1993, with Shaq on your roster and the Magic took Shawn Bradley, 1st overall (didn't happen). Not that i'm saying I knew Morrison was going to be a bust, but for a 3rd year team that had just been through one hellish season...it seemed like a bad idea at the time to take Morrison.

[Diop]

Shaq and King Shawn Bradley

That would have just been scary!

[Walt Cronkite]

I joined RealGM to have a support group to vent to during the trying days immediately following the Morrison selection.

[chrbal]

Shaq and King Shawn Bradley

That would have just been scary!

An example. Would have loved to have seen this starting lineup though.
PG- 6'7" Penny Hardaway, SG- 6'6" Nick Anderson, SF-6'8" Dennis Scott, PF-7'6" Shawn Bradley, C 7'2" Shaq. And instead of taking Shaqs' LSU practice dummy, Geert Hammnik. They could've taken Gheorge Muresan and the 7'6" Bradley would've been the 2nd tallest and 2nd oddest looking on the team.

I joined RealGM to have a support group to vent to during the trying days immediately following the Morrison selection.

I remember trying to justify it, but at the same time questioning why they would draft him a year after not matching Jason Kaponos' offer from Miami (who I thought was basically a similar player who made a lot more sense). And the offer was something like 2 years/$2.2 mil.

http://www.nba.com/playerfile/jason_kap ... stats.html
You take away his FG% as a Bobcat and Jason had a pretty damn good year for a 2nd year player who was left exposed to an expansion draft.

[Rich4114]

I'm not afraid to look back and admit I actually wanted them to draft Morrison. I was 50/50 on Morrison/Rudy Gay at the time. I wasn't a fan of Roy. I was wrong... very wrong.

It's the 2005 draft that broke us though. Could've had a once in a decade player. There will be more Brandon Roy's to come along.

[Dexmor]

I don't anymore. The trail of Morrison got us Jackson. The Lopez 1 kills me but if DJ becomes a 15-19 and 5-7 next year and for the rest of this year I won't have any draft regrets.

[Dexmor]

I don't anymore. The trail of Morrison got us Jackson. The Lopez 1 kills me but if DJ becomes a 15-19 and 5-7 next year and for the rest of this year I won't have any draft regrets.

[thruthefire]

Ammo. Haha. What a loser.

[Fred Williamson]

what might have been.....

[BigSlam]

I joined RealGM to have a support group to vent to during the trying days immediately following the Morrison selection.

I was pretty vocal about the selection. I really liked Ammo at Gonzaga but there were way too many warning signs to think he would thrive in the NBA. The moment we drafted him I said that it set the franchise back 5 years. Some poo-poo'd that statement. I still tand by it.

I really wanted LMA. I thought he would have been an awesome pairing with Okafor for the next decade. 2nd choice was Roy with Gay coming in 3rd.

Ammo would have been a great pick - so long as he was picked outside the top ten. Then you might have got value, like the Magic have with Greenknob.

[Rich4114]

I was also a big time LMA fan but I never thought he'd make it to our spot anyway. I did think we had a shot because I figured Portland would have just drafted Ammo. There were too many reasons for them to pick him, but alas they did not.

I can't fault the franchise for swinging and missing on the Ammo pick. I think most teams in our spot would've made the same mistake, chalk it up to bad luck.

I do fault them for 2005 and drafting DJ #9 when we clearly needed a big man and Lopez was sitting right there for us. To add injury to insult, they have a chance to take another big man and make the draft a success and instead they draft someone whose rookie deal will be up by the time he has enough body mass to be an NBA center.

[BigSlam]

I do fault them for 2005 and drafting DJ #9 when we clearly needed a big man and Lopez was sitting right there for us. To add injury to insult, they have a chance to take another big man and make the draft a success and instead they draft someone whose rookie deal will be up by the time he has enough body mass to be an NBA center.

This makes no sense.

[countryboi]

I do fault them for 2005 and drafting DJ #9 when we clearly needed a big man and Lopez was sitting right there for us. To add injury to insult, they have a chance to take another big man and make the draft a success and instead they draft someone whose rookie deal will be up by the time he has enough body mass to be an NBA center.

This makes no sense.

if it makes any of yall feel better mario chambers has been pretty awlful for the heat......i know thats the player alot of yall wanted along with lopez

[BigSlam]

I do fault them for 2005 and drafting DJ #9 when we clearly needed a big man and Lopez was sitting right there for us. To add injury to insult, they have a chance to take another big man and make the draft a success and instead they draft someone whose rookie deal will be up by the time he has enough body mass to be an NBA center.

This makes no sense.

if it makes any of yall feel better mario chambers has been pretty awlful for the heat......i know thats the play alot of yall wanted along with lopez

Exactly.

Why did we "clearly need a big man"? At the time we had Okafor and Nazzy on the roster. If we drafted Lopez would the intention have been to slide Okfor over to the 4 spot? That would have been ineffective.

At the same time, we only had Felts on the roster. No other point. And at the time, Felts was looking shaky as a starting PG. If they had taken the Lopez/Mario combo that some have suggested, what position would we be in? I mean, Mario can't beat out Carlos and Alston in Miami and now that Alston is MIA rather than giving Mario a chance they are potentially looking at the D League for a replacement. Not really a glowing endorsement for Mario!

Who was the other big man they could have taken instead of Lexy?

Either way, and back on topic, the pro Ammo guys have always maintained that Ammo was the right selection at #3 because most other teams would have done the same thing. I guess this just backs that train of thought up.

[spectre_]

Okafor was a RFA and had already turned down a 5 year/60 million deal the season before. At the time I don't know that MJ would have re-upped him (he was obviously ticked off when asked about it right after the draft). If LB hadn't basically told Jordan we had no shot at the playoffs without him I'm still not sure we'd have inked him to a deal.

I think the intent was there all along to trade Okafor as soon as the rules allowed (which we did) after we gave him that contract. That's also why I think Jordan wanted to draft Lopez. He was also the "value" pick at 9th. Shouldn't we have been drafting the talent that drops instead of need? Going that route alsogot us May over Granger (that and Granger's knees! ).

BOT...McMillan might have wanted Ammo but Pritchard ain't that stupid.

[BigSlam]

Okafor was a RFA and had already turned down a 5 year/60 million deal the season before. At the time I don't know that MJ would have re-upped him (he was obviously ticked off when asked about it right after the draft). If LB hadn't basically told Jordan we had no shot at the playoffs without him I'm still not sure we'd have inked him to a deal. think the intent was there all along to trade Okafor as soon as the rules allowed (which we did) after we gave him that contract. That's also why I think Jordan wanted to draft Lopez.

If that was Jordan's intent all along (trade Okafor the moment he could) then Jordan is soft for letting LB talk him into doing what he did and that worries me.

I He was also the "value" pick at 9th. Shouldn't we have been drafting the talent that drops instead of need? Going that route alsogot us May over Granger (that and Granger's knees! ).

Agreed, but 8 other teams passed on him too long before we did. Not only that, but a guy like DeAndre Jordan was long touted a top 5 and even a top 3 pick (like Gerald Green a few years before). If we had drafted on talent that drops you never know what we might end up with.

The other very important thing to look at was the roster though. We had a few bigs at the time and only the 1 point. We needed a quality point - which we got.

I think the underlined factor here is that we SUCK at drafting and should trade away draft picks at all costs rather than make our own selections.

BOT...McMillan might have wanted Ammo but Pritchard ain't that stupid

McMillian wanted Ammo but he had to make due with LMA and Roy.

Poor Nate. Boo-fricking-hoo!

[Dexmor]

Only team that doesnt regret passing on Lopez is Chicago and even them im not so sure.

[BigSlam]

Only team that doesnt regret passing on Lopez is Chicago and even them im not so sure.

Clipps and Bucks too. Maybe the Grizzlies as well.

But outside of them, Lopez would look pretty good on the heat, Wolves, Thunder, Knicks or Bobcats right about now!!