Portland now is what Toronto was supposed to be

[AZ BLAZER]

Yeah, it took Portland a while before they had the draft of their lives. I think they sort of got lucky, wasn't Morrison taken before Roy? Roy pretty much fell in their lap from what little I can remember.

Portland did not get lucky in the draft two years ago. They got aggressive and went out and took the two players in the draft that they wanted. Morrison was always viewed as a top top five pick, wether that is right or wrong. He had no bearing on Portlands plans. They traded the 4th pick and Viktor K. for Aldridge. Screamin A. Smith dogged Portland for the move.

They then turned their sights on Roy, having traded Telfair to Boston for the 7th pick. Roy did not basically fall into Portlands lap. They got into a high stakes poker game to get him. Here is how it went down; Portland knew that Houston wanted Roy, and had a deal with Minny, where Minny would take Roy at six for Houston and Houston would draft Foye for Minny and trade them a player as well. When Portland got word of this deal Pritchard drafted Foye at six to bust up the deal and force Minny to draft and then trade Roy to Portland. It worked and Portland sent $3 mil cash along with Foye to get Roy. Screamin' A. also hated that move. I think it worked out well for Portland.


Another poster mentioned how Portland traded out of position to take paul and instead opted for Webster. This is true, and Portlands current GM, Kevin Pritchard did not want to do that deal. But he was not the GM at the time. Webster may meet expectations some day. He was a HS kid and would be a Junior in college this season if he had gone that route. Portland has let Outlaw develop and he is now paying dividends and is only 23. Hopefully Webster will follow the same path.

But back to Chris Paul. If Portland had selected him, they would have been much better and not been able to select Aldridge. Then they would not have been in the position they were in to get Oden. It is neat to think Portland could have had Paul, Aldridge, Roy and Oden but that is just accurate. Drafting paul would have changed everything. Portland fans are happy with how things have turned out. I hope somebody finds this info usefull.

[AZ BLAZER]

-= original quote snipped =-



I'm not sure about that. Personally I liked Roy a lot more than Morrison that draft. I made tons of pro-Roy posts and was firmly in the anti- Morrison camp as well. Morrison looked extremely one-dimensional in college whereas Roy played exactly the same way you see right now.

And so did Portland management. Morrison was never in Portlands plans. If they could not have gotten Aldridge and Roy, they had Gay third on their board. They had Morrison as a second rounder.

[emfive]

Portland has nothing to apologize about in the last few years and much to be proud of now and in the future. That is for certain.

[WD-40]

If you really want to get your blood boiling, think about this. We'd have Oden if it weren't for the high school rule.

Portland is in a better position than us right now, but we're doing fairly well.

Except, that if there was no HS rule, there is no guaranty we get the first pick.

We may have fallen down to sixth due to massive tanking. Which we may have grabbed Bargs with thus putting less pressure on him. Or maybe grabbed Roy with. So on second thought, perhaps it did hurt us after all.

[WD-40]

"It is neat to think Portland could have had Paul, Aldridge, Roy and Oden but that is just not accurate. Drafting paul would have changed everything. Portland fans are happy with how things have turned out. I hope somebody finds this info usefull."

Some Rap fans need to understand this concept. If we had drafted better, our past would be different and we can not project how the team would have developed. So aside from amusement and a desire to suffer, no point mentioning all our preferred picks since 2003.