Why were Pritchard & Penn fired?

[Nyce_1]

Magic fan here and I'm fetching some info on both of these guys. Apparently, we just interviewed Penn and plan to interview Pritchard later this week. Our FO is thinking of bringing in both for our GM duties.

Any info is greatly appreciated.

[DusterBuster]

In a nutshell, personality clashes with owner Paul Allen.

With Penn, his agent played up some interest the Twolves had in him to leverage more money out of Paul Allen, so that didn't sit well either.

[DeBlazerRiddem]

Ideallist's who like the draft.


I don't see them as a fit in Orlando. They would urge a rebuild cake-baking plan, and the Orlando owner wants his cake ready and delivered NOW.

[Klinky]

Pritchard wanted to pursue other passions.

[Joshumitsu]

Ideallist's who like the draft.


I don't see them as a fit in Orlando. They would urge a rebuild cake-baking plan, and the Orlando owner wants his cake ready and delivered NOW.

On the contrary, I actually see them as a fit for that exact reason. Orlando will end up trading Dwight for less than ideal. After that, they'll have no choice but to rebuild, especially considering their cap space and bad contracts. I think even the Magic owner, Richard Devos, realizes this.

They have no choice but to bake the cake.

*OP, fyi, "bake the cake" is a Pritchard term regarding the rebuilding process.

[ebott]

The Tom Penn situation is pretty much open and shut. There was an incident where Penn reportedly told the Blazers that Minnesota had offered him their GM job in order to get a raise. The Blazers found out about it and fired his ass.

I personally feel like Kevin Pritchard was fired because of Greg Oden. If Greg Oden was healthy Kevin Pritchard would still be the GM.

[Nyce_1]

thanks everyone.

Besides drafting, how were their roster moves? I almost forgot Pritchard wanted to give Turk $10M/yr

[DusterBuster]

thanks everyone.

Besides drafting, how were their roster moves? I almost forgot Pritchard wanted to give Turk $10M/yr

Pritchard's move always looked great in the short-term, but then ended up somewhere between mediocre-to-awful.

As for some of their roster moves, I guess it depends on what moves a person is willing to give him credit for....

While he was the assistant GM under Steve Patterson when the Blazers made their record setting 7 Draft Day Trades in the 2006 draft that netted them Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge. To get Aldridge, the Blazers traded the #4 pick (Tyrus Thomas) and Viktor Khryapa to the Bulls for the #2 pick. That was about as big of a home-run as a NBA team can get in a trade. For Roy, they traded Theo Ratliff and Sebastian Telfair to Boston for the #7 pick and Raef Lafrentz, then shipped off the #7 pick to Minny with some cash to get the rights to Roy at #6. Another huge home run. Literally every move they made turned to gold that year. It's rumored that a lot of those deals were all the brain child of Pritchard, but in later years, that story has changed that Patterson, the actual guy with the GM title had more to do with it. So those are up in the air as far ask being "KP moves".

As for trades made while KP had the actual GM spot, nothing is really stand out impressive. Probably his best move was the Marcus Camby deal where they sent out Blake and Outlaw to the Clips for Camby. Oden was (shocker) hurt and the Blazers needed a C going into the playoffs. Blake and Outlaw were expiring, as was Camby at the time, and the Blazers had not intention of bringing back either Blake or Outlaw. They were able to basically trade expiring contracts for an expiring contract and didn't have to include any extra incentive to the Clips. So that was a solid deal.

He traded Jarrett Jack, the rights to Brandon Rush and Josh McRoberts to the Pacers for Jerryd Bayless and Ike Diogu. Basically a wash of a trade for both teams. Not a single player in the deal is still with their team today.

He never made a standout good or bad trade really. His draft picks were decent, but unspectacular also. In some cases, he passed on REALLY good talent, even when fans were screaming for the player. Dejuan Blair in particular, they passed on him 3 times, once in the 1st round and twice in the 2nd round.

[Wizenheimer]

as mentioned, there are some really persistent rumors that Tom Penn and/or his agent misrepresented the scope and size of offer that Penn got from Minnesota. Reportedly, that offer was the leverage that got Penn a raise and promotion. When Paul Allen found out, Penn was immediately fired...so goes the rumor

There are even some rumors that Pritchard was somehow collaborative in the Penn fiasco. He and Penn were good friends so it's possible, but I don't have a clue if that's true or not

It probably wouldn't matter anyway because a strong case can be made that KP was simply fired for incompetence.

* he was supposed to be a draft-day guru but the Blazers drafting record in his tenure was generally poor

* he spent a lot of Paul Allen's money stashing European players, when the Blazers had an obvious need for immediate talent

* he was far too attached to the players he brought to portland, even when it was ovious that they weren't nearly as good as hoped

* he practically refused to make trades until there was a desperate and obvious need. He simply was not aggressive enough in upgrading the roster

* he bet everything on a 2009 cap-space plan that failed for reasons he could have controlled much better. And when that space finally rolled around, it became a comedy of errors beginning with the goofy dance between KP & Hedo

* his public statements undermined the team's position in the contract extension negotiations with Brandon Roy. To such an extent that upper management had to remove him from the process. That's pretty bad

[yangco]

Purely gossip, but I heard that Pritchard also had trouble keeping his hands to himself. Apparently he was fond of "hands on" experiences with Blazer staff, including the dancers.

[ebott]

thanks everyone.

Besides drafting, how were their roster moves? I almost forgot Pritchard wanted to give Turk $10M/yr

I want to say bad. But the real truth is Pritchard only made the one non-draft move of signing Andre Miller. And he really didn't want to make that move because Brandon Roy was so ineffective with a ball handling point guard.

Largely the stated plan was to wait until the Oden/Roy/Aldridge triumvirate came to be before making any moves. And everyone knows what happened there.

[d-train]

thanks everyone.

Besides drafting, how were their roster moves? I almost forgot Pritchard wanted to give Turk $10M/yr

KP's signature move was trading Zach Randolph for Charmin and Stevie Franchise. The Blazers immediately paid Stevie Franchise $30M to go away. So, the trade was Zach and $30M for Charmin.

He also drafted Greg Oden with the #1 pick.

He waived Darius Miles. This turned out to be a dumb move because the timing of it cost the Blazers about $9M in cap space the summer of 2009. Had the Blazers waited a year before waiving Miles it would have cost the Blazers no cap space. And, Pritchard used 2009 cap space as a big selling point to Paul Allen to get the $30M he used to give away Zach.

His next move was trading Jarrett Jack, 13th pick, cash, and Josh McRoberts for the 11th pick and Diogu. The thing to note about this trade is the price paid to move up 2 spots in the draft. Besides giving up Jarrett Jack and McRoberts, the Blazers effectively paid $6M in cash. Actual cash was $3M, but the reason Diogu was in the trade was Pacers wanted out of a $3M obligation to a player that the Blazers didn't want either.

Pritchard made by far his best move by trading a #27 pick previously acquired for $3M and 2 very early 2nd round picks for the #25 pick Nicolas Batum. Nobody can argue with the results but $3M and 2 early 2nd round picks was a steep price for a #25 pick.

He signed Martell Webster to a $15M guaranteed contract. This work of brilliance cost the Blazers another $5M in cap space.

And finally, drum roll please, the icing on the cake was the big FA signing of Andre Miller.

Finally, almost 3 years to the day after he was hired Pritchard made his first smart veteran acquisition, he traded Blake and Outlaw for Marcus Camby.

This is Kevin Pritchard's record in a nutshell. It's unimpressive for sure but to be fair it was only 3 years.

[d-train]

*OP, fyi, "bake the cake" is a Pritchard term regarding the rebuilding process.

You could be right but this isn't how I took it.

I thought "baking the cake" was an analogy for freezing the roster and building the team by developing what Pritchard believed was an abundance of promising young studs. The promising young studs that Pritchard was baking were Webster, Outlaw, Blake, Jack, Frye, Fernandez, and Rodriguez. This was supposed to be the supporting cast to the big 3. LeBron, Wade, and Bosh might not make the playoffs with this supporting cast.

And, "icing on the cake" was the final piece he planned to add in 2009 to finish off what was supposed to be a team that would contend for championships for many years.

Well, you can tell by the ingredients in Pritchard's cake that a Hostess Twinkie would have outclassed what he was baking. And, his frosting was worse than his cake.

[hondaaccord]

Pritchard absolutely deserved to be fired for his mishandling of our salary cap. Signing Webster was simply inexcusable. That said, I think he will be more mature if he ever gets rehired as a GM. But he had to be fired.

[rasta_marley]

Purely gossip, but I heard that Pritchard also had trouble keeping his hands to himself. Apparently he was fond of "hands on" experiences with Blazer staff, including the dancers.

I haven't heard anything about that, the dog! lol but ya that sounds like speculation.

I wouldn't want KP I mean I suippose he deserves another shot but... he just made too many bad moves. I won't try to go into it as people are covering it better then I would.

[Jack wore plaid]

Not sure about Penn, but Pritchard had a substance abuse issue, and had been asking PA to let him go for a while

[DusterBuster]

Mean, there's some pretty wild speculation flying around here. KP went from a GM with a spotty track record to a drugged out sex offender.

[Nyce_1]

Mean, there's some pretty wild speculation flying around here. KP went from a GM with a spotty track record to a drugged out sex offender.

LOL my thoughts exactly. But it's all good info. I remember his draft day moves and was a fan from afar, but it's good to get the real deal from you fans.

I was on his bandwagon for making him the next Magic GM, but now....hesitant.

[The Sebastian Express]

I guess substance abuse would explain his massive weight gain (insert joke about why he was really fired).

[Billy]

KP was a very energetic salesman. I think that his biggest down fall was he drank more Kool-aid than he sold--and that was a lot of Kool-aid.

I think if he could, he would have given 8 hour long interviews. The guy can talk a long time. Toward the end of his tenure, the act grew old. At the beginning, it was something IMO that the franchise needed. The previous GM's (John Nash, Steve Patterson), weren't nearly as charismatic, and in the case of Patterson were down right confrontational. KP was a breathe of fresh air in many regards.

It gets murky when it comes to his record as the Blazers seemed more than willing to let the credit be heaped upon Pritchard for the Roy/Aldridge draft day when the going was good and season tickets had a waiting list. When things started going south there were a lot more sources describing how that was not so much the case. Since the Blazers never really outright gave him the credit, nor did they really have discredit the notion that he was the guy pulling the trigger despite being the assistant GM, we have to sort of assume that his fingerprints were there but that not all of them are his.

After 2006, as others have said it was less than stellar. His biggest issue had more to do with not letting go of a player than the players he got. There were a lot of opportunities that were rumored to be available that would have had Portland in a much better place than they are right now, but because it cost Pritchard something tangible he couldn't part with it.

Penn seems to know his stuff, but it's another one that is hard to really tell. IIRC he was a big part of some maneuvering that got James Jones for free. For the one year Jones played here, he was a lights out specialist.