Greatest Blazers ever: Vote for #8

[Moonbeam]

Rasheed Wallace was voted in as the 7th greatest Blazer in a close one. Here is the list so far.

Who will be voted in as the 8th greatest Blazer ever? Lucas and Sabonis have received the most previous votes, but there have been some wild vote shifts from poll to poll, so an upstart could nab it!

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]

It's between Lucas, Sabonis, and Kersey for me at this stage. I could be swayed to consider Buck Williams, too. All legends of the franchise, and it's a shame one of them won't be among our top 10, but I wouldn't kick any of our top 7 out.

[Moonbeam]

I think I'm going to nominate Sidney Wicks. We're at a point now where it's hard to look past his 4 All-Star selections, when only Geoff Petrie is a multiple All-Star as a Blazer with 2 that hasn't joined the nomination pool.

[PDXKnight]

Lucas and it’s fairly easy

[d-train]

It's a shame that Pippen and Hollins aren't on this list. There are not 11 better players, much less 17. I think Blazers fans are prejudiced against Pippen because he is remembered as a HOF'er Bull. We had 99% prime Pippen for 3 years and 95% for a 4th year.

[d-train]

I nominate Pippen. The list isn't worth voting on until it has the right names.

[Red Robot]

I'm comfortable choosing Lucas here despite his relatively short stay in Portland. No remaining Blazer was as well-regarded by contemporaries. He was a key player on two of the best Blazers teams ever, then in the season without Walton they were still a decent team with Lucas as leader.

Nominate: Wicks

[Norm2953]

Maurice Lucas is the obvious choice here

[Norm2953]

Nominate Calvin Natt who Portland traded Lucas + 2 FRP for.

I find it interesting he's involved in two of the worst trades in team history with the Lucas trade
and the 5 players to Denver trade for Kiki Vandeweghe. I remember all too well how he and Fat
Lever were spearheads of those great Denver Nuggets teams in the mid 80s.

[d-train]

Nominate Calvin Natt who Portland traded Lucas + 2 FRP for.

I find it interesting he's involved in two of the worst trades in team history with the Lucas trade
and the 5 players to Denver trade for Kiki Vandeweghe. I remember all too well how he and Fat
Lever were spearheads of those great Denver Nuggets teams in the mid 80s.

Fat was the best player in that trade, not Vandewege or Natt. Lever was a SG that Blazers tried to make into a PG and Natt was a 6'5" PF. Blazers wanted a white SF that "fit the suit". Don't under estimate the "white" part of it. It doesn't matter today, but back then it did.

[Norm2953]

Fat was the better player but remember this thread is about greatest Blazer and Fat only played two
years in Portland. That trade made the Nuggets a powerhouse with Wayne Cooper also in the trade
to go with Alex English and Dan Issel. Likely one of the top 3 worst trades in Blazer history with
trading Moses Malone the worst trade along with the Jermaine O’Neal trade.

[Najee12]

It's a shame that Pippen and Hollins aren't on this list. There are not 11 better players, much less 17. I think Blazers fans are prejudiced against Pippen because he is remembered as a HOF'er Bull. We had 99% prime Pippen for 3 years and 95% for a 4th year.

Chicago Bulls Scottie Pippen was a perennial all-NBA player and first team All-Defensive Team member. Portland TrailBlazers Scottie Pippen was a past-his-prime complementary player who proved he had no leadership skills on a team that had meltdowns. The Pippen in Portland was a fraction of the player he was in Chicago after his back surgery during the 1999 lockout.

As a longtime Blazers fan, I have no prejudice against Pippen. But I saw Pippen's entire career and he clearly was a lesser player in Portland and on a team that went from a championship contender to a dysfunctional mess within two years when he was brought in to provide leadership and championship experience in big games.

[Najee12]

Honestly, Maurice Lucas should have been the No. 7 Blazer over Rasheed Wallace, but in case people aren't familiar with "The Enforcer's" career in Portland ...

Even though he played only three years with Portland, I still associate Maurice Lucas with the Trail Blazers. As much as people associate Bill Walton mostly with the 1977 title, Lucas led the 1976-77 team in scoring (20.2 points per game), minutes played (2,863), field goals (632), free throws (355 of 436) and total rebounds (934, an 11.1 average).

I think Lucas' fight with Darryl Dawkins in Game 2 of the 1977 Finals became the Blazers' rallying point because it showed the upstart Blazers were not going to back down to the heavily favored Sixers. Portland won the next two games at home in blowouts, then won at Philadelphia and closed out the 76ers at home to win the series. Lucas averaged 19.7 points, 13.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game in the series.

Lucas also played in the All-Star Game in all three seasons in Portland (he had four for his career). He averaged at least 20 points and 10 rebounds per game in two of his three seasons and was named to the 1978 All-NBA-Defense first team, the 1978 All-NBA second team and the 1979 All-NBA-Defense second team. He also was a surprisingly good low-post passer, particularly when alternating with Walton for high-low post play.

I never agreed with Portland trading Lucas and two first-round picks to the New Jersey Nets for Calvin Natt. Although Natt became a solid player during his stay and Portland was rebuilding from Walton's injuries, I thought the Blazers gave up a lot of its identity in the process.

I nominate Geoff Petrie, who was Portland's first All-Star player.

[Norm2953]

Scottie was a great player but he was 34 when he got to Portland with his best days behind him. Valued
more for his leadership tole and brought stability to the late 90's teams before he got too old to hold
off Sheed, Bonzi Wells and the other Jail Blazers. Interesting how people have forgotten how low this
franchise fell to prior to arrival of B-Roy and LA for I see guys like Sidney Wicks who was equally hated
as a Blazer. I seem to remember Sidney going into the stands during time outs to avoid Lenny Wilkens
(coach) instructions prior to the arrival of Jack Ramsay who was happy to see Wicks gone when he got
named coach.

[Effigy]

I nominate Geoff Petrie.

[Norm2953]

Imagine how many points Petrie would have scored in today's game.

[Moonbeam]

Voting is closed! This one was a bit of a blowout, with MAURICE LUCAS getting over half the votes and being crowned the 8th greatest Blazer.

Both Geoff Petrie and Sidney Wicks received 2 nominations, so the first tiebreaker goes to total nominations across all polls. This means that GEOFF PETRIE will join the pool of players to be voted in as the 9th best Blazer.

Thanks for your participation, everyone!

[d-train]

Scottie was a great player but he was 34 when he got to Portland with his best days behind him. Valued
more for his leadership tole and brought stability to the late 90's teams before he got too old to hold
off Sheed, Bonzi Wells and the other Jail Blazers. Interesting how people have forgotten how low this
franchise fell to prior to arrival of B-Roy and LA for I see guys like Sidney Wicks who was equally hated
as a Blazer. I seem to remember Sidney going into the stands during time outs to avoid Lenny Wilkens
(coach) instructions prior to the arrival of Jack Ramsay who was happy to see Wicks gone when he got
named coach.

Pippen's best days might have been behind him but he was still the 2nd best player on the 3rd best Blazers team ever for 3 years. He was our 3rd best player his 4th year. There is no doubt that Pippen had great years here in Portland.

You need to take a Blazers history lesson. Rasheed was the primary reason Blazers fans enjoyed years of the 3rd best Blazers team ever. The beginning of the so-called "jail blazers" is a little fuzzy since it was never anything but a media creation.

[Norm2953]

I'm likely either the senior or one of the oldest members on this board having followed the team
since 1975. Anyonewho thinks the "jail Blazers" was a media created invention is just wrong
for many of us remember Paul Allen placing the team into bankruptcy in 2002 and it was
directly from sharp drops in attendance from the city's disgust for the team that made this city
a laughing stock around the league.

Take a look at the 1999-00 Blazers. Rasheed Wallace was indeed the best player on the team that
Pippen joined. That team had Sabonis, Brian Grant, Greg Anthony (who might still be the best
defensive PG in team history), Damon Stoudamire, Bonzi Wells in addition to Pippen. Pippen was
a solid player in his mid 30's but there was no clear second best player for the team needed the
Pippen of mid 90's instead of the player he was averaging 10-12PPG in 1999-00 that collapsed in
the fourth quarter.

For the loyal Blazer fans, we've had good teams over the years from the 1977-8 teams, 1989-92
Drexler teams. The city was proud to be associated with those teams but the bad characters
on the millennial teams eventually soured the city on those teams. Fortunately we've had
good people from then on for B-Roy and Dame insist on it.