Free Ballin’

Portland had no reason to panic.  For a few years they suffered mostly from an embarrassment of riches: a young star in Brandon Roy, loads of other young talented players who weren’t making big dough yet, cap space, draft picks, a generous owner, and a kick-ass city to play in.  It looked to be the start of something wonderful, as soon as Greg Oden got healthy and figured out how to play in the NBA.  And yet they panicked.

They decided not to trade Raef Lafrentz’s expiring contract, and I said good show.  If you don’t get the right deal, sit on it, let the contract expire, and take the cap relief to use later.  They did and then they panicked.  The two best moves made by the Trailblazers over the summer were made by the Raptors and the Jazz.  The Raptors saved the Trailblazers from stupidly signing Hedo Turkoglu to a silly contract—by themselves signing Hedo to a silly contract.  Then the Jazz saved the Trailblazers from stupidly signing a really good player, Paul Millsap, who didn’t fit Portland at all—the Jazz signed Millsap instead to a contract that may or may not be silly.  They were saved twice!  And they responded by signing Andre Miller, another good player who doesn’t fit their team at all.

I’ve written about that plenty, so I won’t go on about it, but it’s the panic that bothered me so much.  Why panic for no reason?  Do you HAVE to spend the money?  Can’t you just chill out and hold on to the cap space and bide your time until the right player comes along?  Instead they signed Miller because they had to sign someone.  As it happened, they signed Miller to a perfectly good contract.  So now that the experiment has failed, it seems to me that it shouldn’t be terribly hard to move him—because he will be good, just for some other team.

Finally, with Greg Oden going down for the season, the Trailblazers have reason to panic.  Congratulations!

Without Oden, they’re a second round team at best—and I don’t see them making it that far.  Ironically, Millsap would be a nice fit for this team, now.  Lamarcus Aldridge could play his baby’s-bottom-soft game at center, while Millsap played the manly power-forward, and Joel Przybilla could come in and spell Aldridge when he was…too soft.  I tell you, sometimes I think Aldridge is a bigger taller Charles Smith.  Hopefully I’m wrong.  And hopefully Greg Oden comes back bionic.