Voooteee Meee!

If any of you have been following Oregonlive.com’s “You be the GM” series, you will have already read this, and considered it. Here is what I think.

In the Rudy Fernandez “Stay or Go” portion of the article, Dwight Jaynes makes a great point. He says that he fears Rudy is going to be too good. How is that bad you ask? Well, it means that you will not be able to keep him on the bench much longer playing only 25 mins a game before he gets pissed. Not to mention the salary cap implications of keeping him long term. With Roy, Aldridge, Oden, Batum, and possibly Bayless, Outlaw, and Webster, all looking to make significant money in the future do we have money to keep Rudy? We are currently safe, because he is under his rookie contract for the next 3 seasons, so the Blazers will not have to pay him much, but after that he could be poised to make some serious money.

So I pose this question. Do you trade Rudy Fernandez before this happens? What would you need out of the deal to make it worth while? Here are my answers.

Personally, I would trade him before that crossroad point. Now this also assumes that Rudy matures into the star that I think he is going to be. Also, it assumes that Brandon Roy is able to play injury free for the foreseeable future. The dilemma that I find myself in, is anyone who is worthy of trading Rudy for is most likely in the upper tier in regards to salary. So, that doesn’t really solve the issue of going into the luxury tax. What trading Rudy would fix, would be the logjam of all-star talent at the 2 guard. While Rudy and Roy’s game aren’t that similar, they both thrive at the 2 spot. So who do you think is going to be better? Roy right? Do you think Rudy would be happy being a career backup? Cause I sure don’t. So what you do by making this trade is addressing another position by unloading one you have duplicates in.

So who would I need to make this deal work? Well, my asking price would most likely be higher then most teams would be willing to pay. But in my eyes, the Blazers are in the position of power from a negotiating stand point. We have the young, talented, charismatic star. And if we don’t trade him, then no skin off our backs, we’ll figure it out when it comes time. I personally wouldn’t give Rudy away for anyone less then an elite PG. Someone like Rondo, Deron Williams, Chris Paul, Derrick Rose, Beno Udrih (ok that was a joke). Obviously the swap wont be strait up, but if we could sprinkle in a draft pick or two along with another young piece it would be tempting for someone like New Orleans who is struggling to make ends meet financially (see failed Tyson Chandler trade). I don’t think it’s time to make a deal quite yet, because Rudy is still seen as a “potential” star, but I think he will make a significant improvement next season, and elevate himself into Manu Ginobli, 6th man type status.

What do you guys think? Can you ever imagine parting ways with Rudy?

Questions About Oden

Fox posed an interesting question yesterday on the blog asking “Who do you see as the 2 most likely players on our team to be moved this off-season outside of the obvious”. First I am going to add Channing Frye to the “obvious departure list” Sorry Fox, I know you had dreams of having a talk radio show (or podcast so you could delve into a variety of seedy topics unabated) with Chan Frye. There is no denying, he’s not happy career wise here, and the Blazers don’t have a place for him the rotation. I have to commend Chan Frye for being a constant professional through what I am sure was the most challenging time in his career.

Getting back to the original question, I think Sergio is gone. Unless we make a big splash with a free agent or a trade, I don’t see anyone else leaving. But if I had to pick one I would say Blake. I believe that if we make a significant move that will affect any of our top 7 players in the rotation, it will be to upgrade PG. Then that leaves you with the dilemma of choosing who to give backup minutes to, Blake or Bayless. What you have to realize about Blake is this year was his ceiling. This is as good/efficient as Blake will ever be. Is that good enough? How will he fair against other western PG’s like CP3, Deron Williams, Tony Parker, Jason Kidd, Chauncey Billups, and even Aaron Brooks to certain extent? I think this is obvious, and even though I do like Blake and I like what he has done for this team so far, I see him as kind of a “training wheels” type of point guard. He doesn’t take risks, he doesn’t turn the ball over, and he hits open shots. Now that this team is ready to take off though we need to take off the training wheels and let them ride.

Moving forward, another topic that has been up for popular debate this week is Greg Oden. News broke that Oden is going back to Ohio State to take summer school and workout there. The argument is that people think he should stick around Portland because he has so much to work on.

Personally I think people are kind of blowing this out of proportion. Almost all NBA players go to their respective homes during the offseason. Last summer, the only players that were here the entire summer were Frye and Blake, both of whom call Portland home. Granted I would prefer Greg to be in a big city and scrimmaging against NBA level talent all summer, but him going to Ohio State isn’t going to be the end of the world.

Another counter I have to that argument is, I think we can all agree on the fact that Greg Oden is a physical specimen. What holds him back is the muscle between his ears (I don’t even know if the brain is considered a muscle, I just heard this phrase before so I thought I’d try it). If going back to OSU refreshes Oden, and gets his mind right to come back here ready for another season then more power to him. I think his physce needs more work right now then his physique.

What do you guys think? Do you care? Should he stay this summer because of how important his personal success is linked to our team success? Sound off!

Season in the Rearview

Dear Rip City Report loyalists, I apologize for the long hiatus from the blog, but believe it or not, I actually have a life outside of the Blazers (albeit not much of one). I have a lot of things I want to cover, but will not in this post. But that is a good thing now that our season has concluded. Instead of doing game previews and recaps, I can float more of my REALLY great thoughts and ideas about the Blazers out there. Today though, I thought I would put some closure on the season and reflect on the season as whole. As always please feel free to comment, regardless if you think I am a genius, or an idiot, all opinions are welcome (unless you talk crap about Przy, then you get a lifetime ban).

A few friends and I (shoutout to Mikey, Goose, and Fox) came up with our pre-season predictions on how many games we thought the Blazers were going to win, and what seed they would be in the playoffs. If I remember correctly, Mikey was the most optimistic going with 50 wins and 6th seed. I was a little more conservative and went with 46 wins and a 7th seed. Fox and Goose landed somewhere in between. So to look back on a team that absolutely SHATTERED those expectations is a pretty amazing thing. If you would have told me back in October that the Blazers would have home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs, I would have called you a homer, and unrealistic. But turns out you were a genius and should be working as a scout for some NBA team.

We also saw Brandon Roy move into the next tier of NBA stars. He has been mentioned on multiple occasions in the same breath as Kobe Bryant and Dwayne Wade in the way he can close a game. That is extremely elite company, and is a credit to Roy and his drive to continually get better.

We saw the young Blazers get a crash course on what its like in the playoffs from the ultra physical, ultra veteran Rockets. Hopefully they all store that in the minds and bring it to some poor team in game 1 in the same fashion the Rockets did to us this year.

We saw LaMarcus Aldridge have arguably the most productive and dominant stretch of his career after the all-star break. He showed us that one day soon, he could be a player that can throw a team on his back and take over a game (if he hasn’t already).

We saw that Vanilla Gorilla play in all 82 regular season games, and 6 playoff games, a goal of his. Could you ask for a better role player then Przy? Did you hear a peep, when an extremely raw Oden supplanted him in the starting lineup? Did you hear anything when they came crawling back and asked him to step up and guard the best big men in the league without getting into foul trouble? He exemplifies the word team, and is a valuable member of this organization.

But mostly we saw a young team defy expectations and come together in the process. While there will undoubtedly be some tinkering with the roster, the Blazers have a solid core to build on. Can they live up the hype next year? Well, they did it this year, and them some, right?

Let me know what you guys think, I'm going to go sulk now because I dont get to watch another Blazer game for 6 months....