[外電] Canzano:Don't miss the point...Blazers "pass" was a big

[Fernandez05 (Rudy Fernandez)]

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Canzano: Don't miss the point... Blazers "pass" was a big move
by John Canzano, The Oregonian
Thursday June 25, 2009, 10:21 PM

There was a guy sitting on an overturned plastic bucket at the corner of
Fourth Avenue and Morrison Street in downtown Portland on Thursday during the
NBA draft.

He held a couple of blurring drumsticks in his hands and was in a deep
groove, smacking them off the top of an overturned bucket. He was using the
metal street sign as a cymbal. The sweet echo between buildings had people on
the street corners bopping their heads.

Like the Trail Blazers, he was in a rhythm.

Portland didn't make a splashy pick on Thursday. It didn't set a new NBA
record for trades during a draft. Its lone first-round pick ends up as a
strategy play.

But I love what the organization did on draft day.

Don't miss the point --- the Blazers draft $trategy was clear: Save money.
It's why the team passed on better available talent and instead picked a
Spanish project who may never see a game in a Portland uniform.

Let's see.

The Blazers shed Sergio Rodriguez in exchange for a second-round pick (Read:
non-guaranteed contract). They"ll gain salary-cap room in the process. And
they resisted the temptation to join the ranks of flailing franchises
stabbing at fate with incongruent moves. Maybe that's making you yawn, but
only if you're missing the point.

The Minnesota Timberwolves picked point guards with back to back lottery
picks. The Phoenix Suns announced they're starting over. The Warriors went
nuts. And so the temptation today is going to be to grade the Blazers draft
day as uneventful, and boring, when it was exactly what the franchise needed.

Trimming Rodriguez's salary inflates the organization's available cap space
by $1.8 million. General manager Kevin Pritchard said the team's draft choice
at No. 22 -- Victor Claver -- will end up being stashed overseas next season.
The Blazers could have more than $10 million available to pursue free agents
beginning July 1, possibly more if they renounce the rights to Joel Freeland
and Petteri Koponen. They've also retained a trade exception that would allow
the organization to make a lopsided deal if it chooses to do so.

The Blazers took Claver even though college prospects such as DeJuan Blair
(Pittsburgh), Wayne Ellington (North Carolina) and Sam Young (Pittsburgh) and
international prospect Omri Casspi (Israel) were available. And if you're
baffled by this, you're missing the point.

Portland was basically saying, "Pass."

Thursday wasn't about ego. The organization wasn't attempting to outsmart
everyone. It's not like Kevin Pritchard walked across the Willamette River or
made the Broadway Bridge disappear on draft day.

The Blazers were poised. They acted like a franchise that has confidence in
the current group of players. The day was about keeping the good beat going
and leaving options open. What we now have is a franchise that has left
itself in position to do something advantageous the moment a sweet
opportunity presents itself.

It must have taken great restraint for Pritchard to watch Orlando acquire
Vince Carter in a five-player deal. Or to see Shaquille O'Neal go from
Phoenix to Cleveland. Or to see his closest comparable peer, Oklahoma City's
hot-shot Sam Presti, get a round of back slaps for having the confidence and
autonomy to take Arizona State's James Harden No. 3 overall.

Pritchard is typically smack in the middle of a day like Thursday.

This time, he was on the outside, looking in. And that's exactly where he
belonged.

Portland's trades will be viewed as token moves by outsiders. They'll see an
organization trading No. 24 for No. 22 as a ho-hum deal. They'll view
Rodriguez's departure as a minor deal. And they'll shrug at the team's
calculated draft picks. But as one league executive told me this week,
"Portland is trying to make itself a player in free agency."

They did just that.

This summer's free agent class isn't breathtaking. And maybe that works with
what the Blazers' timeline because the team still needs to see what Martell
Webster will become. But teams are tripping over themselves to create room
for the 2010 summer where LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Manu
Ginobili, Dirk Nowitzki, Yao Ming and others could all be free agents.

During the draft, the Blazers marketing department used Webster as a
spokesman on radio and television, pushing the product. Feels a lot like the
organization understands what must be done, and is willing to be calculated
and patient.

The Blazers are feeling the beat. They're drumming. And there's good harmony
in their actions.

That's the sound you hear across the city today.

- John Canzano: [e-mail]

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推 AdamHmc:這篇不錯~~~~但目前還是沒有找到#33不賭Blair的理由 QQ
推 Aldridge:其實我的目標是#31 Claver(二輪放養一樣效用)  #33 Jeff(
→ Aldridge:替補即戰力PF) #55 隨便一個歐洲人 #22 首輪選一個PG大年
→ Aldridge:掉下來的PG 沒有的話交易掉換未來選秀還有清薪資空間效用
→ Fernandez05:同上