Portland Trail Blazers Update: Draft, Turkoglu, Sergio, Channing
July 7, 2009 — PDXPIPELINECheck out our new Portland Sports section. Trail Blazers Summer camp & Timbers coverage coming soon.
Posted by Andy Popp
Channing Frye
The team decided against picking up Channing Frye's team option. He was given plenty of opportunity, but ended up playing himself out of the rotation. The good (and bad?) news for Frye is that it's what he did off the court that will define him as a Blazer; via his blog, he embraced the community and made an effort to explore and experience all the great things Portland has to offer. He reviewed movies, restaurants, bars and shops. The NBA rumor mill currently puts him in Phoenix, Denver, San Antonio or Cleveland. Not too bad.
Sergio Rodriguez
Sergio Rodriguez was traded w/ the bathwater, the 38th pick and cash considerations to the Sacramento Kings for the 31st pick (Jeff Pendergraph). Which goes to show, if you're not going to buy into the Blazer ethos, you're dead to Kevin Pritchard. This trade leaves us with only Steve Blake and Jerryd Bayless. The former got shredded by younger, faster guards and the latter couldn't beat out Sergio for minutes. These are problems that must address before the February trade deadline if the Blazers are serious about a playoff run.
Hedo Turkoglu
Ben Golliver, Blazer Guru/Professional Steve Blake hater did an excellent job covering the Hedo action as it unfolded (crazily) throughout Thursday and Friday. Most are chalking up Portland and Hedo's discord as a blessing in disguise. Claiming the 5 year contract combined with his age was something that should've been a deal breaker in the first place; saying his contract would turn into an albatross in it's twilight years. It's hard to disagree. We've already got plenty of logjam at small forward without Hedo.
The Draft
Pretty uneventful. Victor Claver, Dante Cunningham, Jeff Pendergraph and Patty Mills. With the last couple drafts bringing in big name talent, everyone was expecting fireworks. Pair that with learning early on that we moved Sergio, it looked like we were in for another active draft day with KP at the helm. The speculation was that we would either be trading for a point guard (Kirk Hinrich) or moving up higher in the first round to take one of the marquee point guards. In the end, KP felt as though the team has reached a point where there's no need to take on unnecessary risk by trading away assets to move up in the draft.
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Pipeline Posse: Andy Popp is a Portland native that loves sports and beer. When he's not at PDX Pipeline, you can find him at lowposts.com. You can contact him at andypopp@gmail.com
July 7, 2009 at 3:15 pm
GET RID OF TRAVIS OUTLAW = NBA championship
July 7, 2009 at 3:38 pm
While I am a big Channing Frye defender and fan (I’m the one who made the “Channing for Mayor” shirts), and my view on the issue is colored by that perspective (kind of like the Bayless Fan Boys who think he can do no wrong), I think that the statements, “…but ended up playing himself out of the rotation.” and that he was “…given plenty of opportunity…” are inaccurate/overstated. No backup PF is going to get a lot of minutes behind LaMarcus Aldridge and Channing is definitely a player that needs consistent minutes to play to his potential–which is not particularly unusual. Furthermore, Channing’s style was simply a poor fit for Nate McMillan’s Trail Blazers, and it resulted in a square peg-round hole situation that appeared to be exacerbated by what Jason Quick called a “lack of trust” between the coach & Channing. (I imagine anyone who has been in a bad work situation can relate to that.)
So many Blazers fans & observers forget how well Channing played at the end of the 07-08 season when LaMarcus was out–and folks speculated that he would have a very nice season in 08-09, especially given how hard he worked in the off-season (he was even awarded the kiss of death–the Most Outstanding Worker Award–for his off-season training), but that was derailed by his ankle surgery and subsequent too-early return to play. I, for one (and judging from the 250 or so comments on Channing’s farewell blog post, a lot of other Portlanders), very much hope that he will be successful with a team that’s more suited to his skills, abilities and personality. He’s certainly at the top of my list of favorite former Blazers.
July 7, 2009 at 4:11 pm
I knew Andy was in trouble when I saw that. I do want to say you could not have a better ambassador for Portland Trail Blazers than he was. Seemed like an all around great guy and down to earth. They rarely make them like that these day with all the money they have.
July 7, 2009 at 9:25 pm
HA. C-Block strikes again!