Gearon Jr. ON 790...

[AHF]

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He was without a doubt lucky to make the playoffs. I'm still not sure exactly how much credit he deserves for our success or how much blame he deserves for our failure though. I still think we have some problems with players not doing what they are supposed to like Joe referred to with his comments after the playoffs but the only way to determine if that is true or not is to replace Woody and I don't think that's going to happen at this point.

I think reaching young players is one of the bigger responsibilities and challenges for a coach so even if it is the players not listening we still need more from our coach, IMO.

[Admin]

That depends on how many players it is. If it's ONLY Josh Smith that he isn't reaching then you can't blame that on Woody as that was one of the big fears about Smith coming into the league. I hope that's not the case but honestly it wouldn't surprise me.

[AHF]

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That depends on how many players it is. If it's ONLY Josh Smith that he isn't reaching then you can't blame that on Woody as that was one of the big fears about Smith coming into the league. I hope that's not the case but honestly it wouldn't surprise me.

If it is only Josh Smith I hope Woody could come up with a solution that would have us winning more after 4 years with the guy. Like you and I discussed, Woody should be having him play in the paint a lot more on offense and someone should be on him everytime he hangs around the 3pt line if that isn't part of the offense.

[Admin]

We should bring in someone from Singapore to cane him every time he takes a 3. I think that would break that nasty habit pretty quick.

[AHF]

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We should bring in someone from Singapore to cane him every time he takes a 3. I think that would break that nasty habit pretty quick.

I think that Celtics trainer might be available:

Sam-I-Am says he really brings the wood.

[Seano]

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Not that it involves any big name players coming our way, but I remember reading in The Oregonian a few weeks ago that the Blazers would be looking hard to upgrade their team. With as many pieces they have to offer - both expiring contracts and young players - they're definitely in a good position to do something this offseason if they decide to do so.

Kevin Pritchard (GM) was noted as saying that it would be a tough decision to do too much, however, given that the Blazers are progressing extremely well and realistically don't need to do anything other than bide their time until they mature into playoff contenders. That said, they did mention the desire to secure two positions - PG and SF.

One name that was

directly

mentioned was Mike Bibby. It was mentioned, although I don't think it was Pritchard on the record, that Bibby would be the type of PG solution they could reasonably bring in. He'd be off the books soon enough if he doesn't work out and the Blazers don't feel they'd have to give up anyone from their core of Aldridge, Oden, or Roy to get him.

Obviously, I think it would be worthwhile for us to explore options with the Blazers in regards to a Bibby trade if that's the avenue we go down. Like I mentioned, the Blazers have plenty of young talent and/or expiring contracts that I think we could use. They're clearly unhappy with their PG situation, so a trade for Bibby would realistically free up any of the following players: Jarrett Jack, Steve Blake, and Sergio Rodriguez. They also have Raef Lafrentz and his albatross contract to deal.

As wonderful as this season has been, there's no way that we see Bibby as anything other than a stopgap for this season. Given the choice, I'd readily trade him to the Blazers and look to reload now. There's no way Bibby holds his value through next season and there's no way we resign him next season either.

And as far as their SF needs, maybe we talk to them about Marvin also. He'd be a "hometown" guy for them and they could try him at SF. Personally, I'm not ready to give up on Marvin, but on the other hand, it'd be easier for me to cheer him on if he were a Blazer rather than a Hawk. I'd just have to get a Blazers jersey that says "Marvelous" rather than a Hawks one.

This is interesting to read, because the Blazers were one of the teams I thought of the other night when considering potential Bibby and/or Marvin trades. It seems like they could make a pretty good trading partner for us.

I say go for it, explore every possible opportunity to make this team better.