Jul 01 2009
Non-Issues and Turkoglu
Seems like Turkoglu’s our man.
What the Blazers are going through right now is very similar to what a movie production company goes through when casting an actor for a new film. It wants to make sure that he has a good history, makes successful movies, and can put asses in the seats. This is when they sign Will Smith. The Blazers just decided to sign Keanu Reeves.
Like Reeves, Turkoglu is enough above average to get by. He’s by no means near the conversation as one of the best small forwards in the league, but he’s a solid player that knows how to hit a key shot. He’s a smarter version of Travis Outlaw. Do we need that? Of course we do. Is it worth fifty million dollars? Come on. This past post-season is Turkoglu’s Matrix; “see, he can show up and make a difference!” apologists say. Of course, that would make his Game 5 performance Matrix Revolutions.
Just to let you know how much Trail Post is against this signing, here’s a list of free agents that we’d rather be offering money to right now than Hedo Turkoglu:
Mike Bibby
Leon Powe
Raymond Felton
Brandon Bass
Jason Kidd (but not much more than Turkoglu)
Birdman Andersen
Antonio McDyess
Rasheed Wallace (that would be a dream scenario that would never happen)
Ron Artest
Trevor Ariza
Lamar Odom
Jamaal Magloire (just kidding, checking if you’re still reading)
Ramon Sessions
David Lee
Andre Miller
Paul Millsap
Here’s a little running theme amongst all these guys: only three of them are small forwards. The rest are backup big men and point guards. We don’t need a small forward right now. We have two good young ones that both have the potential to be as good or better than Turkoglu. If we locked him up in a long-term deal, we might as well be declaring that Batum will never be a great player in a Blazer uniform. It’ll be fun to see him win titles with another team in a couple of years.
I never thought I’d see the day when Kevin Pritchard falls victim to that horrible specter known as “conventional wisdom” but here we are. We see a guy who has never been great produce well in one playoffs, and all of a sudden he’s the hottest commodity out there. Why aren’t we running his numbers through the thousand Nobel-worthy algorithms that we use in the draft? This is free agency in a recession, and we’re the big buyer. We don’t need to blow it on a guy that offers little marginal improvement.
I stopped reading once you said Rasheed was a dream scenario.
‘Sheed a dream signing?
I guess there’s a reason why I’m not ever going to get suckered into clicking on a link to this blog again.
Wow, I guess a veteran backup power forward that’s a solid defender isn’t on the list of needs that this team has right now. News to me. If we’re going for the Detroit model, it may help to have the guy who put Detroit over the top on the team. Dude’s a bona fide winner and has swagger to spare; if you think his relatively minor issues here are a deal breaker, I feel sorry for you.
Haha, I don’t really think of the team as young talent any more, I guess. By the term “dream scenario” I mean bringing Sheed in and him agreeing that he’s not top dog on this team and will never start. Which, of course, is the definition of a dream. It has nearly no place in reality.
I don’t think he’d be a bad influence simply because Brandon’s such a top dog and great influence.
We will never contend until we sacrifice a little of that good ol’ “culture,” for a player with toughness, a punk with an internal fire, and will to win. ala rasheed, ron artest, lamar odom, etc. I side with trail-post
‘Sheed is nowhere near the defender he was years ago. He’s old, slow, and never has been much of a workout guy–meaning he’ll come into camp older and slower every year. No thanks.
Don’t look now, but BlazerEdge is falling head over heels for ‘Sheed.
http://www.blazersedge.com/2009/7/1/935300/an-old-friend
…posers
At this point I want the speculation and the trades to be over with. I can’t help but read near everything I can find on the subject, and my eyes are starting to shrivel. Regardless of what KP does I’m still going to watch every game I can, and revel in the 75% of my conversations during the season that will no doubt be dominated by trade benefits/failures, Oden’s progression, and the possibility of a championship run. Right now, for me, any further Hedo articles are equivalent to 24 hour news stations filling hour long time slots with discussions of whether or not to much media attention is being payed to Michael Jackson’s death.
P.S. Captain Kirk and Artest please.