One reason why I am not sad; we went through this last year. Last year towards the end of the season, I was almost at the end of the road with the Blazers. Steve Blake, Juan Dixon, Outlaw, Brian Skinner, Vashon Lenard, Sebastian Telfair…who the hell were these guys? It was awful going through that. The worst team in the league. We were legitimately horrible in every sense of the word. There was nothing entertaining or fun about being a Blazer fan last year. It was like pure torture. But the spin was; ‘Hey, they’re trying hard, we’re gonna make some moves, we’ll get the #1 pick, all is well.’
So I struggled as we won 3 of the last 24 games, getting blown out a lot of times on that road. But it was ok; we were getting the #1 pick. Even with that #1 pick in our pocket, I was still shuddering and shaking with nightmares of past draft picks. Shawn Respert…you leave me the hell alone. Get out of here Erick Barkley. Shawnelle Scott how did you get here? Qyntel Woods put down by Honey Bunches of Oats. SEBASTIAN TELFAIR OH DEAR GOD NO.
But it was ok..new management, no Whitsitt, we’ll be ok. Finish the year, we get the #1 pick and we can’t screw that up we get to debate over everyone. #1 we’re fine right?
Wrong. That good old Blazer luck came back and gave us the 4th pick. In case you were wondering, that is the worst pick you can get if you’re the worst team in the league. So we tanked and they showed our logo 4th.
Devastating isn’t even quite the word. Somehow I remained semi-optimistic…’hey we’re in the lottery, we’ll trade up and snag Adam Morrison. He’ll sell tickets and he can shoot, good fit for us right?’
We sat there…and yeah we traded up…to get LaMarcus Aldridge. And while I love LaMarcus now, I absolutely hated the pick and the trade at the time. I thought both Tyrus Thomas and LaMarcus were idiots for going early, and sure enough we end up with one of them. I was not a happy camper.
But then we traded Sebastian. I had been calling for his head for a while. We traded Sebastian and Theo for Raef and Dan Dickau and the #7 pick aka Randy Foye.
I was happy again. And then we got Brandon Roy. Perfect. We finally got something valuable in a draft, even if I was unhappy that we traded James White (the dunks…come on now).
So…why am I not too shook up about everything like my man Couper? I feel we’ve gone through the brunt of the storm. The Blazers and the loyal fans have had to sit there and take it…and we did. Think about it.
- We went from perennial playoff team (21 straight years, including the first 16 years of my life) to two 20 win seasons.
- We endured botched draft after botched draft. It was almost embarrasing to be a Blazer fan around draft time.
03′ we take another high schooler (Travis Outlaw) instead of Josh Howard.
04’…we take another high schooler (Sebastian) and pass up on Al Jefferson and Jameer Nelson, and we don’t trade up to get Luke Jackson or Iguodala. I remember being in the car, driving to a summer league game and screaming at the top of my lungs. And then, we make a trade with New Jersey to get back-to-back picks at 22/23. I’m thinking we’re getting Delonte West and someone else. We end up with two bleeping Russians. Meanwhile, Kevin Martin falls to Sacramento at 26. And yes I am getting mad.
05’…we’re back in the lottery and we take ANOTHER HIGH SCHOOLER (Martell) with the #6 pick passing on Charlie Villanueva, Channing Frye and Ike Diogu. All proven players on the national stage.
Before I get even more bitter, my main point is this. We have gone through a downtime and we have done everything the right way. The balls have not bounced our way, but eventually when you do things the right way you get rewarded. I honestly think this is the year we get rewarded. Worst case we’re still getting one of the top 10 players of this year. We’re not gonna catch Atlanta so we were looking at 5th in the lottery regardless. We weren’t going to get Durant or Oden, shit even the teams tanking might not get him. So I’m just going to sit here and take it.
Why you ask? Because at the end of the day it could always be worse.
It already has been.