Wolves v Blazers Division Preview

Off course if it’s written by Portland fans, they’re gonna be a little higher on their own team than everyone else. Aren’t we all a bit guilty of that? Also the Blazers are 2 years ahead of their rebuilding so no big surprise they beat us right now. Though it’s a decent read, here’s my comments:

“It is clear that the Blazers outsmarted the Timberwolves in the Roy deal”.

I don’t think it’s that clear. First of all, give Foye some time. The guy was playing excellent point guard right before he got injured. Yes, it was only Summer League. But if you look back at that campaign. McCants was terrible the whole week so Foye took over the scoring .. the moment McCants got hot, Foye was excellent in feeding his hot hand and McCants went for 40.
So give the guy some credit, the earliest to decide is after the season .. besides, didn’t Roy get hurt as well?

Second, they didn’t really outsmart them, they outlucked them (maybe!). The timberwolves had a good deal in place that would have sent Foye + Luther Head to the wolves for Roy. The consensus back then was that both players were about the same skill level and not really that different. Yea sure, some people like Roy better … but I do think most people agreed that predicting future success is such an inexact science that nobody would have bet his life on either of the two outperforming.
So when the Blazers botched that trade to Houston, if both players had about the same chance of being the better of the two, wasn’t it a good thing for the Wolves to just swap em and get some extra cash (+ saving some guaranteed salary)? Off course, if you knew Roy was going to be the better player … but nobody KNEW back then. Even know nobody knows right now.

PG: I think Foye will have readjusted to the NBA by the time the season starts. He had a half season last year and got a whole offseason. I don’t know really much about Blake but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt this year .. next year Foye is the better.

SG: As I’ve posted before. Our strong point here is our versatility. We have lock down defense for the McGrady’s and Roy’s of the league with Brewer. The moment they slow down we can sub in Microwave Mccants and make them sub Roy back in ahead of shedule. If should really be Roy vs Mccants here because Mccants will probably get most minutes of anyone at the SG. Advantage is still Roy though.

SF: Here it should be Webster vs Miller. Come on, we won’t be starting Carney. At least put Gomes here then. Webster vs Miller, I’d pick Miller for sure.

PF: I think Love will be just as valuable as Aldridge. People will really be amazed by how little his mediocre athleticism isn’t really that mediocre and especially how little it influences his game negatively. BUT, the fact that Love is a rookie gives Aldridge the edge.

C: No comment there :D

Bench: I agree the Blazers have a pretty good bench, ours is rapidly improving though…

Final comment: comparing players to player isn’t really a good way of predicting the outcome off a game. It’s a team game after all. But, decent read, decent read.

Also, I think this should be a fanshot instead of fanpost .. how dare you make a mistake like that! :p. Can’t see how you would mix the two of them up [sarcasm_off]

For some reason Blazer fan like to keep bringing that up, but why? I’m a Blazer fan and it annoys me. Wim nailed it, nobody could have known who was going to be the better player. I was actually happy when Portland drafted Foye, then we traded him and I didn’t know what to think. Neither team got a bad deal, we both got the player that we wanted and both are good. In two or three years the NW Division is going to be all about the Wolves VS Blazers.

Blake over Foye? Not sure about that.

Jefferson over Oden? Dunno — Al is a PF playing out of position at the 5 if you ask me. I LOVE the guy, mind you, but I don’t think that matchup is gonna end particularly well for him…