Dan

anythings possible. It depends on his learning curve. If he exceeds what he's doing now in 3-4 years, he could be one of the better PG's in the west. If he doesn't, he'll be just what he is now. a good PG, on a bad team.

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bballchik

Heard a radio interview last week with Blake talking about how he really likes Portland and would like to stick around here if the situation is right. I think it will be a question of is Portland willing to give him the money he deserves (whatever that is at that point in time, by deserve I mean what will other teams be willing to pay him) or will they let him walk and continue to invest their future in Telfair?

Foulzilla

I don't think that will be too much of a problem. Unless both blow up to be great players (which is a good problem to have, but unlikely), it will either be obvious who to pay the money to at that point, or (more likely) neither of them will command a huge amount of money and both will be able to be kept. Fortunately, we've got another year and a half before we have to worry about it so should have plenty of time to see which happens.

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Sambonius

As Hap said, Butler can fill in at SF but Blatche is strictly a SF/PF, he doesn't play any guard positions.

mook

unfortunately, I it may not have much to do with our willingness to pay him. look at the pay right now of other PG's:

Claxton $3.6 mil
Davis $13.7 mil
Watson $5 mil
Fisher $5.3 mil
Kidd $16.4 mil
Miller $8 mil
Bibby $11.5
Parker $8.3
Arenas $10.2

if he plateaus right where he is now, he's probably worth money somewhere between Claxton and Miller, or $4 mil - $7 mil. we could probably re-sign him for the MLE.

if he continues to elevate his game to the next level, a distinct possibility for a 25 year old, he'd really better like us a lot, because history shows that someone out there is going to pony up a lot more dough than we can.

bballchik

^that's pretty much what i was thinking. i can't see portland ponyin up a lot of money for blake, especially if they keep telfair on. plus won't we have a lot of money tied up with zach and theo and joel if we end up resigning him?

mook

the problem is that we are over the limit, so we can only offer any unrestricted free agent (which Blake will be) the MLE, or probably around $5 mil.

RedHot&Rolling

Blake is doing his job - really well. His job was to come in and provide leadership for Telfair and Jack, and show them how to run the point. He was a slow starter, but now has hit the groove. He plays the position well.

I think "true point" refers to a PG who does NOT look for his own shot. He doesn't take shots that are outside the offensive flow. Instead, he waits, distributes, screens, and shoots as last resort (against the shot clock). Damon didn't do these things, and he couldn't shoot at last resort because of his height disability.

Hopefully, Blake continues to do his job for the next 15 months and by then, Telfair or Jack are ready to catch him. They have more talent - but its un-realized in running the team at this point.

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Oldmangrouch

Reality check folks.

Porter was a *forward* in college, and played for a small school against 3rd rate competition. That slowed his development. Blake played for an elite program. Just because Terry didn't peak until 26 or 27 doesn't mean Blake will continue to develop until that age.

Blake is a smart kid. He is using his big edge in experience to win time from Telfair and Jack. Good for him. OTOH, what you see is likely all you will ever get. If neither Jack nor Telfair turn out better than Blake in the long run, the Blazers are in deep doo-doo.

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hasoos

Porter could get to the rim. I would be being gracious if I said Blake had got to the rim 3 times this year.

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southnc

I'm going to reply to why the Zards let both Dixon & Blake go.

** I moved this reply to it's own post **

Dan

actually, Porter got to the rim maybe twice. But Blake did dunk during a warm-up layups drill before the game.

Hm..somehow I think you meant dunking and not layups. did you mean layups and not dunks?

__________________
A Buddhist walks up to a hot dog vendor and says "Make me one with everything".

when will the loss of life end?

The world respects the power of our example, not an example of our power.

I'd like to say I made this, but I didn't

zagsfan20

Yeah, I've seen Blake dunk it quite a few times in warmups as well.....Its quite a sight to see....

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southnc