STOMP

By his current level of play I don't view Telfair as a huge asset to the club, but... clearing his (relatively) tiny contract would hardly alter Portland management's ability to reforge the Blazers. If he's viewed as a problem with little upside by the braintrust, then they could just bench him until his deal clears. Voila! prolem solved.

There are several other players who's contracts could be viewed as hurting the team's ability to compete, but I fail to see how ST's is.

STOMP

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Dan

probably because A: tlong has a history of just saying things about telfair to instigate people and B: getting rid of Telfair does nothing to improve the teams financial situation or it's collective psychie.

He hasn't done what he gets accused of (he's just a "Marbury clone", he's all about himself, etc) and he's actually done things to improve his game.

saying Telfair isn't a bad choice is about as right as saying Blake isn't a bad choice, outside of them just being choices.

Getting rid of either of those guys basically solves the problem of having a headache, by going #1.

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Ed O

Totally agreed.

Another point is that, in spite of some assertions, the team would be worse (significantly, IMO) if we were to just get rid of Darius or Zach. Neither DA ('s contract) nor Theo are helping us at all right now or in the foreseeable future.

Ed O.

Dan

whats the breaking point on darius for you?

__________________
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

Ed O

What do you mean, "breaking point"?

He's still our best small forward. He is probably still our second-best player. He's been injured and undermotivated this year, but he's far, far from alone in that respect.

I am nowhere near thinking that we should dump Darius Miles.

Ed O.

Dan

at what point do you become near the point where you think we should dump a player who's not exactly endearing himself to the coach and obviously some of the players?

do we keep him just because he's "better"?

__________________
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

gambitnut

I agree with this. Ratliff's contract is both larger and longer than DA's, so I would pick him pretty easily.

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Utherhimo

i would go with Theo if its just an expiring contact

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Ed O

Absolutely. The point of the NBA is to win basketball games, not to endear oneself to the coach and teammates.

You win basketball games with good players. We have precious few of those right now and I don't think that giving up on a 24 year old player just because he rubs some people the wrong way.

Ed O.

Blazer Ringbearer

Personally, I think DUMPING Miles or Randolph would be a big mistake.

That said, I hope the front office shops them in the offseason to see if there are any options for getting equivalent or near equivalent value. I think it's a bit too much having both of them on the team. I think if you only had one of them, it would be more managable in terms of getting the team motivated.

Ultimately, it will probably depend on who we pick up in the draft - we should go for best available talent. If it's someone at one of the forward positions who has a good shot of being an early difference maker, one of these guys will become more expendable.

But unlike Ratliff, both of these guys are way too good to dump for just an expiring deal. If you think this was a ****ty season, wait till you see next year without getting anything back for those guys... yikes!

Dan

I guess if Darius was a LOT better, I could see this being true. but most of the people who win titles, don't have players of Darius's quality, and aren't usually the best players on their team pissing off their coach(es).

if he rubs the coach the wrong way, hasn't improved his game significantly in 6 years, still loafs on defense, doesn't even play HALF the games with any consistency...yes you do give up on him.

Especially if losing him vs losing a C (notice the team didn't fall apart completely till Joel got hurt and not when darius got hurt) is the issue.

Darius just isn't that good, even if he is the '2nd best player' on the team.

__________________
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

sa1177

Please explain how we are going to accomplish this with a player who rarely gives 100% on the floor let alone 80%.

Darius is not like Rasheed ("rubs people the wrong way but has talent and plays with heart) Darius both rub's people the wrong way and plays with very little effort or heart. If you think that is going to miraculously change then you're crazy IMO.

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sa1177