The Portland Trail Blazers were more than a little busy tonight: they picked up Greg Oden, Rudy Fernandez, Petteri Koponen, Josh McRoberts, Taurean Green, Demetris Nichols, James Jones, Channing Frye and Steve Francis through a series of draft and trade moves. They lost Zach Randolph, Fred Jones and Dan Dickau.
Some observations:
- Portland now boasts a roster with a million players at every position, except small forward, where they have nobody. My kingdom for a SF!
- Francis will be the target of the world’s fastest contract buyout. Ever. There’s no way the Blazers will give him a spot in the locker room.
- Demetris Nichols? Who’s that?
- The Knicks think they got a good deal by picking up Randolph. They seem to forget that both he and their current center, Eddy Curry, are allergic to defense. Curry and Randolph will be the highest-scoring frontcourt duo in the league, and yet the Knicks will continue to lose games by 20 points.
- McRoberts has a lot of space between his eyebrows.
June 29th, 2007 @ 8:12 am
Nichols was Syracuse’s most reliable scorer this season. I think he was leading the Big East in scoring for much of the season. I don’t know whether he’s ready to be a starting SF in the NBA, but I’d love love love to have him in a lineup. Sure, he’s got some things to work on, but he’s an lights-out scorer who single-handedly would rattle off ten or twenty points (inside and out) against some decent Big East opponents. Might not be an instant difference-maker, but he might sweeten a trade or give a lift as an offensive contributor off the bench. He’s a long 6-8. Reminds me of Tayshaun Prince.
July 1st, 2007 @ 1:26 pm
Excellent. He definitely has an opportunity to get some playing time right away, if he wants to claim it.
July 2nd, 2007 @ 3:15 pm
Whoops, never mind. He ended up on the Knicks.