Plenty of talk amongst the media at the practice facility about the Allen Iverson to Detroit for Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess trade, but not too many questions put to the players or coaches regarding the move. I guess someone asked Nate McMillan about the trade, but I didn't hear it.
Luckily for me, I was still meandering around the PF after the trade was approved by the NBA, so I had an opportunity to ask Kevin Pritchard about this thoughts on the move.
"I think there’s no doubt that this makes Denver a playoff team," said Pritchard. "No question. They’re going to be a handful in the West now."
Pritchard didn't say which team's playoff spot Denver would be taking, but it stands to reason that it would have to be one of the teams in the 6th, 7th or 8th spot; a spot that, in theory, the Trail Blazers will be fighting for.
So what does Portland do to counter Denver's blockbuster? According to KP, there's not much we can do but keep on keeping on.
"The thing that we lack is experience and the only thing that can make up for experience is playing," said Pritchard. "So our goal is to just get better. We’ve got some really good guys. We’ve got to get healthy, then we need to get out there on the floor and gain some experience."
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7 comments:
I have to agree with anyone that says staying healthy is going to be our biggest challenge this season. If we don't make the playoffs it's probably going to be a result of health problems.
I don't neccessarily think this will put them over the top. Overall they are not that deep as Portland. If one of Denver's starters goes down for any given period of time with injury, they will suffer. They will however be a much btter defensive team losing AI as Billups is not a defensive liability. It will all depend on how quick Billups can transition to the West Coast style of play, also playing against better teams night in and night out in the Western Confernece. Hopefully Portland will see the importance in throttling this team all they can as tiebreakers may come into play down the stretch with Denver
Memo to KP - Outlaw for Tayshaun Prince
KP missed a gigantic opportunity to get Billups. We're really gonna miss James Jones getting on these guys and pushing them to play better. Chauncey Billups is the perfect veteran piece and we need him badly. Steve Blake can't tell these guys to shut up and listen because he's been doing this for 10 years.
I would have given up Bayless and Sergio to get Billups because we have too many young players and Bayless is never going to play of Rudy and Roy. I knew KP would make a comment on this trade. I still think KP needs to talk to Denver about getting Chauncy.
Memo to KP - Outlaw for Tayshaun Prince will get you a chuckle and a loud -CLICK!- from Joe Dumars
I love that KP thinks the only way to get experience is to play, not trade. What would Chauncey Billups have looked like on this team? Maybe in that sixth playoff spot?
I don't think, when it was recently shown that he's worth AI, that we could get Billups for 2 backup point guards. We'd have to give up one of the big three, and that's why he's a Nugget now.
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