There's really no offseason for the guys in the front office. There's players to be scouted, contracts to be drafted, negotiations to negotiate, so on and so forth. It's busy all the time.
Even so, the decision makers make time to talk to the media during these summer doldrums. Kevin Pritchard, the busiest of them all, called into Wheels At Work yesterday to give updates on Nicolas Batum, Rudy Fernandez, Victor Claver and Joel Freeland as they participate in the runup to EuroBasket 2009. KP also talked a bit about signing Dante Cunningham, working on deals with LaMarcus Aldridge and Jeff Pendergraph and Martell Webster's status. A little bit of everything.
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I was already excited, this podcast surely didn't help.
ReplyDeleteI have been reading about Batuum and that really excites me. I could see last year that he had the energy and the will. It just seemed like he had it in a bottle and was waiting for a chance to open the lid. I think he is here. I know he has a lot of basketball to learn, but at his young age he has the time.
There was a piece at Blazer Edge on who will be here in three years and who won't. I think just about everybody put Nic close to the same as the big three. It was even suggested with him it is the big four. What everybody was concerned about was wondering if the Blazers would be willing to pay the money that he is likely going to be worth.
I read an interview on Nic for a French magazine, he said that last year he was a rookie and Nate pretty much just wanted him to play D. At the end of the season he told Nic that he wanted his to start shooting his pull up jumper his driving to the basket and working on his over-all offense. I really feel the best of Nic is yet to be seen. I just hope it is as a Blazer. After the podcast it sounds affirmative that he will be a Blazer for quite some time.We don't know about Martell yet. He is a terrific competitor but so is Nic.
What happens when Claver comes over? This is brought up quite often. Where does the playing time come from? Too many of our guys are young and need the playing time to develop.
I am glad we are deep with great talent, but would not want the job of containing their enthusiasm for playing.
Casey, this is off subject. I have the Blazers schedule, but I can't find what games KGW will televise. Is it out yet? With the National coverage and KGW, the sting of not being able to watch Comcast won't be as bad.
hg
Casey,
ReplyDeleteYou need to help me out. I am getting text messages on the blazer updates. The last one said pdxtrailblazers: Watch the live hcat archive of GM Kevin Pritchard... How do I UNSUBSCRIBE from this. I travel internationally, and last month my data usage because of texts cost me over $100.00. Please tell me how to get off