Nearly 24 Hours later, my thoughts on the draft

Anonymous "Stackhouse guy" commented on my last post on why I hadn't mentioned the draft or the Pritchard firing by the Blazers.  I watched the Draft.  I planned on writing about the Draft.  But really, I just need a day to collect my thoughts on how I feel about it.

First off, the firing of Kevin Pritchard bothers me.  The whole thing bothers me.  The day of the Draft?  Really Blazers?  The day of the Draft?  The timing bothered me.  The way they went about it bothered me.  I'm just bothered.  Let's put it that way.

Some of what Pritchard did was genius.  He changed the culture of Portland basketball.  And for that we are all in his debt.  He did a lot of work to get fans back in the seats.  With the players he's put on the floor, the Blazers are selling out games every night.  We're one of the few teams in the league that can say that.

But, the draft as a whole for me is a bit of a question mark.  For a Nicolas Batum fan, the move to trade Webster to the T'Wolves for Babbit and Gomes is great news.  It's pretty much telling Batum that the position is his.  Babbit will be the backup - as we all know how much time rookies get under McMillan's reign.

So for a Batum fan, I'm ok.  As far as drafting Elliot Williams and Armon Johnson?  I don't know enough about them to give too much breakdown.  And it's unclear if Gomes will be around yet or not.  The whole thing is up in the air.

But in all honesty, this draft was a bit underwhelming.  The whole focus was really on the free-agents of this summer.  Everything that was done during the draft seemed like it had nothing to do with the young players.  But everything was a chess game to get into the free agent market. 

All in all, I'm happy that the team has at least endorsed Batum as the man for the job.  B Roy and Oden and Camby are still here too.  We'll be alright.  We'll be alright.