Saturday, July 2nd, 2011 at 1:26 pm  |  25 responses

Pritchard: Blazers Knew About Roy’s Knee Issues

Former Blazers GM Kevin Pritchard told 750-AM The Game that he was hesitant to sign Brandon Roy to a max deal in ’09, and that created a ton of negative press for him: “Kevin Pritchard said the Blazers were aware of Brandon Roy’s knee issues when they gave him the max contract.”

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  • http://www.optimabbc.be Max

    Then why give a max contract?

  • marx

    @max hahahah u said max

  • http://none.com Don

    ^ because it’s cool and everybody is doing it….

    which is evidently the exact type of behaviour exhibited by dumb ass owners that brought on the lockout….

    overpay overpay overpay until there’s no more to go around… did none of these players and owners look at the state of the economy when they decided they would live in their own little world ?? dammit

  • Jeremy

    Well it was a gamble, at that point he deserved it. He’s a hell of a player.

  • Heals

    @Don, exactly, rather than take a little bad press for offering a player less money or let them sign elsewhere for more than they are worth, teams go all in on players. See Rudy Gay, Joe Johnson, Rashard Lewis – all pretty good players at times but none are the #1 guy on title contender (yet they all get payed like it). Within a couple years the contracts become an albatross, hampering mid-level financial teams with a lack of cap flexibility. It’s a no lose situation (except for the millions of dollars) for the teams; overpay for players to show the fans they are “trying” to win and when it doesn’t work out, blame the player for their huge cap crippling contract. Just read the other day that Portland in 20+ mil over the cap for next year, that’s insane for that market (I know fans pack the Rose G every game, but even so that won’t make up the difference)…

  • Miguel

    Or why didnt you put a opt-out-clause in the contract? After 3 years. Just in case.
    But NO, the owners wanted to overspend, they liked it, but now they have to be saved from themselves. Why should they be saved? Did anybody save Antoine Walker from his stupidness?

  • HAMMER

    @ Heals. The diff tho between Roy and the players u mentioned was that Roy was already having knee issues that the Blazers were, as Prichard said, completely aware of. Which makes the Blazers look even worse. The players u mentioned had no health issues @ the time of their signings.

    Blazers could have avoided this mess and saved all that $. But they chose not 2 and now they lookin like fools.

  • K- Fizzle

    He would get so much crap from everybody that he signed him to a max deal.

  • http://slamonline BossTerry

    But at the time of the signing, Blazer fans saw Roy as the savior of the team, getting the Blazers back into the playoffs and all. Had we let Roy sign to a different team, Blazer fans woulda been like- WTF?!?!? Kinda a lose-lose situation.

  • http://slamonline BossTerry

    oh, and cosign Don + Heals..

  • al29

    GMs/owners shouldn’t let fans’ perceptions dictate their actions. Signing Roy to a long-term deal just to make the fans think they were trying hard was illogical. Who cares what fans think- they will fill the stadium as long as the team is competitive. I love the Blazers and I respect Roy, but it was a big mistake to sign him to a long-term deal when his health was in question. But the Blazers learned nothing- they just extended Greg Oden’s deal when the guy has proved absolutely nothing to them. Owners and players are both responsible for this lockout. All it takes is a handful of owners to give giant contracts to guys like Joe Johnson, and it forces everyone to shell out the big bucks. The league cannot be profitable if guys like David West and Carlos Boozer walk away from teams like Utah and New Orleans. If Roy had walked away, and then been signed to a long-term deal in another city, and then become injured, Pritchard would have looked like a genius.

  • HAMMER

    I c ur point BossTerry. But don’t u think we as Blazer fans would’ve completely understood and anger would have subsided a year later? I agree, initial response would have been WTF?, but I believe that we would have forgiven Blazer management knowing what we know now.

  • HAMMER

    Good comment al29

  • http://slamonline BossTerry

    @ Hammer- yeah, to people like us, it would have been very understandable. But to the “casual” fan, the people who can probably name like 3 players on their favorite team, and probably think Shaq is still in L.A., (they probably make-up half of the crowd at every game, think guys who take their wife and kids to a game) They would go nuts!

  • HAMMER

    @ BossTerry. Tru. Completely agree.

  • SwaGG_SeaN

    The Blazes were well aware of Brandon and his bad knees since college, but they took a gamble on him because they thought that the pros outweighed the risk, he played well for the first three seasons but now it came back and bit them in the ass. I like Brandon Roy I respect his game but when his health is in question like that no need for a long term contract like the one received, Greg Oxen too the blazers were well aware of his heath issues as well, he had a surgery on his hip when he was in high school but again they gambled on the same way they did with BRoy cause they thought that the risk outweighed the cons. Greg is a very promising player when healthy but he hasn’t played a full season since being drafted in 07 so what they’re banking on is potential which is something that can trick you in believeing fantasies, so some of these owners have no business owning or even running a team because they lack the business acumen to even make sound financial decisions.

  • SwaGG_SeaN

    But Kevin Richards did a good job in turning the blazers back into a respectable organization, gone are the jailblazers LMAO :-D they were fun to watch though

  • KING DAVID

    cosign swagg-sheed,pippen, bonzi, damon-that was the squad

  • al

    sign shawn kemp!

  • HAMMER

    I always hated that “Jail Blazers” nickname. But no doubt they had sum good talent. J.R.Rider, Sheed, Damon, Rod Strickland, Gary Trent, Vincent Askew, Augmon, Alvin Williams and the list goes on…..

  • dma

    This is not news. Pritchard is still butt hurt.

  • Heals

    @dma, he has every right to be, Rich Cho as well. Props to the Blazers’ fans for givin their POV’s…

  • http://www.triplejunearthed.com/dacre Dacre

    I wonder who actually…. ‘goes nuts’ when players are signed to max contracts or.. are actually let go when it’s deemed they are not worth max contracts… i certainly dont think it’s the casual fan…. it’s a minority of die-hard fans who just like that one player….
    —–
    If owners and gm’s actually sat back and let guys go else where for the $$$ they would see the things dont actually turn out badly…
    —–
    the cavs are still around, the suns are still around… t-wolves still get fans to their games… it’s a revolving door….Rubio is coming over for them so they’ll enter a new era much like when lebron came to cleveland… fans from the entire world came out of the wood work…. it’s about marketing as much as its about signing the max guys…

  • celts fan

    @dacre – who actually goes nuts? well cleveland last year would be a great example. it happens. Roy was beloved locally and the face of the franchise, it made sense from a business perspective to hope he’d be ok and he’d def earned it. If he’s 100% healthy he’s a max guy, so there’s no “we’re gambling on potential” kinda crap when a guy comes up for an extension a bit too erly. Know where else that exact description fits though? Gilbert and DC.

    oh, and people hating on the Oden thing. It’s a 1 year deal. It’s too much, but it’s just 1 year. See if, with some time off he may be able to put together one healthy shortened season. If not, cut the cord on the era, but you don’t wanna give up too soon. 1 year is worth overpaying to see, ya know, just in case he beats the odds.

  • LeBron de Con

    Sad situation bout one of my favorite ballers. Just sad.

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