Rinse and Repeat: Another Rebuilding Blazers Presser

[kucoach7]

Well, this is going to sound a lot like last year's presser so let's get this over with...

Last season was a huge success for us. We made a few trades to take on contracts to pad the bank. Derrick Rose honestly had a really good season that we totally wasted. We took a lot of offers on him but ultimately wanted to keep him in a Blazers jersey. Moses Barger had a great redshirt rookie season. Doug Kimbrough had the best season of his career, finally becoming the 3 and D guy we wanted when we traded for him. Faustino Garrido had a solid year as a first time starter. That guy could push averaging a double double before the end of his career. He probably won't get all the way there but he's definitely underrated. Guys like Charles Gilbert, Hal Perez, and Irving McMurry were disappointing but they are back this year so we'll see if they can turn things around.

Our offseason goals were the same as last year, acquire prospects in the draft and try to sign some developing veterans with potential for cheap. The offseason started with us slipping a spot in the lottery. We were disappointed at first but then RJ Barrett, the number two guy on our draft board fell to us so it didn't matter. He has the potential to become a great all-around player in the future. It will just be, you know, WAY in the future. We also landed James Yepez, who looks to be a solid backup PG.

With RJ coming in so raw and McMurry looking like a dud, we wanted to go out and get a young wing with some potential in free agency. Enter Joey Span. He's 24. He's a solid defender across the board with great athleticism and a jump shot. At $4 million a year, he's a bargain. We also tried to sign Derrick Rose, who took slightly more money to go to Los Angeles. Ultimately, we hope he comes back home before his career is over. TC was a complete and utter disaster.

This season will be interesting. We'll be letting Frank out of the garage and we think he is really going to surprise a lot of people. He may be the player on our team, despite having a terrible TC. RJ will be redshirting. The decision on Bagley is yet to be made. Slice will take on the role of veteran leader and longest tenured Blazer as he mentors the next generation of Blazers.

[garbageman]

Sham Smith, Bulls.com: At this stage in his career and your team build, Derrick Rose doesn't seem like a practical fit for the Trailblazers. Why are you so keen to keep him on your squad?

[kucoach7]

Sham Smith, Bulls.com: At this stage in his career and your team build, Derrick Rose doesn't seem like a practical fit for the Trailblazers. Why are you so keen to keep him on your squad?

We wanted to keep him around because it doesn't really matter so why not. He isn't good enough to win so many games that it ruins our tanking or so that we turned down big offers that would significantly helped our rebuild. We didn't have a PG prospect he was taking minutes from. It was just kind of a we-did-it-because-we-could thing.

[TheSyndicate]

With the reigning champions, a stacked Jazz team, and a reinvigorated Nuggets team all crammed in your division, are you looking to time your next build for when these teams may be falling off?

[NOLa.]

Talk around the league is that RJ Barrett will probably be the best player taken in this draft once he reaches his potentials. How long will that take and do you see yourself spending points to bring him up to speed?

[kucoach7]

With the reigning champions, a stacked Jazz team, and a reinvigorated Nuggets team all crammed in your division, are you looking to time your next build for when these teams may be falling off?

Yeah, that is definitely on our minds. When we look at teams we're competing with, we look at the Thunder and Spurs. That being said, we'll probably start competing either next year or the next. We recognize that there could be a nice window in which our prospects become solid players before we have to pay them the big bucks and we want to take advantage of that.

[kucoach7]

Talk around the league is that RJ Barrett will probably be the best player taken in this draft once he reaches his potentials. How long will that take and do you see yourself spending points to bring him up to speed?

We are currently debating training his current ratings now while we can get a discount because they are so low. He looks to be 8 years out from reaching his potential with or without that training though so we're not committed. We might wait until the All-Star break to decide. Points are scarce on a bad team.

[NickMalone77]

Nick Melon; The Advocate: Which advanced metrics do you think will be the most telling in determining the Trail Blazers success or failure for this season ahead?

[kucoach7]

Nick Melon; The Advocate: Which advanced metrics do you think will be the most telling in determining the Trail Blazers success or failure for this season ahead?

This really isn't an advanced metric but it is one of my favorites, the number of 2 point jump shots a player takes.