The Blazers went into last night's draft with a few holes to fill: backup PG, backup PF/C, outside shooting and rebounding in general. The Blazers had the 21nd and 51st picks and some tradeable assets.
I followed the draft online while chatting on the Blazersedge message board. Most people were hoping Kenneth Faried would fall to 21 so Portland could nab him. There were some tense moments, but he was available and... Portland grabbed Nolan Smith. He's alright, but he's a combo guard and Portland has plenty of those. I figured Portland must be picking for someone else and that a trade would be announced.
Sure enough, there was a trade with Denver, but it didn't involve Smith or Faried (who Denver picked at 22). Instead, Portland traded Rudy Fernandez and the rights to Petteri Koponen to Dallas for the 26th pick (Jordan Hamilton) and the 57th pick (Tanguy Ngombo). Portland then traded the 26th pick and Andre Miller to Denver for Raymond Felton. NBA.com says Denver also gets a future second round pick, but that's not that important. Portland used the 51st pick to take Jon Diebler.
To me, Felton is just a much younger Miller. He might be a better outside shooter, but I'm not sure he's that much better in any one thing than Miller. Though he's younger, he has just one year left on his deal and may walk. He's on his fourth team in a year or so and hasn't put up great numbers. I consider this swap to be mostly sideways. Even if it's a net win, it's not such a win that I feel good about it since it disrupts chemistry.
Fernandez had to go because he lost confidence in his shot, but he could distribute and is a decent all-around basketball player. I think he'll thrive in Dallas and he may even start.
Diebler can shoot, but does nothing else and may not even make the team. I don't know anything about Ngombo, but he doesn't seem like the answer to any questions. Of the holes Portland needed to fill...they filled none. Smith may become a good player, but the NBA is not a great league for combo guards - be tall, be fast, but don't be short and slow. Portland is really thin in the frontcourt and to lose out on a rebound machine like Faried is tough to take because rebounding is one skill which translates well from college to the pros. Portland also passed on rebounding machine Dejuan Blair last year three times so it felt like deja vu all over again.
All in all, it was a pretty disappointing draft since Portland got slightly worse while improving not one, but two rivals in the conference. Not cool. Some have said that Miller wore out his welcome, but I thought Portland could start the season with him and trade him at the deadline if necessary.
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I'm starting to come around on these moves because there is a pretty good crop of free agent PF like Chuck Hayes and Lou Amundson.
It also seems like McMillan finally got his players and that Felton should mesh well on the front unit and Smith could run the second unit with Roy.
It'll be interesting to see what happens with Oden.
In any case, I'll root for whichever dudes are on the team.
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