I miss Ime
Filed under Blazer Beat on April 9, 2008
Keywords: Ime Udoka, NBA, Trailblazers
I’ll be the first in line to praise Kevin Pritchard’s transformation of the Trailblazers, but I think he made a huge blunder when he failed to re-sign Ime Udoka after last season. And I’m not the only one lamenting. Not only did he possess the character the organization demands, but his skills filled a hole that killed the playoff hopes of this year’s team.
I said before that Martell Webster and Travis Outlaw are far from NBA starting material. They don’t bring their “A” offense every night, and they need a lot of work on their defense. Offensive production is not a huge concern for the Blazers, but defense is. Ime Udoka was a defensive monster during his season with Portland, and a consistent–though not prolific–outside shooter. Every time the other team drove the lane this year, I shook my head and thought, “not if it had been Ime.” Just imagine what could have been the Blazers starting five next year: Roy, Fernandez, Udoka, Aldridge and Oden.
Never gonna happen now. Ime is getting good minutes off the bench in San Antonio, and will be an integral part of their playoff success. And I wish him all the best.
But I still miss him.
Related Posts
April 10th, 2008 at 7:59 am
It could be far, far, worse.
You could be a Knicks fan.
I’m counting the hours until Isiah Thomas gets fired.
(And the following link is a fascinating piece on their self-induced decline into oblivion.)
http://nymag.com/news/sports/45787/
April 10th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Very true. We took advantage of them with the Zack Randolph trade. No question which teams’ future is brighter.
April 15th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
It could be even worse than that - you could be a Sonics fan. The ownership butchered the team by getting rid of their two best players last year, just so the ticket sales would drop and make their case of moving the team to Oklahoma that much stronger.
Seems to be working. Have the Sonics hit double digit wins yet?
April 15th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
I think they’re at 17 for the season. Yeah, that’s a sad situation. I, for one, am sick of the expectation that the public should have to pay for new arenas as a requisite for keeping a team. You don’t see Nike or HP or Intel asking a city to build their campuses for them. Tax breaks, sure, but pay for your own place of work.