Well, that’s the depressed of summer. Barring a trade or perhaps news regarding a TV contract, we are here in August to have a little fun. Today is a thought experiment:
If you could transport one former Blazer to the current team, who would you open the portal for?
But before we mention a former MVP or someone who was traded before their prime, we’ve increased the difficulty of this question.
The rules!
- You can’t carry a player who was All-NBA or All-Star. Apparently there is some sort of transportation limitation in play here, I don’t know why. But he also can’t carry someone who played in the All-Star Game before joining the Blazers (like Buck Williams) or after they left (like Jermaine O’Neal). I don’t know why they can’t be carried, I don’t make the rules.
- You can only consider someone at his age if he was a Blazer. So no option for “Arvydas Sabonis in 1989 just after being drafted!”.
- Alternatively, you can ignore their original future after transporting them. Maybe they left the Blazers originally, but maybe they would like this new team and stay forever! Or maybe that nasty future injury won’t happen in this new timeline! On the other hand, theory of predeterminism might harass you.
- Contracts don’t matter. Or the physics of time travel. If you’re wondering how he eats and breathes, or various contractual facts, just tell yourself “It’s the summer doldrums, I should really relax.”
Timmay’s Choice
I don’t know who created rule #1, but it really hurt my picks, which originally featured Fat Lever or O’Neal. Arydas Sabonis is just too old for the current team.
Instead, young Wesley Matthews was selected. Portland has guards, but Wesley was versatile enough to be useful on almost any team. But I’m not sure I could resist bringing in Jerome Kersey. Kersey is the definition of “playing to his potential” and has given his all on both ends of the floor, qualities that are useful for a young team finding its stride. And in the modern game, Kersey could certainly play both power forward positions. He didn’t have much of a three-point shot, but given his mentality, if he was told it was important, he would immediately go to an empty court and improve it. Get him on the modern team, ASAP.
