LIke most of us here, I've spent the past few weeks anxiously awaiting what move KP and the gang would pull off.  Will we get a top free agent??  Which one?  What about a lopsided trade?  The BE community has pretty much exhausted most of the possible paths already so I'm not going to go into a specific player as a potential target.  What I do want to explore is the relationship between The Blazers front office and how they are likely to obtain the players they want to put on the court.   

Kevin Prichard, since becoming the Blazers GM, has been a draft day superstar.   What makes him so good is not only his eye for talent and his negotiating skills (king of draft day trades)  but all of the monetary resources available to him.  Paul Allen, being the richest owner in sports, gives KP the green light to 'open up the wallet', including purchasing draft picks outright.   Adding cash to any deal makes other GM's salivate and entices them to pull the trigger on a trade.  KP on draft day is in charge.  He has the power to go after players and this is what he excells at.

Free agency however, is an entirely different beast.  If you are a top free agent, you have the power.   Turkoglu was in control of the negotiations from day one.  Likewise any other player that is being coveted by more than one team has power.  It's a simple case of supply vs. demand.  The amount of free agents available during the off season is small (unrestricted FA's maybe 20% of total players), thus the price increases and the relative value received in return decreases.  If a trade were to be made during the season, KP can select from about 99% of the players in the NBA, increasing value.

This was KP's first foray into the world of free agency, the first time he was not the one in power at the negotiating table.  Is it any surprise that things didn't go as planned?  We can second guess how the whole Turkey-glue thing went down, but who am I to tell KP he didn't make the right play.  The only other time KP was even remotely in a similar mode was when they went to Spain to convince Rudy to come over.  It was a success (perhaps this is why they were confident they would get Hedo) but even then, the Blazers already owned the rights to Rudy so he wasn't going to another NBA team so it's not exactly the same.

Looking at big name free agents historically - something that BlazerTag did for the class of '08 - most have not lead to huge playoff success.  Going back to 1990 (Jordan's first title) -  the only big name free agents to win titles were Shaq leaving Orlando for the Lakers (he was traded to the Heat for their championship) and Chauncey Billups leaving Minnesota for Detroit (and that wasn't a big deal at the time.)   Two freakin' players!!   One has to wonder about the mental psyche of NBA stars who leave their team for whoever waves the most money in their face. 

Moving forward, I feel that KP will shy away from free agency and lean towards trades.  This is what he knows, and this is what he is best at.   Take the power away from the players, give it back to KP, and have 100% confidence that he and the other front office staff will lead the Blazers to a championship in a few years.