How the Portland Trail Blazers’ famous summer of 1999 could help the current team
Rob Ryan
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Sometimes the past is a good teacher. The Portland Trail Blazers can look back to one of their hallmark offseasons as a guide to improving the current roster.
Any Blazers fan old enough to remember will tell you that the 1999-2000 Portland Trail Blazers should have won the championship. The prior season (1998-99) saw a younger, highly talented team from Rip City overachieve to make it all the way to the Western Conference Finals. After a 4-0 sweep at the hands of the eventual champion San Antonio Spurs, many thought Portland just needed to keep the team together and incrementally get better.
The following summer, Portland management started to break their own mold, which took a young team with some roster deficiencies and made them league favorites to win it all. Let’s look at those moves and how a similar mindset could improve the current Blazers team.
Trading for an All-Star
On August 2, 1999, the Portland Trail Blazers made a move that replaced the team’s current highest scorer in Isiah Rider. They also sacrificed some of their depth, with Jimmy Jackson included in the deal.
In return, Portland received former All-Star guard Steve Smith Smith. He was considered the best player on an Atlanta Hawks team that finished twice as the second seed and no lower than fifth in four seasons with the Hawks. During that span, Smith averaged 19.3 points per game PPG).
The consolidation of talent to acquire the veteran Smith was an exciting move for the franchise. Portland added some much-needed experience to a team already catering to Greg Anthony over Damon Stoudamire to close out games. The trade also allowed a young backup shooting guard named Bonzi Wells to get more playing time. The 1-2 punch at the two-guard position from Smith and Wells became a nightmare for opposing guards to defend.
Signing an old enemy
On the same day that Portland traded for Smith, they also signed another former All-Star and a long-time rival. It was odd to see former Seattle Supersonics center Detlef Schrempf in Blazers’ red and black. Though past his prime, Shrempf could still produce. The previous season he averaged 15 PPG on 47% from the floor and 40% from the 3-point line as the starting small forward for Seattle at the age of 36.
Signing him to a two-year, $4.2M contract was a steal for someone the Blazers thought was a starting forward. Before acquiring Schrempf, Portland was often playing power forwards or shooting guards out of position at the small forward spot. They brought in Schrempf to help rectify that issue.
Though he was offered more money from other teams, he ultimately chose Portland because he felt they were close to winning a championship. Also, location-wise, it allowed him to stay close to his Seattle-based home.
So the young inexperienced Blazers quickly upgraded their wing positions with two former All-Stars. Not bad for a team that just came off of a Western Conference Finals loss. Arguably the biggest offseason acquisition was yet to come.