Zach Randolph: Opposing views

[fearless]

Portland Trail Blazers forward Zach Randolph had surgery on his right hand Friday and will miss the final 10 games of the season. The following opposing views on the situation were posted on espn.com's message board. Which view do you agree with (or neither)?

View A

YEEEESSSSSSSSSSS!!! Well, hopefully that's Zach Randolph's last game in Portland. And what a defining game as well. He scores 43 and plays no defense, and Portland loses. He bogs down Portland's offense, and now he should go. He would fit a slow-down, half court team perfectly, but that's just not what Portland is anymore. I'd trade him for Jason Collins and a bag of fertilizer anyday.

View B

Hmm... Injured Sunday (though never reported)... Goes for 43 and 17 Thursday night... Urgently needs relatively minor surgery on Friday. This, on the heels of his 3-game "bereavement leave" after the death of a non family-member, and with the Blazers still potentially falling anywhere between 3rd and 10th or later in the projected draft order. You'd think these teams would be a little less transparent about their intentional late-season tank-jobs. Too bad they went and fouled things up by actually winning those 3 games Zach missed earlier or they'd be sitting pretty already.

[fearless]

This is all very suspicious, I go with View B. Here's a link to the original comments: http://myespn.go.com/conversation/st...14&section=nba

[AC1318]

rainbow world, I wanted to tell you good call on them couple games yesterday. Nice analysis that held true.Good job.

[fearless]

rainbow world, I wanted to tell you good call on them couple games yesterday. Nice analysis that held true.Good job.

Thanks a lot. The part of that analysis that will continue to hold true is that there's no way to really handicap most meaningless games. You never know if the teams will even try to win or whether the coach will play the team's best players or what.

[imgv94]

I voted for "B"

[fearless]

I voted for "B"

Thanks for voting. No one seems to want to talk about this issue but it's critical. If Portland is going into tank mode, there will be plenty of opportunities to make money in the next few weeks. (view B)

On the other hand, Portland may have realized that they're a better team without Randolph and decided to get rid of him. (view A)

This is an absolutely critical issue for NBA betting, why isn't anyone talking about this?