Fun practice today.  We got to see the Blazers work through some things on both offense and defense -- from a team standpoint. Because it's a hot topic, I thought I'd start with the units that we were seeing working together...

• Black Team ("first team"): Sergio, Brandon, Martell, Aldridge, Oden
• White Team ("second team"): Bayless, Rudy, Troutlaw, Ike, Przybilla
• Red Team ("third team"): Tatum, Jackson, Batum, Randolph, Hill
• Blake and Channing were out injured.

Obligatory note: Nate said at the end of last week not to read too much into that.  So, alright.  But I thought you'd like to know that's where they were at again today.

We were allowed to watch more than usual today, which was a nice treat.  When we entered, the guys were going through 4 on 4.  Essentially, the point guard would check it up at the top of the key, two post men would set screens and a wing would run off the screens looking to get the ball and either shoot or attack the basket.  The teams would go for about 6 or 7 reps and then rotate offense/defense.

The points of emphasis on defense were not surprising: pressure the ball, help if someone gets caught on a screen, do not foul a jumpshooter (Nate got into Batum a bit for this), and step out to bump dribblers that are trying to curl off of picks. 

Ike was having a bit of trouble with that last one.  Last Thursday, KP noted that he has spoken with Ike about the importance of team defense.  Indeed.

Most of the coaching aimed to emphasize the basics of team defense:

-- Nate told Greg to increase his volume when calling out picks: "I heard you... but still.. be LOUDER."

-- Switch on screens more frequently when the shot clock is running down, so as to not let a shooter get a clean look after playing solid team defense for an entire possession. 

-- Especially when the first team was playing defense, there was a concerted effort to trap the ball in the corners and force a long diagonal pass across court.  They were going after Bayless pretty good in this type of situation.  The weakside defender was instructed to be on his toes for that pass, presumably to intercept it and take it to the house.  Slip and slide.

-- Avoid leaving a shooter wide open in the corner while taking a swat at a player who is penetrating into the key.  Nate said something to the effect of, "We'd rather have a contested 2 than an easy 3."  This was said while Greg was playing defense in the middle, and for a lot of wing defenders not collapsing might be a little bit counterintuitive.  It's hard to let someone run unscathed towards the rim.  But with Greg in there, doing so would be counterproductive.  The implication was that all 2's going to the hoop when Greg is in the game will end up being contested.  So, wings, just let the big fella handle it and stick with your man.

On the offensive side of things, the main point of emphasis seemed to be on the wings working to get open by using off-ball screens effectively.  Nate got on Martell a little bit for not using the picks rigorously enough, but Batum was guarding him and Martell didn't exactly need a pick to get any shot he wanted. 

Some other random observations:

At one point, Nate had Rudy and Bayless switch spots on defense, so Rudy could get some reps guarding the point and Bayless could run the gauntlet of screens guarding the wing.  This only happened for a few reps, the rest of the time they were in their usual spots.

When the first team was on defense, the second team really struggled to score. Even with both Bayless and Travis (or Rudy) on the court, the 2nd team often found itself unable to get a shot up in 24 seconds or simply taking contested shots that weren't falling. 

Greg looked quick today on both sides of the ball.  At one point, playing offense, he was coming clear out to the 3 point line to set screens.  It wasn't the lumbering move to set a pick that we're used to from most centers in the league.  It was quick out to the 3 point line, set his feet, then quick back to the basket. 

My favorite sequence of the day occurred when Batum was guarding Brandon with the ball near the 3 point line, and Greg came through to set a pick.  Well before Greg even got there, Batum was looking over both of his shoulders, trying to sense where the pick was coming from.  Nate blew the play dead and told Nic that his job was to concentrate on the dribbler and control the ball, and not worry about getting hit.  Nic nodded in agreement but it was a funny moment.  "Easy for you to say coach, you don't have Big Greg rolling up on your blind side about to lay the wood to you."  That scene underscored how good Brandon is with the ball too, because he wasn't tipping off the direction of the screen with his eyes or his body.  So, imagine you are Nic: you've got a brick wall showing up to your left or right side, and you know it's coming, but you don't know when it's coming and you have no idea from which direction it's coming, but when it comes, your man is pretty much guaranteed to fly by you instantly.  Well, jeez, coach, of course there's a temptation to check the rearview mirror.  Nic will not be the only person in that position this year.

Speaking of Brandon, he again looked smooth with the ball, and he and LaMarcus are looking very, very fluid together.  They are doing the small things, like ball handoffs, essentially without eye contact, just based on a familiarity with each other.  It's a beautiful thing to watch.

Last but not least: the Sergiomaniacs can rejoice.  Sergio took Tatum to the rack from the left elbow, drawing all sorts of defensive attention, and then flipped the ball behind his right ear to Greg who was standing wide open and ready for the pass on the left baseline.  Greg caught the quick pass and threw down a big slam. 

It was the play of the day.

-- Ben (benjamin.golliver@gmail.com)

PS... if you've read this far you deserve a treat.  KP just wrote back about our Thanks KP post to say, "I read it the other day and I am very appreciative of all the comments. When I looked it was at over 180 comments." 

Really, really good stuff Bedgers!  If you left a message, your voice was heard.  How many teams' fanbases can say that?

This past weekend, I sent this question to a Boston Celtics beatwriter who has been at Celtics practices...

Any update on your thoughts about him getting that last roster spot after the first week?  Less than 50/50 I would assume?  Is it fair to say it's between him and Cassell?  And, if so, that doesn't bode particularly well for him, does it?

Today, I received this response...

Ben, I think you're right about that last roster spot.  Cassell and Gabe Pruitt have guaranteed contracts.  But Miles looked very smooth in the intrasquad scrimmage Saturday night;  no other Celtic reserve can do what he can do.  The exhibition games this week might reveal more.

If you're wondering why all the Miles talk or if you're just sick of him, I hear you.  But the way I see it, the 5 biggest storylines this October are...

• 5.  Sergio vs. Bayless: Alien vs. Predator.
• 4.  Will we enter the season with all 5 starters healthy?
• 3.  How well does Rudy assimilate?
• 2.   Do we get that Miles money?
• 1.  The development of Greg Oden.

I base that list off of the long-term implications for the entirety of this season. 

(LaMarcus turning into an All-Star is a story, but not really a storyline in the sense that, yeah he's awesome, in the future he's going to be awesome, and in the long-term future he's going to still be awesome. His awesomeness has increased, but that's not exactly a storyline.) 

So, sit tight with the Darius anxiety, I'll be tracking it until we know what's good....

It appears that the standard for Darius isn't just to beat those guys out.  It's to beat them out so badly that the team is willing to swallow that guaranteed money, and to do it in a way that puts any concerns about the knee to bed. That's a tall order.

-- Ben (benjamin.golliver@gmail.com)

Remember back, like, 10 years ago there were those link circles, where, once you found a cool geocities page that you liked, you could push forward or back on the circle icon and magically transport to other, related geocities pages on topics like Warcraft 2 or peanut butter or whatever you were scouring the internet for in pre-Google days.  Anyway.

This is like that.  A bunch of previews about a bunch of NBA teams, sort of lined up for your convenience.  There will be more posts like this.  This is the first one.  Don't flip out.  There will be a Blazers one at some point. 

---------------------------

Boston Celtics
Jeff Clark: CelticsBlog.com    
Jim Weeks: Green Bandwagon      
FLCeltsFan: LOY's Place
John Karalis: Red's Army
Dustin Chapman: Celtics 24/7

New Jersey Nets
Dennis Velasco: About Basketball

New York Knicks
Joey: Straight Bangin'
Seth Rosenthal: Posting and Toasting

Philadelphia 76ers
Dannie & Pete: Recliner GM
Jon Burkett: Passion and Pride

Toronto Raptors
Franchise: RaptorsHQ.com
Ryan McNeill: Hoops Addict
Cuzzy: Cuzoogle

---------------------------

-- Ben (benjamin.golliver@gmail.com)

Via the Boston Globe's Frank Dell'Apa, Darius Miles completed his fourth consecutive day of training camp and earned some approving words from his coach, Doc Rivers.

"Before practice, [Miles] was thinking about shutting it down for a day, but he was encouraged to practice and I thought he had maybe his best practice so far," said coach Doc Rivers.

The story behind the story has to be Darius's words about his previous training camp experiences.

"I just have to learn the plays and what I'm capable of doing, pick my spots to help the team out," Miles said. "I don't think I hit the wall in the first practice. When you first come to a team, you don't know what to expect, even though I'm a veteran player. This is the first team I've been on where, after you run plays, you get back to the other end, you sprint to the other end. Once I got used to the routine, I felt better and better.

"I'm used to being on teams where they have four or five straight two-a-days and they run you into the ground and you are crying for a day off. My first couple years in Portland, Nate [ McMillan] didn't give us a day off until December. I'm thanking Doc for this."

Given Nate's track record of over-achieving given his roster's talent level, it's a criticism that, overall, rings relatively hollow. 

But with injury concerns (minor and major) up and down the roster, you've got to wonder whether Nate will handle things differently.  To my knowledge the team ran 2-a-days last Tuesday through Thursday, with a shootaround on Friday morning, the Fan Fest Friday evening, practice yesterday, practice today, practice tomorrow, and a game on Tuesday.

For all the talk of a deep, loaded roster, take away even one of our projected starters (including Blake... especially Blake...) and, all of a sudden, that early season minefield looks infinitely more difficult.

---------------------

UPDATE via Lance (who else?): As always Nate is one step ahead.  There was no practice today. So, the scoreboard on this one reads...

• Nate 1
• Darius 0
• Me -1 for even slightly doubting Nate and then driving over to the PF for no reason.

---------------------

-- Ben (benjamin.golliver@gmail.com) 

Aside from the headline-worthy huge crowd of 11,000+ (congrats to you if you were there! It's amazing what a difference there is in excitement when the lower bowl is 11,000 real fans rather than, say, 5,000 real fans and 6,000 people with too much money and too little excitement), the major story last night was the unveiling of Greg Oden.  

And let's just say it wasn't a smashing success.

Greg looked not good.

Here's Quick...

Oden was underwhelming. He finished with 5 points, 2 rebounds and one impressive block: a rejection of an Ike Diogu dunk attempt early in the game. The first offensive series of the game, Oden attempt a lean-in jump hook in the lane. It missed and he wildly went for the rebound, bobbling it out of bounds. It was evident the kid was nervous and eager to please. But God, he's huge. In a good way. Several times, Joel Przybilla got backed down so easily that he had to just wrap his arms around Oden to prevent a dunk.

Here's Dwight Jaynes.

Greg Oden: On this night, honestly — he looked a lot like Clifford Ray. He’s just not ready yet. He’s walking on eggshells — tentative in just about everything he does. Not explosive, either. It’s going to take time for him to find himself and to get comfortable with everything. It’s going to happen for him, but everyone is going to have to be patient. He’s not in top shape yet and needs to play enough to forget his injury and just let it all hang out.

Here's some more Quick with quotes from GO and Nate.

I'm already seeing you guys weigh in on a number of different fanposts, so let's consolidate thoughts about Greg here.

What did you like? What didn't you like?

My take: Greg looks very mechanical on offense.  It's like he's the turtle from that early 1990s LOGO computer program, where you can only make 90 degree turns and each action is scripted.  Greg turns left, Greg turns right, Greg pushes jump and dunks it on your face.  His shots from short-range were not pretty, flat line-drives that were flung at the rim.  High-percentage looks, low-percentage execution. His passing was the best part of his offensive game-- but in the context of a scrimmage against a "second unit" I don't think we can read too much into that.

Defensively: After the block on Diogu that Quick mentions above, it's funny how almost immediately no one wanted to take it at him and challenge him.  Even Young Bayless, always fearless, would find himself scorching to the hoop, sensing Greg's presence, and then looking for an alternate route out of there.  Detour! Greg's positioning on defense wasn't always great, but it was almost always meaningful.

Greg's body language was better than I've seen it so far this year: more expressive than media day, definitely more upbeat than at practice last week.  The only knock on him mentally right now seems to be nerves- which he is very quick to acknowledge and which should fade in a month or two.

Many within the organization have urged cautious expectations for Greg: now we can see why.  He looked like a man that has hardly played basketball in a few years, which he is.  It might be November or December until he looks like a basketball player again.  But, when he does, watch out.

-- Ben (benjamin.golliver@gmail.com)

This is a powerful moment of history. 

What's that sound? It's the burst of thousands of flowering souls.  Supernova status.

Kevin Pritchard, addressing a crowd of Blazers fans this afternoon, stated that he reads Blazersedge.com.  He told me later that Mike Barrett often sends him links.  He also gave BE bonus points for the cool grey formatting that we use on our interviews. 

Blazers........ Edge......... For........... The............. Win............

I'm searching... searching... searching for words. 

Nothing.

I need your help.

Why don't you say "HI" to KP in the comments, so when I send a link to this post to him tomorrow he knows exactly how much Blazers fans appreciate the job he has done?  If you've been lurking... speak up now or forever hold your peace.

To top it all off, Mr. Pritchard said, and then confirmed to me later, that he has posted some comments on the site.   So, sure, go ahead... start speculating.  Mortimer, all eyes are gazing in your direction.  You might need to issue an official denial.

The revolution will not be televised.  The revolution is now.

-- Ben (benjamin.golliver@gmail.com)

Tim P. -- your friends should call you dream maker.  Who's Tim P.?  Tim P. is a Blazers fan with a dream and an email account.  Currently residing in Georgia, Tim sent an email to the Blazers about six months ago.  Then he sent another.  And another. And another. 

The subject of his emails: "Hey, guys, you have A LOT of hardcore fans that like to hang out on the internet."  The goal of his emails: Any chance these fans can get some face time?

Sure, it seems like a long shot and, certainly, others have tried.  But thanks to his emails and a receptive communications staff, Tim arranged for himself, and 19 of his closest buddies (with me tagging along as an embedded blogger), to get a tour through the Blazers practice facility and a meet and greet with Kevin Pritchard.  Jackpot.

The group met up in the Blazers media room and, almost immediately, more than one attendee made it clear that he doesn't live in his mother's basement. Kindred spirits.  Soon after, the group decided to take a team photograph in front of the curtains that Jason Quick infamously peeked through.  Quick, you're a legend.

"We're in the media room!"  "There's free bottled water!" 

And, then...

"Whoa!!!! It's Nate McMillan!!!"

"Hi Nate!"

"Hi Nate!"

"Hi Nate!'

When I was a kid I used to pour raw sugar on the sidewalk so that I could watch ants react.  This was like that.

I don't think I've ever written a negative word about Nate in almost a year of posting on here and I won't start now.  Nate was not scheduled to be a part of the tour.  And yet here he was, going out of his way to take time to answer a number of questions, gave the group detailed health updates on Blake and Oden, and, literally, had to be pulled away from the group by Blazers staffers.

The Practice Facility tour was quite thorough and highlighted by none other than a lengthy speech from Bobby Medina.  Medina regaled the fans with stories about Shawn Kemp's inability to stay fit, shocked some people when he said that he would only have 3 days off work in the next 9 months, and gave me a pleasant surprise when he said they literally have to kick Jerryd Bayless out of the gym sometimes. Then, on the spot, he created a workout program for a fan that asked for some help losing weight.  Seriously.  This happened.  The workout plan was detailed.  I lost five pounds just listening to it.  Medina is the man.

[Sidenote: As the tour continued, I asked another Blazers staff member about Young Bayless.  The response: look out for him in this year's dunk contest.  Oh, really.  Interesting. Then I asked if Blake's starting job is in jeopardy due to his injury?  "I think nature will run its course."  I'll let you decipher that one. Cryptic games are fun.]

In case you were wondering what picture Nate McMillan looks at every day when he leaves his office, well, now you know.  That says volumes about Nate and the team. 

After the tour, the group adjourned for their date with KP at a nice restaurant in Tualatin. Much to the wait staff's chagrin, everyone was too busy with their eyes peeled on The One to bother with ordering food.  KP stood up, introduced himself, and then started taking question after question after question after question.  He was scheduled to talk for about 45 minutes.  The man went on for about 90. 

The only time he "no comment'ed?"  Darius Miles, of course.  The only time he went with the trusty, "You'll have to ask Tom Penn on that one"?  When our very own Storyteller started asking calculus 3 cap space questions.

 
Did he break any news?  No, not really.  It wasn't about the words, it was about the dialogue. Look, we all feel the same way.  KP is larger than life and he can do no wrong.  Today, both he and Nate walked and talked with the mortals. With beer in hand, Tim told me, "I will never forget this day. And I bet no one else here ever will either." It's one thing to talk about changing the culture; it's another thing to change culture and change lives. 

Tim, your buddies owe you a few drinks.  It's time to collect.

-- Ben (benjamin.golliver@gmail.com)

PS... Can you believe that the one day I don't go to practice is the one day Greg plays?  Hopefully, I'll see him tomorrow...

As you've read by now, we were lucky enough to briefly see some full-court 5 on 5 scrimmaging over at the Practice Facility this afternoon. The pace to the game was quick and it was relatively competitive.

The lineups that we saw during 5 on 5:

• Bayless, Roy, Jackson, Aldridge, Przybilla  vs. Rodriguez, Rudy, Batum, Randolph, Hill
• Bayless, Roy, Webster, Aldridge, Przybilla vs. Tatum, Rudy, Outlaw, Randolph, Hill
• Bayless, Roy, Webster, Aldridge, Przybilla  vs. Tatum, Rudy, Jackson, Ike, Randolph
• Bayless, Roy, Webster, Aldridge, Przybilla vs. Rodriguez, Batum, Outlaw, Ike, Randolph

Keep in mind: Blake went down with an injury (reported to be cramping by Coach McMillan afterwards) almost as soon as the media was allowed in. As mentioned below, Oden sat and watched the practice and did not participate due to injury.

I would love to be able to give you a detailed breakdown of each player, but during the allotted time we only saw a short amount of play.  Also, the game was, for the most part, guard-dominated and played around the perimeter.  With that said, here are some thoughts:

-- Yes, everyone's ravings are accurate, Aldridge looks like a beast.  Playing big on both ends, his size is even more noticeable without Greg in there.  Then, after practice, he was draining 3 pointers one after the other.  Totally automatic.  It was ridiculous.  My eyes were popping.  Blazers officials that have been seeing him do this for weeks barely reacted.  So, yeah, totally automatic.  I don't think it's going too far to say that his name will be in discussions for the All-Star Game this year.

-- Brandon looked great today.  I hesitate to say completely 100% because he was starting to drag ever so slightly by the end of the full-court game.  But he looked great.  He was matched up with Outlaw and was really having his way with him.  He hit a beautiful pull up j, had a nice dish to Przy for a dunk, and generally moved very well.  He cut smoothly in his Brandon way.  He does not look injured whatsoever.

-- Nate was instructing the guards to pick up roughly 3/4 court on defense and to really pressure the ball-handler.  With Blake out, Bayless was bringing the ball up the floor for his team and Nate instructed Sergio to "get up" in him.  It seemed like Nate was putting Bayless to the test a little bit.  Perhaps Bayless's ability to bring the ball up the floor is still an open question for Nate. I know that's a question that's been circling around these parts for awhile.  Bayless didn't seem overly bothered by the pressure, but he was giving the ball up almost immediately after crossing halfcourt -- passing-and-moving after turning the offense over to Brandon.

-- Bayless rushed and missed a bad jumper from the top of the key with Sergio's hand in his face.  That was his most memorable offensive play today.  Something to track, for sure.  A love affair with a jumper is a bad, bad thing.  Other than that, Bayless is lightning quick and shows great control and poise when on the dribble.  He doesn't play or act like a rookie at all.  I think when all is said and done, he will be in the rotation because he is doing things Nate's way... with the exception of a few over-eager jumpers.

-- Sergio looked good today.  He hit two shots, had a nice drive-and-dish to Randolph for an easy bucket (which succeeded in making Randolph look good, which is no easy task given that he was being man-handled by Aldridge).  He did have a careless pass that went out of bounds which caused him to look down at his hands in confusion.  His defense was good-- most of it was off-ball as Brandon was dominating possession and Bayless wasn't getting a ton of looks, but he was moving his feet and had his head up looking to read the passing lanes. He was also running hard through off-ball picks that were being set for Jerryd.

-- If you were holding out hope that Tatum would be the 15th man, I would suggest not doing that.

-- Martell seems really comfortable in his skin right now.  To me, this is the best news possible regarding Martell.  I could not have said that last year. He doesn't seem tense.  I think he is enjoying the fact that he isn't the young guy with "something to prove" anymore.  He seems at peace, which is a great place for a shooter to be.

-- Both Brandon and LaMarcus seemed to make a point out of being vocal leaders, leading cheers and high-fives for their teammates.  Encouragement is, apparently, a universal language -- Rudy was also quick with the high-fives for his teammates and Sergio, as mentioned, went over to briefly talk with Greg.

-- As for the 15th roster spot, Tatum is out for sure, Randolph looked like he didn't necessarily belong on the court, and Hill was doing what Hill does. Oh, almost forgot, Jackson hit a nice corner 3 to close out the scrimmage.  I still think the smart money is on Hill but I'm not willing to bet on it.

-- And, almost before it started, the scrimmage was over and it was time for the team to shoot free throws, running down and back whenever there was a miss. I tried to keep count but lost it -- anyway, I did have... Przybilla missed, Luke went 1 of 2, Rudy 2 of 2, Martell 0 of 2, Outlaw 2 of 2, Sergio 1 of 2, Batum 2 of 2, Bayless 1 of 2 (he let out a loud F bomb after the miss, which was, uh... compelling) and then Przybilla made 3 in a row to close it out.  During the sprints, Bayless and Luke seemed to be making a point of leading the pack, with Batum not far behind, and everyone else pretty much running in a group after that.  I think all 3 of those guys were trying to make a statement.

You're probably wondering: what's the deal with Rudy?  First off, he belongs on the court.  Yes, he's thin but I side with Nate in thinking that this will not be a huge liability.  He has very quick feet on defense.  He is also, as you already know, extremely active on both ends.  He hasn't had the ball a ton so it's difficult to meaningfully assess his offense.  He looks to be in game shape.  Hopefully, we'll see more soon.

-- Ben (benjamin.golliver@gmail.com)

PS An unrelated aside: if you haven't been enjoying my posts lately, you're in good company.  In 2004, this man told me that my fiction was "nearly unreadable." So, good job.

Nothing revolutionary occurred during today's open practice, but I did jot the following notes that I thought would be worth sharing.  Please realize we were only allowed to watch the last 20-30 minutes of a 2 hour plus practice so the chance that anything truly important would take place in front of our eyes was basically zero.

With that said, here's what I saw...

--------

-- When we entered the guys were setup 5 on 5, halfcourt.  With the ball: Sergio, Martell, Randolph, Roy, Hill. On defense: Blake, Rudy, Outlaw, Aldridge, Przybilla. Players rotated in and out pretty quickly. Offense would run through a play until someone on defense screwed up or a shot was taken, Nate would yell or clap his hands, they'd check the ball up, rotate some players, and do it again.

-- Right off the bat, Martell nailed a long jumper.  His BFF Bayless was there very quickly with a high five.

-- Shortly thereafter, as if on cue, Sergio, who was now playing defense, got an earful from Coach for not rotating properly. Sergio's reaction indicated this was not the first time he's been in that situation.

-- Others to get instruction on defense that stopped things: Batum and Rudy.  Batum seemed overwhelmed, wide-eyed like a raver.  With all the talent on the floor, I don't blame him. Rudy was in the flow and just seemed to be digesting the new information.  Nate treated Batum with kid gloves a little bit; totally different manner than his address to Sergio.  This makes sense.

-- Aldridge looks great. Hit two jumpers back to back with Hill's hand in his face.

-- We saw Bayless briefly at both the one and the two.  In both positions, at different times, he really pounded the ball.  On the top of the key, he was flying by whoever was supposed to be guarding him (Tatum, I think?), getting into the lane just like summer league, but looking to distribute when surrounded by the bigs. When he played the 2 on the wing, he was fighting through screens, getting himself a favorable matchup (Ike switched out on him), and then proceeded to dribble 10+ times before throwing up a shimmy-shake jumper that rimmed out. 

-- Channing was not participating in the drill. He was shooting on a basket near us, working on his face-up jumper, due to his rehab for the ankle surgery.  His ankle was taped and I watched for a while to see if he would favor it in any way during his shot, and he didn't seem to.  He had his usual, natural, balanced shot. I guess that would be a good sign.

-- Greg was on the exercise bike, as you already know. Yes, he was limping. No, this was not what I expected after waiting for more than a year to see him hoop.  Maybe tomorrow?

-- At one point during the drill, Luke Jackson closed out on a Rudy jumper, knocking the Spanish Stud into a nearby bench.  Whoops.  Welcome to America.  The bench was moved in short order.

-- After the drill was over, the team broke up to shoot free throws.  Bayless attentively received some extra coaching from Monty before going to shoot.  After the shooting was over, he was showing off a serious floor burn on his hip, which must have occurred prior to the open access period.  

-- Speaking of Monty, on my way out I said, "they look good." Monty replied, "They ARE good."

-- Some members of the team were wearing "15 = 16" shirts. It's that kind of math that's got our economy in the tank if you ask me. 

--------

So that's what I've got.  The main takeaway from today for me was the challenge that Nate faces.  It's one thing to diagram a depth chart on paper, it's another to see all those big, multi-talented, athletic, versatile bodies all on the floor at once, going at it full-speed.  Lots of choices. Baskin Robbins status.  

-- Ben (benjamin.golliver@gmail.com)

Maxey has a take.

Freeman has a take.

You have a take. Discuss.

At media day, Brandon said it's Martell... so I'm going Martell.

-- Ben (benjamin.golliver@gmail.com)