I've been thinking a lot about the Andre Miller acquisition this past offseason.  Now he's being mentioned in trade rumors.  That's all fine and dandy, but my real concern about the whole Andre Miller free agency implications that it might have...

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There have been a lot of things about this season that haven't gone according to plan.  Brandon not being Brandon.  Aldridge getting off to a slow start again this year.  Inconsistent play on both ends of the floor.  Inconsistent effort from the players.  That's all been analyzed to death, and will continue to be; however, one thing has been more disappointing to me than all of that.  The Rose Garden isn't consistently loud this year, and that's on you Trail blazer fans.  I see a few explanations to the change:

1) The Blazers have played a fairly weak schedule thus far.  I know that it's tough to get up for a winless New Jersey team or for Minny when we've already crushed them twice.  Weak competition can be bland to watch, but I dunno bout you guys, but I have season tickets to watch OUR team play.  Sure seeing D-Wade is nice to see live, but watching Oden grab 20 boards was much better. Last night the crowd was TERRIBLE.  Perfect example of the weak crowd showing: Blazers were down 8 going into Miami's last offensive possession of the half.  We get a stop we can close to 6 or 5 the crowd was dead, no D-Fence chant, nothing.  So it's not just the bad teams.  Possible explanation, but a weak excuse IMO.

2) The Blazers have been extremely inconsistent, particularly on offense going through big droughts in most games.  It's easier to cheer when a team is getting big hoops, especially when coming back on D needing a big stop.  More often than not this year, the Blazers haven't come through in tight, winnable games in these respects.  In past years, last year in particular, the team responded to a very LOUD crowd when they were down 10, 15, etc.  They might not be responding well to the crowd now, but that's no reason to stop supporting them at home.  The RG was a special place last year.  7-4 is not special, but the crowd isn't making the building a difficult place for opponents to play either.

3) Maybe it's the lack of Chalupas for many of the games this season.  Are you fans disgruntled that you aren't getting your free, post-game calorie load? 'Nuf Said.

4) Is the crowd blandness explained by it being so early in the season still?  Perhaps.  However, we're all over the players when their effort isn't there.  That first Rocket's game last year when Roy hit the game winner was a raucous crowd.  That game was in November.  The player's performance has a lot to do with that, what an amazing game, but the crowd was a lot more into the game in the first three periods that I have

 seen at any point thus far this season.  

The RG was a tough place to play last year.  We need to make it that way.  Get loud.  Disrupt the opposing team.  Don't let them hear anything they say on the offensive end of the court.  

Portland.  Step your game up!

There has been a lot of discussion as to what needs to change following the tough loss to Denver last night.  A lot of fans have been pointing fingers as to what Nate has or hasn't done right in the first two games.  I think a lot of that criticism is justified, if not downright correct; however I think that a lot of fans are forgetting a very important point concerning this years version of the team.  

There are going to be growing pains with this team.  Period.

The Blazers have two new major rotation players and an emerging center.  That's 1/3 of your rotation players, not to mention the loss of Batum doesn't help this transition as I think it's obvious that Trout isn't the answer at the 3 and is better suited for the 4.  Regardless the playing rotation is still in a lot of flux.  Foul problems for our big men in the first two games combined with the plethora of injuries in the preseason have made it difficult for Nate.  Could he do better?  Probably.  Though he sees practice every day and has a much larger data set to make decisions from than ANY fan or media member does.  Thus, I think we, as fans, need to have a little faith for the first 1/4 to 1/2 of the season.  

People can point at the negatives of the Denver game: poor free-throw shooting in crunchtime, inability to defend Melo (though the dude couldn't miss down the stretch, jumpers no less), etc.  Being at the game last night I noticed some very encouraging things.  

1 - Improvement on turnovers from 26 against Houston to 7 against Denver.  That's a huge deal in a close game.  We didn't force many turnovers (8), but this indicates that this team is really going to improve throughout the season.

2 - This game featured a team that is basically the same team from last year.  A few changes in role players, but their starters are basically the same.  I expect Denver to get out of the gates quickly this year, whereas I expect the exact opposite from the Blasers.  Play this game in December or January and we blow out Denver at home.

3 - Rebound dominance.  I was watching the center matchup on the boards throughout the game.  Nene was held without a rebound, offensive or defensive, until the end of the second quarter.  This was after Greg picked up his 3rd foul.  Greg was up 7 - 0 on the boards and our centers had 12 boards to Denver's 15 or so rebounds as a team.  This kept us in the game despite shooting in the low 30% range for the half (and the game for that matter).  

4 - Improving defense. The second half defense was porous, but we help Denver to 40% from the field for the first half.  With the exception of Melo, who was playing and flopping like mad, we held their team in check.  The team just needs to play hard-nosed D for a full 48 min and we're going to win a lot of games, even if we have a shooting night like we did last night.  This coupled with our rebounding will make it exceedingly difficult to beat this team.  They aren't there yet, but the team is already better defensively than last year in my estimation.

5 - Brandon is the equalizer. He didn't get much help tonight offensively, and we still nearly won the game against a top 4 western conference team.  That isn't going to happen for most teams.

The growing pains that we are seeing will subside as this team feels each other out.  Cleveland is the perfect example of another team that is going through this too.  They made significant offseason moves and they are 0-2 to start.  San Antonio is 1-1.  Do you think those teams need wholesale changes? I don't.  Just because the Blasers are 1-1 now leaves me no reason to think that this team isn't going to play at an elite level, particularly after the all-star break.

Besides...don't we want our team peaking come playoff time?  I sure do.  

Broyposse posted earlier this week encouraging everyone to support our Blazers in all-star voting.  I in no way want to take away from Broyposse's (or other fans like him) support of our players, as it's the only way a starter is determined.  This needs to change.  I'm sorry fans, but all-star game starters should not be decided by you.  China should not tell me Yi Jianlian deserves more all-star votes than Chris Bosh who's bea tearing it up this season.  

As a thought experiment, here's a look at who would be playing in the all-star game this year if fans voted in the whole team (the fan's dream right!?!):

Eastern Conference Starters:

Guards - Dwyane Wade (623,311), Allen Iverson (492, 093)

Forwards - LeBron James (643,786), Kevin Garnett (495,514)

Center: Dwight Howard (775,933)

Eastern conference Reserves (going purely based on votes):

Yi Jianlian (356,556), Chris Bosh (274,195), Vince Carter (236,634), Ray Allen (174,155), Paul Pierce (153,512), Shawn Marion (144,066), Jose Calderon (124,705)

Western Conference Starters:

Guards - Kobe Bryant (719,252), Chris Paul (406,220)

Forwards - Tim Duncan (442,203), Amare Stoudemire (370,470)

Center - Yao Ming (529,290)

Western Conference Reserves (once again based pure upon highest vote total):

Tracy McGrady (332,222), Carmelo Anthony (327,233), Dirk Nowitzki (261,952), Pau Gasol (260,374), Shaquille O'Neal (227,273), Ron Artest (214,063), Mehmet Okur (162,139)

Notable snubs (for reference):

Brandon Roy (78,071), Al Jefferson (46,242), Derek Rose (102,263), Joe Johnson (94,847), Josh Smith (59,574), many others

Looking at this list, I suspect that David Stern and Co. would argue that the players who are playing the best are the most popular, and thus are selected as starters.  I'm sorry, but the Allen Iverson lifetime achievement award is not the all-star game.  Detroit has been terrible since he arrived and he in no way deserves to be a starter.  Looking at the rest of the starters, they should be an all-star, whether as a reserve or as a starter (most should be starting if the game were played at this point in the season).  

Where the fans would really fall short is the reserves, and with a long time left to go until voting closes it is more than possible to see the likes of Yi Jianlian in the starting lineup over KG for example even though he has to make up a lot of ground.  Yi may be improving but 11.2 PPG and 6.2 RPG an all-star does not make.  As for the western conference, TMac, Shaq, and RonRon have not been playing even close to at an all-star level.  And seriously, what's up with Rondo getting no love in the east along with Derek Rose garnering more votes that BRoy!?!  

Personally, I want to see the 12 most deserving guys make the team every year.  There are always going to be snubs, but let that lie on the coaches and players.  Last year for instance, both AI and Melo were voted in as starters, but thier Defensive Player of the Year center (yes I'm talking about Marcus Camby) was snubbed mainly because an 8 seed does not deserve 3 players on the all-star team, end of story.  The popularity contest NEEDS to stop.  

If the NBA is hellbent on letting fans decide things for the all-star game, let them vote for the starting 5, but AFTER the 12 man roster is set (As I said in the comments yesterday).  Get the 12 best players from each conference to the game, then the week or two leading up to the game the fans get to decide who they want to start.  Hell I'd be fine losing the position requirements for that.  Seeing a 4 guard starting line-up would be fine by me.  

If nothing is done I fear that using the number of all-star appearances as a barometer for sustained excellence is diminished, greatly.  Sure most of the roster will work out fine, but it still bothers me that what market the players play in influences wether or not they get to start or even play in the game.  Canzano has a great point with his column here.  I have to say I agree.

David Stern, you blew the referee betteing scandal, you failed with the OKC Thunder situation, and you are failing with the all-star game.  I'm sick of dealing with your blundering failures over the past few year, Mr. Stern, so fix one while you can.

I'd love to hear, based on this list, who are the biggest snubs from the all star team were it based purely on voting.  Please leave a Western Conference player and an Eastern Conference player.  And for the sake of discussion, BRoy just got a million votes and is voted in as a starter because Stern fears a revolution if this isn't fixed.

Many of you may know who Pete Newell.  He was a great teacher of the game of basketball.  Sadly Mr. Newell passed away Monday.  I wanted to honor his memory by sharing a childhood memory of my own involving Pete.  I encourage anyone else to share their memories as well.

Many of you may be aware that Pete ran a basketball camp in Portland every year back in the 90's.  The camp was always well run and had a wide range of ages and skill levels participating.  I went to the basketball camp when I was nine years old and had never played basketball with a men's regulation sized ball.  At the time I didn't have the strength to make a shot on a 10 foot hoop with the large ball.  I had massive range, pretty impressive I know.  But the coaches at the camp always kept me involved in games and taught me some fundamentals, which was the staple of Pete's camp.

Halfway through the camp I was scoreless and as a result of my lack of scoring the coaches, led by Pete, offered to buy my entire team ice cream if I ever scored in an actual game.  An amazing offer for a bunch of nine and ten year olds.  I still remember vividly scoring a basket, my only two points of the camp, on a fast break and the whole team giddy with excitement.  That afternoon Pete and company took the team out and got us all ice cream, which will be a memory that I cherish forever for the big heart that Pete showed me. 

I was procrastinating from my finals studying today when I came across a very informative piece at True Hoop.  Check out the piece here.  It's a bit lengthy, but I found it to be one of the best reads that I have seen in a while.  Very insightful and informative.  I just hope for the sake of the NBA that the bulk of the "fixing" of games isn't true.  But I digress...

Dave has brought up the subject for discussion and has been a very interesting read.  I wanted to take a slightly different perspective on the topic.  The gambler featured in this piece made it clear that he would be very interested in an NBA job.  A poster, TheVolv, made an interesting point in that a man with the vast amount of NBA knowledge would be a great asset for an NBA front office.  I was also unaware that our own Blazers currently employed a notable ex-gambler for similar statistical analysis.  To this I posit the question: Would the Blazers benefit from the analysis of this gentleman?  

My initial reaction is this would be a great acquisition.  He's knowledgeable and very successful in what he does.  Would this fit with our current culture? Would this be taking badly by the media and the fans here in Portland?  I'd like to see where the community stands on this idea.  Should PA look into hiring this guy to improve our front office even more?  One big strike against him is that he did profit from our Western Conference Finals meltdown in 2000, though isn't enough not to look into this prospect in my opinion.  

There has been a lot of discussion throughout the NBA about the whole Seattle-Oklahoma City issue.  There's been a lot going on, especially in the last week of the season.  With the owners voting yesterday (28-2) to allow the move the Sonics to Oklahoma City.  I applaud both Paul Allen and Mark Cuban making a stand and voting against the move, but in the light of the litigation that the Sonic's ownership is facing the vote should have been postponed until the legal issues were worked out.  Stupid move on David Stern's part, especially should the Bennett and Co. lose the litigation and be forced to stay in Seattle until 2010.  

While I am not a fan of Bennett and Co.'s tactics to move the Sonics, as it bodes poorly for other NBA franchises and their fans, I went searching for info from another side of the issue.  I came across a Clay Bennett interview on the Sonic's website talking about the vote to move the franchise.

Here's the link.

After reading this I am not convinced that Seattle is going to win their last ditch effort to keep the Sonics in town, even for a short while longer.  Bennett talks about how his e-mails were misconstrued, which any source, including the media, if it fits their goal.  Bennett represented himself well, but I am on the fence as to whether Bennett and Co. are evil, for lack of a better term, for what they are doing to Sonic fans.  Did Bennett and Co. create the disconnect between ownership and the city of Seattle just to accelerate the process of moving the team to Oklahoma City?  Maybe so, maybe no.  Either way it is looking worse and worse for Seattle fans.

I was watching the game last night and was absolutely amazed with KP.  The Mike's do a great job with the play-by-play, but KP definitely took the cake during the 2nd quarter broadcast.  Despite skirting all of the questions, which I can't fault KP for doing...I certainly wouldn't have made that info public, KP showed how much he knows about each player in the league.  He was constantly chiming in with tidbits of how __________ player rebounds well but really doesn't have a long range shot.  

Maybe I'm making more out of this than I should, but KP seems to know personnel from every team and can evaluate each player in terms of strengths and weaknesses, often off the top of his head.  I found that segment immensely entertaining and just reconfirmed my belief that we have the best GM in the NBA.  I'm extremely excited for the offseason, but we have one game before our winning season is complete!

Last night's game showed me a number of things that are great indicators for next season and our ability to finish this year with a winning record (albeit a difficult proposition at this point).  

-The energy that was shown last night was phenomenal.  It makes me wish that we had 8 home games against the FL*kers every year.  The offensive execution in the two home games this season was superb and we got huge games out of Brandon and LMA.  Hands down we just come to ball when the L*kers are involved.  If our guys can get up like this for every game, particularly the home games I see many more 13+ win streaks in the near future.

-Nate's post game comments were spot on last night.  Most interesting to me was the comment on how our guys tend to have "too much respect" for our competition.  Odom's Flagrant foul on Roy was a real wake-up call I think.  LMA and Troutlaw getting in Odom's face was a great sight to see.  They didn't take it too far, but it showed that we aren't going to get pushed around by anyone, title contender or not.  

-There's been a lot of speculation as to what KP will (and should) do concerning the two weak spots in our line-up.  Last nights game showed me one thing: we can play playoff caliber basketball with the guys we have, even short handed (No Pryz and Webster).  We could use an upgrade, but if the price isn't right I think KP should sit and be patient.  KP has a lot of leverage with our young talent, so a deal is entirely possible, but I'm sure KP will not overpay for any player in a trade.  

-Raef doesn't get much credit for anything, his influence on this young team is invaluable.  He may not be a big minute caliber guy, but he's an intelligent player and knows the ins and outs of the pro game, and confers that knowledge to our young guys.  While his contract is ridiculous and I foresee him as part of a trade this year with his expiring contract, I think he deserves some props for his positive attitude all year and mentorship of the young Blazers.

Any other fans out there think that waiting until we see Oden in the line-up to pull the trigger on a huge deal?  Do we want more draft day theatrics from KP?  Do we wait till the trade deadline to make our blockbuster deal?

Draft day gets my vote.  It's easier to rip off a team draft day with all of the excitement that most GMs get over unproven players, especially since deadline deals depend largely on the state of each team involved.  

I wanted to take an in depth look at how the blazers have been progressing so far this season, month-by-month, as well as looking at what we do well when we win games (statistically speaking).  Based on these trends I'd like to think about what changes need to be made this coming off-season.  

Not counting October (we played one game and lost to San Antonio), we have played 65 games so far this season.  So what exactly do the numbers tell us?  To get an idea of what the blazers do well when they win, let's look at the differences per game totals of each major stat.

PPG +12.2
APG +4.2
RPG +0.2
Off RPG -0.2
FG% +4.9%
3P% +7.3%
BPG +0.3
SPG -0.3

Based on this you can tell that our defense tends to be pretty similar on average in our wins and our losses based on our BPG and SPG totals.  However we score considerably more, have more assists and shoot the ball better when we win.  Logically that makes perfect sense.  Rebounding seems to be roughly equal in our wins and losses too.  Based on the assist numbers, the more that we move the ball the better our chances are to win.  When we play one-on-one ball primarily we lose more often than not.  BRoy and his unselfish play would seem to be a major catalyst for this trend, especially since we win more often than not when Roy plays well and gets others involved.

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