As the first 2 games played out in all their HD ugliness, I found myself wanting to give Kevin McHale a Kermit Washington every time he mentioned "J" Kidd or "Jet" Terry. But, by the end of game 3, I realized that McHale is like this big goofy dog that rips up your sofa cushions and poops on the kitchen floor. You have to make some allowances. More words: Go Blazers! Go Blazers! Go Blazers!

I'm surprised there is no other junk drawer yet (8:03 am). Though, there probably will be at least one other one by the time I post this if history be my guide.

Here's a question: what's the most money you ever paid for a beer?

In Paris a couple days ago, I sat down at an outdoor cafe near Notre Dame to beat the heat and rest. I noticed a couple of people next to me had large mugs of beer on their table (44 cL), so I ordered one to drink while waiting for my wife to arrive. It turned out to be 19.5 Euros, which is in the neighborhood of 25$. This is a personal record for me, exceeding anything I ever paid at the Rose Garden.

Anyhoo, I'm back home now, and wondering what the heck is happening to my team. What is happening to my team?

Hey there, Blazer fans! This is my first attempt at a poll on the Edge. Let's hope I get it working properly.

Well, the purpose of this poll is to find out who your 5th favorite active Blazer is. So, try to rank your top five favorite Blazers, who are on the team now, and then vote for the one who is in the number 5 slot. By "active", I just mean on the roster. For this poll, a player could be starting, in the rotation, not in the rotation, or injured--it doesn't matter. Being on the roster currently is the only criterion.

Now, your favorite players don't have to be the most talented or most vitally important ones on the team. They should be the ones you most enjoy watching, who interest you the most, who you might care about as just plain people.

If you feel like it, go ahead an write a brief comment explaining your vote.

Thanks for participating. See you around!

That’s right Blazer fans, the team’s PR machine is at it again. This time, to add insult to injury (no pun intended), they’ve decided that the French public is more deserving of accurate and timely information about our players than we are.

In what is becoming an embarrassing pattern characterized by incomplete, overly optimistic, or inaccurate medical reports about its players, the Blazers have apparently reached a new low point. While the press release for home audience consumption assures us that Batum is just fine after undergoing an operation to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder, Pritchard’s statement to the French daily newspaper, Le Monde paints a far different picture. Here is a partial translation sent to me by a friend in Le Mans:

"Sliding easily into the earthy patois spoken in the Sarthe region, Mr. Pritchard announced that young Nicolas Batum had died of ‘minor complications’ during his shoulder surgery on Friday. Pritchard said that, as usual, the team would not address private medical matters except in general terms. However, he did say that Mr. Batum’s death had come as a surprise to the Blazers, especially to trainer Jay Jensen, who performed the procedure in the Blazers locker room. According to Mr. Pritchard, Mr. Jensen had initially believed that the operation was proceeding as planned despite the fact that Mr. Batum had evidently lost ‘several liters’ of blood early on. ‘Nicolas had shown a resilient quality on previous occasions, and it’s understandable that Jay expected him to bounce back quickly,’ said Mr. Pritchard. ‘It was only later on, after his assistant noticed that Nic had not moved—or taken a breath, for that matter—in over an hour and twenty minutes, that Jay began to be concerned,’ he added. Mr. Pritchard then expressed his strong support for Mr. Jensen: ‘Jay’s been around the block. This type of thing may seem unusual to people who don’t know Jay, but, believe me, he’s seen it all. All of us in the office have the greatest respect for what Jay has accomplished and continues to achieve.’"

"Biting easily into a cracker covered with the earthy paté eaten in the Sarthe region, Mr. Pritchard put the day’s events into perspective: ‘It’s definitely a setback for Nic at this point in his career, and we don’t want to minimize that. On the other hand, we aren’t going to fall into any kind of knee-jerk reactions because of this. The important thing is we have a process, and we’ll look at this thing from all the angles, see what works and doesn’t work, and we’ll learn from it. Do we make mistakes sometimes? You bet we do. Do we make the same mistake twice? We like to feel that our process makes that less likely.’"

So there you have it, Blazer fans. But wait, there’s more! Thanks to LkrsSukDablzrs4Eva over at oregonlive for this scoop .... According to LSD4E, a printed email from Blazers President Larry Miller missed the shredder and was mistakenly taken home by a low-level Blazer employee. In the email, which was addressed to all the NBA GMs, Miller said (and I paraphrase) that attempts by other clubs to portray Batum’s surgery as less than successful would be seen by the Blazers as efforts to ‘poison’ future contract negotiations with Batum and other players, and the Blazers would litigate to the fullest extent in those cases. Miller’s position is that the surgery was indeed 100% successful in repairing Batum’s shoulder despite having regrettably left the young prospect in an inert state for at least the time being.

We should soon know even more about this, since Jason Quick has just published a brief account of informal discussions he had today with Nate McMillan about the surgery snafu. Nate reinforced KP’s points about the team approach, and then he seemed to become a bit impatient with Quick’s suggestion that this turn of events might lead to significant problems for the Blazers. According to Quick, Nate said, ‘Look, Nic is—or was, I guess—showing a lot of promise at the three spot. We really liked what he brought on defense. But, don’t people realize that we’ve still got some talented guys on this team who can play that position? I’m talking about guys who are still alive. I just don’t see what all the fuss is about.’ Quick then asked Nate specifically what role he could foresee for Nic in the long term. After an uncomfortable pause, Nate said that he would weigh all the options. He was careful to say, though, that Nic would probably never regain the range of smooth moves he has exhibited in the past. Nate said he "wouldn’t be surprised" to see Nic moving "very stiffly" on the court.

In addition, Quick added some background to his story that may shed some light on KP’s current frame of mind. An unnamed Blazer insider is saying that Pritchard has received inquiries from several other teams regarding Batum’s availability since the surgery. Apparently, the Blazers could obtain Zach Randolph in a lopsided trade if they could make the salaries match somehow. Another possibility is that New Jersey might offer Drazen Petrović straight up. Randolph would fill the role of a "banger" off the bench, that so many Blazer fans insist is the team’s foremost need. On the other hand, Petrović, while replacing Batum as the team’s only (acknowledged) dead Euro wing, would not improve the logjam at his position. However, these are exactly the kinds of unattributed remarks that cause the blogs to brim over with speculation. Please, let’s take this one step at a time!

Finally, this incident with Nic may be only part of a larger, more important story. Rumor has it that the Oregonian is soon going to run a series titled "Quick and the Dead", in which JQ will chronicle these kinds of stories on an ongoing basis. Connecting the dots, it seems pretty clear that there must be other Blazers with similar issues. For example, what are we to think about Steve Blake’s recent play? To me, it just doesn’t seem like the same old Steve. Could it be that the injury he sustained last year was more serious than the Blazers organization let on? In case anybody has forgotten, here’s how he looked after banging his head. Note the gray pallor, the lifeless gaze.

Anyhow, I’ll try to stay on top of these disturbing developments. Can we all call for greater transparency from the Blazers organization? They want our support—both our cheers and our money. Shouldn’t we be treated at least as well as the French?

Okay, what exactly happened to the previous JD for this day. Did AK destroy it? Or was there a rippin' flame war that got to be too hot for the mods? OR what???!!!??!!?!?

While we're on the subject, what are your current conspiracy theories? Anything we all really have to know that is being buried by the main stream media?

On another subject, what are everybody's plans for Halloween? I think there might be a game on. I'll check.

Maybe this theme has been done before in a JD. I don't know. Mainly I'm just posting it to find out what happened to the other JD and as a public service to the Bedge. You're welcome.

I saw there was no JD for today, and it IS my wifes birthday, so here's a pathetic attempt to get (more) on her good side.

By the way, "Trail Blazer" was a phrase on Wheel O Fortune just a few minutes ago. I see this as a powerful omen whose meaning is shrouded in mystery.

Poor Martell. Now I almost don't want the Blazers to win the championship this year because Webby won't feel 100% a part of it. I guess I'd learn to cope though.

I'm not gonna root for that team down in SoCal tonight, come what may. I do look forward to another Blazerific smackdown tommorow night.

Well, that's about all I got. Whassup?

Happy New Year, BEdgers! Good luck to you in all your endeavors in 2009. And, may we see the Blazers not only get into the postseason, but prosper!

What resolutions, if any, are you all making? I've already started on one of mine recently, trying to be more positive in my comments on BE. 

Well, I DID mean to post at 12:00:01, but ... there were tactical problems. My wife and I were at a small party with our friends, and about 11:00 pm, I realized they had wireless internet and a laptop that I could use. My wife was none too keen on the idea, but I thought wow, how cool would it be to have the 1st post of the new year. So I typed in the first part of this post, and just when our clock struck 12:00, I clicked to publish it, the rushed over to kiss my jilted-feeling wife. Never thought to check online whether our clock was accurate. Doh!

Anyhow, Happy New Year to all!

Okay, this is my first, probably last, junk drawer. I don't anticipate that I'll spend much, if any, time responding to anybody who posts here, and I've only really got one thing to tell you that may interest a few BEdgers out there.

The Blazers flew out of Eugene today on account of the crappy conditions up north. They had a bus ride to Eugene's airport, then a charter flight to Denver. I just heard about this on the late news here in Eugene. The sports guy said the Blazers will come back through Eugene after the game in Denver.

Because hardly anything exciting happens here in Eugene, and because we're all kind of frazzled by the holiday rushing around and weird weather phenomena (flaky whitish matter falling from the sky), my wife and I are considering going to the airport to greet them when they return.

I don't know when, exactly, that would be. And I'm not really trying to organize anything. I'm just putting this out there in case anybody in the area thinks that might be a fun, random thing to do either late Monday night or possibly sometime early on Tuesday.

Discuss amongst yourselves. Or not.

Here's a bit of fluff I came up with based on about 30 minutes of intense "research". My sources were http://en.wikipedia.org/ ,  http://www.babyhold.com/ and http://babynamesworld.parentsconnect.com/

Ever wonder about the meanings of the Blazer players' names? Me neither. However, the following may entertain some of you. Rankings are for American boy's names.

• Greg (50th most popular boy's name in 1988) = "Watcher". How about that staring off into space?
• Brandon = "Prince" or  "Brave" (15th in 1984) Any questions?
• LaMarcus (not in the top 1000 in 1985) is one of two Blazers with names that could be said to derive from Mars, the Roman war god. Martell (812th in 1986) is the other.  May they live up to their names!
• Travis (42nd in 1984) = "Toll collector". Maybe as in "It's gonna cost you to drive this lane, buddy!"
• Steve (201st in 1980) = "Crown". Blake has already won an NCAA championship and is now bent on winning it all in the NBA.
• Joel (71st in 1979) = "The Lord is God". If Joel says so, I ain't gonna argue.
• Rudy (359th in 1985) = "Famous wolf". Hide the womenfolk!
• Channing (not in top 1000 in 1983) = "Knowing". How fitting is this for a guy who just radiates intelligence?
• Sergio (196th in 1986) = "Servant". That's a great name for a pass-first point guard!
• Nicolas (218th in 1988) = "Victory of the people". Just what you'd expect in a great team player.
• Jerryd (b. 1988). Hmmm. Could he be Jerry with added "d"? Jerry = "Spear ruler". Right.
• Ikechukwu, aka Ike (b. 1983). For some reason, Ike wasn't in my main source, so I cheated and assumed "Dwight", and that means "Mountain of Zeus".
• Raef (b. 1976) = "Forgiving". That's a relief.
• Shavlik (b. 1983) remains an enigma.
• Nate (187th in 196) = "God has given". Hmmm.
• Kevin (17th in 1967) = "Beautiful at birth"!
• Paul (17th in 1953) = "Small" or "Humble"!

By the way, somebody has played a juvenile prank on Joel's Wikipedia page. Check out the first sentence. I have yet to edit a single word on that site, but maybe one of you readers might want to fix it?

Craig Robinson, the men's basketball coach at Oregon State has an in-law who has had some recent success on the political stage.The story has been picked up nationally; e.g., see http://www.nytimes.com/

Details are sketchy so I don't really have 75 words at this time :(

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My original fanpost

"First, hello again to all of you! I'm back from my self-imposed exile to see if anybody wants to go to the opener with group tickets. I asked about this on the center column in Dave's thread about BE Night, but I think it got too confusing over there. So, listen up: for those of you who, like me, do NOT have full or partial season tickets ...

Group tickets can be purchased now, whereas individual ones will not go on sale until next fall, when the Spurs game will surely be sold out. Therefore, I am willing to buy a group of tickets if we can get at least 10 people to commit to going. The $25 range seems most attractive to those who've so far responded.

I would buy the tickets and then meet you before the game at some designated spot outside the Rose Garden. You'd give me your $25 and I'd give you your ticket. And then ... !!!

So come on, BEdgers, don't you want to be there when Greg Oden is introduced to his home crowd at his first ever regular season NBA game? Do you think there has ever been a sound as loud as what that audience is going to make? It's gonna be something to tell your kids and their kids.

Please let me know if you're seriously interested in going. I'd like to order the tickets real soon."

Clarifications and corrections

* The tickets for $25 would be in the purple sections, not yellow as I think I mentioned somewhere.

* The seats will not be reserved until Aug. 18. However, it is important to be on their list of interested groups as soon as possible. I have put done $100 in order to be on that list.

* There is a (slim, I think) possibility that the $25 tickets may be sold out when they get to our group during the reservation process. I have to tell them what to do If that happens. My Plan B is to go for the $19 tickets. I don't have a Plan C.

Progress or the lack of it

Thusfar, I have only received email from tominhawaii, MT Suit, 12sharks, ratbastird, somebody whose screen name I don't know, and Corvid, who is still up in the air. With these people, I will have at least my minum 10 covered.

I'm still waiting to get email from shteveo, rippedcity, resurrect_ha28, ptwnblzr, and twiggs. If you really want to go with us, please send me email by midnight tonight, Blazers time.

Check out this story:

http://www.portlandtribune.com/sports/story.php?story_id=121549497932308900

About Sergio, it says:

'Portland has sent shooting coach John Townsend to the Canary Islands to work with point guard Sergio Rodriguez. Rodriguez was cut last month from the Spanish Olympic team. “Sergio is doing a lot better (emotionally) now,” says Pritchard, who has spoken with Rodriguez. “He feels good about his spot on the (Blazers), sees that maybe there might be more minutes for him.”'

As somebody who does appreciate the occasional glimpses of talent we have seen from him, this is nice to hear. I'd like to see Sergio succeed in the NBA, if not here, then someplace else.

Interestingly, there is also word today that Nate has been approached regarding extending his contract. He is going to be keeping his options open. Does anybody think that there may be some tension between Nate and KP centered around personnel decisions? Hmmm...

Here's the link for that last bit:

http://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/sports/1215483969201330.xml&coll=7&thispage=2

After the draft I started searching for mentions of "Jerryd Bayless" on BE, and found a prescient post by Mr. Stumptown (or is it Mr. Doug?) in which he called Bayless as the guy the Blazers were targeting. Here is the URL:

http://www.blazersedge.com/2008/6/3/545383/who-is-1-on-the-blazers-dr

When next I looked for other epistles from the prophet, I found this reply to a fanpost question  about who the Blazers wanted with the #27 pick.  Lo and behold, he rightly said it was Batum. Here again is the URL:

http://www.blazersedge.com/2008/6/24/558235/blazers-buy-27th-pick-from#6966420

Ladies and gentlemen, may we have a round of e-applause for Stumptown Doug!

#52 #12 #8 #7 #2
#10 #44 #25 (#5) #11
#9 #4 #33 #1 (#8)

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So I go away for a few days to an undisclosed location and upon returning find that, once again, many of us are calling for trades to remedy one or more imagined weaknesses. According to the conventional wisdom:

(1) We need to upgrade the starting PG

(2) We need to upgrade the starting SF

(3) We need more experienced players

(4) We need tougher players

(5) We need better perimeter defense

(6) There won't be enough minutes to go around next year

I'm not going to exhaustively dissect each of these points. You can make good arguments for all of them. However, I believe we could see reasonable improvement in all cases with, at most, some minor roster fiddling. Here's why:

To (1) and (2), I say you don't have to dominate at every position to win. In particular, you don't have to have an all-star at PG if you play good team basketball and have other players who can shoot, pass, and penetrate effectively. Surely we have people already on the team, previously drafted, or obtainable at #13 this year who are good enough.

To (3), I say experience may be over-rated. Stockton and Malone had lots of experience, for what good it did them. We just need talented guys that work hard to win. Regardless, the Blazers are not getting younger -- they're maturing and they're hungry to get into the post-season.

As for (4), I am not worried that the team is too nice or too soft. These Blazers are competitors, and they want to win. I was proud of how our guys reacted to physical play and bullying tactics this year. Outlaw and Webster, for example, both showed a tendency to get even instead of getting mad. Our team is coming back with confidence and bigger, stronger bodies. And really, can you imagine anyone intimidating Greg Oden?

Point (5) is often stated in terms of the need to prevent easy penetration for layups or dunks. With Oden in the middle, opposing teams will find it more difficult to finish around the hoop. I don't recall a lot of teams beating us by bombing away from the 3-pt line, so I'd guess that our overall defense will be at least decent next year. Besides, this is an area that Nate really stresses, and if the team is willing to work hard at it, they will see good results.

The final point, (6), is definitely true, but it shouldn't concern us greatly. If players have talent, work hard, and are willing to accept narrower roles, fewer minutes, and possibly less money than they might get elsewhere in order to be part of a great team and win a championship, then it's a no-brainer to keep them. If, on the other hand, they'd rather start or play more or make more money, then more power to them, and we can certainly accommodate them through trades or letting them go as free agents. Meanwhile, I trust KP to keep the pipeline filled with new young talent and quality veterans.

Here, then, are my predictions for the team through draft day. They are based on the hope that the Blazers management demonstrates some unconventional wisdom and does not tamper overly much with the team:

* Wafer will not be re-signed. He seems like a good guy and is not untalented, but we have better options. Along with Miles' slot, that gives us at least two positions to fill.

* Rudy joins the team. Ole!

* Koponen is signed, and will play in the D-League with McRoberts. Both these guys could be important to us in a year or two. Petteri seems to have the talent and work ethic to succeed in the NBA, but needs to face better competition than he did in Finland. If we don't sign him now he may be lost to a long-term Euro contract. Josh is an intriguing prospect. He has an uncommon skill set, but so far hasn't demonstrated the seriousness you would hope for. We can certainly give him one more year to develop. If Frye finds the buffet is tastier elsewhere, McRoberts might be our guy behind Aldridge.

* If James Jones re-signs, the #13 pick will be used for a Euro-player, that African prodigy, or somebody else we can keep on ice. Alternatively, KP might be able to trade #13 for a good future first-rounder. I'd like James to stay with the team if he wants to be here. I do worry about his unpredictable knee injury status. Ultimately, I trust that KP can evaluate the risks and benefits and offer him what makes sense for the Blazers.

* If Jones does not re-sign, we use the #13 pick for a forward who would join the roster this year, maybe Rush.

* If any other player is to be traded, then it is Jack, along with the #13, in order to get somebody they really like this year, either a guard or a forward. I think Jack will improve his game, and I'm not averse to keeping him. However, I was struck by some of his comments this year, indicating to me that he is not exactly the team-first kind of guy we say we want.

I don't have any idea what KP will do with the second-round picks we have, but I'm prepared to be pleasantly surprised.

Next season, barring serious injuries to the principal cast, I predict Greg stomps, Rudy romps, and the young and talented but year-older and considerably hungrier Blazers wreak havoc in the west and ascend to the NBA throne.

Sorry to go over 75 words.

Anybody have any Blazer haiku they want to share? My first stab:

He dribbles and shoots

Echoes of our beating hearts

And there go the game

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Check out this podcast:

http://trailblazerscentercourt.blogspot.com/2008/05/trail-blazers-podcast-talking-with-chad.html

I don't know how long they'll leave this up, but if you hurry you can hear what sounds like Butters and either Stan or Kyle talking about the Blazers. I think they should do this with all the interviews, it would save everybody lots of time.

(Uh oh, my first time fudging the word count. Sorry!)

There is a mental disorder in which the afflicted person claims that someone else, usually a close family member or spouse, has been replaced by an identical imposter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgras_delusion). Well, during the years I've been a Blazers fan, I've sometimes harbored similar feelings about the team.

Just as an individual is generally supposed to retain his or her identity after a haircut or even a heart transplant, we tend to think of a team as having an autonomous existence regardless of trades or free-agent additions. There've been times, though, when I just didn't recognize the Blazers, times when they didn't really seem like my team anymore.

I experienced that kind of alienation when Natt, Cooper, and Lever suddenly vanished, and I've felt that way a couple of times more recently. There's no doubt in my mind, though, that our current group of players are really the Portland Trail Blazers.

Now I know that trades are a fact of life in the NBA. I'm also aware that owners, general managers, coaches, and probably most fans just want a winning (or championship) team. But I am not one of those fans.

It saddens me to contemplate Oden, Roy, or Aldridge being traded away one day, even in exchange for a player as great as LeBron. If we could have traded the entire roster of the Drexler-led Blazers for that of Jordan's Bulls, would I have wanted to do it? Hell, no! All those NBA championships would have been won by "Portland", but it wouldn't have been my team. You might as well (and many people did) simply become Bulls fans.

I'm glad that our team plays hard, and that they have a lot of still-developing talent, and that they appear to be good people. I hope they make the playoffs and win a championship, and the sooner the better. But these guys are like family. I want them to succeed, not some other players claiming to be the Trail Blazers.

That's my ever-depreciating 2 cents...