it's Spring Break! A brief reprieve from the tedious decorum of collegiate curriculum. I've never done anything crazy/gone away to some hot beach where people my age spend a few days in a drunken stupor. My friend invited me to go to Panama City, FL but I declined. Mostly because I don't want to spend money. So this week I am relaxing, painting and doing some reading. In the past two weeks I've finished Herzog by Saul Bellow and Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky.  Both of which I liked.

Oh and here are some paintings/drawings I've done recently

via farm3.static.flickr.com

via farm5.static.flickr.com

via farm3.static.flickr.com

Notes Feb 23-25 2009 (via Dheepan.Ramanan)

via farm5.static.flickr.com

via farm5.static.flickr.com

As always there's more stuff on my flickr .

Well I just got back to college after winter break; however I have not yet registered for classes so I am going to be chillen in the room tomorrow.

Dubai opened the Burj Khalifa building recently, it's the tallest  building EVER,at 2,717 feet high, or 828 meters for you Euros. What's your favorite skyscraper?

It's Oscar season, what are the movies you think everyone ought to see? I thought Avatar was pretty good, but like, brainblastingly fantastic like many people have said but pretty good, impressive visually I guess. Inglorious Basterds was a pretty fanastic film, although it kind of dragged in the middle, and sometimes it felt like Tarantino was in love with his own movie a little too much. Besides that I'm still catching up on movies from this year.

Oh and here's some paintings I've done recently

So I decided to make this since I was on at like 4am and I noticed that there was no junk drawer. I don't really have much to say, so I'll just ramble on and let the junk take on its own course.

I did finish up some new paintings. This one is like 30x30 or 40x40 in real life, I haven't measured it. Just saying that because it feels a lot different in person.

via farm3.static.flickr.com

via farm3.static.flickr.com

I did another one as well but that was more or less just a quick little sketch. That I did in like 30-40 minutes. You can see it on my flickr page though. I'm working on another which I think is going to be my best of the summer but we'll see.

As far as other off topic conversation starters:

Do you feel like beauty if too often misconstrued as purely sexual in nature? And that gender roles limit how freely you can discuss the subject?

Dreams. How often do you have dreams? Do you think they mean anything, or do you think they are spontaneous and random in nature?

So way back in March I said I was going to do a Brandon Roy painting. I pretty much finished it up today after I finally recieved/purchased new paint.

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An Analysis regarding our Newest Favorite Future Point Guard of the Future

via media.scout.com

May 19th, 2009, fate delivered the Memphis Grizzlies the 2nd Pick in the 2009 NBA draft, and the likely selection of Spanish point guard sensation Ricky Rubio.  Discussion focused around the acquisition of one Mike Conley, reached fever pitch. After all it only makes sense; the Blazer need a permanent backcourt mate to Brandon Roy, and the playoffs made it clear that the Steve Blake-Stopgap Era had outlived its natural usefulness.  With young talent, draft picks, and cap room to spare, the Blazers seemingly have the assets to snap up the now superfluous second year point guard.

But is it the right move? Certainly there are a lot of people who support vigorously entering negotiations for Conely; however, there is not a particularly large voice in opposition towards this measure. It’s not because getting Conley is a decided "no-brainer". More likely, it stems from the lack of ostensible knowledge on the player in question. How many people actively watch Memphis Grizzly games? Sure, his stats Post Allstar break are pretty good for a 21 year old point, but we all know that surface stats belie tangible production. The Zbos, the Starbury’s, the Antoine Walkers of the league all have put up decent stats without helping their teams. Compounding the issue is the age old basketball truism "He puts up stats on a bad team".

My analysis of Conely is going to bisect him into two sectors, one of Theory and the other of Practice/Reality. Theory covers "how Conley should play" while the Reality consists of analysis of how Conley "actually plays". For example, The Theory of Jerryd Bayless would state that although he lacks natural point guard skills he makes a good backcourt compliment to Brandon Roy because he is a good shooter/penetrator, defender, and decent playmaker; reality unfortunately poked a lot of holes in that idea, proving that he is a poor shooter, and could not beat out thoroughly mediocre guards like Sergio Rodriguez and Steve Blake in the rotation.

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First off as Timbo has been covering, the Suns lost wooo! Also J.Rich is just dumb for trying to pull off a 360 dunk in the middle of a clutch situation. I don't care how good you are with the game as close as it was it was no time to try such a showy manuever. That being said wow Lebron...3rd straight triple double. I've been saying that he is better than Kobe this season, and these types of performances show why.

Oh and the artistic exploits tag line, I'm doing a painting of Brandon Roy!

The blurry camera phone sketches for mystery,

via farm4.static.flickr.com

via farm4.static.flickr.com

If you want to see the rest of my paintings, minus the two I've just finished this week click the link on my signature.

 Been a while since I wrote a real post, anyways just some thoughts I've had regarding everyone favorite lanky flying frenchman. 

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Few things I'll ramble on about here, absolutely nothing Blazers related...

Finished my first semester of college with a 3.8 GPA, oddly I feel a little unsatisfied with that number. Almost disappointed.

Being a night person has downsides when you are stuck at home and mysteriously lurking out at night raises suspicion from the parental units, thus I am left to pick at internet acquaintances to find conversation, such is life.

Now I see how life spreads people apart, dichotomizing them into the successful and the failures; some people are still content to slavishly waste away their life in community college, and it seems shocking.

I've been listening to The Clash (self titled album) a lot recently, it makes me feel good. I feel like that band stood for the rebellion, and just dissidence in general, whatever personal of societal form that may be. It's like no matter, what it is, even if I don't know what to do about, that very idea that I recognize something as wrong, something that I should purposely disengage myself from gives a lot of meaning to the otherwise random and seemingly meaningless human interaction. Creating a self narrative like that has proven to be pretty useful.

On music I feel like 2008 has been a sort of down year for music overall, not a lot that was amazing. I think my favorite so far has been an album by can'tsayitonblazersedge Buttons called Street Horsings. Movie-wise, it felt the same as well, although all the big releases are just about to come out. I need to see Doubt, The Wrestler, and Milk. Frost Nixon was good, and Batman although it was a superhero flick, was legit, just ask JJ Reddick he's seen it 10 times.

Oh and I might blog on my own. Well probably not, but I've been working on a layout.

Oh and one more thing, I started watching Dexter, that one show on Showtime, it's great. I would highly recommend it.

Moving into the dorm today, exicting stuff. So exciting I couldn't sleep tonight. That was kind of by choice though, felt the need to digest, I guess, I digress.

I watched Tropic Thunder, that movie with Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr as a black guy. By the way, that extra comma before the "and", that's called an Oxford comma, of course all you grammar technocrats already know this, but thanks Vampire Weekend, for educating me on the nuances of the English language. 

Oh about the film.

It was definitely low-brow humor, but it was disgustingly hilarious at times. I'm trying to think of a part that is BEdge approriate but I can't remember anything. 

Well here's a video of one of Portland's favorite sons, Elliott Smith. If you aren't in the mood for something melancholy, well you won't like it. I love his voice though, it's very delicate, and kind of haunting at times. Great lyricist too. This video is the only time I've seen him smile, which is really weird. Maybe the media has really perpetuated this image of him being a constantly depressed, lonely individual. It might because his lyrics are generally so dark. He obviously had his problems, but only poseurs act somber and serious all the time. Art in it's essence, is output of emotional dissonance. Or at least the kind of art I like. To quote Steve Carell who was talking about Proust "Anyway, he uh... he gets down to the end of his life, and he looks back and decides that all those years he suffered, Those were the best years of his life, 'cause they made him who he was. All those years he was happy? You know, total waste. Didn't learn a thing." A lot of people seem to get mix up depressing art with a depressed person, they are not necessarily one in the same. Little Miss Sunshine was a fun movie. And yeah I definitely had to IMDB that quote but I thought of it that instant, I swear.

Oh and why don't you guys talk about all the great times in college or something. I can't think up a poll this minute.

ahhh I don't have fun activities today, so I'll just post this filler, my college statement, a little theatrical no?

Dreams, dreams are the broad shoulders on which the wings of imagination lie. Unsure of what to pursue, I am unshakable in conviction.

While others have languished their greatest aspirations to the cudgels of reality, I shall never surrender my fortitude to normalcy. My greatest fear is to die in anonymity and social antipathy, an epitaph marked “beloved husband, father, and brother”. It’s not enough for me, for me to be normal. I want to be exceptional, I want to be a visionary, I want to bask in the applause of societies greatest circles, I want to part of the cream of my generation.

I believe greatness is a self-fulfilling prophecy, to consider yourself average is to be average. I want to be an inspirator, a leader, who channels his energies into uplifting the condition of the human imagination. I want the opus of my life to be a flame, a cinder that ignites the passion of man into a conflagration of venerability, eradicating injustice, and intolerable sense of averageness. I suppose it’s a bit myopic, but I want to be that ideal, to be great. I wish to imprint myself, as the individual, upon the skin of human permanence.

Fun fact, Dheepan is the short for Kandeepan. The extra H is added for numerologly reasons. With the H, both my shortened name and my full name have the same numeric value. My mother is really into this stuff from some reason. My parents never actually use Kandeepan, so I don't really know why I have it. Kandeepan is the Tamil translation of the Hindi name Arjuna. I think. Not entirely sure, meaning I have absolutely no clue.  Arjuna was the name of one of the prominent characters of the that one long poem the Mahabharata. Had to wiki the spelling. 

If you wanna try out your name calculation and stuff like that click on the red words in this sentence.

My "psychic" number is a 6 since I was born on the 15th. That apparently means I am...

Loving and caring, everybody's friend, charming and charismatic, beauty oriented. Balanced yet paradoxical in their self expression. Good ally and counselor, home-maker, nurturing, sympathetic, service oriented yet independent. Periodical bouts of luxury seeking. Artistic, attractive, admired, adored, posses refined taste, sexual. Suffer when separated from family yet have to endure this occasionally, pleasant personality, excellent taste, open minded and open hearted.

Interesting coincedence though, I'm suppose to be highly compatible with 4s, and my two best friends were born on the 13th of May.

This one is on a different site and has goes into more details about name numbers.

Your psychic number is your primary personality traits. Your destiny number is rather self explanitory, it attempts to predict your destiny (future desires, beahviours, things like that). As a result, it generally doesn't apply to you until you reach age 30 or 35. Having matching numbers, like a 6 as a psychic number and a 6 as a destiny number exacerbates your strengths and weaknesses. So having mixed numbers means that some of the extremes of your number are evened out.

Well I brought this up earlier in a topic about how to view Blazer's games. Supposedly, multiple people can view games online with NBA league pass with one account. If this option is really plausible, and if the whole comcast/dish deal isn't brokered out by the start of the season, do you think we should consider buying a site wide leaguepass? Multiple people would chip in (most likely to a paypal account or something), and then someone would purchase the package and give out the account+password for people to view games online. I'm not sure how viable this is, or recomending it, but I think it might be something to consider.

PS, this is only if it's legal. I'm not sure it would help out the site's credibility if the NBA came knocking.

Wow college in like 3 more weeks, still so many things to do. I just watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall, I felt the trailer was underwhelming, but it was just as cute and funny as the rest of Judd Apatow's movies. I thought it was close to, or better than Superbad, and far superior to 40 year Old Virgin. The characters had a lot of depth, for the most part, and there were some memorable bit roles. Oh and Mila Kunis looked great in that movie. She seems a lot different from That 70's Show. Maybe it's just the personality difference that does it?

Plus the main character really reminded me of James Murphy from LCD Soundsytem. Love that guy, and his music. Sound of Silver was one of my favorite albums last year. You know that he could had a job writing for Seinfeld in the 90s? He turned the offer down to continue making music, guess it worked out, but he missed out on a huge payday. Jerry Seinfeld was actually the highest paid celebrity in 2004, he made like $240 mil.

It's almost been an hour and there isn't a new Trail Mix post? Wow that's disappointing. Anywways, right now I'm listening to Sonata Number 10 in C Major by Motzart. The water drips from a far away faucet in a slow uneasy trickle. The room is dark, light seems to whisper around the corner, it's faint. It's mere prescense taunting the desolate space. The enclosure is tight, the air in the room feels taunt and dry, where am I? That's 75 right ok good.

I need a hair cut. Right now it's long it's like overgrown emo hair. I'm not sure how I want it cut down though. Back to my usual length or a drastic redisign. Rather, should I blow up the team and focus on building young talent or trade for some veterans and hope for the best..you know... I think I get wayyyy too caught up in making basketball analogies now a days. Like I think at this point, I could could describe everyone in the world with NBA draft jargon. Like I would say I'm "high potential, good upside, lacks fundmenetals and carries a bust risk".  I don't this opening lives up to my prior I had designed a few days ago.

PS, Brian Eno is pretty awesome. He made the windows noise.

When reports came out that Love was McHale's man, I was surprised. He's an unathletic, undersized, power forward, I really didn't see that as a good compliment to Al Jefferson (another power forward). I mean if anything it's a little redundant, they aren't radically different in their skilset. Jefferson is the better back to the basket player and Love is by far the better passer, but he (Love) still operates most effectively in the post.  Exacerbating this issue is that both players are below average defensively. I thought logically the Wolves would want to pair Jefferson with an athletic defensive minded center to help anchor the defense, a player like Dalembert, or even Brenden Haywood. I do really like a lot of the things Love brings to the offensive end,  but I'm not sure both he and Jefferson can realize all of their potential paired together.

If Love proves to be the more well rounded player (and I think he is) does this mean that Jefferson will be traded?

I really did like the trade that McHale pulled off though. You managed to get rid of most of a lot of terrible contracts (Antoine Walker?) got Mike Miller (who will really help your outside shooting). I still think Mayo will end up a better player than Love or Miller, but I expect you guys will get another good draft pick this year, maybe get Jennings or Ricky Rubio.

Note: I'm going to try to skim on the actual details of the movie or scenes as much as possible. I'm always annoyed by film reviews that are more like "hey these were my favorite scenes of the movie". Sorry, it's a little too long. I added pictures so it's easier to digest. Also I think using nihilistic where I did is a malapropism, but it's a blog, who cares right?

Intro

I'm not a fan of comic book movies.

Some things look better on paper than in person, I'm a firm believer that men wearing excessively tight leather outfits that seem to cut off circulation to the nether regions, is an example of this idiom. Sure, it looks bad ass when it's ink and marker. In real life, it looks more like glorified sadomasochism. 

And unfortunately the trend looks irreversible. At this point Hollywood is toiling away, going ever deeper into it's metaphorical comic book cash mine. Green lighting projects that look well, like garbage (lol Cat Woman, Dare Devil, Ghost Rider, Green Lantern). That should make at least a 100mil right? The once fresh concept has been flattened, rounded, and shined into an impeccably produced, consumer friendly, revenue machine.

Note: If you don't care about themes and stuff skip this next section. Nietzsche is disappointed in you for not examining your own psyche.

Themes

Accompanying this shift, is the decreasing amount of actual substance in the films. Sure, comic book movies like their fellow Summer blockbuster brethren will never be heady discourse on the human condition. They shouldn't be. It's just that the film adaptations of comic books often lack key themes that are obvious in the original material. Morality, ethics, self-sacrifice, justice; these are all themes that are conveyed through the comic book medium. Without them these movies are basically guywithrandompowerawesomecgigeneratedfightscenes-de jour. All good stories have a message and that's what makes "Batman: The Dark Knight" superior to any movie that has come out this summer.

What I appreciated most about the philosophy about The Dark Knight, was that it was well, dark. There was an overall very mature and pragmatic take on ethics that goes back to Machiavelli's "Prince", are unethical means justifiable for a good end?

On human nature the film is equally nihilistic. Are victories over the corrupt and evil truly possible when none of us are incorruptible? Who is to judge what is truly right and truly wrong? What keeps us from doing what is wrong, is it just fear? If it is, then what kind of civilization do we truly live in. There is classic role reversal here as well, where the convicted members of society are the ones that act in the moral right, and the "normal" citizens are the ones that bow down to their own want of survival. These are all very deep questions that I was pleasantly surprised about, I never expected these things to ever be addressed in a Batman movie.

Cast

A strong cast of actors, from Christian Bale, to Aaron Eckhart (Thank You for Smoking), Heath Ledger, Morgan Freeman, and ok, Maggie Gylenhall kind of sucks, but whatever she is a little better than Katie Holmes.

All the buzz however, is on Heath Ledger and his portrayal of the Joker. And rightfully so, he deserves an Oscar for this role. He flat acted his ass off. Honestly, it was the most realistic and psychotic take on the character, and he came off as completely believable. What's most remarkable is that he completely unrecognizable. If you were to say that Heath actually faked his death and slashed up his face to form a permanent smile  and is now living out his life as a crime lord in New York, I would believe you. The insanity and whimsical nature of the Joker is what makes him so frightening and endearing at the same time. This character will be the most remembered in 2008, and none of that has to do with Heath Ledger's early demise.

Technical

Beautifully shot, with careful attention to space, many of sets are rather minimal and this adds to the dark, modern nature of the film. The most beautiful and visceral scenes are the cityscapes, the towering heights of the concrete jungle and the bat that flutters through them, it was visual poetry.

The actions scenes were well done, but not over the top. The opening bank heist was clever and an immediate attention grabber. There is more than enough action to sedate those just looking for a popcorn flick.

Lack of CGI was duly noted and appreciated. Probably why the action in this movie far surpasses Iron Man.

Drawbacks:

Too long

The second arc isn't as good as the first. Might have worked better as a sequel.

Overall

In conclusion, the film lends credence to the idea that faith in ones own beliefs and the conviction to follow through on those notions, despite the consequences, is what truly defines courage.  An idea that  we should all strive towards. I think this movie will may well be remembered as the best superhero film.

4.8/5

So I missed the summer league game. I'm sad about that, but it looks like there is an archive, so I get to see more Jerryd awesomness.

Speaking of awesome, I went to go see Batman: The Dark Knight. Although I'm usually one of those haters who say "man you are so dumb for going to opening night at 12:00" this was worth it. I'm even going to write an entire fanpost about it, just because trade diaries are a little boring. So I'll save my deconstruction for later.

Btw, are we allowed to ramble in our post about the junk drawer?

I think I'm over 75 but I'll keep going because I CAN, so if you want to actually post and you are reading this right now, I'm telling you it's in your best interest to skip it.

I ate too much popcorn.

My mouth feels dry and I have drank like 3 bottles of water.

Was it worth it to read that? Oh and it's like 4 am so I'm sorry.

Ahhhh I guess I'm posing this because the previous diary about this game got pushed way off the page.

Anyways this is a fantasy basketball simulator that you can play for free online. Basically you create a character, join a team and improve your stats and whatnot. Right now BEdge has a team, the BEdgers, headed by myemic23. If you want to play with us join BEdgers the password is Oden or is it oden? Try either one.

Here is the link

Court Rivals

Apparently every draft since 2006, these two guys heckle SAS every draft. Obnoxious and in poor taste, sure, but hilarious, yes. But hey they raised some money to combat aids in Africa through SAS heckling, so more power to them. Some of the player reactions are pretty funny, and wow Mike Conely looks tiny. Since there's more than one and no one reads the Fanshots I decided to post it in here.

2006 NBA Draft, the draft where Stephen A bashed the Blazers for Roy and Aldridge. He's talking about us at the beginning. 2007 NBA Draft More Cheesedoodles and finally 2008

I thought we should have a playoffs recap thread, if only to stave off draft and trade fanposts. Yes, by that I mean the names Russel Westbrook, DJ Augustin, Joe Alexander, Eric Gordan, OJ Mayo, Joe Calderon, Jarret Jack, and Devin Harris are officially banned from this thread. NO MORE.

Ahem. Anyways.

I thought the theatrics and dramatic hype of this years playoffs made it very entertaing, I never thought it took away from the actual basketball being played. The drama never overshadwed the quality of the series and there were definitely some noteworthy series/moments that I'll remember (if only till next year). I'm not going to cover all of the series btw, only the ones that interested me most.

The overall theme I noticed was the changing of the guard in the NBA. The young teams, the Lakers, Hornets, 76s, Hawks, Jazz, Rockets; they are all rising into prominence while teams like the Suns, Pistons, Mavericks, and Spurs are increasingly looking like they are going to be looking on the outside in from now on.

First off, and most recent. The Finals.

(An aside about KG) Honestly I don't hate KG too much, from all I've heard he's a good guy. In fact I used to know someone who was neighbors with him in Minny. Apparently he visited him when he was seriously ill at one point to cheer him up. 

The emotional histrionics of the finals celebration were awesome, you could see how happy they were to win the championship. Seeing Kobe look like he was about to cry was just as awesome. It was actually a memorable event as it should be and hearing KG shout "TOP OF THE WORLD MA" like the Kanye West song made me laugh. The stuff before was great too, when he was crying and said "oh f***... sorry", Michelle Tafoya "It's ok". I was laughing hysterically at the last 10 minutes,  and at about the 4 minute mark, I started shouting "GET IT TO 40, GET IT TO 40". The random bleeping when KG would scream stuff like "C'MON MOTHER F*****"  Watching Lamar Odom get pissed off after the Celtics rained open 3 after open 3 on the offensive end was a spectacular sight. Did I say I hate Lamar Odom? The gatorade dumping. Paul Pierce winning a championship in Boston after what a decade? After being stabbed at a night club, after having to play with Antoine Walker for like 4 seasons,it was a great moment.  Infinitely better than last years forgettable Cavs-Spurs.

The turn around was remarkable and definitely the stuff of NBA legend. I mean a coach that led a team to an 18 game losing streak leads them to a NBA championship the next year over their historic rivals, you couldn't have asked for a more better hollywood script. All the "unbuntu" gimmicks aside, you could tell that his players genuinely liked Doc Rivers.The "Comeback Game" (not a big Bill Simmons fan but this is an apporiate title), will probably be an ESPN classic, along with game 5. Overall it was a fantastic series, the quality of basketball played was excellent, and I was actually entertained watching it (unlike the last 2 years). 

The Cavs/Wizards series, I live in the DC area so I followed it more closely than most of you I'm sure...

The whole Deshawn/Lebron fued was just hilarious. The soldier boy-Jay-z analogy by Lebron, then Soldier boy shows up to a game 4. Deshawn doing that stupid "you can't see me handwave", followed by Lebron torching him. The return of Gilbert, followed by the sudden exit of Gilbert  (without telling his coach). 

I liked how Lebron played through all the hard fouls the Wizards landed on him, even though he wore down as the playoffs progressed, and even though sometimes he refers to himself in third person in his interviews.

Hawks-Celtics

Really got to see how a real home crowd can carry a young team, it was refreshing to see a team I wasn't familiar with, and watching the Hawks take the Celts all the way to game 7 was completely unexpected.

The hawks are fun to watch, they have a lot of really athletic guys that get up the floor. Josh Smith is a very talented player isn't he? Joe Johnson was unstoppable in game 5 in that 4th quater. This team should have a bright future and I'm glad, Atlanta has been terrible for far too long.

The ZaZa-KG headbutt was one of my favorite moments of the playoffs. It kind of reminded me of wildabeasts locking horns for whatever reason.

76ers-Pistons

Another young team going against a heavy favorite. Going to 6 against the mighty PIstons was definitely a sucess in my opinion.

The thing I remember most about this series was Samuel Dalembert's head, didn't he have "SD" or something shaved ridiculous like that shaved into his head? Super defense or something.

Magic-Raptors

Chris Bosh "He's (Dwight Howard) superman and I'm Lex Luthor". Indeed, I don't think the Raptors are ever going to beat Orlando unless they get some toughness and dump some of their euro floppers.

 Spurs-Suns

Poor Steve Nash, will he ever get a ring?

The Hornets

My favorite team to watch over these playoffs

I think Chris Paul dismembered the corpse of Jason Kidd and sold his still pumping organs against Dallas.  I was amazed at just how good this guy is. I made him my favorite player who looks like "he could be sort of Indian", sorry LMA.

Anyway a good spring for basketball if I can say so myself.

One of most repeated idioms of Blazers Edge is "the Blazers need a point guard" followed by "KP should trade for Devin Harris or Jose Calderon this summer" which is nearly always followed by Timbo "We have the wrong Spanish point guard!". It's true. Our Point guard situation is equitable to giant open sore which ekes noxious venomous yellow liquids upon our fair skin of a team. Don't ask me what that really means, I just meant it to sound disgusting and provide an image of a circular opening. We get burned by quick point guards, we can't run a fast break, and our best point guard is the epitome of a 2nd string bench warmer. I still love you Steve Blake.

Surprisingly, a name I haven't heard whispered around here is "the other Spanish point guard." Not Calderon, but a scraggly 17 year old who is not even allowed to talk to the media yet.

Ricky Rubio.

This teenager who plays point guard along side Rudy Fernandez on DKV Joventut is frequently mentioned as the "best point guard in Europe". At 17, he's garnered enough hype to be projected as the possible the #1 spot in the 2009 lottery.

And luckily for the Blazers, we might possibly be the team in best position to snap up the youngster. How you ask?

Ricky is only 17, although he might possess NBA game, he will not be mature enough, or comfortable enough to leave Spain for America. Even though I'm nearly a year old than him, I can not imagine myself jumping alone from home to a foreign country, with a foreign language, with a foreign culture. He may very sign a contract and stay in Europe for 4 more years. This basically ensures that teams will pass him up in the lottery.

How can you as a GM justify using a lottery pick on a player that might not even come to play on your team this year, let alone 3 years down the line?

We've seen this very same situation play out last year with Rudy. Because he would almost certainly stay in Europe till 2008, GM's passed on him in the Lottery and he fell all the way to 27(?). If he declared in 2008 he is a consensus top 10 pick (as stated by Bill BS Simmons).

Is it inconceivable that the Blazers could strike lightning again and grab Ricky Rubio?

Also consider that the Blazers are hosting a nearly full fledged Spanish invasion, and that Ricky could reunite with a longtime teammate (Rudy) in the states. If the Blazers can move into the late lottery next year, I think they have a good spot at grabbing him.

Now alm1mart can't show up and totally disprove this entire thing.

But anyways, do you agree with me? Should the Blazers patch up the PG spot this year and go for gold with Ricky? Or is that just as far fetched as Chris Paul and Deron Williams? Should we instead settle for a Harris/Calderon to have a larger window?

I also officially ban Tominhawaii to mention American Idol in this thread.  

I'm sure most of you watched yesterday's terrific Rockets/Lakers game, a game where both Tracy McGrady and Kobe Bryant struggled.

Kobe was seemingly stopped by Shane Battier's one on one defense. This was fairly incredible to watch, although many have laid claims to being the "Kobe Stopper", they have all gotten burned one on one by Mr. 24. Single coverage on Kobe Bryant, as common logic dictates, is suicide. He will either (A) blow past you, passing or finishing at the hoop, or (B) shoot a jumper that is open because of his myriad of fakes and jukes, or shoot a fade-away which he hits with amazing regularity.

Not only did Shane Battier manage to keep in front of Kobe but he made him rely almost entirely on his fade away. This keystone of Kobe's offensive arsenal was very ineffective this game.

Now this brings me to my main point, Shane Battier did something very interesting. When Kobe went to his fade away jumper, Shane Battier stuck his arm through the space created by Kobe's shooting form. Putting his hand right into Kobe's grill. This technique basically made Kobe shoot blind.

I've never seen this done before. Is that type of face guarding common in the NBA? Is it illegal?

Watching LMA the past few games it looks like he is going to be a tremendous scorer. He's developing a solid low post game and his mid range game is as sweet as ever. Do you think he will be the leading scorer for the Blazers next year?

When these players mature who do you think will be the first to score 50 points or more? How soon? Will it ever happen or will Portland's balanced attack never require that tremendous amount of individual effort?

I think LMA could very well go off for 50 next season or maybe (unlikely) this one, I mean he's already had a 36 pt game. He's going to be a less athletic Amare that plays better defense. Since he already has a better jumper than Amare, I could see him getting a 3 ball shot pretty soon.

Brandon seems like he's too unselfish to score that many points and I don't know what GOden's offensive game is going to be like.  

So your thoughts?

This year he's stepped up to being a contributor averaging about 10ppg, but is he where you want him to be right now?

He's in his 3rd season as a pro and has shown significant statistical improvements in points,assists, and rebounds but his numbers per 36 minutes are not better than his Rookie season.

He's disappeared for long stretches of the game and doesn't actively seemed to be involved with the offense.

His shot has shown great form but he hasn't shot it well this season. Although he's a respectable 37% from 3, he's shooting only 41% overall. He's shown that he can get to the rim with the ball, but most of the time he'll be be passive and pass to someone else on the perimeter.

Even though he's been given a lot of stability with playing time and starting, he still seems way too tense, always second guessing himself, and beating himself up over mistakes.

The psychological factor i think is huge, but do you think that'll ever change?

Would you move him in the off-season?

Do you think he would benefit from playing the 2 where he is more physically suited?

And finally do you think he'll end up on the Blazers 'championship' roster, and if so, what kind of level?

Like the title says they used the $8.0 million dollar trade exception from the sign and trade deal for Rashard Lewis to get Kurt Thomas and 2 first rounders in exchange for ONE(!!!!!!!) second round draft choice, that will probably just get bought by Paul Allen come summer 2008 anyways.

That means Seattle is looking at 5 draft picks in the next 3 years.

This is a terrific deal in my opinion, Thomas' deal expires after this season as well. I know the Suns owner is a cheap bastard but this is really overdoing it.

It's too bad we won't be able to buy more of Phoenix's picks.

Apparently he's signed with the Houston Rockets, 2 years $6 million.

Although the rockets have a lot of guards already on contract a lot of them are mediocre at best, and I think being in a favorable environment Francis could excel as a bench scorer. He's a proven veteran, and I think this has been the only place he has felt comfortable in the NBA. With the addition of Scola, Francis, and Adelman the Rockets could have a very potent offense. Especially with how great McGrady is on the break. Also I wonder if Mutombo is the only player left in the NBA that was born in the 1960's.