A nice article by Scott Howard-Cooper.

"The May 30 lottery will be a moment of great clarity. First, the Blazers will find out the availability of the Nets pick acquired in the Wallace deal. If it lands fourth or lower, the Trail Blazers take possession. If it's in the top three, New Jersey retains the selection, it moves to top-two protected in 2013, protected only for No. 1 in 2014 and unprotected after that."

Guess he had ANOTHER microfracture surgery

"Initially, Greg was undergoing a procedure similar to the one he had a couple of weeks ago to have debris cleared from his right knee," said Acting General Manager Chad Buchanan. "However, once the doctors were inside Greg's left knee, they unfortunately found articular surface damage and determined microfracture was necessary."

"Portland's LaMarcus Aldridge has been selected to the Western Conference All-Star team, league sources tell Y!"

I thought this was fitting with the current Smackdown involving Duck.

Pretty good break down of the game. The secret to stopping Dirk starts at about the 3 minute mark.

Basically - Let him shoot from the left side, shoot over his left shoulder.

Here's the direct video on YouTube.

Jason Quick of The Oregonian with a behind the scenes look at Brandon Roy's big Thursday from start to finish...
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This wasn't the first time Roy and I have been down this road. Earlier this season in Memphis, he vented about the makeup of the team, essentially calling out Andre Miller as a bad fit. It resulted in McMillan calling me the next day to hear the entire interview, and finally, it resulted in Roy apologizing to the team in, of all places, Dallas.

So on Tuesday, when Roy let loose, he knew what he was doing. I think there is a certain trust factor that has developed over the years.

"After I said it, I was like, 'Oh, that's probably going to be a big deal tomorrow,'" Roy admitted Friday. "Maybe even halfway through saying it. But I was like, all right, well, I've already said this much. But I knew pretty quickly that it was going to be a big deal.

"But sometimes great things come out of difficult situations," Roy said. "It was a difficult situation, but after saying it, it was like, I can't change it, but now the hope is to look back and say, 'Wow, we did this after that.' And that's kind of the goal and hope that the mentality of the team is like, OK it was tough, there was some adversity, but let's try to make something good out of it."
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ed: bumped to front page

...and more

Rudy is in New York tonight, just not on the team he was looking for.

Hahn says a few things implying Paul Allen is being stubborn about keeping Rudy - that he said no to a deal this summer.

Don't know if Miller was interviewed on the same day, but there is a quote from Andre.

Sorry if this is a repost. Didn't see it.

"NBA says penalties for any contact w/Paul or reps about trade NOT authorized by Hornets could include loss of picks/fines up to $5 million "

Just filed to ESPN.com: NBA issues memo warning all teams about illegal contact w/Hornets guard Chris Paul or his reps. Link forthcoming

-Marc Stein, ESPN, Twitter.

UPDATE: Article on ESPN

UPDATE #2: Ken Berger article about too little, too late.

Some of it is the same old stuff, but they do mention the things Nate and Cho have in their past....

The one thing I wonder about....what was the deal for a "big name" that made Nate notice Cho?

Looks like it's official, Matthews is not being matched.

Officially salary cap number is $58,044,000, up from $57.7 million last season. Luxury tax line rises to $70.3 million, up from $69.9 million.

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Note: Cap number is roughly $2 million above projections. Blazers remain well over the cap and are in the vicinity of the luxury tax line. The team's mid-level exception will reportedly be worth $5.77 million. This announcement gives motivated buyers like Miami even more money to play with.

-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter

Ferry is expected to turn down the chance to be the GM here.

Macmillan came in 3rd with nine 1st place, nine 2nd place, and 35 3rd place votes.

The link in the title takes you to part one.
Here's part two of the same interview.

Nice article. KP even manages to squeeze in a 'culture' reference.

Probably not much of a surprise, but Rudy reportedly wants out. Whether via trade or buyout, he is not happy with his role. Reading thru the article, one of his main gripes is with Nate.

From Brian Smith at the Columbian.

Interesting. It contradicts the 'philosophical differences' reason.

Penn will still be paid by the team.

Sheesh.

Yeah, its Stephen A Smith saying it, but still..... wonder how long that'll last?

And so it starts. It's not much, but there's a bit if griping.

Sorry if it's been posted. I did a quick search and didn't find it up already.

Pretty much what you would expect, but it still was fun to listen to.

to climb on to the Oden bandwagon.

Some positives, but the writer's not a fan of Miller.

Go down to the Custom Jerseys and select Player Names.

This isn't proof that he'll be the 15th guy, but none of the other camp invitees have their names listed in there.

I'm sure that this is offered just becaue of his ties to Portland, but come on, we need 9 guys that can fill in at small forward!