Well I am not 100% certain but I believe this is my first attempt at a Junk Drawer.  I will likely hit post and then see another Junk Drawer that was created 2 seconds earlier... it is the story of my life... anyway I'll save my best self deprecation for my comments. 

I am still trying to wrap my head around Obama's comments earlier that we still have a lot of digging to do to get out of this hole we are in.  All politics aside (please!) don't you typically stop the digging when you find yourself in a hole?  Maybe I am missing the metaphor.  Perhaps the strategy should be to cut steps into the side of the hole and climb out of it.  Maybe Obama is referring to a hole that is being dug atop a hill... although then I think the correct term would be to tunnel out of the hole? perhaps digging is a form of tunneling?  If we dig too much we will reach the molten core of the Earth won't we?  Anyway this is besides the point, the point I am trying to make is that the junk drawer is a fun place to comment and laugh and reminisce about the good ole days. 

Rules:  I believe there are some rules to be said.  I believe you can look at a past junk drawer to get to rules or perform a Google search "junk drawer rule".... update: that does not actually get you the rules but the topic for today's discussion which is: "Does the Five-Second Rule Count for Ice Cream"

My apologies for all of my misspellings, poor punctuation and lack of grammar.  Some random person once told me spelling and punctuation are not signs of intelligence... I took this as a fact and fear that the actual truth would crush me. 

I say.... Let there be junk.  See you in the comments below.

P.S.  If this fanpost sucks it is Timbo's fault... I followed everything in his guide.

What we win one game and the endless amount of trade drawers and trade posts suddenly stop?  Don't get my wrong it was a great win last night but there are still some weaknesses on the Blazers team.  Most notably as was pointed out by the great (and angry) Sir Charles himself is the lack of a deep post scoring threat.  Let's face it folks, LMA is a good player but it is painfully obvious that the guy would rather fade away than get to the hoop.  The up and under worked well for him last night but he went away from it for no real reason that was apparent to me.  So my proposed trade to get the trade discussion started on this slow Friday afternoon is this.  Trade LMA, Steve Blake, and Travis Outlaw to Toronto for Chris Bosh.

Why the Blazers do it: The Blazers badly need a reliable low post presence.  Oden is coming along fine but to have him be the only player on the team that can score near the bucket is the definition of putting all your eggs in one basket.  I won't call Oden a fragile basket but we are really not sure what kind of a basket we have right now (sorry for the metaphor).  Blake is expendable if Bayless can find consistency as Rudy has many of the same skills which Blake possesses.  If we were to lose LMA it would be nice to keep Outlaw as a stretch 4 but I wasn't sure if there was another way to work the trade and getting rid of both Miller and Blake seems risky.  The risk in this whole trade is would Bosh sign up with Portland.  We would have the Bird rights and I believe (not sure on this) be able to offer him more than other teams.  One question I am not sure of is how Oden and Bosh would fit together on the court together? 

Why Toronto doe is: Besides Euros no one wants to play in Toronto the taxes there are bad I hear.  Toronto cannot be very confident in Bosh staying based on the play so far.  If they got LMA he would be stuck there for 4 years.  Outlaw and Blake would come off the books and might help them over the summer to save some money or sign a free agent.  Although I really don't know much about their financial situation.

Anyway I am not trying to throw LMA under the bus.  He is a great young player and I am sure his post game will continue to improve.  I was just throwing out an idea to get some discussion going.  Please don't hate on me if this post makes me look like a complete fool.  I really like Bosh's game and think he is more physical than LMA which would be huge come playoff time.  I don't think Bosh would get dominated (okay that might be a slight stretch, sorry LMA) by Scola in the playoffs.  Let me know if this works and what your thoughts are.  Also I am curious about the usual trades involving either Miller or Blake.  Any and all ideas are fun to discuss.

1.)   This one gets me the most.  The late foul call. When the player goes up and there is contact but the official waits to see if the ball goes in before calling the foul... it is either a foul or it isn't... it shouldn't matter if the ball goes in or not.

2.)  The obstructed view/reputation call.  Devin Harris drives the lane goes up no contact... here comes the whistle... oh what it is from the official that has a obstructed view of the play.  Here is what he is thinking: "well I coudn't see the play so it must be a foul because Harris always gets fouled when he is driving the lane."  The opposite can be said of Oden.  Ref: "dang it I couldn't see that play but if Maggette fell down and Oden was near him you know Oden fouled him."  Refs need to stop calling fouls on plays were they can't clearly see the foul.  I would much rather see a no call than a phantom call.  How many times has the official from the other side of the court made the call when the official standing right there does not?

3.)  The superstar treatment.  Really though I am just mad that Brandon Roy doesn't get it.  It was his fault though for talking about the superstar treatment after that famous Suns game.  He should of taken one from Kobe's play book and just sat there with a smug smile and talked about how he should of been given a few more calls.

4.)  Inconsistency.  This takes me back to game 4.  Oden and Przy pick up the early fouls... fine the refs are going to call it tight we will adjust... great.  Then the game progresses and it is no longer a tightly officiated game.  Artest and Scola are grabbing arms... Przy and Oden start to play like they were in the 1st quarter again.  If the refs want to emphasize something great... do it the entire game.  I am so tired of the refs changing the way they are going to officiate every 10 minutes.

Anyway I know griping about officiating is popular right now and I wanted to make some gripes about the way the game is called in general.  If you have made it this far thank you and let me apoligize for the spelling errors and the excessive use of elipses (I love them).

Remember how tough everyone thought K*be was for playing with an injured pinky finger?  It seemed like everyone and their mom was writing article about the most famous little manicured finger in the World.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3249085

http://ballhype.com/story/kobe_bryant_the_official_site_of_kobe_bryant_7/

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-lakers15feb15,1,5194565.story

In fact last year there was even talk of Kobe missing the playoffs for a ligament tear in his pinky finger.

Fast forward to right now and there is no ESPN.com article about Roy's pinky finger.  Sure the folks at Oregonlive and BlazersEdge made a mention but it wasn't some huge breaking story.  I guess everything L*ker is aggrandized and hyped to the max.  I can't tell you how nice it is to have a superstar like Roy to root for.  He doesn't use his little finger as an excuse... he just goes out and plays. 

We might as well thank everyone now right?  Rebacca has gotten better though so we should serious thank her for that.  Seems like she is asking better questions in her interviews.

I am doing my part... someone else needs to make a thank you post for for eash person at Blazers Edge, the Blazers managment, the owner, the announcers, and most importantly I would like the thank God for making this all possible. 

And yes this post just barely qualifies as a fan post.

Okay well maybe this is a little early, and I don't want to distract from the goal which is playoffs, but I figured with the recent loss to Denver and the upcoming game being Minnesota that people would want to think into the future a little bit and discuss the 2009 NBA draft (from a Blazer stand point of course). 

First off I am not even sure what picks we have (I know the order isn't set yet) but I mean I am not sure if we traded away any of our picks or if we bought any picks or traded for any picks.  I think it is somewhat safe to assume we will make the playoffs meaning we will pick somewhere between 16 -25... I believe.  Please all-knowing Blazer fans correct me if I am wrong or add to it if you know more.

So what is everyone's thoughts?  Who do you want?.. who do you think we can get?  Do we go Euro and stash the asset overseas for a few years to let it age like a fine wine?  I am thinking this DeJuan Blair kid could be a real player (yeah I know he is a tweener) but he would be a good change of pace and I like those long arms tied to that freakish body.  I think he (Blair) would do good against people like David West that seem to give Aldridge trouble.  Right now we have Channing and LA and they are (IMO) too similar to be on the same team, we need a guy that can get dirty like Blair.  Ricky Rubio would be sweet but we would have to trade up for sure.  What position do we need to draft for?  A PG?  or would that take away from Bayless time?  IMO we need a PF back-up that is versatile enough to play another position.  I dunno I could ramble on some more but you guys have better stuff to say.

I recall in 2000 (or around then) the Blazers sent a video of Shaq getting away with fouls and traveling to the NBA.  It seems to me that Oden recieves a different treatment than Shaq did his rookie year.  Is this just me being a huge Blazer homer?  Did the Blazers screw themselves by sending in the infamous Shaq video?  It seems odd to me because Oden is on every NBA cares commercial he is one of the NBA's top ten most shown faces yet it seems like every game he picks up a ticky tacky foul or two.  Anyway if anyone has any links to any good Youtube videos concerning this that would be cool.  Again not trying to turn this into a homer post... I could be dead wrong here.  Oden definitely needs to work on keeping his arms straight up and letting the shooter come to him.  Just seeing what others thoughts are on this sensitive issue.

“The two toughest calls in the column. Oden would be in "Group I” if I didn’t invoke the Darko/Dumars Corollary: Namely, that his Trade Value is artificially high only because his GM would never admit, “Holy mother of $#%@ did I screw that pick up!” House and I discussed this during our preview podcast, but it’s worth rehashing here: Oden lacks a basketball fluidness that every other great center had. He has more of a power game — all quick bursts, some occasional flashes, some “wow” rebounding/defensive plays, but ultimately, it’s just hard to imagine him consistently dominating games. He’s just all over the place. And that’s before we get to his structural issues, the cloud lingering over him and the way he apparently retreated into a shell off the court. Awesome person, interesting talent, some real promise … but would you bet on his putting it all together? If I offered you $10,000 on “over/under for Oden’s career All-Star Appearances: 4.5,” would you want the over or the under? I’d want the under. It’s just the safer bet. As for Bynum, I would have jumped him to Group E if Kobe hadn’t intentionally injured his teammate’s knee Jeff Gillooly-style. (Just kidding, Lakers fans. Just kidding. Jokes. Settle down.) Either way, it’s a bad sign for Portland’s 2007 draft that (A) the Blazers don’t even have the best under-22 center in their own conference, and (B) we’re still four groups away from getting to the guy the Blazers passed up."

It is funny because last night I was thinking how Oden’s limp appears to have gone away and his game is looking more and more fluid. What are your thoughts?