Berri touts efficiency differential to suggest that the Blazers are the best team in the West so far. His efficiency differential analysis is simplistic, to be sure - he doesn't take strength of schedule or anything else into account, alla Hollinger's muc more advanced power rankings - but he also includes the early season win score breakdown, which indicates that Oden (improving), Rudy (improving), and Przy (steady) have been dominant, while Roy has been solid, and LMA is developing into a productive player through the WoW looking glass. It's worth a quick read.

This TrueHoop article on sleepers highlights the only two teams with a starting frontcourt featuring two players with a PER over 18: LA and, surprisingly, New Orleans (West and Okafur).

The article omits Portland, presumably because Przy was the starter last year after Oden's knee injury. But it's worth noting that both Oden and LMA did, in fact, have a PER over 18.

The Blazers feature one of the league's most productive frontlines AND one of its top ten players AND a new point guard with a PER over 18 the past two years AND a veteran back up PG and center coming off career years AND and young Euro imports at SG and SF who were already solid role players in their first year and have limitless potential to be much more.

Interesting question: does any other team in the league have four returning players who played major minutes with a PER over 18? Or seven players who played major minutes with a PER over 15? Neither of those categories even include Blake (who finished with a PER in the 14.5 range) or Batum, who has a PER around 15 much of last season and could easily be in that range this year.

I foresee good things...

Apparently it takes genius bordering on insanity to see Greg's potential at this point - the premise of this article is that the author is the John Nash (the subject of A Beautiful Mind) of the NBA.

The money quote, as excerpted by TrueHoop:

"Greg Oden is a beast of a man, ready to unleash hell on the rest of the NBA. He’s a rebounding vacuum. He’s a shot-blocking, missile defense system that the Pentagon would be envious of. He has an Ike and Tina kind of relationship with the rim on offense. He’s a decent enough free throw shooter and he moves as smartly without the ball as any young center in the NBA. Greg Oden is not only a good player; he’s a sure-fire perennial All-Star who will help his team win a couple of titles. He’s a Defensive Player of the Year a couple times over."

Now is the time when you wish the Blazers had that cap space available. Love him or not, Odom is the best, most versatile player on the market, and now he's negotiating for a deal at the midlevel.

Would be a shame if he signs a deal before the Jazz inevitably match Portland's offer on Friday.

I'd rather have Millsap, because he's more fun to watch and root for, but Odom probably does more to help the team. He is the pefect 3/4 combo forward to bring off the bench in Outlaw's role. He is better than Turk and available at a fraction of the price.

If he's still available Friday, and the Blazers don't explore this option, I will be mystified...

Given the Blazers much publicized need for a physical presence at the back up four spot, Patterson's name had been mentioned frequently as a possible target. Now, he's out... and it's Dejuan Blair or bust.

According to Dave Berri's win score formula, three of the top seven rookies were Blazers.

Of the rookies who logged 1,000 minutes, Kevin Love, Greg Oden, Rudy Fernandez, Brook Lopez, Marc Gasol, Anthony Randolph, Nicolas Batum, Mario Chalmers, and Rose were all better than the average NBA player.

Rose was the worst of that group (average in just about every category). Oden and Rudy were second and third best behind K-Love.

This was an unusually productive class - most rookies struggle to reach even half of an average player's productivity.

Durant was well below average last year (but well above average this year).

"To me, Bayless always looks too cool. That's a problem for a young guy who hasn't performed consistently in the few times he's gotten a chance to play. I'd rather see red-hot passion in someone getting spot minutes. And nobody plays with more passion than Kobe, who is willing to take risks and brings great desire to the court."

"Even though Bayless is in a much different position than Kobe is, he could still emulate those attributes."

I thought this was priceless. I'm worried that Bayless might read this and actively cultivate more intensity. He could become pyschologically unstable. If he's not already.

On the list of things Bayless needs to work on, dialing up the intensity ranks... um... last. Dead. Freaking. Last.

If anything, I'd like to see Bayless do yoga or something and try to calm the heck down. The tension is palpable. He's second only to Oden in his ability to channel his "I need to do well I need to do well I need to well" brain waves straight through the tv at you. Relax, Jeryyd!

I generally like Thorpe, but wow. Just wow.

Nice breakdown by Chad Ford of the top free agents available or potentially available this summer. An interesting name I hadn't considered: Trevor Ariza. Great defender, with range. Outlaw and/or Marty would probably have to go to make room for him.

In a companion piece available on espn insider, Ford says the Blazers will have $8 million in cap room, asssuming they renounce their rights to Channing.

That's AFTER accounting for the reduction in the cap this year. That was my point in the earlier fanpost about salary - the Blazers will be $8 million under the reduced cap, giving them the ability to take advantage of teams that are $6 million or so over the cap (but weren't planning to be, and can't afford to be) due to the reduced figure.

Obviously, if the Blazers go that route (using the cap space to facilitate a trade with a team looking to get under the cap), the list of free agents really doesn't matter.