SB Nation User Blog: Magnum

Dead money and cap ballast

Magnum — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:03:36 -0000

Dead money and cap ballast

"The Memphis Grizzlies already have stated they have no intention of re-signing the 27-year-old, who had to serve a 10-game drug suspension before being allowed to play last season, and it already was clear Memphis' main motive in signing him was to affect the Blazers' cap flexibility -- in part to keep them from being the type of under-the-cap trade facilitator the Grizzlies and Clippers were last season."

Junk Drawer- 6/30- "That was a bad move, KP!" Edition

Magnum — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:16:37 -0000

With the beginning of the free agent portion of the off season looming I am interested to know everyone's reactions to summer acquisitions (or lack thereof) will be. I know there are camps who support Hinrich, who hate Hedo, who pine for Harris and would give up a kidney for CP3, but I'm not interested in who you are supporting, but what your reaction will be if we don't get your favorite target.

Will you quietly lament a missed opportunity? Will you openly declare that the Blazer braintrust be fired? Is your motto, "In KP we trust"?

Hash it out in the junk drawer.

And for you folks who want a little off topic....how about a few word puzzles? Edit: Use number 9 to clue yourself in on the rest. I messed that one up before, soI just put the answer in.

1. Man

Board

2. Dice Dice

3. Infin itive

4. Ho

use

5. Death Life

6. Everything

Pizza

7. Xqqqme

8. ______ Program

9. Stand Answer: I understand

10. Funny Funny Words Words Words Words

11. O_er_t_o_

12. World World World

13. Shut

Sit

14. Little Little Late Late

15. Thodeepught

16. C Yourself Yourself Yourself Yourself

17. M1y l1i1f1e

18. Nefriended

19. 329S8429A023F498234987E980348T90834Y2098

20. Arrest

Your

Ok, I added some more because the night crew got most of them too quickly. I think these are a bit harder. Let's hope for fewer errors.

21. Shop Shop Shop Shop

22. CI II

23. SGEG

24. Mary+Mary=

25. XLNC

26. H P

O O

P H

27. M ce, M ce, M ce

28. Phromate

29. Gifiren

30. Ir

Curtain

How about another update? I think all of them have been solved except 24. And now for some new ones.

31. Roads

32. Perso nality

33. Symphon

34. As

35. Horobod

36. L o a d

37. Over Over

38. Ground

feetfeetfeetfeetfeetfeet

39. Ban ana

40. T M

A U

H S

W T

41. iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

circle circle circle

42. Travel

ccccccccccccccccccccccccc

42. Smoke

43. S S S S

B B B B

A A A A

R R R R

G G G G

44. Cred ibility

45. Chtongueeek

46. HIJKLMNO

47. D D

O O

G G

O O

N N

48. Nothing Nothing <------------

49. Tusn

50. Uction

Poll

My reaction when KP doesn't bring in the player I want will be...

Yao's foot injury not healed

Magnum — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 05:35:51 -0000

Yao's foot injury not healed

"team doctor Tom Clanton examined Yao's foot in Houston on Wednesday and said the injury has not responded to the treatment program."

This is not encouraging news for the Rockets.

Junk Drawer - 6/8 - Knowledge Bomb Edition

Magnum — Mon, 25 May 2009 09:39:05 -0000

The idea of this junk drawer is simple. Share links to sites/webpages that drop knowlegdge like it's hot.

The first thing I have for you is a video called imagining the 10th dimension. The explanation is very good (IMO) but the concepts are hard to wrap the mind around. If it takes you 5 play throughs to understand it you're probably ahead of the curve.

The next thing I have for you is pretty much the best site I've seen since Blazers Edge. From their about section, "We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we're building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other." Basically, the site consists of videos of talks given on a variety of subjects, from science and technology to business, politics, music, culture and everything in between. Everyone should be able to find a video that piques their curiosity.

Please share any links you have to great websites, videos, blogs that you think dish out the info like Steve Blake against the Clippers.

Update: I'm adding a few more links that I like and didn't put in the midnight edition. Also, I recommend Norsk's BIG post for lots of great links.

Why do humans cook?

A map of generic names for soft drinks: Do you say Pop or Soda?

If you tunneled through the Earth where would you end up?

The onion news network says 70% of praise is sarcastic

The crisis of credit visualized

How do you beat the Magic?

Magnum — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:33:03 -0000

How do you beat the Magic?

"So how do you beat them? For all the matchup problems they create, you can't make them pay on the other end UNLESS you have a center to handle Howard and a big forward who can torch Lewis on one end and defend him on the other. "

This is from Bill Simmons' latest mailbag and it strikes me that the Blazers have exactly what a team needs to take down the Magic. I think the results of the season series support that claim. We have Aldridge who is good enough on offense to torch Lewis and big/quick enough on defense to bother him. Then we have the double headed monster at center to throw at Howard, plus 6 more fouls brought to you by Channing Frye.

If only we had made the finals.....

Playoff Matchup Probabilities

Magnum — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:44:53 -0000

Playoff Matchup Probabilities

Hollinger uses his playoff odds formula to determine the most likely matchups in the East and West playoff races.

Who are the Blazers most likely to draw in the first round? The Hornets.

Blazer Love in the Hollinger Chat

Magnum — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 19:38:09 -0000

Blazer Love in the Hollinger Chat

As the title suggests, there is a TON of Blazer related goodness in today's chat with John Hollinger.

Some Blazer Insider Gems

Magnum — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:31:01 -0000

Some Blazer Insider Gems

"An interesting note courtesy of the Blazers' PR ace Jim Taylor: The last time a team came back from 18 or more down to win back-to-back games was Feb. 25, 2006, when the Mavs pulled it off. The fact that Portland did it on the road makes it even more impressive, and it's why the Blazers suddenly find themselves in position to snag a top-three seed and avoid the Lakers' side of the playoff bracket.

The Blazers certainly are peaking at the right time. Their 105.3 Power Ranking is now comfortably in fifth, and they're even showing a pulse on the road now. With a win in their season finale against the hapless Clips they'll be at a respectable 20-21 for the season. Combine that with the fact they're likely to hold home-court advantage in the first round (Wednesday night's win was enormous in that respect, since it handed the Spurs a loss and won them the tiebreaker), and their prospects suddenly look much better for a lengthy playoff run."

"Another reason to like the Blazers: It sure seems like Greg Oden is getting comfortable with his role coming off the bench. On Wednesday night he had 8 points and 10 boards on 4-of-5 shooting, though his one miss was an embarrassing one (he failed to get the ball over the rim on a dunk attempt).

Oden's season PER is now 18.03, which is pretty darn good for a rookie that everyone's falling all over themselves to call a disappointment. He's averaging 16.2 points and 12.9 boards per 40 minutes, shooting 56.3 percent from the floor, and leads the NBA in Offensive Rebound Rate. The jury's still out as to whether he'll be a franchise center, or if he'll prove to be a better player than Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant, but for a rookie coming off microfracture surgery you could do a lot worse than this."

Edit:
Another gem from today's post:

"I'm very interested in seeing Friday night's Lakers-Blazers game, for a couple of reasons. First of all, it has obvious seeding implications for the Western Conference playoffs -- Portland will have a great shot at the No. 3 seed in the West if it can beat L.A. tonight. Second, it's the first time these teams have played since Trevor Ariza took out Rudy Fernandez, so it should make for a heated environment inside the Rose Garden tonight.

But most of all, I want to see this matchup because I'm increasingly thinking that the Blazers are the one team who can make L.A. sweat in the postseason. Denver hasn't matched up with the Lakers well the past two seasons, and some of the other teams we expected to contend haven't quite lived up to expectations.

But the Blazers have played reasonably well against the Lakers in recent matchups, are healthy entering the postseason, and have the strongest Power Ranking of any Western Conference foe. We may be getting a preview of the conference finals tonight, and if not, we're getting a look at what could be a very competitive and testy second-round fight."

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insider/columns/story?columnist=hollinger_john&page=PERDiemInsider-090410

Post Spurs Geek Out Thread

Magnum — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 01:45:58 -0000

There are plenty of things to be excited about after the game today.

We locked up a 50 win season. How many people thought we would be a 50 win team? I know I didn't predict 50 wins.

A 3-1 road trip that includes a 35 point blow out, two come from behind (double digit deficit) wins and a solid win against a Western conference playoff team.

The Blazers finally beat the Spurs at home after 11(?) straight losses in San Antonio.

The Blazers earned the tiebreaker against the Spurs.

I know there are a lot more things we can be excited about, but that's a good start.

What are you most excited about after this great win?

Experience Not Required

Magnum — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 20:38:35 -0000

Normally, I would have made this a fanshot, but because this question is extremely relevant to our interets and merits much discussion I made it a fanpost.

The question is: Does previous playoff experience matter when it comes to winning games?

Bear with me here, it's an ESPN insider story: Coming of Age

Update: Now available without insider access, link provided by Diesel10

For those of you without insider access or anyone too lazy to click the link, I will quote the important passages here.

"We calculated a "playoff score" which adds one point for each playoff win, subtracts one point for each playoff loss and awards four points for making the playoffs as well as for each subsequent series win. We also created a projected playoff score based on a team's regular-season record, point differential and seeding."

"Doing this shows a very, very slight value to postseason experience. For every 250 additional games of postseason experience, teams on average gain one playoff score point relative to their projection -- that is, about one extra win. The difference between the '96-97 Clippers and the most experienced team in the past 13 seasons (last year's Spurs) is about four playoff score points."

"If we look strictly at the least experienced playoff teams, it's hard to find much evidence that their youth worked against them. The 12 teams that entered the postseason with fewer than 100 games of playoff experience on their roster combined to post a playoff score of 4.1 despite an expected score of 2.9. In other words, they actually overachieved as a group."

Poll

Does the Blazers' lack of playoff experience hurt their chances to win in the playoffs?

Yes

23 votes

No

26 votes

I am more concerned about road games than experience

88 votes

137 votes | Poll has closed