SB Nation User Blog: Majikj0n

Man, I hate when the Blazers play like this.

Majikj0n — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:36:13 -0000

I hate when the Blazers play like this. It just takes all the fun out of being a Blazers fan.

Games like last night are just so boring. I mean, there's no drama, no second-guessing, and hardly any room to gripe and complain about what the team should have done differently. Where's the fun in that?

I mean, first of all, we haven't had any really good soap-opera issues lately. I mean, apart from a little Miller/Roy playing time/starting lineup drama that seems to be petering out, there's just no conflict on this squad. No squabbling to rip the team management for. No ammo to use for how badly Nate is managing the team in the locker room. How am I supposed to rip the coach when he actually manages to get the egos to work together? How can he do this to me? Is that fair?

Secondly, how can I complain about poor rebounding and lack of interior looks when we're shooting everything from inside? Take last night as an example. 57% shooting from the field with tons of high percentage tips and dunks makes it impossible to criticize the poor shot selection (which was already a problem with Travis being out. I mean, even when that guy is hitting everything from everywhere, his shot selection is always horrible, right?).

I can't even complain about our three-point shooting when we shoot 40% on those. I mean, come on guys, give me something to work with here.

How can I criticize Nate for not playing Cunningham when he goes to him first off the bench at the 4? Ditto Bayless at the 2. When you actually play the guys, I can't imagine how much better the team would be if Nate weren't such a horrible coach by leaving them on the pine all the time.

How can I call Brandon a ball hog when he's racking up assists, and ends up only being the third leading scorer in the game? I can't even rip him for lack of scoring when he's got 18 points at the same time! I mean, how can you take both those away from me at the same time? I gotta be able to gripe about one or the other no matter what, right?

I mean, if they keep this up, pretty soon I won't even be able to keep griping about how The Blazers always choke in the playoffs anymore, either.

Oh well. I guess I can always keep ripping on Blake and Webster. Just gotta hope Webster doesn't keep hitting threes and playing solid defense, and that Blake doesn't keep getting rebounds and assists like he did last night.

Bring Back Ime Udoka? We could do a lot worse.

Majikj0n — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:15:10 -0000

With all the summer's purported "disappointments" on the Free Agent market, it'd becoming clear that the "Big Splash" the front office was hoping for is not going to happen. Barring a sweatheart deal with a team looking to offload salary, we may be better off at this point merely shoring up our bench with a veteran roleplayer or two.

What kind of player would best fill this role for us? For me, it comes down to 4 attributes:

Able to hit an open jumpshot, preferably from 3-point range.
Solid defensively.
Won't mind sitting on the bench for long stretches if our younger players are doing well, or create locker-room tension.
Won't break the bank, leaving us with some roster flexibility at trade deadline time.

Is it just me, or is this not a perfect description of what Ime Udoka brings to the table? Sure, he's not a game-changing type of player. He's not going to light up your stat sheet every night. At the same time, he's a hard worker, stingy on perimeter D, can stroke the three from the corner when he's open, and could probably be had for about half the available room the Blazers have under the cap. Say a 3-year, $15 million deal, with a team option for a fourth year.

I don't know how much bias I have about Ime. Certainly, I was a big fan of him when he was here. At the same time, his last two seasons in SA have been less productive than his year in Portland. Would bringing Ime back be a smart move from a basketball perspective? Or is this just wishful thinking on my part due to my love of Ime?

Poll

Should the Blazers re-sign Ime Udoka?

Yes!

48 votes

No!

40 votes

Maybe!

31 votes

119 votes | Poll has closed

Adventure in Vegas - How the Blazers are perceived outside of P-Town

Majikj0n — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 05:57:11 -0000

I was fortunate enough to be selected by my company to attend the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) national convention in Las Vegas, Nevada last week.

As a loyal Blazer fan, I thought it only fitting to wear my Blazers gear for as much of the week as my work schedule would allow. This had some interesting results.

via photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net

First off, let me say that the ESPNZone Sports Bar at the New York, New York Casino Hotel in Vegas is possibly the best place in the Universe to watch a Blazer game. This was my choice of venue for Game 2, which was not broadcast on the main national stations.

Once the Hockey fans cleared out, the rest of the bar was predominantly cheering for the Blazers, also. I guess they were from Portland like I was, probably in Vegas for NAB like I was, but it was somewhat gratifying to have some much of the crowd behind me when on "foreign" turf. (Also, as an aside, my server, Jeni, at the bar was possibly the coolest person I met in Las Vegas, bar none. She actually complained that the TVs in the bar were preprogrammed for the Laker/Utah game to show on the main TV. Awesome. I was wearing my Rudy jersey that night, and when I stepped up to the bar her comment was "As long as he's not wearing Purple, he's okay with me!")

In any case, I wore my Blazers gear at every moment possible while walking the Vegas strip. Brandon's jersey got a lot of comments in Vegas. The ratio, however, was about 5 to 1 positive comments vs negative ones. I did get one "Jail Blazers" remark, but it was from a guy wearing a Kobe jersey, so I discount that one.

It was also very cool to see another guy in a Roy #7 jersey, and a guy by the pool at my Hotel (The Monte Carlo) wearing a LaMarcus #12 T-Shirt.

In a place like Vegas, of course, where the population of the strip is at least 95% tourists, it's a little hard to judge how well your team is really respected, but the number of "Go Blazers!" and "B-Roy! Yeah!" remarks I got while strolling down the strip were very satisfying. It was almost a little embarassing.

In any case, It's fabulous to finally be able to sport my team colors in a far-off land and be so proud of what my team has done. I look forward to many years of excellence to come.

Go Blazers!

Trade Rumor: RLEC for John Salmons.

Majikj0n — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 15:44:13 -0000

Trade Rumor: RLEC for John Salmons.

I don't know what to think about this one. Salmons has been playing out of his mind this year, but he's not exactly an All-Star. I think we might able to do better by including RLEC in a package that nets us some significant All-Star talent, at the additional cost of one or more of our prospect players

Rudy heading to dunk contest!

Majikj0n — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 21:46:07 -0000

The Oregonian is reporting that Rudy Fernandez has won the fan voting, and will be the fourth representative in this year's Dunk Contest at All-Star Weekend, alongside Dwight Howard, Nate Robinson, and Rudy Gay.

The question: Is this a good thing?

With Rudy already hurting, wouldn't it be better to have him resting over All-Star weekend than having to compete in the dunk contest?

On the other hand, the positive exposure is certainly something the Blazers could use right now with all the media frenzy over a certain former Blazer.

You also have to consider the fact that Rudy was almost certain to be invited to the Rookie/Sophomore game, anyway, and thus was already going to miss the vacation time on this account.

Thoughts?

Poll

Is it a good thing for Rudy to be in the dunk contest?

Yes

195 votes

No

74 votes

Undecided / Other

33 votes

302 votes | Poll has closed

Blazer Stat Leaders in Various Categories

Majikj0n — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 23:06:05 -0000

While no Blazer player really stands out in the major categories (Points, Rebounds, Steals, Assists, Blocks), there are a number of Blazers who stand out statistically. Here's some interesting figures showing how our players are getting the job done in less flashy ways.

- Travis Outlaw is second in the league in 3pt %, at .500 (31-62) (To Jason Kapono)

- Joel is shooting 55-67 FG% (.833) on the season (The highest % for any player with more than 1 shot attempt)

- Rudy is shooting 95.3 FT% (3rd in the league for players with 30+ attempts)

- Steve Blake is 93.9 FT% (4th in the league for players with 30+ attempts)

- Oden has 3.54 Blocks per 48 Minutes (11th in the league for players with 15 or more GP)

- Oden has 6 double-doubles in only 15 games so far this year

- Sergio is 2nd in the NBA in Assists per 48 mins... To Chris Paul.

- Sergio is also 12th in the NBA in Assist to Turnover ratio (among players with at least 40 assists)

Debunking the myth of the "Second-Youngest Team"

Majikj0n — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 04:59:08 -0000

It's been all over the media this year. Golden State is fielding a younger team than Portland, so we're only the "second-youngest team" this year.

Well, that may have been true on opening day, when some reporter who was so inclined decided to do the math and check it out. However, there is a problem with that.

This is a skewed number, due to people on both rosters who don't actually PLAY in any games. Raef brings our average age up quite a bit, but he's out for the year with an injury. Can this guy seriously be counted as a factor for our average age when he's likely never to even suit up again in a Blazers uniform?

So, as a courtesy, I've charted the average ages of the top-10 minute getters in the season so far for both teams (using Jamal Crawford's minutes with the Knicks as a part of this so as not to skew the result).

Ages listed are in days, as of Dec 1. The numbers are as follows. For the Blazers, we have:

Brandon Roy.......07/23/84 = 8897
LaMarcus Aldridge.07/19/85 = 8536
Greg Oden.........01/22/88 = 7619
Sergio Rodriguez..06/12/86 = 8208
Steve Blake.......02/26/80 = 10506
Joel Przybilla....10/10/79 = 10645
Rudy Fernandez....04/04/85 = 8642
Nicolas Batum.....12/14/88 = 7292
Travis Outlaw.....09/18/84 = 8840
Channing Frye.....05/17/83 = 9330

For a total of 88515 days, or 8851.5 days old per player, which is about 24.25 years old on average.

For the Warrirors:

Kelenna Azubuike.12/16/83 = 9117
Andris Biedrins..04/02/86 = 8279
Jamal Crawford...03/20/80 = 10483
Stephen Jackson..04/05/78 = 11198
Corey Maggette...11/12/79 = 10612
Anthony Morrow...09/27/85 = 8466
Anthony Randolph.07/15/89 = 7065
Ronny Turiaf.....01/13/83 = 9454
Brandan Wright...10/07/87 = 7726
CJ Watson........04/17/84 = 8994

For a total of 91394 days, or 9139.4 days old per player, which is almost exactly 25 years old on average.

So, as we can see, the Blazers average about 9 months YOUNGER than the warriors, if you count only the players who see minutes.

This will change slightly, once we get Martell back from injury, and Golden State gets Ellis back from his injury, also, but since Martell is over a year younger than Ellis, it will only increase the disparity.

Martell Observations

Majikj0n — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:42:12 -0000

I was at last night's game. Man what a fun game that was.

I got there more than 80 minutes prior to tip-off. There were, as always, a number of players shooting around as the crowd filtered in. (Thank you to the Blazers for opening the Rose Garden 90-minutes prior to tip rather than 60 minutes like last season.)

Alongside Blake and Shavlik Randolph, a clean-shaven Martell Webster was there shooting threes.

He looked very good. He wasn't running or cutting or anything, and it's hard to judge true accuracy from a shooter when there's no defender there creating mischief. However, almost every shot was right on the money.

He didn't show any signs that his foot was bothering him any. If he's cleared to practice next week, December 5th seems entirely reasonable to me for his return.

I'm very excited to finally have the possibility of a 100% full (if not entirely 100% healthy, at least 100% PRESENT) roster.

The only downside I see is it probably means fewer minutes for Batum (like, probably NONE in most cases, unless we have extended garbage minutes like last evening). It could also throw a wrench into team cohesiveness, but that's already pretty up-in-the-air right now due to the Oden adjustment, so I can't imagine Martell's return is going to make waves that are any more noticeable than that. In any case, the sooner he comes back, the sooner we can work out the last kinks in our lineup, and finally see what we have.

If last night was any indication, this team could be ready to make serious waves RIGHT NOW. Go Blazers.

Rudy Write-In! Let's get him in the All-Star game!

Majikj0n — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 02:46:47 -0000

Okay, so we have gotten a taste of what kind of amazing player Rudy has turned out to be.

I'd say it's time to let the rest of the NBA (and the world) know it as well.

Rudy is not on this year's All-Star Ballot. I can't think of a more deserving player not listed on that form, however. Now it's pretty much a no-brainer who the two starting guards for the West are going to be this year (CP3 and K*be), based on reputation alone. This sucks, but hey, it's the way things are. It's pretty hard to argue with those selections based on the way those two guys play.

If Brandon keeps being Brandon, however, there's a good chance he'll be on the bench again, as voted by the coaches.

I say we make a concerted effort to draw attention to Rudy Fernandez, by writing him in. Sure, he's a shoo-in for the Rookie Challenge, but that's weak sauce. I say let's see if we can get him in the grown-up game as a write-in candidate.

This site is one of the most active fansites on the entire Internet. Let's show the world the kind of power we can generate by voting early (and often) for Rudy as a write-in candidate!

If Rudy's even on the radar as a vote-getter by January, then the coaches will be taking note. With the All-Star coaches, perception can be reality.The world saw what he could do in the Gold Medal game in Beijing. Let's make certain the coaches remember that moment. Let's make certain they take notice of this guy who is playing amazing ball, and making the NBA fun again.

Who's with me?

Edit:

Here is the direct link to the voting page on NBA.com:

http://www.nba.com/allstar2009/asb/eng/landing.jsp?cid=nba18

Poll

Should we vote for Rudy as a write-in candidate?

Yes. No one not on the ballot deserves it more.

130 votes

No. It will deflect votes from Brandon.

40 votes

170 votes | Poll has closed

Trade Rumor: David Lee for Steve Blake?

Majikj0n — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 14:39:46 -0000

Rumor source here:

http://www.hoopsworld.com/HeadlineStories.asp?hd=20080629&lc=NBA#STORY_9771

I'm not exactly sure what to think about this deal. One the one hand, Steve Blake is the perfect fit for us right now. He provides stability and a steady hand for the next couple seasons while Bayless is learning the ropes, and showing us what he can do. Beyond that, Blake becomes valuable as an experienced backup, bringing good outside shooting, and hard work and energy off the bench. How could we even think about trading that away?

On the other hand, we'd be getting back David Lee. That's a heck of an upgrade in terms of talent. Lee plays the PF in NY, but could easily slide over and be our starting SF. Plus, we do have a glut of point guards right now, making Blake at least somewhat expendable.

What do you think? Does this deal make sense for Portland?

Poll

Is Steve Blake for David Lee a good move for Portland?

Yes - Lee is a big-time upgrade

66 votes

No - We need the qualities Blake brings

117 votes

Only if we can get another veteran PG from someplace.

71 votes

254 votes | Poll has closed