With the retirement of Brandon Roy and Greg Oden most likely out for the year and probably with a new team next year the era of the "BIG THREE" is offically over. Since Oden did not play a game until the start of the 2008-9 season I guess the era of the big three really only lasted three seasons, 2008-9 to 2010-11. I thought it would be interesting to see how they did in terms of the most important stat in basketball (wins and losses) during that three year span. I put them in eight different categories ranging from all three playing together to none of them playing at all.

1. Oden, Roy,LMA 2008-9 (38-18) 2009-10 (13-8) and 2010-11(0-0)

2. Oden and Roy 2008-9(0-1) 2009-10(0-1) and 2010-11(0-0)

3. Oden and LMA 2008-9(2-2) 2009-10(0-0) and 2010-11(0-0)

4. Roy and LMA 2008-9(14-7) 2009-10(28-14) and 2010-11(25-21)

5. LMA 2008-9(0-0) 2009-10(8-8) and 2010-11(23-11)

6. Roy 2008-9(0-0) 2009-10(1-1) and 2010-11(0-0)

7. Oden 2008-9(0-0) 2009-10(0-0) and 2010-11(0-0)

8. None played 2008-9(0-0) 2009-10(0-1) and 2010-11(0-1)

It looks like there is at least one very positive trend that started last season and that is the emergence of LMA as clearly the teams best player. With a hobbled Brandon playing they struggled with a 25-21 record, while in spite of other players going down on top of Roy not playing they went a remarkable 23-11. With the rest of the team a lot healthier then they were at the end of last season I think things are a lot better than most people think.

On the down down side we will never have a clue as to what Oden could have done with this team. With a healthy Roy and LMA in terms of wins and losses it made very little difference when Oden was playing with them. The record with Roy and LMA was 42-21, with Oden added they were 51-26 almost identical percentages. So as far as wins and losses go at the level Oden played in those games it really didnt matter if he played or not. Who knows what could have happened if he was ever able to play normal minutes(30-35) for 75+ games a year, we will never know.

Many of you at Blazers Edge may of already heard the story of Dajuan Summers after signing a contract with an Italian team and what he had to go through, but for those who have not here is his story. First of all for those who are not familiar with Dajuan he is a two year veteran with the Detroit Pistons averaging an astounding 3.2 pts, .9 rebs, and .3 ast in 9 minutes per game for his career. To start with the team gave him a car(a Voltswagen of all things), and a nice house for him and his family, as if this is not bad enough it gets worse. For road games he had to fly to games on a COMMERCIAL airline and his accommodations, dont get me started. The rooms were no bigger than the closets  of the places he stays in while on the road in the NBA.  Then to top it off after getting about 30 minutes per game of playing time in preseason games his playing time dropped to 10-12 minutes when the regular season started and that was too much for an NBA star of Dajuans ability to handle, he was out of here. The team knew what they had by now(a stiff) so they worked out a buyout and he was on a plane back home.
     After hearing about how badly Dajuan was treated in his overseas basketball experience I can not see a lot of NBA players willing to go through an experience like that. Sometimes we as fans do not know how good we have it, I just hope this NBA lockout ends soon so that players like Dajuan can eek out a living so he can feed his family. Come on you Evil owners, these guys are only trying to make a living you dont need to make a profit on your 400 million dollar investment. After all most of these spoiled rotten brats do not have the brains that God gave a basketball and playing basketball is the only way for them to make it, LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

     In spite of what some fans might think the blazers have done an amazing job this year being above the .500 mark at this point in the season. You would think losing Roy and Oden (all though not having Oden is normal) and starting out playing as many road games as anyone in the league would be enough of a handicap for this team, but NOOO... They just throw in another huge one with their inability to shoot the basketball, unless they are at the foul line.

     Currently they are shooting .437 from the field (.461 last season) ranking them 26th among the 30 teams in the league. In the top thirteen  teams that lead the league in FG% only 2 have losing records, their problem being they are #1 and 2 in highest FG% allowed. At the other end the bottom ten where the blazers are at they are the one and only winning team in the group, the other nine all with losing records. I think it is pretty clear that in order to play winning   basketball it really is a big advantage to have a good FG%, no big surprise there. If the blazers were to up their FG% even to last years middle of the road FG% of .461 (15th in the league) it would make a big difference. Basically that would add up to 2 more FGs made and 2 less missed per game which would mean 4 more pts plus 2 less possessions from the missed shots for the opponent. Right now we are really spotting our opponents those 4-6 pts every game by shooting such a poor FG% on top of the handicaps we all ready have. I hope during this period coming up with a lot of home games they can hit the gym and take a crash course in "Shooting the basketball 101" and make a big improvement in the FG% department.                                                                          

      It happens game after game the starters manage to build up a lead and the bench comes in and throws it all away. In fact in the last 9 games the blazer bench has combined to shoot 29%(49-168) and committed 35 turnovers on those 49 made baskets. These numbers are really bad but it gets worse, despite this incredibly bad play they have a mid first round draft pick sitting on the bench getting no playing time at all. With a bench THIS bad and getting no playing time you must be bad, really bad. Maybe they should think about throwing some 1st round picks and Babbit together and pick up someone who can give them a few POSITIVE minutes off the bench.
     With Roy coming back you would think this would be a very good thing for the team, but as we have seen in the 4 games since his return it has not. The 4 opponents have combined to shoot over 52% (48% from the 3pt line) well above their average while the blazers have only shoot 41% well below their average. Obviously this is not all Roys fault  but he does contribute to it big time on the defensive end where the team often ends up playing 4 on 5 trying to cover for Roy. It would nice to see what he could do playing 20-25 minutes playing hard in all phases of the game vs the 35+ minutes he is playing now where it looks like he is pacing himself. Maybe giving away Bayless to NO was not such a good idea after all.

Of all the stats tossed around in basketball I think there is one that most would agree is by far the most important one and that is the bottom line WINS. In the past two seasons Greg Oden has played in 82 games in which the team posted a record of 53-29(41 at home and 43 against non playoff teams). In the the other 82 games he did not play the team went 51-31(41 at home and 38 against non playoff teams). Playing a schedule with 5 more games against non playoff teams and much more healthy players around him than the team playing without him they still were only able to come up with only 2 more wins. Even in just the 2009-10 season in which  was probably as healthy as he will ever be until the  injury they still only went 13-8 playing a rather weak schedule(12 at home and 12 against non playoff teams), not great. Even with all the added injures after Oden went down(including 17 missed by Roy in which they went 8-9) they still managed to go 37-24(29 at home and only 29 games vs non playoff teams), not an easy schedule.
      I am not saying the blazers are a better team without him on the floor, however for him to make a real difference as far as the team winning more games he not only needs to be 98.7% healthy he needs to play the minutes. The 22-24 minutes per game he has averaged in his first 82 is just not going to get it, he must be able to play at least 30 and really 35 minutes per game is the amount he should play night in and night out. Lets see him log that many minutes for say 40-50 games and see if the win total goes up or not. In the mean time the blazers will move on without him and make the playoffs, no problem, with a 56 win season. There is no reason to have him play now as it makes no difference, lets just wait and maybe someday he will make a difference.

How this guy ever got to the position he is currently in I would just have to guess that he is one BIG suck up yes man to Paul Allen, doing whatever it takes to keep his job. He should be in no position to make any player personal moves as the toxic offer to Wesley Matthews proves, and I am afraid the Blazers are going to be stuck with it. Unfortunately he is leading the search for a new GM, although anyone he picks would have to have more basketball knowledge than him. If he has ever done ANYTHING positive in all his time with the Blazers I would really like to know, this guy scares me to death.                                                                              

     No big shocking news here, I think all Blazer fans know by now not only is Oden always getting injured it takes him twice as long to recover than the average player. We have another good 4 months before training camp starts and hopefully by then he will be healthy and in shape ready to go. Assuming he is ready to go I think the Blazers should take advantage of this rare opportunity and take off the training wheels and see what he can really do playing 32-34 minutes vs his 22-24 he has averaged so far in his brief 82 game career. So far he has played only 6 games where he has played 32 minutes or more and in spite of picking up a foul per every 5 and half minutes played has only fouled out 5 times.                                                                                                                                                                                                         
     I would like to see that all change by employing what I would like to call the "ODEN PLAN". At the end of every game at least one of four things MUST happen  #1  Played  at least  32 minutes #2  Fouled  out  #3  Ejected  #4  Carried out,  no exceptions  win  or  lose  does  not matter. To  accomplish this  monumental  feat I  think a  firm  set in  stone  minutes per  quarter  should  be set,  something like the first 10  minutes  in the 1st quarter and the last 8 of the second and the same plan in the second half. Do not worry about fouls, if he picks up 6 fouls in the first quarter so be it its not like we have never played without him before no big deal. Maybe he can learn from the experience and possibly the reffs will have second thoughts about fouling a guy out before the first half is even over. A new contract is coming up and we really need to find out if he is even capable of playing 30+ minutes night in and night out, but hopefully we will take this opportunity and find out before he goes down once again.

• Minutes Rebounds Blocks Points Fouls Games    Bowie 1st year 2216(29per) 8.6  2.7  10.0  3.6  76   2nd 1132(30per)  8.6  2.5  11.8  3.8  38
•  3rd 163(32per)  6.6  2.0  16.0  3.8  5    4th 412(21per)  5.3  1.7  8.7  2.1  20
•  Walton 1st 1153(33per)  12.6  2.6  12.8  3.3  35    2nd 1687(33per) 13.4  1.6  16.1  2.9  51  
• 3rd 2264(35per) 14.4  3.4  18.6  2.6  65  4th 1929(33per) 13.2  2.5  18.9  2.7  58
•  Oden 1st --------------------------------------------------------------- 2nd 1312(21per) 7.0  1.1  8.9  3.9  61 
  3rd 494(24per) 8.5  2.2  11.1  4.0   21  4th Anybodys guess who knows.......................................

 Remember most considered Bowie a bust and the numbers Oden has put up so far are very similar to Bowie. In Odens first 3 years he will end up putting in WAY less minutes than Bowie or Walton did in their injury filled first three years.However Oden is (at least on his birth cirtificate) younger than they were when they started playing. So maybe we can just delete his first 3 years and consider him a 22 year old rookie just getting started next year. By the way Waltons stats in that 3rd and 4th year were awesome if only he could have stayed healthy who knows what could have happened.

It seems it has been the only way to go since the game began over a 100 years ago, your big man picks up two early fouls and out he comes. Thats standard coaching 101 you are not going to lose one of your best players to early foul trouble, your going to need him when the game is on the line at the end. In the case of Oden I think this strategy shoud change as long as he is playing well leave him in no matter how many early fouls he picks up. Say you play him 8 minutes in the 1st & 3rd quarters and the last 6 minutes of the 2nd & 4th, as long as he is playing well he plays those minutes. If he fouls out in the first half or even quarter so be it the rest of the team will take it from there. I think it would help him to get into the flow of the game knowing he is not coming out due to some ticky tack foul he just picked up. Playing short periods of time coming in and out of the lineup due to foul problems I think its hard to get anything going. Its better to get one solid half and playing your best than a full game of just being there and going through the moves. The blazers are very deep and can afford to make a move like this, they will have a hard time finding minutes for everyone this year anyway. On nights when he does foul out early it would give some much needed playing time to some of the bench players. The blazers were 14-7 last year without Oden and 13 of those games were against teams with winning records so if he does foul out of a few games early I think we will survive. There is always the chance he will cut down on his fouls as his learning of the NBA game progresses and I am sure he will as the blazers look forward to some NBA championship rings in the future. 
 

I think last year the blazers were at or near the top of the league in offense, do they really need to bring in another SF for a "third scoring option"? I know he is a good player, good passer, can shoot the 3, and hit some big shoots in the clutch. But paying 10 million a year for five years for a player who has 2-3 declining years left is WAY too much to pay. Let Toronto have that deal we have had way more than our fair share of bad contracts,let him go and good luck. Lets go with the players we have at the SF (Webster, Batum,Outlaw and even Rudy and Roy) I think we will be more than fine with that group,give them a chance. Lets use the money and go after Paul Millsap. Right now we have no one to back up LA at PF if he went down the blazers would be in a world of hurt. I think we could get Millsap 20-25 minutes a game with LA playing a few minutes at the center spot. Millsap still has a big upside and he plays a position that we really need at this point. With Webster coming back and hopefully big improvements from Oden and Bayless(who would have been a top 5 pick in this years draft) the skys the limit, but now back to reality and here comes Turkoglu and here we go again.

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This post is not intended as a slam to GO, but what I think would help the blazers the most at this point in time. He had a 5 game streak early in the year when he was coming off the bench where he went for 9.5 reb., 13 pts, and 2.5 blks per game. He has had most of his success this year against weaker opponets and for the most part struggled vs the good ones. Joel has been playing very well for us in the starting role and has had good games when playing against the better teams in the league. We would really have some fire power in the 2nd unit with GO, TO, and Rudy coming off the bench. I do not think there are very many (if any) teams who could match up to that group with their 2nd units. Its nice that we have two good centers that we could do a move like this. On most teams in the league a player like Oden would have to be inserted back into the starting lineup asp,and I am sure the blazers will be one of them in a year or two as his game improves. But for now lets bring him off the bench and DESTROY other teams 2nd units!! 

I think the NBA shoud think about changing the way it handles players who commit flagrant fouls that result in an injury to another player. Right now it usally results with a fine and a 1-2 game suspension and thats it. The injured player could be out for 3 months and his team and him have to deal with that while the one who caused it misses only a couple of games. I think if a player commits a flagrant foul and it results in an injury to another player he shoud not be allowed to play again untill the player he injured is able to play . After the injured players first game back the player who commited the foul can serve his 1-2 game suspension and return. I know the guy (in this case Ariza) is going to say he was making a play on the ball, and maybe he was it does not matter if its called a FLAGRANT foul and results in injury to the player this is what happens. This seems like the only way to handle these things in a semi fair way. Afterall its not right that the player who got hurt through no fault of his own shoud miss games while the one who caused it continues to play. Im sure most of the time nobody is trying to injure anyone but those are the breaks, in the end the one who gets hurt still gets the worst of it. Anyway for now we will have to live with the stupid slap on the wrist 1-2 game suspension and the game goes on,it sucks!!

1. Hey guys I think we have a great chance of going 2 for 3 on this road trip maybe even a sweep!!!! Sure we do not have Oden on the trip but playing against good teams on the road is not his thing anyway(7pts,4reb,0.4blks in 23 minutes is his average inlast 5 road games vs a winning team). Lets face it his "D" has not been the best through that strech either, so I do not think it will be to hard to make up for that kind of production. On the other hand Houston will be without McGrady and the Spurs will not have Ginobili players that are much more important to thier teams than Oden is to the Blazers at this point in time.(not to mention no Jefferson for Timberwolves) So if the Blazers can play smart and hard with everyone contributing something they shoud have a chance for a great road trip, GOOD LUCK BLAZERS!!!!!!. Thought I would end up with a "Letterman type" top 10 list of excuses or reasons for GO not having the season many had hoped for.

#10 Living up to all the hype coming out of college puts a lot of added pressure on. #9 Just turned 21 years old still very young ...................................................................... #8 Getting to know the NBA all the the things you shoud and shoud not do.............. #7 Being a Rookie you do not get the calls or respect a veteran does ....................... #6 No help on pick and roll and getting stuck on a guard causing added fouls........ #5 The referees getting to know his game........................................................................ #4 Bigs take longer to develop than smaller players...................................................... #3 Teammates not getting him the ball when open........................................................ #2 ALL big men get hurt heres the list............................................................................... #1 MICROFRACTURE it takes at least 2 years to recover............................................. Well on with the show!!

It seems your average blazer fan has certain things they believe in and one of them seems to be lets trade Outlaw. Afterall he never plays "D" ALWAYS pulls up and takes the jumper and pass the ball forget it. They just see what they want to see and disregard all the many positives he brings to the team. He could go 9-10 but all they would see is the one jump shot he missed that he shoud have never been taking in the first place. TRADE him!!!! Of corse the no "D" no pass allways take the jumper is not true. Outside of Roy I do not think there is another blazer who has contributed more to some big wins this season than Travis. Many times this season he has come in when the team was struggling at the offensive end and hit some big shots to get things headed in the right direction. When the 4th quarter rolls around you can expect him to be in there in a close game taking and making a big shot(like against the knicks the other night) to pull out a win. Its not easy to find players like him who can come off the bench and light a spark plus fit in to the team chemistry that is so VERY important!!!!! Inspite of the blazers lack of a good team defense right now I think their team chemistry is great and the "D" will come. If we win tonight we will be 33-19 at the break, not bad. Unless someone wants to give us something great for RLEC lets just keep what we have and see how things go, we can allways tweak things during the summer. Anyway just wanted to get something positive said for Travis all the negitive gets old.

Since the 1st of December the Blazers have played 31 games, 15 vs winning teams and 16 vs losing teams. In those games Oden has started them all and has 14 in which he played well(13.9pts, 11.0reb, and 1blk in 28 minutes) and 17 poor games(4.9pts, 3.3reb, .6blk in 21 minutes). Seems to be very inconsistent but really he is very VERY consistent. In the 15 games against the good teams he has had 2 of the good games and 13 bad ones while having12 good and only 4 bad ones vs losing teams. At this stage in his career he seems to be having problems playing in harder games and tougher opponents but not so much vs easier ones. This being the case why not start Przybilla vs the winning teams and bring in Oden off the bench to feast on the opponents 2nd unit. Joel has been pretty consistent if not better against the winning teams and this might give Greg a chance to come in and get his game going(maybe not so many fouls, who knows). At least I do not think he would do any worse than the 5pt 3reb game he would probably get if he started. Against losing teams (like New York tonight) he could continue to start and tear em apart. Anyway in a bold prediction for tonights game against a losing team AT HOME he has a big game 18pt 13reb 2blk, just a guess we will see.

Since the Blazers last win against a winning team on the road back on 11-30 (Detroit) they have played 28 games (14 against winning teams and 14 against losing teams. In the 14 games vs the losing teams Oden puts up 12.5 pts, 9.7 rebs, and1.0 blks per game in 27 minutes not bad for a rookie center. But against the winning teams he drops to 5.5 pts, 4.5 rebs, and 0.6 blks per game in 21 minutes,BIG difference.In many of these games he has picked up the dreaded 2 early fouls and from coaching 101 you are to take him out and they do and we all know what happens from there a 3pt 2reb night 90% of the time.It does not work. Why not keep his playing time the same no matter how many fouls he picks up,call a time out if you have to but keep him on the floor untill its his normal time to come out. We have Joel and LA can play some center too if he needs to. Its not the end of the world even if he were to foul out in the first half and I would bet he would have a lot better numbers in that one half than he has the whole game by making the conventional move.There is nothing to lose try something!!!!! When he matures in a year or two the normal stratagy will probably be the way to go but right now it does not seem to be. We have NO and Dallas coming up on this road trip and we need a contribution from everyone, heres hoping for a 3-0 trip and a couple of good games from GO!!!!

Great game tonight for Bayless and the Blazers!!! But once again another no show for Oden with a whooping 2 points and 1 rebound oh and 1 block. Lets not forget the blocked shot those have been pretty rare for him lately.I was checking out the stats of Oden and Brook Lopez the rookie center for the Nets out of Stanford. Lopez has started 32 games and has not been under 10 (rebounds+points+blocked shots) in a single game.In Odens 26 starts this year including tonights gem he has been under the 10 mark 9 TIMES, not good. Thats 9 games where he really did not even have to have suited up that night why bother your not going to try anyway. Every game he is given a chance to play as many minutes as he would like something that most rookies would die for. Get a couple of early fouls on him and hes done for the night moping on the end of the bench. Put him back in and 9 out of 10 times he does nothing, and than back to the bench just like tonight. Hey everybody has bad nights but at least you can get out there and play good D and rebound. Afterall I thought he was a great rebounder and defender, but have not seen much of that so far. Anyway enough of that heres to hoping Bayless gets his chance now and takes advantage GO BLAZERS!!!!!!!!

It seems like everytime Oden picks up two early fouls he is done for the night. He might as well go to the locker room shower and dress. Im not a big Oden fan but I hope to be at soom point in time and I hope thats soon. How bout playing him the first 7-8 minutes of first quarter,the last 7-8 minutes of the 2nd,the first 7-8 of the 3rd no matter how many fouls he has. The fourth he could be used sa needed. If he fouls out early so be it at least you will get more out of him than you get now espiecally if he picks up early fouls. Who knows he could be the first to foul out in the first quarter but I think we have the bench to handal it. He would get longer periods of playing time not 3 minutes foul foul out 2 minutes foul out ect. Anyway enough of fantacyland today and heres to hoping they DESTROY the lakers tonight!!!!