It is my belief that at PG Kidd would be our best option for this upcoming offseaon acquisition period and that Nic would be the best option at SF.

The case for Kidd:

Out of all 4 Pgs discussed as possible targets Kidd, Miller, Hinrich,and Blake,he has the 2nd best PER but can hit the 3 much better than the first PER Miller.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/fc/tiny.cgi?id=R6YP6

"Kidd has lost a step and cannot play D anymore"

Well not really as Kidd produced the best D win score of the entire group even over Hinrich.

"Well stats do not say everything Hinrich is still better"

OK well people who watch the NBA, you know the NBA head coaches that vote on the All-defensive team, have more of a subjective view as well if anybody watches games, it is the head coaches.

Everybody makes a big deal of the fact that HInrich was on the all defensive team but looking back, he was only on the 2nd team ONCE in 2006. However Kidd has been a perpetual All-defensive team member.

1st team: 98, 00, 01, 05
2nd team: 99, 02, 03, 04, 06

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_All-Defensive_Team

So pretty much every year since 98 Kidd has been on the All-defensive team consistently for 8 years.

"Well he is getting old and is slowing down he cant do it much longer"

Well that may be true but, the last 2 years he did not make it onto the team, however, 2 years ago, the first time Kidd did not make the AD team, he received 13 votes compared to Mr BlazersEdge all defense Hinrich who received only a single vote.

http://www.nba.com/news/defensive_team_080512.html

Even this year Kidd was again ahead of Hinrich in the defensive team voting 3 to 1 again.

http://www.nba.com/2009/news/05/06/defensive.team/index.html

"But, but Kidd is a wife beater!!"

As for the offcourt stuff he was plead guilty to a domestic charge back in 2001 and ever since then has kept his nose clean supposedly even going dry in the process. He had a nasty divorce and lots of mud was thrown around, but lots of times that happens when divorce and millions of other peoples $ is involved.
I would imagine that if you had lots of $, a public job and were divorcing someone they would exaggerate every little thing that you may have done wrong in your relationship to further their own case for your $. In the end that is what it came down to.

"He doesn't have much left in the tank!!"

Statistically, he is still better than either Hinrich or Blake and he will have enough to get us to when Bayless is ready to take over full time. Kidd has stated that he would not have a problem, later in his career, coming to a young team and being that mentor to a younger PG. I do not think that many teams are going to be signing a 36 YO PG for more than about 3 years perhaps 4 with a team option.

I can see the platoon much like 2 years ago with Blake starting but Jack playing most of the 4th Q and crunch time mins. Blake came in at 29.9 and Jack at 27.2 and Kidd/Bayless are unquestionably more talented than that pair.
Keep Kidds mins down to prolong his career/usefulness and creep up Bayless' to advance his development. Win-win.

So in conclusion, Kidd is has the highest PER among those PGs above 40%, a higher D win score than both Blake and Hinrich combined, and has had a proven track record of defensive team results.

Objectively and subjectively Kidd is clearly the better defender, has BBIQ that is off the charts and not to even mention the most important thing: 115 playoff games, playoff experience that we SORELY need.

We do not need to win 75 games, only 16 in the playoffs, in fact I suspect that we will come in at close to the same amount of wins as last year but with a far better showing in the playoffs.

The most difficult part of this all is getting him from Dallas, as all accounts he is happy there and thinks that he has a shot at a ring there. However the thing we have going for us is that if he does not think that Dal does not get it this year, we would have a better shot in 2 years and beyond, which would give us a shot.

A sign and trade using Blake and Webster/Outlaw and perhaps a future 1st pick would do wonders to clear up the roster and advance us deep into the playoffs, which is honestly the only thing that matters at all and why we should choose Kidd.

The case for Nic:

All in all keep Batum starting, allow him to mature and backing him up with to Roy/Rudy to maximize Rudys time. Per 82games, in the top 5 winningest combination of players, 3 of them include a Roy/Rudy combination, and 1 other includes Rudy, meaning that in 80% of the winningest combinations Rudy.

http://www.82games.com/0809/0809POR2.HTM

As for Nic, he is unquestionably better at defense than Webster and in addition he is the far superior athlete. Martell is average to below in terms on NBA athleticism.

http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Martell-Webster-279/

Not a great athlete, but not a slouch either. Enjoys nice straight line speed, good leaping ability, and a deceptive first step. Has learned to better utilize his athleticism as he's gained experience, but still lacks the ball-handling skills to take full advantage....... he struggles to create separation........lacks the lateral quickness to consistently defend more athletic players..........Lacks the foot quickness to be a lockdown defender and is that fact that his athletic ability is fairly underwhelming...........Watching tapes of his from high school, players his age don't seem to have too much trouble staying in front of him........Webster's footwork needs serious work on both ends of the court, especially since his feet aren't the quickest................Defensively, his lateral quickness is extremely poor, and he'll very likely be a defensive liability..................Webster puts in the effort on the defensive end, but he just doesn't have the quickness or footwork to keep up with the athletic swingmen types he matches up with at the high school level. Playing as a professional, this problem will only be much worse.....................Webster has his work cut out in many areas of the game to show that he is not just a one-dimensional shooter and that his lack of athleticism does not hurt his ability to develop the rest of his game..............Martell is a good, but not great athlete

Contrast that with Nic

http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Nicolas-Batum-537/

freakish athlete ........Blessed with fluid and quite freakish athletic ability.........Batum enjoys a god-gifted physical-athletic profile........ridiculous wingspan and athleticism .........his outstanding athleticism ..........freakish length and outstanding athleticism ........as well as a terrific athlete........impressive physical and athletic set ...........In terms of athleticism, he's an extremely gifted guy. He's quick, but especially a remarkable leaper, being able to perform some jaw dropping dunks. ...................showed the best athletic gifts in Mannheim ...............His athletic conditions are amazing. His vertical, his hang time, his extraordinary quickness, his explosive first step; all make him a player who is athletically almost unparalleled. He has quite long arms and displays great coordination in all his moves. .........

In addition I contend that Nic is the better offensive player as well

http://www.basketball-reference.com/fc/pcm_finder.cgi?request=1∑=0&=b&p1=batumni01&y1=2009&=w&p2=webstma02&y2=2008&=&=

Even comparing Martells best year with Nics rookie year Nic is ahead in most metrics.

"The only reason Nic shot that well was the fact that he was wide open!!"

Well yes he was, but with much the same personnel and offense Martell only shot .388 while in the EXACT same situation James Jones, a career .353 shooter coming over to the Blazers, managed to shoot a career best .444 meaning that there must have been some open shots to be had for everyone. How else to explain a career best shooting percentage in the exact same situation when Martell could not take advantage of it?

There is no arguing that Nic has more potential being a 2nd year player than Webster does going into his 4th year, meaning that we are close to seeing a finalized product in Martell. We have waited on bated breath for Martell to turn the corner, always saying "Next year!! Next year he will breakout!!" and much like Telfair we will probably never see it. Case in point if you look at his per minute stats in his first 3 years in the league, they are exactly the same. Out of all players that have spent more than 3 years with the Blazers and were under 25(Roy, LMA, Webster, Jack, Sergio and Webster), coming into this year only Roy, LMA and Outlaw showed marked per minute improvement in their first 2 years in the league. Same crappyness just more of it.

Also IF he is able to physically perform in TC and does not get hurt, what will become of him? Even if he does lace up the Nikes, what good will he be not having played competitive NBA basketball in almost a year and a half? It will take him half the season to regain any semblance of a pro NBA basketball game, and by then Batum will have a year and a half of NBA basketball under his belt,

People will say that we need Webster to come back, but for what purpose? If Martell is deemed out for the entire upcoming year what will we have? Almost the same roster that won us 54 games and the 2nd best record in the west.

I feel that there is strong statistical and anecdotal evidence to support that both Kidd and Nicholas should be the answers to PG1 and SF1 in the upcoming year, it is the most realistic in terms of chemistry and avalibility and would be excactly what this team needs: a solid wing defender who can hit an open shot and a playoff experienced veteran who can mentor Bayless into a champiohship PG. 

On a side note, Terry Porter played SG through much of college and in his senior year averaged much the same stats as Bayless did in his freshman year. Porter was also 6'3 200lbs and known in college for his scoring prowess averaging 19.7 ppg the exact same as Bayless and it was not until his senior year he assumed the PG position full time. It just goes to show you that there is a precedent that many here witnessed first hand and will hopefully witness again. IMO Kidd can help usher  in that new era. 

Ladies and gentlemen I rest my case.

Congratulations to Joel Pryzbilla for his first ever fully completed season!! In honor of his first ever completed season let us look back and bask in his glory:

Vampire Joel

Blast from the Past Joel Pt. I

via imagecache.allposters.com

Blast from the Past Joel Pt. II

via cache.gettyimages.com

Blast from the Past Blazer style Joel

via cache.gettyimages.com

WAAAAY Blast from the Past Joel

via media.citypages.com

Little b*tch vs. Joel

Joel and his Arch-Enemy

via i.cdn.turner.com

Joel getting gritty how we likes it

via cache.daylife.com

"That's our ball, right?!?!" Joel 

via photos.oregonlive.com

"NOT IN MY HOUSE, TIMMAH!!" Joel

via d.yimg.com

Model Joel Pt. I

via adidasgrassrootsbasketball.com

Model Joel Pt. II

via www.nba.com

Lastly and most importantly:

Joel and his own home team

via www.portlandtribune.com

Just think how big a deal it was when he resigned with us, turning down offers from Det. and SA, turning down the chance to compete for a title right away. Hopefully Joel will be able to get more championship rings with the Blazers than the Spurs have. 

HERE IS TO  JOEL RETIRING A BLAZER!!

BLAZER FOR LIFE: JOEL THETHRILLA/VANILLAGORILLA/GHOSTFACEKILLA PRYZBILLA!!

EDIT=yes he has only played in 81 games but short of him dying, do you actually think that anything will keep him from going after that final tip? 

Many peopl here are talking crazy and are wanting to trade everyone "Trade Blake for a sack of peanuts!!!" Crazy stuff from crazy people.

Now I am here to explain the reason we have been losing, and it is two fold, 1. Rudy has been sucking it up the last few games and only in Toronto, did he have a meaningful role. Everyone, including myself, loves Rudy but he has been getting a free pass over the past few games and it needs to be brought to attention, if he hist even at a little better rate, we would of won those games. in the last 5 games he is 13/41or 31% I do not know why, but he is off. Too many times we have seen him pass up wide open 3pters and then tonight it seemed that was trying to force the issue, with bad results. The season may be catching up with him but he needs to be on to replace that long distance shooting we lost in Jones. Without him opening up the lane Roy and LMA are having a hard time going to work.

2. Batum has been a no show so far this December he is 3/18 an atrocious 16.7% and has gone from 6 pts to 1pt/gm. His D has seemed to drift a little as well, namely his off the ball D, losing his man for a backdoor cut or an open 3. It seems that he may not be reading the scouting reports as well as he should be and sometimes is not identifying the shooter on the court and sagging off him to help on a player that did not warrant a 2x. The unfortunate thing is that early in the season they were the catalyst for much of the success of the team, now they have fallen off a bit, the team is struggling and Roy and LMA are being asked to put this team on its backs, but they cannot do it alone, they are not at that point in their careers yet. It is difficult sometimes to remember that this is the 2nd youngest team in the league and we expect so much out of them at such a young age. We forget that Rudy is a rookie and only 23 and Batum is still a teenager.

Too much has been expected and neededd from these rookies and it has finally caught up. Perhaps it is because of the fact that the season would almost be done in France and Spain 24 games into the season and they have played all of those games in little over a month and a half. In closing let us just hope that this is simply the closing to the roughest stretch of the season for our young Trail Blazers and the rest of the season we can return to that high level and even increase that even more. I would imagine that most of the guys will sleep long into the morning and possibly into the early afternoon today as much of it will be well deserved. Congratulations, young Blazers, the toughest part of the season is done and it is all downhill from here.

For thouse of you who would like to see our own Joel Freeland play you can watch him here on eurosport.

Link

I know this is a fanshot but due to the importance you can move it down later if you wish, I just wanted to get this out ASAP. 

EDIT:

Boxscore

Now that the game has finished Freelands Gran Canaria team pulled it out over opposing team, LIETUVOS RYTAS 94-83

Freeland led Gran Canaria with 20pts on 9-11 shooting, 6 rebounds,1 block and a 24 ranking. He also added 2 assists but also with 3 tos in 21:58. 

He was also 2-2 at the free throw line and looked very athletic in the process. Had some strong moves and cleaned up the glass very well. 

I was pretty impressed overall, nice job Joel. 

Looking across the forums and the internet, so many people are thinking that Travis will be the most likely to be traded  if there is a trade. 

Now the only reason that Travis would be traded is if there is a trade for a top flight PG on the table and Travis is the missing talent piece to go along with RLEC, however a large trade includint a Harris or Parker is very unlikely to come IMO. 

However from a team standpoint, Travis is one of the most valuable and integral players on the team, moreso than Webster who will be the first SF to be traded and here is why. 

1. Everyone says that Travis is a "black hole" that once he gets the pass he dribbles around and has only one thing on his mind: getting his shot off. However the stats prove otherwise:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/POR/2009.html

Travis' usage percentage is actually 6th on the team very close to Rudy's which means that when Travis is on the court, he is used about the same as Rudy

2. Martell is 6'7 225 and swings more of a 2-3 and Travis is 6'9 215 and swings 3-4 so lets take a look at who we have at the 2 and 3

from top to bottom, best to worst

2:

Roy

Rudy

Webster

Bayless

3:

Travis/Martell/Nic

to me there is no clear cut differential between Travis and Martell and some may claim Nic, as they all bring different things to the table. 

however looking traviis and the 3-4 lineup it goes as follows

3:

Travis/Martell/Nic

4:

LMA

Travis 

Frye

which in conclusion means that Webster will be locked into the 3 position and will have to battle Rudy and Roy for any 2 minutes if he gets any at all while Travis is already used as a 4 smoetimes and actually does well as a 4 and can compete as the #2 PF with Frye. 

Travis allows us to be a more versatile team with more lineups to throw at opposing teams. 

3. Martell does not fit in any place. Where does he fit? with the 1st team as a shooter or on the second team as a shooter? That is pretty much all he does and even that he is only a .372 career 3ot shooter. True he did develop a little bit of an extended offensive game last year but many times he still relied on his 3pt shot. His entire game is based on something that has a 37%chance of going in. 

Travis actually had a better 3pt shot % last year and has worked hard on his 3pt shot over the offseason and is currently hitting over 50%. 

Now you may say "well last year Travis did have a better 3pt % but he only attempted 1/3 of his attempts" Ok so that may be true last year but this year Travis is on pace to TAKE 25% fewer 3pters but MAKE as many as Webster did last year. 

Overall it is pretty much obvious that Travis' O game is much more refined than Websters and if O is needed on the court Travis sohuld be the SF of choice.  D is a wash between Travis and Webster as both have their pluses and minuses, Webster tends to be a bit better on the ball but Travis is much better sas a help defender ala Kirilenko coming from the weak side to block shots, which leads me to my next point.

To me I think it is farily obvious that Nic is our best perimiter defender as the other night he was a large factor in holding Wade to only 12 pts, even with the quickness disadantage, his length more than made up for it and he is only a rookie to boot. 

I can say with confidence that is Nate wants do put a D team on the court Nic will be his first choice, does anyone disagree?

Nic is starting because of his d and more importantly his abilityto make an impact without needing to take a shot. Add to this the fact that he is hitting 3pt at a better rate than Martell and that leads me to think that he is the best fit @ starting SF. 

So in short, what is Webster better than either Travis or Batum than? He is not better than travis at O and is not better than Batum on D. 

4. Some will say that "Webster just signed a new contract so he is not going anywhere"

Actually that makes him more tradeable in the fact that previous to this Martell did not have a number attatched to him so far as trading  purposes go. Now that he has a contract  that is very reasonable for a player of his skill level, that makes him more tradeable than before. 

All in all besides the point that unless a top tier pg is in play, Travis should not be going anywhere, especially for a 2nd 3rd string pg such as Conley. As much as it sadens me I would guess Frye would be the one moved and Travis would slide over to the backup PF and then ading in Webster and RLEC to upgrade pgs allowing Batum to play more minutes and TO to play more. 

The bottom line is Travis is more valuable than Webster and is not going anywhere. 

Must read article from real gm

http://basketball.realgm.com/src_fromtherafters/221/20081121/what_can_make_the_blazers_truly_special_and_unique/

After reading this it sent shivers through my spine and a smile to my face knowing  that I will be able to see the revolution live in person, the "4th great era" of the Portland Trailblazers.

And not to forget the cherry on top read the last quarter of the article about a soon to be free agent. Of course from what I have gathred, his assumptions about cap space are a bit off, but with KP and TP at the helm who knows what may be in the cards. 

Succh an amazing time to be a Blazer fan!!!

"Rudy is great!!

Rudy is amazing

He is my favorite player!!

The NBA where Rudy hapens!!

I want him to impregnate me like that pregnant guy in Bend, Rudy is responsible for that!!"

Ok so we all agree that Rudy is a keeper and should get another contract from us and all the other gushing that people have posted on here.

However my post is not one of praise but rather of prognostication.

Here are Rudy's current stats

Min: 28.3

Pts: 15.4

Reb: 2.9

Ast 2.0

Stl 1.2

FG%: .481

3pt%: .457

FT%: .933

Now my question is this:

What do we expect to see from Rudy in the future? Or what would you like to see from Rudy?

To me those #s are AMAZING and hard to beat, but with a player of Rudy's skills and talent, who knows. He is already getting 30 or so minutes and being SG#2 that will not change unless Roy is gone, meaning not for the next 15 years.

The only thing that I could see him ratchet up is his asists and steals. As he gets used to his teammates, and their tendancies, he wil start to know where LMA likes the ball and where he will be if Rudy draws his defender away from him. Where around the rim Greg likes it or where Blake/Outlaw/Webster will be set up on the 3t line.

Steals may be a hit or miss, as Nate will love when he goes and does get a steal, but cringe when he does not get one and leaves his man a free run to the basket. I would expect a slight increase in that of at most .5/gm as Nate will demand that he becomes a more sound defender and less of a risk taker, but we will see.

Thoughts people?

OK, OK hear me out first, here is the deal:

For those of you here in Portland or the 150 mile blackout area and have directv and want to get  league pass, but will not due to the fact that you are unable to see Blazer games, or already have league pass and would like to see Blazer games (kinda important, right?)

Step 1.

Register for an online account

Step 2.

Sign up for paperless billing or autopay

Step 3.

Move to Burns

Simple huh?

Now of course you will not physically move to Burns but your billing address will.

Looking on directv.com, if you put in Burns zip code, 97720 it shows that you will get Portland local channels and even as the crow flies, it is 225+ miles from PDX and 300 by car, far enough to be out of the blackout area, yet just close enough to get local pdx channels.

I just got done chatting with directv and they said that they have no way of knowing where the actual unit is, only where the billing address is. People who have dish on their RVs travel all over the country and get the same channels regardless of where they are geographically, the only thing that matters is the billing zip. Just be sure to unhook your reciever from the phone line and you should be set.

Just make up an address and you should be fine.

Gotta love the internet and paperless billing.

Free preview going on until the 11th and it is only $85 and then $99 for the rest of the year.

http://www.nba.com/leaguepass/online.html

Finally this is a quantum leap ahead for the NBA and is a sign that they finally are moving into the 21st century.

Most of the games on the LP schedule are blacked out but those games are on national TV so that is to be expected. I just hope that we get the Comcast feed and the Mikes on LP but something tells me that we will not.

Anyways enjoy.

Edit: national games will be on espn360 for those who have it and games on nbatv can be found on

Veetle

that leaves only the games on tnt to deal with and I guess I will see you guys on channelsurfing/justin.tv/stoogetv.com

 Edit #2: bos/cle is blacked out so we may be out of luck on that aspect even if we could of gotten it due to the area blackout.

As the season descends on us I am drawn back to something you said a while ago.

http://www.blazersedge.com/2008/8/1/584929/blazers-edge-league-pass-s#7826025

You had said to remind you when the season comes and the season is here, finally!! I would recommend setting up a generic email address as your login like blazersedge0809@gmail.com and setting up a generic pw such as blazersedge0809.

I would be willing to donate a few dollars to the cause and I can contact you later to get your address. If we all pitch in a few dollars and this does work we will all be happy.

Thank you for everything Mash