Everytime I look at the box score after a Blazer game, a little question always hits me.  So far this season, we have 3 mainstays at the DNP -- INACTIVE List: Shavlik, RLEC and Martell.  When Martell returns, what player currently active goes to the DNP-I? I narrowed it down to Ike, Batum and Bayless.

(After around a year and a half on BE, this is my first poll...so please be gentle.  I know its a little bit simplistic)

Found this little clipping at the end of this article about the Celtics roster.  Check out the very last paragraph.  It looks like Darius Miles is going to be released quite soon.  He still has a chance to being signed by another team but that seems doubtful. 

http://www.telegram.com/article/20081018/NEWS/

Hoopsworld is reporting something similar, saying "The end is near for Miles":

http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=10284

Maybe Darius can go play in Europe? Wouldn't that be best for all parties?

Word on the street is that the Blazers are considering Luke Jackson and one other player (Steven Hill maybe?) for the 15th roster spot.  I have no link because Luke told my roomate this himself.  I usually don't float word of mouth rumors on BEdge but I thought this was a little juicy tidbit to discuss.

Luke has the talent, character and dedication to find a home in the NBA.  He has just had serious injury issues since being drafted by the Cavs (he was a lottery pick.)  This could make sense if he truly can play the SG position with Roy possibly being out early in the season.  I'm guessing he would be offered a very cheap, easily bought out contract.  He could also be thrown in with any RLEC trade midseason to free up the roster spot.  So does signing him make sense? Could Luke Jackson be our new Von Wafer?

Myths

The most prevalent Myth amongst Blazers Edge (Myth #1) :  "Brandon Roy is our starting PG of the future"

Realty:  Brandon Roy can fill in at PG in choice situations, but the Blazers and Roy's games will suffer if he plays a majority of his minutes at PG.  Roy does have the ability to run a half court offense extremely well.  Most likely just as well as quality point guards in the league.  However, the other aspects of his game would suffer.  He would only be decent at running the fast break and MOST IMPORTANTLY (which I see as the achilles heel of the BRoy at PG argument) is that he will spend a tremendous amount of energy and focus defending the opposing team's pointguard.  Most PGs in the league are faster than Roy, and he would have to waste a lot of energy just to be a barely adequate defender on an opposing quick PG.  Phil Jackson and the Jordanless Bulls of the mid-90s tried Pippen at PG midseason, and the experiment was quickly scrapped.  The reason: Pippen was quickly gassed chasing around PG's on the defensive end.  Ultimately, Roy being our starting PG would work offensively but additionally would mildy hurt our fast break game and make us moderately weaker defensively.

Let me be very clear here, I am not arguing that Roy shouldn't play any PG minutes, but my argument is he shouldn't be our starting PG or spend a great deal of minutes in the rotation as PG.  There will be many opportunities for him to play PG when the opposing PG isn't of the quicker variety and when our game plan is to play at a slower pace.

Minor Myth #2:  Rudy can play PG.

Reality: He has shown no indication to be a PG.  His skillset is purely as a off-guard/wing.  Has he ever played PG in Spain?  See Myth #1 for reasons why Rudy at PG would hurt us defensively.  He doesn't have the playmaking ability of Roy.  I don't want to spend too much time dispelling this myth because it holds much less water (and is less trumpeted) than the Roy to starting PG argument.

Conflicts and Challenges

I see some of our backcourt combinations having some possible conflicts this upcoming season and in the future. 

The combinations I see working well together are:

 Blake + Roy (most likely our starting backcourt on opening night, 2 playmakers, outside shooting in Blake and somewhat Roy, slashing ability in Roy, solid defensively, just about as veteran a combo as you can find for us on the roster)

Blake + Rudy (playmaker in Blake, outside shooting in both, slasher in Rudy, a little shakey defensively, best suited against a 2nd unit)

Bayless + Roy (looks to be our starting backcourt of the future.  Playmaker in Roy, someone to run the fastbreak in JB, bring the ball up in JB, defend the opposing PG in JB, shooter/slasher in both JB and Roy, solid defensively.) This is the closest I think we will see Roy as a PG for long stretches.  He will take over a lion's share of the halfcourt offense PG duties while Bayless is in the game.  This (on paper) looks like it could work very very well.

and to a lesser extent Sergio + Rudy/Roy (If Sergio makes some improvements in his shot and defense he can still get playing time...big IF. Sergio playing hinges on how effectively Bayless can play PG not next to Roy)

The conflicting combos that might have serious flaws:

Roy + Rudy (at the 1/2, not the 2/3).  This looks like it could be a very potent combination on the offensive end.  The major question is who defends the other teams PG?  Once again, this combo can work with a lesser opposing PG (slow, poor offensively, bad first step) but I'm thinking you are not going to see this guard combination for long stretches of the game.  With this combination you are playing someone to their weakness (someone is playing defense against a PG) rather than to their strengths.  Ultimately a combination like this could lead to more of the much feared GOFT (Greg Oden Foul Trouble) we are expecting this season.

Bayless + Rudy.  Who runs the halfcourt offense?  Bayless hopefully suprises and can do an adequate job of running an offense his rookie season, but thats also very questionable.  Both are rookies.  This combination will really show us how much improvement JB needs for his PG/playmaking skills.  If Bayless is poor in some PG areas, expect Sergio to take a chunk of his minutes.

So there you have it, a rather long post even though I tried to simplify it and not throw in any stats or combine measurements.  I'm not arguing these are conflicts, challenges and conclusions that are set in stone, but things to look for in the coming season.  I do beleive you will see Nate use Roy at PG, and some of the guard combos on the court Ive argued have flaws this upcoming season.   However, the question is, how effective will the team be with these combos?

On PTI, bot Tony and Mike said they would love to see Portland win the lottery tonight because Tony loves KP and Wilbon would love to see Derrick Rose on our team and that would solidify a historic dynasty. (My words in paraphrase, not theirs word-for-word)

I just love national love for our Blazers.  Just wanted to share the love with you all.  Here is to that #13 envelope having a card without the Blazer logo on it tonight!

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before, but I've noticed Brandon getting some endorsement love lately.  I was going to Cytosport's website and it's front page was announcing their endorsement deal with Brandon. (http://www.cytosport.com).

Also, Brandon is getting love from Nike, namely in their new Sparq training commercial.  This is more (positive) national attention a Blazer player has recieved than I can remember in quite some time.

Lastly, it is refreshing to see a person like Brandon getting the love from these companies.  Specifically since he is more a blue-collar, business oriented type guy that doesn't put flashy play or his own personal stats infront of his team and city.

There has been alot of talk about what the Blazers would include in a trade that would either move us up in the draft or fetch a starting PG or SF.  One thing that has rarely been mentioned would be including our future 1st round picks in trade.

If we aren't looking to get any younger from here on out, wouldn't this make sense? Wouldn't including our 2009, 2010 and 2011 first rounders in trades be useful for rebuilding teams that might be looking to moving players out or drafting down?

It also seems advantageous to the Blazers situation because this will most likely be our last year in the lottery for some time.  A few questions:

1. How risky/possibly detrimental would trading away our first round picks be?
2. How attractive would other GM's in the league see these pics?
3. Wouldln't one of the currrent Blazers reguarly discussed as a trade piece (take your pick) paired with this years first round pick and a future first round pick be enough to move up in the draft?

Do any of you know what specific mix the pump up music is that they play at the beginning for every homegame in the Rosegarden?  Its a rendition/remix of "Harder, Faster, Better, Stronger" by Daft Punk, but I can't find it anywhere.  It would make a great workout song. Also would be great to play before watching a game at home to get in the Blazers are going to win mood.

Today, Kevin Pritchard was quoted on Oregonlive.com that he has no interest in making a trade right now.  (http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2008/01/kp_were_not_making_any_trades.html)

Although trade scenarios/proposals have always been fun (especially in the old talent loading days of Trader Bob), I agree wholeheartidly with KP that a trade is an unneccesary risk at this point.  The bottom line is the plan is to let this team continue to gel (and play great basketball) and wait until the offseason to make any roster moves.  I completely disagree with the argument that we should make a move to tweak our team for our possible playoff run this year.  We, as fans should understand that this is a development year and winning and playoffs are just gravy.  

Just a suggestion: Lets enjoy this amazing/special/memorable season for what its worth!!! (Sweet, my first diary in like 6 months)

I saw this article's heading on ESPN's NBA Rumor Central.  The heading for the rumor central section is "Heat seaking Francis, Blazers tweaking."  I wish I could say more, but I do not have an ESPN Insider membership.  Does anyone here have one? If you do, could you please post what was said?  Here is the link to the index:

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/features/rumors?&action=upsell&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsid er.espn.go.com%2fnba%2ffeatures%2frumors

I'm fine with our current roster as it stands.  However, I also know that the 15 guys we take into 2007/2008 WILL NOT be the 15 guys who win a championship for Portland.  That's the nature of the business.  So if there are more moves that KP/Nate see will improve the team for the future, I'm cool with that.

Although KP said he hasn't had any trade talks about Jack....he did say this at the end of the O-Live article  "Blazers pit Blake vs. Jack"(pg. 3):

Pritchard was asked if signing Blake was his last move of this summer. "It's not in my nature to be done."

Something is a brewing folks.  I have to think that the #1 guy the Blazers look to move in the next year is Joel Pryz.  I know it has been said he is high enough caliber to be a backup 5 for a championship team, but not at his current salary/contract.  He is the only movable player that has a contract that runs past 2009.  We will have to wait and see on what happens to D-Miles. (If Darius does medically retire, its not going to be until next summer at the earliest) They might wait for Pryz's value to go up if (always, a big if) he has a healthy season and gets sizable minutes backing up Oden.

You have to also think that out of the 3 other PG's we have than Blake, one is going to be moved.  Jack seemed disheartened by the Blake signing, and Sergio's quote in the article makes me think that he is hungry for decent minutes this year.  Despite Green's contract, he can be cut at any time the Blazers feel hes not worth it (they'll still pay the $500k salary...no biggie for them)

Bill Ingram said that the recent Spurs trade was to free up cap space to sign Udoka.  Here is the link:

http://www.hoopsworld.com/article_22768.shtml

Signing Udoka would even cause more of a log jam at SF for the Blazers and I'm thinking Ime is looking for more than 2 years guarenteed.  2 years is all I think the Blazers are willing to sign Ime for.  I would love to keep Udoka on his hometown team, but its just not looking in the cards.

So its been 10 days since the draft day Zach trade.  With Monday morning shortly arriving, will a new trade be announced that brings the "acclaimed player?"  Do we need to wait on the Francis buyout?  Is it just going to be the James Jones aquisition announced? Who are we going to possibly lose?   I'm thinking that Atlanta or the Clippers are a possibility.  Any speculation or hopes fellas?

I've been lurking and decided to finally register today and jump in and give you this first post:

Quick said on Oregonlive.com:

"Late in the evening, the Blazers closed a deal to acquire forward James Jones from Phoenix without giving up a player. Other trades are possible, if not likely, in coming days."

To all those upset about us not getting fair value in return for Z-Bo, here is something no one has mentioned thus far...Look at all the big name Power Forwards/Post Players on the market right now:  Garnett, Amare, Jermaine O'Neil, Lamar Odom, Kwame+Bynum.  The supply of big time post players seems pretty high these days.  On top of that, you have a very power forward rich draft that just occured today.  Do you think any team would elect for Zach with his large, long term deal over any of those guys with the exception of the Kwame/Bynum combo?

Clearly Zach doesn't work in the long range plans for the Blazers, he has a bloated contract and is part of the ugly player culture the Blazers are trying to eliminate.  If the Blazers were to wait to trade him maybe at the deadline, they would have to make sure he got his big minutes to maintain his trade value...I'm thinking the Blazers didn't want to have to make that sacrafice.

Lastly, I wasn't happy with the Knicks trade at first either.  However, this clearly looks like part of a bigger trade/free agent picture that KP and company have formulated.  The Blazers have several more players than spots right now, so the writing might be on the wall that we are going to move a combination of players for a big piece. Marion is intriguing but I wonder if he fits in our championship window (3-7 years from now)and how on earth that Phoenix would agree to that.  

I'm just about to finish my degree at Auburn University and I'm so excited to move back to Portland and enjoy Blazers basketball again.  Thanks Dave for this sight, it has been the most up to date and thoughtful site for Blazers info/news/rumors.

Wow, a much longer post than I thought it was gonna be.....Go Blazers and War Eagle!