SB Nation User Blog: blazerbeliever97504

Marcus Camby anyone?

blazerbeliever97504 — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 14:56:22 -0000

Yesterday i wrote http://www.blazersedge.com/2009/12/12/1197520/we-have-got-to-make-a-move which got alot of peoples response. there were some good trade ideas, Bass, Wallace, G.S., etc. There were a fair amount of "stand patters." My thought was even echoed a bit later when hugetrailblazerfan wrote http://www.blazersedge.com/2009/12/12/1198282/this-road-trip-was-a-joke-kp-make and i think that it is becoming clear as glass.......we cant win as currently assembled. We have no help coming for atleast a month and a half and our PG play is the worst in the league. Oh! by the way our SF play has to be at the bottom of the league also.

We have but two choices......keep things as they are and watch a promising season go down in flames OR we make a brilliant move similar to Kwame for Gasol style. In my post as i thought about who would be available, able to play the 4 and 5, and have no problem with playing here only 1-2 years based on need, i drew a blank. Bass seemed the most logical option, Wallace was a dream scenario ("why yes we'll ake the #2 rebounder in the NBA currently")and G. S. has some appeal. (Turiaf,etc)

However i now have what is in my opinion the best option in mind, if the Clippers would actually be willing to deal him anyways. Marcus Camby. He replaces Oden near perfectly, some will argue offense, semantics. My dream scenario would be Blake and Miller (they both just suck right now) for Camby and name your PG it would be ironic if it were Telfair but i would not care if it were Steve Novak, ill take anyone over our two guys we currently have.

Clippers: They end up with a nice 4 guard rotation of B. Davis, E. Gordon, A Miller, S Blake.....Short guys i know but they have a few fillers Rasual Butler slides to the 2 sometimes for them. I have also heard talk that the Clips want to unload one of there centers to give De'Andre Jordan some run and this would help that. Shoot i would even gladly throw in a 1st rounder or two, but not this years we may be back in the lottery. (kidding about that last part)

Blazers: Well we get back alot of what we lost, Defense, shot blocking, rebounding, and a bit of offense. We also lose two guys who, lets face it, are killing us right now. You put any two guys who are playing well and we are not 14-11 with the bottom seemingly falling out. Lets not forget, we are about 1/4 the way into the year and we have about 1/2 the losses we had all last year. To add to this, lets say we got Telfair back in the deal...We then can start J.B. which gives us perimiter D, quickness, Roy can handle the ball and Bayless can play his SG style on offense but guard PGs on defense. Telfair has never been much of a PG but he is quick and can pass a bit but we only need a servicable back-up untill Rudy and Patty Mills get healthy.

Clipps get what they want (if what i have read is accurate anyways) we get to get back to relatively near where we were before G.O. went down. I think if i were the GM in Clipper land i would seriously consider Blake, Miller, 2011 protected 1st rounder and 2012 protected 1st rounder for Camby and PG at random. They lose a ton of salary over the next two years, pick up some picks for there future and if Baron Davis goes down again, Miller is a great fill in.

What do you guys think? Is this a good idea? Even possable? Or have you gone into shock for the year and are shaking in a corner somewhere unable to type? Heck ill include a poll i think.

Poll

Best option at this point?

We have got to make a move....

blazerbeliever97504 — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 17:10:54 -0000

Now before anyone thinks i am being rash and reactionary i strongly disagree. My first thought was to stay with what we have and let it play out but after watching last nights game is was SO clear it may as well have smacked me in the face. What i mean is, we CAN NOT go the rest of the year with Joel, LMA, and Juwan, Dante, etc. playing our front line rotation consistantly the rest of the year.

Why not? Some may ask, Well first off we just arent big enough when Joel goes out. Secondly LMA is not a center in any shape or form, though he does a good job pretending. Thirdly, Juwan is ancient, the rookies are well, second rounders for a reason, and all three of them are short by NBA PF/ C standards. Lets examine what i mean by these points.

First, Joel is a great fill in and i would not want any other backup center in the league to fill in for Greg BUT Joel fouls ALOT which is fine if your two headed monster in oiled up and ready to go, our two headed monster lost one of its heads and we cant afford now to lose the last remaining head. (odd analogy i know lol) Joel so far has an average of 3.2 fouls per in 21 mpg. his minutes should be going up drastically. Something like last nights box score should be the norm from here on out.....33 Min, 2pts, 11reb, 3blk, 4 fouls. Those 4 fouls could have easily been 6 if it were not for some clean play in the first where i dont think anyone got callled for a foul in roughly the first 6 mins.

Second, really needs no explanation....LMA dont fit at the center spot, nuff said. I guess the same could be said for point three, Juwan's old, the rookies are young and raw, and all three are short. I E not a good fit for the center spot either. HOWEVER.......we do have an over abundance of depth at one spot still, PG! We have got to trade one of our PGs for a decent versatile center type. I would love to see something like Miller for .........and thats were i draw a blank.....who fits the bill? Who could play both 4 and 5 comfortabley and fit the culture of the team and probly would only be around for a year or two max?

This is were i am left wondering, we have got to get another big man up front though. We are talking about the next 3/4 of the season, not a few weeks not a few days, but months.....nearly the full season. We pretty much need to say "ok, today is the first day of the year" then look over the roster(such as it is) look to see where we can improve(just like every other team does) then go out and get a player or two to help us improve. This only leaves us with the options of trade and who are our highest value tradeable assets currently? J.B., Blake(EXP contract), and Miller, all three healthy and all three valueable for one reason or another.

Thats my thought anyways, please if you agree with me help me out. I would love to hear your ideas as to who you all think would fit the bill via trade.

K. P. were not worthy!!

blazerbeliever97504 — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:12:47 -0000

Sitting at 8-3 with a 1/2 game lead in the division is not a bad place to be. What i have come to realize is that K.P. is much smarter than anyone of us (some will be excluded of course) could ever hope to be.

What i mean by this is that alot of people (myself included) have called for a "consolidation" of talent via a trade. I personally saw this as the ONLY solution to an otherwise overly talented team. Overly talented? Yes teams can be that, this team in my view was too deep, it had too much talent to ever keep all of its players happy with there playing time. I saw a two for one trade type scenario as our best case type situation. Something like Blake and Trout for Battier (my personal hope) to be what we needed.

Looking at things now......Trout out till January atleast, Batum out till.....man i forget but its a long time from now, Bayless out now with some wierd ankle thing.......(my hope is thats a little injury) and our depth is our best asset currently. Take any team in the league, subtract there starting SF and there best bench player(by performance to this point this year) and you will most likely have a team in disarray. We on the other hand will most likely plug along.

We have got to have Rudy step up, stupid off season euro ball......is it me or does every euro ball player seem to be having sub-par year. A person can only play so much b-ball. Anyways, Rudy has got to step up, hopefully J.B. comes back strong and soon, Juwan IMO will prove to be a huge signing....dude knows how to play. Martell is the wild card here......if he steps up and plays big we will be fine, but he has GOT to start playing like a top 10 draft pick SOON.

My overall point here is to say that K.P. not pulling the trigger on a trade seems to have paid off in spades at this point in the year, could you guys imagine if we did not have Blake or Web or Joel to help fill the gaps currently voided. Dante Cunningham, Steve Blake, Jerryd Bayless, Rudy Fernandez, and especially Martell Webster.....these are the names that must step up in order for us to keep going forward the way we have been.

This has been as eventful and noteworthy a start to an NBA season as i can remeber the Blazers having. So far what i have learned is that we are in very good hands with K.P. Next time i play NBA2k10 ill try to resist the urge to trade Miller, Webster, Outlaw, and who ever else for some stud that i want. I see now Kevin Pritchard's strategy....injuries happen.....its good to have a legion of(above average-very good) players rather than a few VERY good players. This season is unfolding even wierder than i could have imagined and my faith in K.P. is as re-assured and as strong as ever.

Go Blazers!!!!

My own personal reality check

blazerbeliever97504 — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:49:39 -0000

I have been very critical personally of the early start. From a fan post i did http://www.blazersedge.com/2009/10/20/1093755/the-sky-is-falling-fire-nate-oden to several comments i have made most noteabley in http://www.blazersedge.com/2009/11/4/1115303/the-official-stop-playing-steve

Most of my points were centered around a lose of faith with Nate Mac and a lack of understanding what exactly he has to this point been thinking with some things. (Miller, Blake, the half crack head way he subbed the last 6 mins of the hawks game, etc) I still have these reservations, then i read http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2009/11/sarah_mensah_shares_lessons_fr.html its a good read. It also got me thinking, what happened to us? Only two seasons before this one we were 41-41 and stoked because we had a good group of guys that were young, talented, and had no where to go but up. Fast forward to now and guess what? We should still be stoked we have a good, young, talented group of guys to root for.

Yes, the fan says "go, fight win!!" and thats the way it should be. We all, myself especially should still take solice in the fact we have alot to be proud of in rooting for this team. This by no means makes anything easier but it is something i personally had kind of lost touch with. I got caught up in the issues we currently have, disappointed were not crushing people, or even winning for that matter. I lost sight of the fact, we are 2-3 (yes, that sux imo) Deep, young, talented, and now EXPERIENCED, and most importantly they are all still awsome dudes to root for.

I will, from now on try to look at things through that type of window and not the way i had been. I am not sure if i am a minority in regards to this or in a group that makes up the majority of us, but regardless of how many or few people had looked at things in a similar light i hope this helps to see things differently.

Uncharted territory

blazerbeliever97504 — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:30:54 -0000

So, we have LMA and Roy locked up. They are our core, and frankly.....Thank freaking god!!!!!

If anyone (im sure they do) remembers our last highly paid duo (Z-bo and D-miles) they will understand that we are worlds away from where we once were. It has been said many, many times these guys are something to be proud of and it goes right to our core. Roy, what can anyone say. In his short time in the league he has become a top flight SG and one of the best Blazers ever, Allready. LMA......well he is easily on my(opinion) top five all time blazer PF list, somewhere behind Buck Williams, Mo Lucas, and Brian Grant.

We have official navagated into uncharted waters. Maybe not since Clyde, Terry, Kersey, and Duck were assembled have we had such young, and talented players that were locked up and you knew.....those were your Blazers. This team is younger than those Drexler teams if memory serves. That means, in theory, we should have a longer run than Clyde had. And as tough as this is to say, to me this team has more talent than the best Drexler teams. Please disagree with me on that, i know i probly would but it just seems that way to me.

We can now say this: "no matter who may be playing here, LMA and Roy will lead the way!" This is something that we have not had ever in our history.....Two, young, Greatly skilled, High character guys to call our own for the next 6+ years. This mean that by the time these extensions run out LMA and Roy will have played out the majority of there careers. There legacy will be built in a blazer uni.

This is truely a great day for Blazer fans all over. When you think that a mere 5 years ago this was out of the realm of possability is astounding. Now lock up Oden next year and we are set, fill in with role players, machine wash warm, tumble dry, pull it out of the dryer and what do you have? A very, very good team for the next 5-6 years. This is a good day and we have entered territory we have not seen in a long time, maybe never. Good to see the LMA saga is over, please dear god let the season start!!!!

The sky is falling, Fire Nate!, Oden is a bust!, Etc.

blazerbeliever97504 — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:38:07 -0000

Ya ok, so obviously i was joking........what heck kind of intro is this? Well, let me get to the point. Checking out an article on Bedge or oregonlive.....i cant seem to find it now.......i read a quote from Nate Mac says to the effect "tonight will be treated as a regular season game." This is normally a good thing. Let me just say right now that there has probably not been a bigger Nate Mac supporter than myself, i love the guy as our coach and from my limited perspective he has been nothing short of awsome for us.

BUUUUUT, i can not seem to help but ask myself the question: Why arent Oden and Miller sure fire, lock freaking solid, starters. I read the article about Nate V. Payton in G.P.s rookies year, i get that, i understood that......at first. My thought was(again, limited) that Miller and Oden would have to outplay Blake and Pryzzy, again rightfully so. But here we are the preseason is about over and Oden has outplayed Joel, Miller has killed Blake(i hurt when i typed that, blake rocks) but who is starting the last preseaon game? Blake and Joel.

Joel i could certainly omit, Oden was , at the last minute called to start against the nuggets last game. He sat the Jazz(tonight) game out to rest a thigh bruise to my understanding. So, that you could say......Oden would have started tonight if it were a regular season game. Miller? please, seriously, help me understand?!?!? What the flippin heck is going on with that one? In my humble opinion, Nate dropped the freaking ball on Miller and Roy's developing chemistry. Using the first part of the preseason to feel out performance is the norm, and i suppose this was in part my thought and understanding of competition but if someone plays better than you, THEY START!!! So, why Nate didnt use the last half of the preseason to develop Roy and Millers Chemistry, i will never know.

Had Blake came out and made Dre Miller look old and out of place and just not a good player i would be yelling from the roof tops for Blake to start. I love Blake as a player, scrappy, tough, great shooter, but this does not a star point guard make.Please understand, i dont mean to say Miller made blake look old, out of place, and bad, just that Miller is ALOT better player than Blake. Thats not Blakes fualt, i would love to see him retire a Blazer but he will never be a top 10 PG. Miller on the other hand, well......guess what? He allready, right now, is a top 10 PG. Why the freaking heck is he not our starter!!!!

Please guys, talk some sense into me, tell me where i am missing things, because god i hate sounding like a Nate hater. I just dont get it is all. Please Bedge, i need your help to understand what Nate Mac is thinking.

Who has the best backcourt in the NBA this year?

blazerbeliever97504 — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:32:52 -0000

So, obviously i cant wait for the start of the year and we have talked about allmost everything one could think of to talk about. But i was thinking about the new backcourt combo's this year and i wonder who will have the best backcourt this year.

This is MY criteria for this.....to qualify a team MUST have TWO players that are more than above average in skill. This eliminates the Kobe/ Fisher, Wade/ Chalmers type backcourts. This, to me is a tough call, all the top backcourts have there share of question marks but here is my try. Im curious to see how the poll will shake out.

1: Celtics, if Allen can still play his assassin style of stellar play and Rondo continues his outstanding play this to me would be the best backcourt in the nba, Ray-ray's age will be the big factor here.

2: Spurs, Parker and Ginobili? come on, Ginobilis health is a concern though and Parker has played alot this summer and it seems to have a negative effect on most players(Hedo, im looking at you) If they both stay healthy though they will be just as good as boston.

3: Magic, Nelson and Carter.....man. Carter does seem to have lost just a little bit of his insane game. I dont see him jumping over 7+ft bigmen anymore but he is still pretty dang good. If those two mesh well, lookout!

4: Blazers, Miller and Roy could be the best passing backcourt in recent memory. Its rare to have two players who can handle the ball, pass the ball, and play off the ball like Miller and Roy can. The question will be chemistry.

5: Hawks, Johnson and Bibby......this is a very tough duo also. Bibby's age is becoming a factor. Its seems like, from the outside looking in.....that Bibby is very much on the decline allthough i do not follow the Hawks closely at all.

This was a tough call to rank these teams, i allmost wanted to rank them 1, 1a, 1b, 4, 5, but that was my best effort. There are certainly a few backcourts out there that one could argue should be in the top 5......Golden State, Dallas, Phoenix, even OKC and Memphis could end up being top 5 type back courts but i think those teams are a step down from the five listed. Thats just my opinion though, lets see what you guys think and how the poll shakes out.

Poll

Best backcourt?

Celtics

25 votes

Spurs

53 votes

Magic

15 votes

Blazers

121 votes

Hawks

2 votes

Other

20 votes

236 votes | Poll has closed

What Andre Miller team is better?

blazerbeliever97504 — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 02:06:01 -0000

Disclaimer: this should totally be a fan shot.....apologies.

After reading some articles on this site and oregonlive i got to thinking......which Miller team would be better? Please, go with me here......totally hypothetical.....Take the team he ran with today: Miller, Fernandez, Webster, Outlaw, Oden....or....Last years Philly team: (listed by most starts that year) Miller, Green, Iggy, Young, Dalembert.

Which team do you think Andre would pick, which team would you guys pick? Me, i would go with the team that has the dominant big guy, two three point bombers, and an undersized pf. Thats just my bias im sure.

Poll

Todays scrimmage team or last years philly starters?

Todays blazers

245 votes

Last years Philly

60 votes

305 votes | Poll has closed

Were all lucky to have Bedge

blazerbeliever97504 — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:05:58 -0000

I am sure everyone is familliar with oregon live(the oregonian)blogs and i am a member of "field gulls" the Seattle Seahawks Blog site. For the Record, Field gulls? really? ugh. Stupidest name ever. The thing i notice the most about these sites are the mindless idiotic garbage that is posted in the comments of these sites.

Now let me say the Hawks Blog is pretty cool, but there is no moderation by anyone like we have here. Which to be honest when YET another Seahawks player goes down, it is a bit of a stress relief to post something where you sound like Yosemity Sam ranting "rack-a-fracka-ris-a-frackin" Seahawks!!! But it also gets tiresome when it is all the time. Here is a very good example of a bit of distastefullness. Link: http://www.fieldgulls.com/2009/9/20/1045759/seahawks-anonymus-post-game Pay attention to the list of things the poster hates and note the dislike for female pubic hair.......no one cares nor needs to know that info......prime TMI example.

Oregonlive? Wow, that blog site i allmost refuse to read the comments section. The paid authors do a very good job with the stories they write but there is a sharp drop off in quality once you start to read the comments below them. There are a few trolls on there that are just ridiculous..<cough>..Odenisgod35..<cough>..These comments and troll types would never be welcome here and rightfully so. I mean do these people think that if they post 3 times a day that "KP NEEDS TO SIGN LMA!!!" or "FIRE NATE NOW!!" that somehow K.P. will read that and think "wow, i should sign LMA and i should fire nate.?" I wish i lived in that fantasy land.

I love the fact that here we are all considerate of others not matter how much(or how little:) thought was put into a post so long as it isnt offensive or trollish. Cursing is not exactly encouraged and it shouldnt be, we are all adults and capeable of expressing our feelings in classier ways than that. Most people are not abrasive or condisending in the comments they post, saved for the few AK1984 types. (kidding) It is just a very very good atmosphere and no one should feel scared to post there thoughts.

A very good example of this would be the "thank you posts" i started at the end of the year and before the playoffs started. From my point of view it was important to me to express my gratitude and thought is was the best time to do so with the down time between the reg seasn and playoffs. Some really liked the posts, some really hated them after a while. I have to admit some of the comments did make me say "wow, really" but there was also alot of support. My overall point is that if this had been one of the sites i mentioned previously, i shudder to think of the comments and responses.

I feel very lucky and we all should feel very lucky to have a place to go such as Bedge to talk open and honestly about our team. I truely thank Dave and Ben from the bottom of my heart for the work they put in to create such an atmosphere and also our moderators for there diligence.(SP?) So again, as the title suggests, we are all lucky to have Bedge.

P.S. for the record: i could not be more restless for the NBA season to start since im in for yet another LONG NFL season, ugh.

Referee issue per the NBA, your thoughts?

blazerbeliever97504 — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:05:37 -0000

I just read an article on the Ref issue currently happening,Link: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4482584t it got me thinking........is this good or bad? I know its bad based on the fact that the NBA has some of the most professional and gifted refs in the biz.

I wonder however, could this be a posative thing in relation to G.O.? Hear me out, disagree if you wish, but it seemed last year and allways seems that with rookies there is a vendeta(maybe to strong of a word) to "show" rookies that they are rookies and no matter what they will be rookies the whole year by the Refs. I agree that Oden was out of position more times than not but there was also a fair amount of judgement calls that did not go Odens way simply(IMO) because he was a rook.

NBA refs have the most power over a game, more than any player could ever hope for. Whats the saying? Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Let me just say i am not thinking there is a conspirecy(sp?) but i do think that the referee's in the NBA have an agenda(again, not sure thats the right word) towards the way they "think" games should be called. As for the players themselves, its not a stretch to think that specific players also have a "way that the refs" call them.

Oden may be a prime example of this, time will tell but my hope is that Oden benefits from the "non-status quo" in relation to any new/inexperienced refs who may replace the current ones.Link:http://www.covers.com/pageLoader/pageLoader.aspx?page=/data/nba/referees/referees.html&t=0 This link includes several names we "dont think so highly of" to say the least. From my P.O.V. its not the ref's fualt its just the nature of the beast. My overall point is that Oden IMO seemed to be subject to the "NBA Refs" view on how he, as a player should be called on fouls. I could be nuts but there seemed to be ALOT of judgement calls made last year that could have changed the course of Oden's personal game.

What are your thought Bedgers? Am i a crazy person seeing things where they aren't? Do you agree? Or am i restless because the season is around the corner? Lets hear your thoughts on this.