http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=ydgy4kr

Toronto gets: LA, Rudy, Batum, Blake and Outlaw

Portland gets: Bosh, DeRozan

Alright, so as much as it sucks to think about, I don't think its too early to begin to question the pillars of the franchise: Roy, Oden, LA.

As in, are these the right guys to build around? Without a doubt, moving stars is a difficult and sensative thing. Luckily, we only have 1 star right now and I'm not suggesting moving him. KP always said you have to identify 3 stars and surround them with guys willing to run through a brick wall to win.* Well, at this point, I don't think LA will ever has as much motivation (all star game in his hometown, Dallas, TX) or as much opportunity (decimated roster, all the shots he can take as long as they're not taken from Roy) as he has this year and so far, he hasn't exactly seized the moment. I realize this comes off of an outstanding performance in a double OT loss to Milwaukie (ugh) but his averages just don't scream all star and I really don't think opposing coaches like his game as much as they like Roy's so I would be surprised to see them vote him into the game. I realize I'm defining the term "star" by being selected to the all star game which can be a bit ridiculous when you consider that some chinese guy in the d league currently has more votes than Brandon Roy. But the more I see LA play and read NBA writers and experts talk about his leveling off at a sub-all star level, the more I lose faith in his position as a franchise pillar. Unfortuntately, Oden is simply an injury issue. His game is what every championship contender needs, we just don't know if he'll be available. As for our 1 legitimate star, Roy, I love his game, just shocked by his attitude and the leadership issues we're facing this year. Theres not doubt he's a star, in every sense of the word.

*Guys who would run through a brick wall"are players like Reggie Evans, Jeff Foster, Raja Bell, Joel Przybilla, Anderson Varejao...basically the guys you hate on other teams because whenever we play them they are getting that extra offensive rebound, taking that charge, playing solid defense. Why do you think everyone else in the country hates Joel?

So Brandon is our guy, for better or worse, Oden just needs to stay healthy (easier said than done); in this post I've identified LA as the guy who is the most "tradeable." So who do we bring in? Chris Bosh.

Toronto is 10-15 as I write this. Chris Bosh has only 1 year remaining on his contract and has been rumored to want out of Toronto. Looking at their record the past few years indicates why this might be the case, he got his money. Now he wants to win. I don't know how realistic my trade proposal is, espcially since he only has 1 more year under contract. Bosh would love to get on a team with Wade or James (wouldn't everyone?) and who knows, maybe he wants the glamour of the big city (NY, NJ) but its not like he's in a small market now. Portland would need to know that he would extend or sign a long contract with us if he were to come, I certainly don't think you take the risk of getting him for a 1 year loan, but man this guy can be amazing. I've been a big fan of his for sometime think he could bring a lot to the team. Toronto would welcome the expiring contracts of Blake and Outlaw (addition by subtraction for us), They get a decent return in LA despite his flaws, they get to add Rudy to their already multinational team (he needs more minutes than we can give him), and, well I would hate to give up Batum...honestly, he's only in there so the trade would work financially (same thing with Toronto's DeRozan).

So would Toronto go for something like that? Am I crazy to question LA's place on this team considering he just inked a huge deal? Does any of this matter if Bosh doesn't want to come here (you honestly couldn't blame him right now)? And also keep in mind I'm not even going into injuries and available players.

Finally! Brandon got his. All I can say is, its about time. I mean, we were losing before and our super star, our chosen one, the man who holds the keys wasn't getting his. So to me it doesn't matter that we dropped a 3rd straight game as long as Brandon is satisfied. And don't call anyone selfish here for being honest. Please. Brandon has earned the right to say whatever he wants. Its not his fault we lost tonight. Its certainly not Nate's fault. And Steve Blake? Really? You think that guy does enough to make an impact on a game either way? C'mon. None of these guys are ever gonna actually take responsibility for a loss so stop waiting for it.

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If you don't know who Wayne Winston is, don't bother looking for his player profile page on ESPN.

via www.kelley.iu.edu

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I was reading Truehoop this morning and saw a nice little article on San Antonio. The Spurs will be one of the more interesting teams to me this coming season because they represent what the Blazers could have been this year. A solid core (although the Blazers’ will have slightly improved with experience and the Spurs’ will have slightly regressed with age) that stayed intact but added enough quality pieces to be immediate title contenders.

"In a sense, Popovich is like a kid at Christmas brunch. His new toys have been unwrapped. He is eager to start playing with them. Training camp doesn't begin for another month, but the wheels have already begun to turn in Popovich's head -- the neat tricks he can try with his new athletic swingman, Richard Jefferson; the new offensive elements veteran forward Antonio McDyess can bring; the raw rebounding potential inside rookie forward DeJuan Blair, waiting to be unleashed."

There was no shortage of information a year ago that Richard Jefferson was very available for RLEC but the deal was not done (was any of the information concrete? No, but Milwaukee just let him go for “the-not-so-fabulous Oberto,” Kurt Thomas and the corpse of Bruce Bowen. You tell me if we couldn’t have made that deal). And even accounting for the increase in wins RJ would have produced which would have set our draft position back, we still would have had an opportunity to draft my favorite prospect, DeJuan Blair who did a free fall into the late second round. Now I have to admit Dante Cunningham looked solid in summer league and I am more than happy to have Andre Miller as a 2 year rental (Picking up RJ would have taken all our cap space) but San Antonio will be like bizarro Portland to me this season. It will be very interesting to see where that path could have taken us...

ESPN also has this up...Summer forecast: worst newcomer. 3 Blazer related names popped up, big surprise.

Randolph (12 votes)
Normally, when a 20-and-10 guy joins one of the worst teams in the league, it's a good thing. Not in this case, according to a dozen of our voters. Despite his talent, Z-Bo's questionable character would appear to be detrimental to a young Grizzlies squad. Not to mention that he is one of the biggest black holes in basketball and doesn't play defense.

To make matters worse, the Grizzlies took on the remaining two years and $33 million of his contract. Sure, he could earn the Griz a few more wins with his post play, but so could, uh, Pau Gasol (minus the headaches). Just sayin'.

Wallace (6 votes)
The C's need big things from Sheed to contend for a title; many of our voters don't expect him to deliver. His production has plateaued during the past three seasons, and he continues to make a negative impact with his technicals. Playing alongside KG might help Sheed stay interested, but will Wallace embrace his role off the bench for 82 games?

Turkoglu (3 votes)
Turkoglu had some big playoff moments in 2009 -- the Kobe block, double-doubles against Cleveland and Boston and daggers in Philly. But the Raptors gave $53 million to a guy who has never made an All-Star team and probably never will. He's a good piece, but remember, elite teams such as San Antonio and Orlando let him walk. There must be a reason, no?

I’ll never understand why Zach Randolph got that albatross of a contract just like I’ll never understand why my fellow Blazer fans still have love in their heart for Sheed just like I’ll never understand why KP would offer 50 million freaking dollars to Turkoglu. Meh, they’re someone else’s problem now.

Marc Stein also talks about a potential lockout from the NBA referees this year. “The proposed cuts to the referee budget are believed to include reductions in travel costs, pension payouts and health benefits in addition to salary cuts.”

If I was an NBA referee I wouldn’t be happy about that either. Of course, if I was an NBA referee I would also suck at my job (zing!). Seriously though, I know the “scabs” that would replace the current referees would suck for a while (at least thats what Dwight Jaynes implies they did in 1995, the last time this happened) but couldn’t the NBA use this as an opportunity/springboard to just clean house and start with a fresh set of (assumingly) young and unbiased officials? I mean, drop a nuclear bomb on the current referee regime, start fresh with a little transparency and really start holding these guys accountable. We all know refs are human and make mistakes, so lets talk about it. Make them accessible in post game conferences. The NBA disciplined a ref? Ok, what was the action? I’m not saying the NBA should just let everyone go and not change the way they do business; the league should probably change more than the refs should. But I wouldn’t be sad to see Joe Crawford, Dick Bavetta, or Steve Javie go. Hell, keep em around as consultants or trainers if you really want.

2007 was a transitional year for me. I had just graduated from Portland State the previous summer and was trying to turn 3 part time gigs into 1 full time job. Looking back on that year, I can remember a lot of good times shared with a lot of good friends, but one day in particular will always stand out because of what it meant to me as a Trail Blazers fan. At the time, I was living in a house in southwest Portland shared by 5 friends of mine. Most of us had already graduated from college and although each of us certainly could have lived on our own, I guess no one was in a hurry to move out because we enjoyed each other’s company so much.

There was Rob, who was probably the smartest guy in the house. We went to high school together but I really didn’t get to know him until after I came back from my 4 years in the Army and he had already graduated from the University of Oregon. See, we were different kinds of nerds back in high school. Rob was more the book worm type and I was more of the socially inept sort. In school our paths never crossed, but when they finally did we became good friends. At this particular time, Rob had just dropped out of grad school at PSU and was working for Frito Lay, stocking grocery store shelves with hundreds of bags of potato chips every day…like I said, the smartest guy in the house.

Stefan worked as a banker and was best known for his chain smoking and German ancestry (although for some reason he would hide his smoking habit from every girl he brought back to the house. I don’t know why, I don’t know how, but he pulled it off every time). When the house would go out to play a game of pick up basketball I would always want to have Stefan on my team because despite his pack-a-day addiction to American Spirit cigarettes, he earned the name “crazy legs” for notoriously running around the court for what seemed like the entire game, eventually wearing down whomever was guarding him and making it easier for the team he played for. Stefan also went by the names “Kraut” and “the Myspace pimp.”

Mike was another guy I went to high school with but didn’t know that well before we moved in together. I believe it was around this time that he changed his name to Reed (which was his middle name). His rationale was that the name “Mike” was too generic and he preferred to go by a more distinctive name. This irritated me to no end, and I honestly don’t know why. Needless to say, whenever there was a dispute I would “accidently” refer to him as Mike. Reed (Mike) went from president of his U of O fraternity, to managing an Abercrombie and Fitch, to becoming a real estate agent. He eventually bought the house we were living in and planned on “flipping it.” I still blame him for the economic crisis we’re in today.

I’m not really sure what Bill did exactly, but I know he wore a hard hat and a reflective vest and he left for work at an ungodly hour in the morning each day. Bill was a man’s man who always seemed to have everything under control. He spoke slowly but deliberately, and acted as if nothing could ever rattle him—and to my knowledge nothing ever did. In a house full of guys who would get into fights over whether Jennifer Garner is hot (she’s not), Bill was sort of the “cooler.”

Justin was and still is my best friend. He and I were without a doubt the biggest blazer fans in the house which was very important, especially when control of the television was in dispute. We’ve known each other since the 6th grade and although we always followed the home team, our Blazer fandom didn’t truly blossom until we went our separate ways between high school and college. Once we hooked back up, I guess we kind of fed off of each other’s infatuation with the team and it wasn’t long before we became fully fledged blazermaniacs together. Needless to say, as the 2007 NBA season ended and the Draft Lottery approached, we waited with cautious optimism.
 
The Blazers only won 32 games the previous season but for the first time since I’ve followed the team, I not only felt connected to each and every player; I truly felt we were on the cusp of greatness. I was too young to fully appreciate the championship runs of the early 90's and although I was excited during the run in 2000, I wasn’t emotionally invested in the players like I am now. Back then I cared more about the bottom line which was beating the Lakers, and winning a championship. In that order. All the other years seemed marred by first round exits, failed experiments and wasted energy.

But now Brandon Roy was looking like the steal of last year’s draft, Aldridge looked promising; Martell Webster was going to turn into Ray Allen and Jarrett Jack into Chauncy Billups. I thought Travis Outlaw was one killer instinct away from being an all star and when you add in a lottery pick from what was supposed to be one of the deepest drafts of all time, you get a to start whispering the word “championship,” which hadn’t been used in the same sentence as the words “Trail Blazers” in a long time. Unless you count the headline: “Trail Blazer Rasheed Wallace wins the douchebag championship again!”

Now obviously I knew the team wasn’t going to be an immediate contender as constructed at the time. Juan Dixon probably wouldn’t be long for the team and I was openly anti-Zach Randolph. I also knew that after being royally screwed over in the previous year’s draft lottery (we ended up with the 4th pick instead of the number 1) I shouldn’t get my hopes up about anything special happening on this day. We finished tied for the 6th worst record in the league with Minnesota and had something like a 5% chance of winning the number 1 pick, which in this year’s draft happened to be a once-a-decade center named Greg Oden. Even Adam Silver who presided over the event as the deputy commissioner opened the presentation by saying “good luck to all, the stakes are pretty high tonight.”

Something to keep in mind as you read this; this is before there were any questions about Greg’s health let alone the slightest murmur of the term “micro-fracture.” This was before the so called dispute over whether Kevin Durant deserved to be the number 1 pick (although to be sure, getting a shot at drafting Kevin Durant seemed nearly as exciting from our vantage point). At the time, Greg Oden was the baddest man on the planet and had just finished a superhuman performance during the championship game against Florida where he outplayed 3 front court lottery picks…at the same time…with one hand. There was no question who the number 1 pick was going to be in the 2007 NBA Draft: Greg Oden.

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Another summer league game, another summer league loss. But don't fret my dears, the wins or losses as a team don't mean as much as the progress of the individual players. So lets break down some of these guys.

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Dwight Jaynes has a good reaction to John Canzano's most recent article on the subject of Paul Allen wanting to "break even" and it got me thinking enough to at least draft a fictional letter to our fearless owner...

Dear Mr. Allen,

    I understand that you have recently requested that you “break even” financially in regards to my beloved Portland Trail Blazers. As a satisfied customer of your product for over almost 20 years I have no problem with you looking for financial relief, especially given the present condition of the economy. Your willingness to take on massive losses for the sake of providing a winning ball club has been well documented and for the most part, you have been a fantastic owner: not selling to a business man (when it seemed like you were very close to selling) who could have hijacked our team and sent them to Oklahoma City for instance; not holding tax payers hostage and demanding they pay for a new building or renovations, paying guys like Steve Francis to just go away, I could go on and on. But now I’ve heard some of your vulcans may be whispering in your ear that the actual product on the floor should be effected by some of the cost cutting required for you to break even. Although this may be nothing but bad rumors, I would nonetheless like to address it and at the same time bring up a few other points about the Rose Garden, the Trail Blazers, and the “fan experience.”

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From Jason Quick at Olive:

That Roy is unsigned is particularly alarming and a signal that negotiations have snagged. Word is that Roy wants to sign for the maximum allowed five years, but the Blazers only want to commit to four years. A five-year deal would cost Portland about $82 million, although it won't be determined until the 2010-11 salary cap is set.

That a player of Roy's talent and character wants to lock in his future with your club should be embraced and lauded. Instead, the team is nickel-and-diming him with the amount of years. It's bad form.

If there was ever a no-brainer in extensions, it's that of Roy. You give him the maximum contract allowed. No hesitation. No questions asked. No nothing, other than showing him the courtesy of signing him the minute the signing moratorium ended Tuesday night.

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KP is renowned for being one step ahead of the fans, the media, and often times other GM's. He has an outstanding team of professional scouts and experts who chart and graph just about every feasible scenario in preparation for the upcoming draft. He brags of running through 3 blackberry batteries a day and is known for making calls to other GM's just to bounce ideas off of them. How could we, the fans on blazersedge, possibly predict the unpredictable? How could we ever know what KP is going to do before he does it? KP could go in a thousand different directions and his staff are experts of the highest caliber who are fluent in league rules and salary cap issues. He is privy to the most heavily guarded information and I believe the saying goes, once a rumor is reported by the media its already dead right?

On the other hand, Blazersedge has thousands of fans who do nothing but throw out trade and draft scenarios. Every day. Realistic or not, KP or anyone for that matter, would be hard pressed to come up with a scenario that hasn't already been proposed, discussed, and probably been shot down for 5 different reasons. These proposals are so popular amongst fans, Dave had to pass a measure to effectively ban or restrict fanposts that discussed trade ideas at one point. And even the most ridiculous, unrealistic or downright impossible trade offers or draft targets are usually met with intelligent discourse here. 

We have members who understand the ins and outs of the salary cap and use this forum to inform those who don't. We access websites that give us measurements, statistics, game film and opinions from independent experts and those who know the players best. We are infatuated (not all to the same degree of course) with the team and what June 25th will bring us, so we obsess over the options. And what comes from that obsession? A never ending supply of ideas, thoughts, and scenarios that at some point will have to become reality even though its akin to swinging a bat in the dark...you're bound to hit something.

So is it possible for KP to still pull a rabbit out of his hat in this age of information? He has in the past, true. But Blazersedge has evolved, the media has evolved; we feel challenged to predict things before they happen for whatever reason. And maybe thats what will make it so much more exiciting--the unexpected happening--but at this point no matter which direction KP decides to go I think its safe to say its already been covered in one way or another. To me, that doesn't detract from what he does. If anything, it makes me feel more connected to the team as a fan. And I'm sure those of us who accurately predict what is going to happen on June 25th will let the rest of us know about it shortly thereafter.

So whats your prediction? try to keep it short and sweet, you don't need to explain your reasoning but try to stay away from the more common Kidd, Nash, Hedo, Curry, Blair and Hansboro stuff. I think KP could be a lot more creative than that :)

At this point of the offseason, I think you can either write about draft strategy according to what you WANT to happen or what you THINK will happen. I guess I'm just gonna try to write what makes sense.

Bayless seems to have a lot of support from the team right now and it appears the organization is invested in him. It wouldn't be a stretch to assume that he will be the backup pg (not that he will be awarded the position, he still has to earn it this summer) next season behind Blake, regardless of where Sergio is playing basketball. Speaking of Blake, KP didn't think twice about picking up the team's option on his contract and given that KP admitted to literally crying the first time he traded Blake to Milwaukie I would be absolutely shocked if he gets traded this offseason. He's limited for sure, but his numbers are solid and his contract is appropriate. Sometimes I think the need for a super PG gets overblown anyway. The bottom line is, you need really good players. Doesn't matter what position they play. If your SF or PF (randomly selected positions) are superstars, you can win championships surrounding them with role players. Its about the player, not the position.

Anyway, you could trade assets to move up in the draft for a guy like Stephen Curry (a jumpshooting tweener guard) or I suppose you could go after that mythical "veteran PG." I mentioned Stephen Curry because there has been some rumored interest but it could be any number of rookie PG's. The point is, it doesn't look like the team is going to trade Bayless. Or Blake. Drafting a rookie PG for Nate to NOT play doesn't make much sense right now. Now I could maybe see them shipping out one of those guys for an all star caliber PG (maybe on the tail end of his career) but I just don't see another team making that type of deal. What would be realistic would be going after a player like Rafer Alston who is playing in an NBA Finals right now. His numbers won't jump out at you but he's an experienced guard who will be AVAILABLE at the end of the season (given Jameer Nelson's return). So picking up a player of his caliber sounds reasonable but is it realistic given our current PG situation?

I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time talking about the 2, 3, and 5 spots. I'll just say this, we have 3 serviceable SF's right now. We don't know what Martell is going to give us coming off that serious an injury, we don't know how much growth Batum is going to have from year 1 to 2, and we don't know if Travis will ever decide to show up to camp in shape, learn to rebound, and play TEAM defense. But the bottom line is, the SF is not a position of weakness. Between all 3 of those question marks, I'd be surprised if none of them panned out. and I'm not gonna bother talking about depth on a 2 headed center monster and a SG who plays 40+ minutes a game.

We're down to the PF position. LA seems to be right on track as far as player development and he's already a borderline allstar who is playing 30+ minutes a night. I don't think there are too many people in Portland who think Channing is going to be around next year and as much as I would like Shav to have a shot at some of those leftover minutes, I just don't think its in the cards. So you can either draft a back up or you can go find one. You look at KP's record and tell me what you think he's going to do given those 2 choices? This is a draft stocked with quality PG prospects but very light on big men. It may take some assets to move up but Sergio, Travis, cash and future first rounders are all easily expendable at this point and should be enough to move up in a relatively weak draft to get the player KP has surely targeted since 1995. I'm not sure who to draft, just what to draft. I think if you look at what we need (rebounding, mental and physical toughness, smart defender, ability to score in the low post) you can identify a few prospects.

 Now I may get bashed for this but I don't really care, its for my own health. and because tonight's first experiment was such a wild success, I'll probably continue to do this regardless of the comments I get. My buddies couldn't understand my reasoning until we talked right after the game ended. Then they understood, in fact, I think some of them are getting on board with me.

Let me explain. my fandom really started ramping up during our 20 win season (I've been a fan for longer, I guess the whole "rebuilding plan" just got me more invested in the team) so I've been through a lot. Unfortunately, I feel like I've gotten too emotionally invested as of late. Bad losses shouldn't affect my psyche. I can't let my frustrations with Channing Frye (seriously, his play makes me so angry it makes me NOT want to recycle when I watch his commerical) affect my personal life. I shouldn't yell at my dog when Travis Outlaw pulls a Travis Outlaw. Its not poor peanut's fault.

Now lets look at tonight's game before tipoff. Dick Bavetta is reffing? The blazers are almost FAMOUS at this point for falling behind early and not showing up for big road games against quality opponents? Why on earth would I want to subject myself to the torture or watching my beloved blazers lose a HUGE game 3? Oh yeah, because I'm a fan and no matter what the odds, they have a shot at winning, right? Well, now I can have it both ways. Get the highs of every blazer victory AND avoid the downs of every blazer loss. 

DVR

I honestly don't know how I lived before this glorious invention. I put it right between sliced bread and the wheel. But best of all, it not only allows me to watch blazer games I would normally miss, I can enjoy the euphoria of blazer wins AND skip the stress and anguish of every disappointing loss! I simply check the final score and see if its worth watching. Am I disappointed after tonight's loss? sure, but I'm not as frustrated as I would have been had I watched that (apparent) crap fest. I plan on doing the same thing for game 4 and encourage anyone diagnosed with blazer emotional disorder to do the same!

you were treated to a whining clinic tonight, courtesy of the San Antonio Spurs. I'm so glad TD showed up and gave us the VINTAGE bug eyes. Pop (not the menstral bahu guy, the coach) decided to chip in by arguing a call after his team was down by 30 so you know, the call was a real game changer. Bruce Bown committed at least 3rd degree assault on Brandon and he even had something to say. The one time I really noticed Broy get upset over a missed call and was slow to get back on D, he eventually just jogged down and promptly got a steal. So yeah, Brandon yells whether he gets foulded or not when he drives the lane, and yeah he's been politickin' with the refs a little more lately, but remember: it could be worse. He could be a spur.

the refs.

I don't understand it, but for some reason, NBA refs love to get screamed at, berated and generally insulted. You know how I know this? Because I look at their response to players who do this on a regular basis. Brandon tried to be nice, he tried to never say anything to the refs, and where did it get him? no respect. swallowed whistles. You could argue that he still isn't getting the famous "all star treatment" but its a heck of a lot better than it used to be.

I'm sure plenty of you have also noticed that Brandon has also started to let out a loud yell or HEYYYYYY! whenever he takes it to the hole or feels contact. my girlfriend was asking me about this the other day and I explained it by relating it to Pavlov's Bell. Pavlov would ring a bell whenever he would bring out food for a dog which would then begin to drool. the dog would associate the ringing of the bell with food and soon enough, the ringing of the bell alone would be enough to invoke drooling (yes, thats way simplified but look it up if you want the full story). Brandon yells when he's fouled, the refs blow the whistle. Brandon yells (even when he's not fouled), the refs blow the whistle. yes, refs can be trained like dogs.

ok, now that I think about it, whiner is a bit strong but I couldn't come up with another word that describes an NBA player who complains to the refs after "missed" calls. personally, brandon's new antics towards the refs don't really bother me...unless his man is streaking down the court while he's doing it. but I've read some comments questioning why he does this and so I thought I'd address it. but before you judge, here are a few examples of whiners. now ask yourself how refs respond to these guys...

the san antonio spurs: the premier whiners of the league, and it starts at the top with coach pop. my god those guys complain. timmy does the buggy eyes, manu does the euro "hands to the sky" thing that you'll recognize when rudy does it. tony parker actually puts his arm around the refs' waists sometimes and even bruce bowen gets in on the act, like he didn't INTENTIONALLY just knee that guy in the balls...true story.

kobe freaking bryant: a co worker of mine brought this up the other day. its like, kobe is essentially the most dangerous offensive threat in the league right now. he can score from anywhere, in any way at any time. theres not a move he hasn't perfected, his shooting form is flawless and theres almost no single defender that can stop him on his own. so really, of every player in the league that needs any help from the refs, kobe needs it the least. yet he's treated as a god. but whats even crazier than all of that is, he's a total dick to the refs! if a questionable call goes your way against kobe and he complains loud and long enough, you better believe he's gettin the next call. don't try to fight it. you can't complain louder than he can.

bottom line is, the refs generally don't reward good behavior with preferential treatment. however, they DO reward bad behavior with preferential treatment. I don't blame brandon for figuring this out in his 3rd year.

...So why are the blazers treating him like Joel Przybilla?

Greg isn't just a screen setting rebounder who scores off putbacks. I know his offensive game is limited at this point but you HAVE to use him. We know this, and I would argue Nate knows this (if you look at the beginning of games or immediately after time outs, the ball usually gets fed into the post. This leads me to believe that whatever Nate is telling the players, it has something to do with feeding our big men). But do the players know this? The problem is, the players go away from this after 3 or 4 plays and tend to settle back into "Roy watch 2009" or "see how pretty my jumpshot is?" basketball. I don't think they're stupid, I just think A) they don't know how to use Greg because they're so used to an offense with Joel (meaning they expect Greg to just set screens and play off of them instead of looking for him in the offense) and B) because of the lack of production, they're not as confident in his ability as they were in the beginning of the year (when they did a horrible job trying to obviously force feed it into him everytime down).

A lot of people are pointing the finger at Greg after tonight's embarrassment (although I understand the KD lovers crowing right now). You do realize that he played 16 minutes and took 3 shots right? Meanwhile, Nic Batum played 17 minutes and took 5 shots. It wasn't all on Nic either though. I really think the entire starting group has to share the blame on this, and for as much credit as Broy gets when we win, he sure gets off easy when we lose.

This is off topic, and theres no way in hell Nate does this, but if he really wanted to get through to this group he would do more than flip sergio for bayless or travis for nic; Nate should sit the entire starting 5 for the first 5 minutes of the next game. I can't be the only one who wants to see players out there hustling from the tip but then again I'm not dumb enough to think we don't need our starters. Humor me though, can you imagine Broy, LMA, Oden, Sergio and Nic sitting on the bench watching Joel, Ike, Shavlick, Bayless and Rudy start? Don't they need a fire lit unde their arse somehow, someway? I actually saw Roy Williams, the coach of NC do this in a game against Duke a few years ago in Durham. Roy got so frustrated with his starters and their performance in the beginning of the game, he pulled all 5 of them, went to the end of his bench and threw 5 guys out on the court that had never even taken their warmups off during a real live game before and then proceeded to turn his back to the court, let his assistants run the game,  and spent the next couple minutes going NUTS on those kids. I know a stunt like that wouldn't fly in the pros but I tell you what, when he inserted those guys back into the game they were FIRED UP. They came back and won that game too.

I'm just as frustrated as the next fan but I'm still confident in the guys we have. I think Nate could be a little more creative and I wish Greg would get a LOT more selfish but its gonna take an established member of this team (ahem...Brandon) in the locker room to start holding his teammates accountable before we see any REAL change.

First off, I gotta say that I'm a Nate guy. Maybe I've allowed myself to be too influenced by Jason Quick's stories in the Oregonian, but everytime I read about Nate's talks with the players and all the late night meetings he puts together, I just feel like he's dedicated to building this team the right way. I hear the compliments by players like LBJ who have worked with him outside of the blazers, and I see the praise bestowed upon him by national writers and it confirms how knowledgable and professional he is. But this hasn't stopped many people (including Nate himself) from openly wondering if he will be the coach to lead us to a championship.

Is Nate really that much smarter (baskeball wise) than any of the coaches who have gotten fired this year? Probably not. Does he really not know how to defend the pick and roll? Thats laughable. When some people critique Nate, they challenge his basketball knowledge or question his ability to write x's and o's. But when people rush to defend him, we blame the players, their youth, or their general tendencies as players (they're just not defensive minded!).

So how do we measure this coach's success or ability? Wins and losses? I think most blazer fans are smart enough to look deeper than that, especially those of us who have observed Nate closely since his first year. A coach isn't judged on how much he knows (at this level, there isn't a head coach in the league who isn't a great basketball mind) its how effective he is at transferring that information onto his players and getting them to show what they've learned on the court when it matters (at least for a young team like ours; I understand that with some veteran NBA teams, a coach only needs to be a motivator or personality manager, not so much a teacher).

Nate has earned patience from understanding fans, and yes, the youth of the players must be taken into consideration. But I can't help but feel a little anxious about our development. I don't see players tuning him out but I don't get the feeling that what he's teaching them in practice is carrying over either. I know he's a smart guy, I believe he's a good coach. But can he get our guys to buy in? Do we have an identity? At what point do you hold Nate accountable for the short comings (or success) of the team?

Gotta give the bobcats credit for sucking a little bit less than the blazers out there tonight. Make no mistake about it, thats a bad team. However, their PG doesn't suck that bad and neither does their small forward. I've raved about Gerald Wallace ever since there was the smallest rumor that KP was looking at him. I don't want to repeat old arguments here because I think if you were able to make it through that stink-fest tonight (I didn't. I turned off the tv as soon as it went to overtime because a) the blazer's play actually made my stomach and back hurt from stress and b) there was no way they were gonna pull this one out. you could just see it in their eyes tonight), you saw enough of him to see what he can and can't do.

okay, I can't help it, I'll make it quick. he can't shoot a lick from the outside but it doesn't matter. he gets to the hoop at will. whenever he wants. he hits (enough) freethrows. he plays defense. he runs the court. he's consistent. thats it. he's worth all of our small forwards AND RLEC if they want him. I'll even take that loser bobcats fan the tv kept panning to with the gold chain, headband, and arm sleeve if thats what it takes to get Crash on this team. I'm sure that guy puts on a boston jersey whenever he's not at a bobcats game.

So yeah, get Gerald Wallace please. His contracts not even that bad so please don't complain about that. he's worth all 3 of our small forwards combined so...I dunno, add all their pay checks together and compare the two. This isn't a very well laid out post, I'm just ranting at this point. While I'm here, is it my cappy TV or did it sound like the game was being broadcast from china. underwater. that was the quietest nba arean I think I've ever heard. there were some cheerleaders, some towel boys, and gold chain wearing super-douche in the front row. thats about it.

Feb. 18, Memphis comes to Portland. It's like 18 games away for us and I'm not sure how many Memphis will play in that span but I'm sure they will have to give him another 10 day contract for him to make it to Portland for that game. Personally, I understand Darius' perspective. He knows he's gambling with his knee everytime he steps out in the court but he probably isn't thinking about the long term damage right now. Hopefully he understands that the Grizzlies (or any other NBA team out there) really doesn't give a crap about him and he's only trying to stick it to the Blazers. It would be sorta sad if he really thought that Memphis actually thinks he's anything more than what he means to the free agent market. It would be like saying RLEC is anything more than his contract. Sorry dude but you're not even a person anymore. You are now DMBSC (Darius Miles' Blazers Screwing Contract). I would feel better knowing that Darius is just a spiteful person rather than think he actually feels like he can contribute to a team this year.

Anyway, my question is how will you react (if you are going to be in the RG) when Darius takes the court? And by "takes the court" I mean in the last 2 minutes of (hopefully) a Blazer's blowout.

First off, whats Anthony Peeler doing these days? He ownes a car dealership in Minnesota? KP you need to find this guy and offer him a 1 game contract.

I'm sitting here watching blazers courtside on comcast and mike barrett poses a question to mike rice: if Joel punches KG in the face and the blazers lose, are you ok with that? This is the kind of conversations that come up when the celtics are in town.

KG takes things too far, but what if the blazers had a "KG type" on the roster? Someone who will actually hold his teammates accountable (in an arguably negative way). Or what if our leaders, Broy, LMA, suddenly started letting guys have it when they slack off, screw up or don't have their heads in the game? Obviously if you're gonna do this you have to have some juice and I can't think of anyone who has more than Brandon. Problem is, he's more of that lead by example kind of guy and isn't so vocal. Well, maybe he's vocal, but he's not gonna get in a guy's face...

Travis! Quit shooting those crazy f-ing jumpshots!

LA you are 6'11" ... Why do you only have 3 rebounds?! And for god's sake quit shooting jumpers and take it to the hole!

Greg. I can't even look at you right now. Go sit at the opposite end of the bench.

Sergio, if you don't D up that point guard walking the ball up the court RIGHT NOW, I'm gonna get your boy Rudy deported!

I mean, would we think less of Broy if we saw him in the huddle chewing out some of the other guys? Maybe he already does, behind closed doors. But could you really imagine Brandon getting on his teammates? I couldn't. I think he will show he's frustrated on the court at times, but he seems like the kind of guy that would avoid any confrontations. LA, Greg, they're the same way. And I love our guys for being the opposite of a guy like KG, but it probably wouldn't hurt to have someone be a little more vocal when some of the guys have their heads down or when guys are playing like bone heads.

I'm fully prepared to lose this game tomorrow night. Mentally, I'm at peace. I'm not even gonna say that I expect our guys to match Boston's intensity because I've been let down too many times. I guess if the Blazers play well enough so that I don't have to change the channel in disgust, I'll be happy.

Brandon Roy and/or Greg may not even be able to play in the game. Can't they get "the shot" like in varsity blues? He could be out for 2 weeks...or 2 quarters. Do they even test for steroids in basketball? Somebody test KG then. If this isn't roid rage, I don't know what it is.