I watched all the games, and was very surprised to not be blacked out.  I’ve got Dish Network. i watched one game on TNT, one on the satellite uplink of the local Eugene station (horrible picture) and 3 on the League Pass free trial. I live 200 miles south of Portland (southeast of Roseburg). I emailed both the NBA, and Dish, to ask if they had temporarily lifted the blackout rules for the free trial, but I have yet to receive a reply. I am very interested in who else was able to watch the Blazers on League Pass that expected to be blacked out. 

Also, the last game against the Hawks i watched on League Pass was the only LP game with our announcers. It was a Comcast NW broadcast, but not in HD. Why do they uplink games in SD?

I posted this as a response to another post, but decided to make a new post in hopes of generating more discussioon.

Seems more than possible to me that everybody but PA wanted to trade. Especially in light of the Martell news (which not coincidentally was only revealed after trade negotiations ended). By making any of the trades most of us were hoping for, PA would have owed much more money than by not making a trade. We have been spoiled by having PA as owner, as he has almost always spent what was necessary to improve the team. This time, in these financial crises times, after losing many millions of dollars, and realizing that we would probably make the playoffs anyway, and we wouldn’t challenge for a title even w/ a new SF, he decided to save money for himself. Can hardly blame him. We experienced, for this time, at least, what fans of most other teams have to live with constantly.
I have absolutely no info that confirms this theory, but it sure seems more probable than KP and Nate saying let’s squander this golden RLEC and play out the rest of the season and possibly the playoffs with inadequate small forwards.

I'm sitting here on the beach in Mexico and reading Blazers Edge (much to my wife's disbelief) and realizing that we still don't know much about a few of our players. After reading Blazers or Bust's diary about trading Travis I wanted to make these comments.
If and probably when we decide we are not going to make the playoffs, I think we should make some changes. I would like to reduce Brandon's minutes substantially, reduce LMA's somewhat, shut Steve and JJ3 down altogether. I want to see how Travis handles being the starting 3, how Frye does w/ more minutes at the 4, how Martell can do w/ big minutes at the 2, and how Sergio and Jack handle big minutes at PG.
We need to know these things when deciding who is expendable, where we need to build, etc.  

I have been  waiting to see if Dish makes a deal with Comcast before I subscribe to NBA League Pass. I imagine others are in the same boat. Are the Blazer games still being blacked out on League Pass, and if so, where?  Did all the home games get blacked out? How about tonight's game in Philly, which is on Comcast? I am in Southern Oregon, any info from fellow Southern Oregonians? How about people from out of state?
I know we've been talking about this for awhile, and so far our worst fears have been realised.
Incidentally, my daughter in PDX has Comcast because a tree blocks access to the satellites, and they have had nothing but trouble w/ Comcast's standard def DVR. It's been replaced 4 times, and finally the technicians are admitting that they are swamped with the same issue. Apparently just a bad machine.

Just a thought I've been playing with. It looks like "the glove" is about to hang 'em up, and I wonder if he would be interested in being the point guard coach for us. Does Nate focus on coaching the point guards himself? Did he get along with Payton? Would he consider getting help from Payton? Has Payton grown into the type of person we would want around our kids? Can Payton communicate well enough to teach? If the answer to all these questions is yes, it seems like he would be ideal. Defense, passing, scoring, passion, leading. Almost a homecoming for him, can't imagine he would want to move back to Oakland.
OK, something tells me I'm about to get blasted here, but let's hear your thoughts.

Good article at Hoopsworld on why Zeke and the Knicks made a big mistake trading for Zbo. Makes you appreciate that much more Pritchard and his team of masterminds. I'm getting real comfy now with the trade!
Here's the link, but I don't know how to make it a hyperlink using Safari.
http://www.hoopsworld.com/article_22602.shtml

Opinions expressed here seem to be cutting too much slack to the 1 and 3 positions as far as defense is concerned. People have been expressing that it won't be as important now for Martell, Travis, Sergio or Jarret to play good D, because we will have Greg and LMA backing them up. I can't imagine Pop telling the Spurs that it's not too important for a couple of the positions to play good D because Timmy will be there to back them up. We will need good D played by all positions or Oden and LMA will find themselves in constant foul trouble. The lack of D from our PGs or our SFs will make it that much more difficult to run on offense also. When we chose Oden over Durant we were deciding that our chances for a championship were better with a defensive oriented team. History bears that out. There should be no player at any position on the team that can't hold his own defensively. This is how we need to build. Am I missing something? Why do some of you suddenly think that 2 or 3 guys playing strong defense will be all we need to turn into a championship level defensive team?  

Congrats on your ESPN interview Dave!! You certainly deserve this position as all of us devoted readers/ bloggers of this site already know. Maybe a spot on KP's crew is looming.
I have been curious about how much, if any, recognition or communication the Blazers send you. Do they recognize your positive contribution to the fans, and do they appreciate your insights. They should. Thanks for doing what you're doing.  

So many of you fans are expressing a belief that LaMarcus needs to start this year. I want to see him get lots of playing time, but I'm not so sure it is in the Blazers best interest to have him start. While we are all very optimistic about his future, I'm afraid we may be handing him all kinds of accolades before he has proved himself. While he did surprise us with his performance last year (especially given the low expectations from Nate, KP, etc) he did at times struggle. We don't know for sure how consistently he can produce, how durable he will be, if he can develop a low post game, etc.
If he was to spell Zach and Oden (or Joel) he could get 30 minutes at least, we would be better able to adapt to other teams lineups, we would be bringing him along a little slower, with less pressure, while still retaining Zach strengths. If you are worried about LMA's ego, I think he has shown the character to put the team's interest first. Do we really think that Manu, Leandro, and Stackhouse are being mismanaged or disrespected?
Sometimes we assume that certain things are the truth and we stop questioning. I am only trying to stimulate the conversation.

First let me say that I think Zach is continuing to improve, is becoming a leader and a team first kind of player, and he is easily our MVP. In the interest of making room for Aldridge at his natural position, and improving our team at the 3 and 5 positions, I am proposing a trade. One that I think improves both teams. How about Zach for Darko and Hedo? Not sure I'd pull the trigger, and I've no idea if it works salary wise.

Poll

Would you make this trade?

8%

Yes

3 votes

86%

No

31 votes

5%

Would you prefer Grant Hill over Hedo

2 votes

36 votes | Poll has closed