SB Nation User Blog: danevan

Blazer's Season Preview.

danevan — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:38:23 -0000

Mid-season Awards

danevan — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:19:33 -0000

Mid-season Awards

Brandon Roy on the NBA second-team! and Nate gets an honorable mention for coach of year.
Should there be any other Blazer appearances? I was hoping for Rudy to get mentioned...

Felton?

danevan — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 19:09:45 -0000

• Sources say Charlotte remains highly confident that it can follow up the Richardson deal by finding a taker for versatile swingman Gerald Wallace, despite the prospect of three seasons at $9.5 million each left on Wallace's contract beyond this season. It's believed that teams interested in trying to pry Raymond Felton away from the Bobcats instead of Wallace -- Portland has been mentioned -- have to be willing to take back mothballed center Nazr Mohammed (owed a combined $13.4 million in 2009-10 and 2010-11) thanks to Felton's improvement since being moved to shooting guard alongside rookie point guard D.J. Augustin. One source close to the situation said new Bobcats coach Larry Brown had already been grinding on vets such as Richardson and Wallace, which has apparently exacerbated Brown's famed penchant for wanting to make changes.

Felton to the Blazers? yes please.

ESPN - 2009 Rookie Rankings

danevan — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:01:55 -0000

ESPN - 2009 Rookie Rankings

Rudy getting some respect!

I hate being wrong, except when it's about Greg Oden.

danevan — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 08:48:53 -0000

I hate being wrong, except when it's about Greg Oden.

Bill Simmons on Greg Oden, a little depressing.

OT - K*be

danevan — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 22:38:00 -0000

Hey guys,

I'm fairly new to the blazer's edge community as far as posting goes, being more of an observer than anything. Over a year or so of my observing, I think I have figured something out....you guys don't have much love for k*be bryant! I have always been pretty on the fence about the guy, but I figure I won't type in his full name just to go along with the crowd here. He is an absolutely amazing player to watch when he is on, so intense on defense, and often unstoppable on offence. But then there is the other side, yes, the other side...Horrible team-mate, a fair-weather fan of his own team, constant complainer to ref's (he already gets more calls than he should), and ball-hog, just to name a few. But my real issue with him is that I really don't want to hear a single thing that comes out of his mouth, epsecially when he complains to the media about his team mates and team. But my biggest problem with comes down to nick-names, it's an unwritten rule that you can't make up your own nickname, we all learned this in 5th grade, but apparently k*be missed that lesson. For me It started out with "the black mamba" can you really be more arrogant? The only thing I see in common there is the poison, the snake to its prey, and k*be to his team. And now, what's this one in the olympics? he is trying to get people to call him "the doberman", it's just getting old to me k*be, we arn't impressed...

Anyways, that was my k*be rant, I guess I do like him less that I thought before I started writing, but this is what I started this post to write about in the first place. All that hype about lebron to greece, it came about that k*be is a free-agent too, and he got to answer some questions about the chance of playing back in italy, where he grew up.

http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/extras/celtics_blog/2008/08/kobe_to_italy.html

Good riddance..

Your thoughts?.

Blazers 2008/2009

danevan — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 07:10:27 -0000

While the 2007/2008 is just starting to gear up, I can't help but be excited for the up-coming off-season and how its going to effect the team for years to come.
First, no matter how upsetting it was to lose Oden for the year, it may turn out to be a blessing in disguise. With the loss of Oden due to injury and Randolph via trade, LMA is almost alone as a scoring option in the low post. Combining that with the fact that he has recently been named team captain results in a lot of pressure on him this season to perform on the court as well as mature into a leader on the team. If he can embrace his opportunity this season we could be seeing a whole new LMA a year from now.
In a similar situation is Martell. Following his strong pre-season he has earned a starting spot on the roster and should be in line to make some serious progress this season with the new minutes he will be receiving. As long as he can work hard, listen to his coaches and improve on the consistency he could also be destined for big things in the following years.
Roy had an amazing rookie season and has already established himself as a premier player and a leader, any improvement from him this season would be gravy.
While all this sounds very promising it is still quite unlikely for a successful season this year. I don't want to sound like a downer, but it we don't finish in the bottom 10 in the league I will be fairly surprised.
The positive side of this is that we still do have our first round draft pick. It's a long shot, but can you imagine the blazers landing Derrick Rose or OJ Mayo in June? Any point guard issues for the future would be sorted out.
Combining a solid draft pick with the return of a even stronger Greg Oden, assuming he will have spent the last 8 months working out (rememeber how shredded amare was after his year away with the micro-fracture?), the addition of what could be an instant impact player off the bench in Rudy Fernandez, and possibly new face aquired through free-agency if KP decides to splash in the market (isn't chris paul on that list this year?), could all lead to a very big jump for the blazers next year. Im even thiking leagues most imroved team of 2008/2009.
A starting unit of Oden, LMA, Martell, Roy, and Blake.
Second line of JP, Frye, Outlaw, Rudy and JJ.
And thats not even considering what we pick up in the draft/free agency.
Im excited already. watch out mavs...