SB Nation User Blog: jorga

What will Phoenix do?

jorga — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 05:12:26 -0000

What will Phoenix do?

Tongue in cheek poke at the Suns previous draft day doings. (Old, but don't remember seeing it before.)

FYI - links in comments - REVISED

jorga — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 14:53:44 -0000

FYI - links in comments - REVISED

The system (unaided by mods) will flag a comment as spam if it contains more than five links. It's called a "throttle violation". I've been ignoring those flags, as the ones I see on BE are informative, not spam. However, this morning someone (not a BE regular) has been banned by the system for having too many throttle violations. I don't know how many are too many, but those of you who tend to put lots of links in one comment may want to keep those to five or below. You can always add more later. (This doesn't apply to Ben's front page stories.) Update: Sorry; they are links in replies, not in the original fanshot, fanpost, or story. I don't know if Dave can undo a system ban; I would hope so.

Happy Birthday to Sergio

jorga — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 19:35:04 -0000

Happy Birthday to Sergio

(and to me.) He's 23 ; I was, once. I have some really wonderful memories of that year, and some pretty bad ones. I hope that Sergio's year leaves him only wonderful ones.

Rose Garden misadventures

jorga — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:35:52 -0000

I'm pretty ticked off at the Blazers right now and I don't know whether to write a letter or just vent here. I have no idea who was responsible for the mix-up so I wouldn't know where to direct my complaint, though I suppose I could start with my rep.

I went at my appointed time to Select A Seat today. I wasn't expecting anything wonderful as it was the last day (I have no seniority). I went just to see if I could move closer to center court even if it meant going further up or possibly upgrading. I went to my current section and there was nothing, so I started walking around the arena. Every seat I looked at (they have letter sized tags on the available ones) was Full Season. (I have half). Finally as I was only a couple of sections away from where I started I found a rep. He said, "Oh, we've taken off all the Half Season tags. We were supposed to be through with the half-seasons. Are you here at the right time?" Yes, I showed him my appointment. So he told me to go back down to check-out and they "might be able to pull up something on their computer."

I was in the 300s so started looking for a way down. Came to one escalator. It was on "up." Found a set of stairs, walked down to main level, door was locked. Went back up to 300 level. Next escalator was on "up". I was too leery to try another set of stairs because I was breathing pretty hard and didn't want to have a heart attack as I was yet again climbing back up to the 300 level if that door was locked. How long till they found me?? Finally after a good half circuit of the arena I found a down escalator but it was another half circuit on the main level to take me to check out. By this time I was dripping with perspiration, breathing hard, and thinking I was either going to have a heart attack or stroke. (OK, I'm out of shape, but I can walk a mile or so without gasping for breath). No, they couldn't find anything on their computer and the woman commented "I didn't think they were scheduling half seasons now." Someone was going to be bringing by a list of half-season seats if I wanted to wait. So I stood around (still dripping, but breathing easier) for 10 or 15 minutes. The list appeared. First woman handed me off to a second who started going over the list and comparing it to a seating chart. Her phone rang, she handed me off to a third. For the third time I had to explain where I was sitting now and what I was looking for. She found me some seats that I thought might work, but the 2nd woman had reappeared and pointed out that those were only full season seats. There were some decent upgraded seats, but they were twice as much as I'm paying now and even though I hope to get reimbursed more often for the 2nd seat I just couldn't do it.

So after all that I left with the same seats I'd gone in with which didn't surprise me. But the screw up of pulling the half-season tags off the seats while there were still half-season people scheduled really ticked me off. (I know of at least two other sets of people who had the same problem as mine, plus we weren't even the last group scheduled.)

They've repriced some of their seating, adding a couple of new "colors". I wonder if they grandfathered in people who kept the same seats or if they have to pay the newly upgraded price even though the seats are the same and the old color still exists. I knew they had raised the prices of some sections, but I hadn't heard that that they'd carved some new (more expensive) sections out of existing ones. Gotta wring out as much money as you can while the Blazers are a hot ticket, I guess.

6/7 Trade Drawer / Trading Post

jorga — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 18:08:39 -0000

Posts about trades are starting to fill up the sidebar again. Please post all of your trade ideas here. Any fanpost or fanshot about a Blazer trade posted after this one will be deleted without comment. Generally any trade discussions involving the Blazers should take place here, however there are exceptions. If you have a trade idea which has not been discussed on this site ad nauseum and is logical and would work under all the guidelines for trades (reread the main page stories, such as this one ), makes sense for both teams and you can write it up in a well-reasoned, intelligent manner (think a scout writing to KP) then you may post it individually. Too much trouble to do the research? Then it probably does not deserve its own post. We're not trying to discourage posts about trades, just trying to corral them all in one place.

This time last year ...

jorga — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 04:19:55 -0000

This time last year ...

Link to BE story about who we might draft. Funny.

"Related Fanposts/Fanshots"

jorga — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:40:14 -0000

"Related Fanposts/Fanshots"

Does anyone else find these "related posts" a waste of precious sidebar space? The ones I just saw referenced fanposts from 3 and 4 months ago. Maybe SBN thinks they may be helping avoid duplicate postings, but for a site as dynamic as BE pointing out stuff that old is not helpful. Do any of you look at them?

"Man, seriously..." (KP quote) - updated

jorga — Fri, 29 May 2009 18:01:34 -0000

if you only knew who I was talking about," said Pritchard to Canzano after hanging up his phone. (Does one "hang up" a cell phone? "ring off"? turn off?. End call?) Anyway, to continue...

Maybe I'm reading more into that than is warranted, but it came across to me that KP was a little excited. Now maybe he was talking about someone and the other end of the line was "no no no", but let's say the conversation was productive and he really was excited.

WHO would get Pritchard exited?

Doubtful a draft pick because it would be hard to talk about a specific one unless you were talking to the GM with one of the top three picks.

A free agent? (Would he be talking with the FA's agent now?)

A non-FA player? Talking trade?

Many of you have already said who would excite you if we added him, but think outside your fan box. Ignoring logic and logistics, just knowing the player might be available - who would get KP excited?

The first name that came into my head was Chris Paul.
Now it's your turn.

EDIT: OK OK. I can see from the first few posted comments that what I intended did not come across well at all.

I am not asking if you believe what Canzano wrote is indeed the BFT. I am not asking if you think KP's quote was a cover-up, spin, or red herring. Just suspend all judgment and PRETEND that KP is actually excited about a player he just learned might be available. Don't use logic (would this player fit - if KP is excited it means he figures he can MAKE him fit - maybe by trading someone we love); don't use logistics - if KP wants someone he gets him.

And to repeat myself - not who would excite you - who would excite KP?

(Maybe this was a stupid question to ask of a mostly-guy fanbase?)

Lots of ?s about fouls & blocks & stuff

jorga — Mon, 11 May 2009 22:57:08 -0000

“The smart approach with the game on the line is to assume that the referees won't call anything.” This was almost a throw-away line from Henry Abbott this morning, but it got me thinking. Wouldn't this be a smart approach all the time? On offense as well as defense? Is there too much focus on “getting the call” or “avoiding the call”? Are the Blazers tentative because of this?

I'm coming at this with complete innocence, never having been a coach or player. I'm throwing it out here so I can learn. I guess what I'm really looking for are good reasons why this would not be a good whole-game approach.

I've heard MB say some players (not specifically Blazers) are “worried about getting his shot blocked”. Do you play differently when there's a proven shot blocker on the opposition? Doesn't his presence mean different game strategy to begin with? Why would you be concerned about getting a shot blocked? It that more shameful than missing a ten foot jump shot?

I've seen comments here, and noticed it myself, that Brandon is now arguing (or commenting on) more non-calls. I think it was even a subject of an Oregonian story – his becoming more vocal with the refs. Unfortunately it puts me in mind of Zach Randolph who often would be slow getting back on defense by arguing with the refs about a non-call. I'm not saying the commenting slows Brandon down, but if he continues to question every non-call it eventually will, particularly when we start playing faster. Wouldn't it be smarter “to assume that referees won't call anything”?

I've noticed that Oden & Przybilla both play more tentative defense when they have a couple of fouls. Travis too. Is this something that is taught? Are you really supposed to ease up a little when you have 3 fouls? Joel certainly learned to avoid his bear hug fouls (remember a couple of years ago when he'd start every game with 2 or 3?) Greg is learning to keep his arms UP. Isn't it more about learning to play better rather than playing to avoid fouling? (These are two different things in my opinion, though playing better can include avoiding fouling.) Again, shouldn't you play assuming that nothing will be called? (Not advocating mean & nasty, just legal defense.)

It seems to me that the only guy who doesn't seem to be thinking much about fouls is Bayless who plays with reckless abandon. And I guess I'll add Blake to that. BRoy is thinking about drawing a foul every time he drives, but he's not assuming nothing will be called - quite the contrary. Is LMA one of the players who doesn't want his shot blocked - is that one reason he settles for jumpers too often?

THE shoes with excised (and edited) Rockets label. They are not responsible for the blowout (she...

jorga — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 19:07:16 -0000

THE shoes with excised (and edited) Rockets label. They are not responsible for the blowout (she says with fingers crossed). They WILL be attending the game Tuesday so if you feel they do have an effect, please say your little magic words over them (no need to publish them).