A Little Holiday Fun courtesy of Elf Yourself at jibjab

RRRRRRRROOOWWWWRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wait, how was Greg Oden a bust?

"Oden had a very productive rookie campaign
This morning SportsNation, whoever they are, voted overwhelmingly in favor of the ridiculous notion that Greg Oden, the rookie center of the Portland Trailblazers, is a busted draft choice. My Win Credit formula, based on David Berri's Win Score efficiency metric, wishes to rebut."

Not sure how credible the source....thehoopsreport.com

Jon Brockman - 2nd Round

"It's still not perfectly clear which team gave him the guarantee, but I've narrowed it down to two teams: the Detroit Pistons and the Portland Trail Blazers. Both teams have multiple picks early in the second round and both teams could use a power forward. The Pistons need a lot of frontcourt help, and the Blazers need a backup power forward."

"Whichever team it is, the Pistons or the Blazers, Brockman should be off the board by No. 44 at the latest. Portland owns the No. 33 pick and the No. 38 pick, while Detroit will draft at No. 35, No. 39 and No. 44."

With weeks remaining before the NBA draft and start of free agency, the Trail Blazers already have made their first significant decision of the offseason.

General manager Kevin Pritchard told The Oregonian on Friday that the Blazers have decided to exercise team options on starting point guard Steve Blake and sixth man Travis Outlaw, two key components of last season's playoff team.

A good read from Scott Howard-Cooper at SI

I don't care. OK, Houston 108, Portland 81 in a calamitous Saturday night. I'm still loving the Trail Blazers. Loving the talent, loving the personality, loving the coaching, loving the front-office decisions.

Okay...now we've all got a lot of time on our hands waiting for Tuesday. Here is a great site to "geek" over while we wait.

HISTORICAL VICTORY PROBABILITIES AND TEAM PERFORMANCE RECORDS FOR BEST-OF-7 FORMAT MLB, NBA, AND NHL PLAYOFF SERIES.

BEST-OF-7 PROBABILITY FORMULAE has my head spinnin'...oh my...wish I had Norsktroll's brain!

A short blurb in the Portland Biz Journal:

During the last three regular seasons, the Portland Trail Blazers victory total jumped by 11, nine and 13 wins, respectively. During the same period, the team’s revenue exploded, spiking from $78 million to $114 million, according to Forbes magazine.

The 48 percent increase boosted the team’s value from $227 million to $307 million and pushed it to the edge of profitability.

The magazine estimates the team had an $85.1 million operating deficit in 2003-04. It’s now slightly less than $1 million.

That means the Blazers, after meeting their team goal of making the playoffs this season, could reach their business goal — profitability — in the next two years after more than $100 million in losses this decade.

A nice story on L(give the man his M)A from the Austin Newspaper...

The NBA will look into a pre-game video shown Friday night by the Portland Trail Blazers at the Rose Garden that included footage of Lakers forward Trevor Ariza's March 9 flagrant foul on Portland's Rudy Fernandez, a league spokesman confirmed Saturday.

More gems from Phil in the LA Times version:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-spw-lakers-phil-jackson12-2009apr12,0,4954396.story