Oden is done.  Roy is hobbled.  LMA probably won't be an All-Star any time soon.  Oh, and by the way.  The sky is falling.

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Who is correct in the Jason Quick vs. Ben Golliver rift?  Is Ben not being fair to those he's criticising or is Quick just offended by past bedge coverage?

This isn't trying to step on the toes of any other fanposts out there, but i wanted to put a poll up to see what side of the Jason Quick vs. Ben Golliver spat people are on.

There's a great fanpost below to discuss this, so please go there for comments.  i'm trying to get quantitative up in here.

A question to all you BE out there: 

Now that we're back to having conversations about trades, what do you think about the lack of trades made at the deadline last February?  I'm specifically thinking about RLEC (if you're in to the whole brevity thing). KP said something like "Let's go to war together" to the team after the deadline passed, indicating that he liked the direction the team was heading and didn't want to ruffle anyone's feathers.  Fair enough, but where does that put us now?

I don't remember exact deals that were on the table, but I do remember Kirk Hinrich and Richard Jefferson (and a ton of other people I'm forgetting) were talked about quite a bit.  All that talk went away during the final stretch of the season, but now that we're back in Acquisitions Mode these names are creeping back in to discussions on BE.  The difference being that now we don't have that ace in the sleeve (RLEC) to play that would get a deal done.

Looking back, should we have made a move?  Did we do the right thing?  It might be to early to say either way, but when isn't?  I think we had a better bargaining position last February and think we could have gotten more for less at that point than we can get now.

What am I basing this on, you ask?  Pure speculation.

With two solid perimiter defenders in Crazy Pills and Battier, keeping Nic on the floor allows them to focus on Roy and ignore Nic, who is a non-factor on offense.  Rudy keeps them running around on defense, and more importantly, let's Roy go one-on-one with either Artest or Battier.

I really like the lineup with him at the two and Roy at SF.  Plus, Rudy is just plain bananas. 

Who's with me?

After my poll about how awesome Brandon Roy's nickname is to BE readers, I think it's definitively NOT AWESOME. 

Or is it....?

Quick's latest Behind the Locker Room write up after the Denver game revealed that Brandon, in spite of a massive rejections by fans, says that Yellow Mamba is here to stay.

How Portland is this!  He's basically saying, "Screw conventional wisdom.  I like it, so I'm doing it."  Sure, it doesn't roll off the tongue very well, pays homage to the most hated player in the NBA, and is based around a  fictional snake, but you know what?  If Brandon Roy likes it, I like it.

Think of it like an ironic mustache.  At first, it seems silly, but then it slowly becomes cool.  Let's get behind this Yellow Mamba thing, and take it from arguably the worst nickname imaginable to a household name.

The debate between the Eastern and Western Conferences and their dominance couldn't really even be called a debate over the past few seasons.  Dating back to the fateful WCF between the Blazers and L*kers, everyone was saying that this matchup was the real Finals.  The winner just had to go through the formality of playing Indiana or whatever team had won the East that year.  Despite blips on the radar, such as trophies in Detroit and Boston, the Western Conference as a whole seemed to be much more difficult of a conference to play in, even if the end result didn't necessarily mean it would produce the best team in the NBA.

This all seems to have changed this year.  Not only are Boston, Cleveland, and Orlando beating teams across the continent, but the NBA's worst teams tend to be from the Western Conference (LA Clippers, Memphis, Sacramento).  But even with those solid facts, the Western Conference playoff race is in full swing, and from the 2-9 seeds, there is a marginal difference.  Phoenix, the 9th team based on winning percentage, would be 6th seed in the East.

Does the strength of the Western Conference's teams that are in, say, the top 1/3rd outweigh the fact that of the bottom eight teams in the league, six of them are from the Western Conference?  Does that fact that the 5th - 11th best teams in the league are from the Western Conference outweigh the fact that three of the top four teams in the league are from the East?

Using numbers from ESPN's website on the morning of March 14th, I listed each team and ranked them by winning percentage.  Each position was weighted, so that the first place team would get 30 'ranking points' (RP) and the 30th place team would get 1 'ranking point.'  Here's how it broke down (sorry for the format, could someone please let me know how to put spreadsheets in a fanpost in the comments, thanks):

By League:

Rank    Team    WIN %         Ranking Points
1    Cleveland     0.800               30
1    LA L*kers     0.800                30
3    Boston     0.758                     28
4    Orlando     0.738                    27
5    San Antonio     0.677            26
6    Houston     0.632                   25
7    Portland     0.631                   24
7    New Orleans     0.631          24
9    Denver     0.627                    22
10    Utah     0.621                       21
11    Dallas     0.606                    20
12    Atlanta     0.576                   19
13    Miami     0.554                     18
14    Phoenix     0.530                 17
15    Detroit     0.516                    16
16    Philadelphia     0.508         15
17    Chicago     0.448                 14
18    Milwaukee     0.441             13
19    New Jersey     0.431           12
19    New York     0.431               12
21    Charlotte     0.424                10
22    Indiana     0.418                     9
23    Golden State     0.354           8
24    Toronto     0.348                     7
25    Minnesota     0.303                6
26    Oklahoma City     0.273        5
27    Memphis     0.250                  4
28    LA Clippers     0.231             3
29    Washington     0.227             2
30    Sacramento     0.215            1

Total Ranking Points                 468

Eastern Conference:

Rank     Team        Ranking Points
1      Cleveland             30
3      Boston                   28
4      Orlando                27
12    Atlanta                   19
13    Miami                    18
15    Detroit                   16
16    Philadelphia         15
17    Chicago                14
18    Milwaukee            13
19    New Jersey           12
19    New York              12
21    Charlotte               10
22    Indiana                    9
24    Toronto                    7
29    Washington            2

Total Ranking Points:   232

Western Conference:

Rank    Team             Ranking Points
1      LA L*kers              30
5      San Antonio          26
6      Houston                 25
7      Portland                  24
7      New Orleans          24
9      Denver                    22
10    Utah                        21
11    Dallas                     20
14    Phoenix                  17
23    Golden State           8
25    Minnesota                6
26    Oklahoma City         5
27    Memphis                   4
28    LA Clippers              3
30    Sacramento              1

Total Ranking Points:    236

I look at the total Ranking Points (RP) of each conference in a couple of ways. 

First, the average RP of the East is 15.47.  The West's RP average out to be 15.73.  Not much a difference at all.  The West is only slightly above the league average, and the East is only slightly below.

Second, and more importantly, the difference between the East and West TRP is only about one percent (0.008).

               RP            %            AVG
EAST     232    49.57%    15.47
WEST    236    50.43%    15.73
NBA      468    100%         15.6

The East and West seem to be in a dead heat this year.  The fact that of the bottom six teams, five are in the West seems to cancel out any advantage that the West as 7 teams with RP in the 20s, compared to just 2 for the East.

But I wasn't sure how typical this was, so I checked out that fateful year that the L*kers stole my dignity and squeaked their way into the NBA Finals like stinky little rats.  From the 1999-2000 Season:

NBA     

  
Rank    Team               Ranking Points
1      LA L*kers (0)             29
2      Portland (0)                28
3      Indiana (0)                  27
4      Utah (0)                       26
5      Phoenix (0)                 25
6      San Antonio (0)          24
7      Miami (0)                     23
8      Minnesota (0)             22
9       New York (0)              21
10    Philadelphia (0)         20
11    Charlotte (0)               19
12    Toronto (0)                  18
13    Sacramento (0)          17
14    Seattle (0)                   16
15    Detroit (0)                    15
16    Milwaukee (0)            14
17    Orlando (0)                  13
18    Dallas (0)                     12
19    Houston (0)                 11
19    Denver (0)                   11
19    Boston (0)                    11
22    New Jersey (0)            8
22    Cleveland (0)               8
24    Washington (0)            6
25    Atlanta (0)                      5
26    Vancouver (0)              4
27    Golden State (0)           3
28    Chicago (0)                   2
29    LA Clippers (0)            1
    Total                                 439

EAST

Rank    Team            RP
3       Indiana             27
7       Miami                23
9       New York          21
10    Philadelphia     20
11    Charlotte            19
12    Toronto               18
15    Detroit                15
16    Milwaukee         14
17    Orlando              13
19    Boston                11
22    New Jersey         8
22    Cleveland            8
24    Washington         6
25    Atlanta                  5
28    Chicago               2
    Total                        210

WEST

Rank     Team            RP
1       LA L*kers          29
2       Portland             28
4       Utah                    26
5       Phoenix              25
6       San Antonio       24
8       Minnesota          22
13    Sacramento       17
14    Seattle                16
18    Dallas                 12
19    Houston              11
19    Denver               11
26    Vancouver           4
27    Golden State       3
29    LA Clippers          1
    Total                        229

             RP       %             AVG
East    210    48%    14.00
West    229    52%    16.36
NBA    439    100%    15.14

These numbers show that the West was much better than the East compared to this season.  4% isn't that much, but compared to the 1% difference this year, it seems significant.

And, for those of you paying extra-special attention, you've noticed that the aforementioned team from Charlotte were still known as the Hornets, rather than the Bobcats, leaving the Western Conference without a team from the Big Easy.  This means that the West was better with fewer teams.  The only way I could think of to make up for this would be to add an additional team to the Western Conference and give it the average RP.  The new numbers would be:

             RP      %           AVG
East    210    46%          14
West    245    54%       16
NBA    455    100%       15

For good measure, let's put this year's number back up.

               RP            %            AVG
EAST     232    49.57%    15.47
WEST    236    50.43%    15.73
NBA      468    100%         15.6

Just like I thought.

Subjectively, the West used to be THE dominant Conference, and there were few who would dispute this notion.  This year the rise of quality teams in the East, combined with the amount of cellar-dwellers in the West (how miserable are the Clippers.  poor fans) has evened out the rivalry quite a bit.  Statistically, this seems to be backed up, too, when comparing a year that the West was crushin' it, to now, when the better conference doesn't seem to be so apparent.

Note:  This is my first go at any stat analysis.  I'm not sure if my methods are faulty or not.  Statisticians, holler at your boy.

Simple poll question here to see what blazermania is thinking.

Do you think the Blazers will make another trade this season (tomorrow morning)?

Obviously, no one knows what is really going on, but since we all think we do, let's let everyone know how we feel.

Additionally, I would have put two questions, but sbnation is holding me back.

The first is if you think the blazers are going to make another trade before the deadline at noon tomorrow.  But even if you answer yes, the degree to which it affects the team is still up in the air.  The second question would be:

If you think the Blazers will make a trade, how much impact do you think it will have:

1. A lot.  KP is going to add a 30 mpg player.

2. Noticable.  Second string player, but a contributor.

3. Project.  Nic Batum, meet your doppleganger.

But since my second poll got shut down, argue about your gut feelings below in the comments.

Hello Wizards fans and Bullets diehards,

over at blazersedge, I proposed to the crowd that the blazers out to pursue Caron Butler.

I gotta be honest with you guys though, and I don't know much about your team, let alone your fans.

My theory is this:  The Big Three combo you guys have tried over the past few years hasn't worked out like you'd have hoped, so you might be willing to part with Butler in order to get A: young talent B: flexability (ever heard of Raef LaFrentz?)

My questions to you:  what would you want for Tough Juice?  who would the blazers be taking on if there are additional players you'd want to throw in the deal.

To give you a sense of what fans at BE are saying, a common (too easy IMO) trade is Raef's Contract + Outlaw + picks/cash.  how would that sit with you?

It's a Trade Drawer with a theme, and that theme is Caron Butler.

Folks might go back and forth on whether he's a small forward or not, but let's just play him there.  And, with the Wizards so completely awful, it seems like they might be willing to blow up the roster and try a new approach.  Isn't that what Quick was getting at?

For those of you unfamiliar with Caronomo, here is a great interview with him at Ball Don't Lie.  He seems like a cool dude who goes to kids birthday parties.

I get requests and stuff like that. If I'm not doing anything, I don't have a problem stepping out and having a good time, and making somebody's day. It's rewarding for me, and obviously it helps them. But it helps me too because of the impact you have on somebody's life.

Skills for days: check

character: check

You'd probably have to add the Golden Ticket aka RLEC, Outlaw to replace CB, but what about one of our three rookies in Batum, Rudy, or Rex?

Now, fellow Blazers Edgers:  What is an acceptable amount of talent that you'd be willing to give up on in order to get Tough Juice in the Red and Black?

UPDATE: I posted a post about this post over at bulletsforever.  The people over there are NOT feelin this trade, and it's easy to understand.  Their team stinks, and Caron is the one good thing going for it.  Still, see if you can sell it to them here.

I don't want to make another post that speculates about who the quick chat targets are, or who they aren't, but rather I wanted to check out the rational behind making a deal before the break, and not making a deal.

Regarding a trade, there are a few theoreticals that we would have to get out of the way, such as who we're giving up and who is coming in.  Obviously, if LBJ is getting sent over, you do the deal no matter how you feel about midseason deals, but that's not what I'm getting at.  Let's assume it's an acceptable deal that makes the team better in the short term, doesn't sacrifice their long term potential, and fits the opposing team's needs as well (which will probably be cap relief and a couple nice, young players). 

I've seen several of these acceptable-level deals that have been suggested on this, but there are still quite a few folks out there who seems to be really insistent on not making a deal and getting the cap space.  The thing I don't understand, is how this approach is categorically better than making a deal?

By passing up an offer that fits the scenario above (good for me, good for you) in order to be a player in free agency, isn't that simply rolling the dice, getting a 4, and deciding that you'd rather roll again than keep the 4?  There is no guarantee anything better is going to come up, and if you consider the odds of rolling higher than a 4 (read: upper level SF), the smart money is on taking the play when available.  Poker Heads should get this "play the odds" mentality.

At least with a trade, we'll know who is coming in and who is going out.  There's no guarantee that anything productive is going to come out of free agency.

This is how I look at the whole situation.  Am I wrong? When I say that I don't understand why free agency is a better approach, I'm not belittling it by saying the argument sucks, but rather, I truly don't understand it and want someone to explain it to me.

Holler at the poll and explain why you voted like you did.

I was trolling over at blogabull and i noticed a trade mentioned in the fanposts and I thought I'd share it with BE readers for one reason alone:  I fully support it.

From the post, the author quoted something from a Chad Ford chat:

Jake (Israel): Lovin the chats Chad. How seriously does the Darius Miles situation affect the Blazers? assuming he plays two more games.

 Chad Ford: Seriously, which is why the Blazers ended up making that desperate, pathetic threat over the weekend. The plan was to be a major player in the free agent market this summer. While the Blazers will still have room this summer, their better bet, now, is to use Raef LaFrentz's expiring contract (which is really a sweet deal since insurance picks up 80 percent of his salary) and some of his young talent to try to get another big piece or two. Ideally they'd to get a franchise point guard and they need a small forward. There's been interest in Mike Conley and I know they love Luol Deng. All in all, expect the Blazers to be very proactive at the trade deadline. It's the best chance of landing another impact player.

and then goes on to explain his proposal:

... if the Bulls are going to deal Deng this year, it has to be for an expiring contract and some young talent.  He's not a superstar, but he could be an All-Star down the line, so there has to be some return on their investment there.  Here's the second trade I'd propose.  The Bulls send out Hinrich and Deng and receive back Raef LaFrentz's extremely nice expiring where the insurance pays most of the last year of the deal (sure to entice cheapskate Reinsdorf), Rudy Fernandez (a very good young player on an extremely nice deal), Nicholas Batum (an up and comer at SF who is only 20 and is already a very good defender), and Sergio Garcia Rodriguez (Spanish comrade to Rudy and scrappy backup PG to work in behind Rose sometimes and let's be honest, salary filler).  I'm not sure the Blazers would do this, but they need to consolidate some of that young talent and a Roy / Hinrich starting backcourt would be a great fit and Deng would be perfect out there on the wing for them and they have interest.  Any lurking Blazers fan let me know how plausible this deal actually is, in your view.

The trade would bring in:

Luol Deng

Kirk Hinrich

We would give up:

Sergio

Rudy

Batum

RLEC

First of all, I wouldn't want to see rudy or batum go.  I think there has to be a way to make this trade work without them.  Could we throw in Outlaw and Blake instead, or does that make it less attractive to the Bulls?  Maybe they would prefer something like that in order to keep their roster from returning to the baby bulls stage.  I wouldn't do this trade if both of them are involved, but i'd give it serious consideration if we only had to give up one of them.  We're gonna have to give something up to get anything back.

How about giving up:

Sergio/Blake

Outlaw

Frye

RLEC

Who knows.

Anyway, this trade is more interesting because of the players that are potentially being sent over here.  Everyone knows that our deficiencies are at PG and SF.  How many opportunities are we going to have to address both of these concerns without giving up a major piece of our team?

Deng is an upgrade at SF.  In a lot of ways I think he's the ideal candidate for the job, because he's extremely talented but hasn't shown that he's capable of putting a team on his back.  We need a guy that fits in with everything more than we need everything to fit in with him.

Everyone at BE seemed to be impressed with Hinrich after the last game against the bulls.  At this point, i don't see us getting a d harris, cp3, or williams.  We don't need an all star at every position.

The free agent situation wasn't what it was a month ago, so I think that a trade is going to be our bread and butter to finding that last piece to this team.

Finally, in the thread, people were mentioning our team's window of opportunity.  Obviously, our championship window is a couple of seasons away, but what about our window to acquire the right pieces?  I don't see a better opportunity coming up down the road, so I would tell KP.  Hinrich and Deng are our guys.  go get 'em.

I got this idea from a comment in some post, when someone wrote something about Omar Little, and his famous "indeed" that he drops (there's no way to type that word to do it justice to omar).

So this, along with both teams play hard's playoff preview last year, I'm curious to think of what BE readers think of our team as it corresponds to characters on The Wire.

Obviously, we have to create some ground rules here.

1.  If you don't know the characters on The Wire, seek help.

2.  Let's (if we can) not factor in the race of the players/characters.  (you think Pryz is like  Slim Charles? awesome.  You want Ike to be Pryz? that's cool too.)

3. Ditto for what ends up happening to the character.  So for all the Travis haters out there, don't nominate him for Wallace, just because you want him gone.

I suppose it's only fair that I start out this little campaign.  Given his tendancy to be a cold-blooded killer, all about business, and an under-appreciated gangsta with a style that isn't conducive to mainstream appreciation, I would suggest that Brandon Roy's Wire character is Brother Mouzone.

Disagree?  Other suggestions?

This post could be subtitled: Or how I learned to second guess and love hindsight.

I'm going to use Sergio Rodriguez as a case study here, but I would also toss out that players like TO, Martell, Channing, Rudy, and possibly even G.O. could be added to the list.

I remember Sergio's breakout game against the nuggets a couple years back.  I think he had 22 points and 11 assists.  I don't want to speak for everyone, but everyone was starting to think that this guy was going to be the next Nash.  I mean, Nash can't play D either.  He had the flare, the vision, and the playmaking ability that made fans scream for more.  His play also made the front office's phone lines burn up with interest from other squads.

A decision was made, and Sergio remains a Blazer.

This season, Sergio has played well, but I don't think anyone would argue that his ceiling is as high as people had originally thought.  I hear people say that they would be pleased if he's shore up his defense and develop a consistent outside shot.  Maybe I'm wrong, but wouldn't that make Steve Blake 2.0?  It might as well.

So now, I'm at the point where I'm asking, "What is Sergio's trade value now compared to his surprising (albeit short) razzle-dazzle rookie season?"  Off the top, I'd say that it's less today than it was two seasons ago, though I'd be open to a counter argument.

If his trade value is indeed lower, than we should figure out if we are still better off not making the trade.  Does the potential to be a special player always outweigh the possibility that he won't be?

Channing Frye had a great rookie season, and from what I remember, he was  essentially labeled 'untouchable' by the Knicks front office.  After a less than impressive second season, the knicks decided to cut their losses and deal Frye to us.  What's Frye's trade value now?  (that's rhetorical.  i know it's nothing)

How many players have good rookie seasons, followed by weak second and third seasons, only to raise again and have great NBA careers.  A handful.

All the players I listed at the beginning of this post could have already peaked in terms of their trade value.  Does the fact that a player's trade value is at its highest point mean that a deal should be made?  Of course not.  But if you are going to trade a player, doesn't it make sense to get maximum value?

Finally, I suppose most fans would say that hanging on to a potentially good player is worth it, even if a trade is passed up, because that is how you find great players in this league.  Jermaine O'neal is the textbook example of this.  But while most people would say that getting rid of J.O. was the mistake that needed to be made so we would learn our lesson, I would say that maybe it's time we started roll the dice a little bit again.  How long are we going to let our lives be run by this decision made by a former employee almost a decade ago? 

Just because the trade for Double D didn't work out for us doesn't mean that similar moves are always going to be bad.  In fact, considering how many of the blazers 'special young talents' are late first-round picks, I would say that if we traded one or two of these guys while their value is high, we might be able to sucker some teams into giving us a great deal for a player who will never turn out.

For those of you who try to keep up on the blazer's from overseas, I'm curious to hear  where you are, and how you are a blazers fan.

I'm a Peace Corps Volunteer from Coos Bay, Oregon in Azerbaijan.

also, is there a place to listen to games on the radio online?  I just got a dial up connection at home and i found out that kxtg is blocked internationally for blazer games.

Hey everyone on BE, I need your help.

I'm a Peace Corps volunteer in Azerbaijan, which is indeed, a country.  It's a secular muslim, post-soviet, pro-turkey, oil-producing nation situated between Russia and Iran, along the Caspian Sea (which is actually a lake).

How does this relate to any of you BE faithful who might be reading this?  Let me explain.  I work at a public school, teaching English and working with teachers to try to curb their soviet approach to teaching.  This year, I'm going to start a couple after school basketball teams, one for boys and one for girls. 

Basketball is completely unknown here.  People here don't know Michael Jordan, which I thought would be a given.  They haven't heard of NBA teams, and have no access to watch games from any league in the world.

For this project to work, I think I need to get kids interested in basketball by showing them how to play, as well show them how amazing basketball is when it is done by the worlds best.

Here is my solicitation:  I need basketball games for these kids to watch.  Does anyone have any DVDs of games over the past few years?  I'm thinking of games that are TIVOd and burned on to a DVD.  Really, anything basketball on DVD would help.  If this happens, I'll get the kids together after practice and we can sit and watch a game, while I point out the finer points of what i consider to be, the beautiful game.

I know this is a long shot, but I've continuously been impressed the BE community, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I can be reached at northwestjeff [at] gmail [dot] com.  My blog can also be found here.

Thanks for giving this a look.

Jeff Bailey

TEFL PCV Azerbaijan