Everyone must be scared to make a FanPost, so I had to step up and make today's Junk Drawer.  I came to the conclusion well over a year ago that I jumped the shark on Blazers Edge.  Now that I really hate Miller, everyone thinks I'm joking.  It is lame to the extreme. 

I got the poem that is after the jump in my e-mail yesterday.

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It's the Civil War day.  Check out this quote from Chris Dufresne of the LA Times.

It's Oregon State versus Oregon, at Autzen Stadium, with the winner going to the Jan. 1 Rose Bowl and the loser likely headed back to Corvallis.

It's cool to be a Duck fan.  Most my teams suck or are mediocre.  The Blazers, Mariners, and Seahawks sure try hard but we all know in our hearts that they'll never win anything.  Now the Ducks are a different story.  Being a Duck fan is pretty much like being a Yankee's, Lakers, or Jimmie Johnson fan.  We just expect greatness.  I sure am glad I'm not a Beavers fan.

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I was going to make this a comment in a FanShot then realized it would be better as its own FanPost. Watching the fans leave with over four minutes to go in the fourth quarter yesterday, made me realize that I am finally ready to jump on the start Miller bandwagon. I do not think he should start because he is better than Blake. I am not saying Blake is better, just that I do not care if the better player starts. I also do not think, like most Blazers fans, that Miller should start because he makes more money than Miller.

I have taken into consideration all the whining for Miller to start and Dave’s idea of feeding the ball to Oden at the start of games, and figure starting Miller is worth the shot just to stop the whining and if they are feeding the ball to Oden, then Roy will not be controlling the ball and kicking it out to the point guard for a wide open three.  Also, starting Miller will be one less thing the asinine Fire Nate camp will have to complain about.

Let us consider some truths regarding the Blazers and Miller:

• Miller only plays hard when he starts
• Miller is willing to go to the national media to complain about not starting
• Miller told Greg he likes to get him the ball, so we might as well see if he’ll actually do it
• Miller has more veteran experience
• Miller is a fast break point guard and fast breaks give Blazers fans chubbies
• Webster was crappy off the bench and he’s inconsistent as a starter, so maybe an inconsistent Miller starting is better than a crappy Miller off the bench
• If Miller stops pouting because he’s starting, then maybe everyone on the rosters, in the media, and the fans will cheer up and stop pouting
  
• Miller starting can’t be any worse than Blake starting
• Maybe starting Miller will be a "shot in the arm" to get the team playing better

I was all for Miller coming off the bench when the Blazers had most of their players healthy, and I am all for benching Miller if Batum or Outlaw comes back. But right now the Blazers are starting slow and not playing defense, so even an All Star point guard off the bench wouldn’t help the Blazers win these games.

I propose starting Miller, Roy, Oden, Aldridge, and Websters, until Batum comes back. No more fiddling with the lineup unless there is an injury. Play Miller with Oden and the second unit as much as Nate can, then when Roy needs to take over, play either Blake or Fernandez at the point guard, because Miller can’t even hit the backboard from past the three point line.

What's your greatest fear?

Are you frightened that the Blazers will never win a championship while you are alive?

Are you scared of heights?

I know a lady who is afraid of clowns.

My biggest fear is being a 1,000 feet under water and a megalodon or some other ancient sea creature is stalking me, and I don't have enough oxygen to wait it out, and I can't escape to the surface because I'll get the bends.  The though of that happening keeps me up at night.

I also have frequent nightmares of getting punched in the butt hole.  If you've ever been punched there, then you know how bad it hurts.  Usually my nightmare involves me either getting punched there or taking a knee to the sphincter, and then I spend the next half hour in the fetal position holding my taint.  Sometimes the nightmare involves an evil person trying to get information out of me and they threaten me with a sphincter punch.  I never crack, but the stress leading up to the sphincter punch is so thick you could cut it with a knife.

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Look, just like every other Blazers fan in the entire world, I cannot wait for Kevin Pritchard to do some talent consolidation. I am sick and tired of watching great talent and great potential rot on the Blazers bench. Bayless is one DNP-CD away from turning into a Sebastian Telfair clone, Rudy Fernandez is so desperate to impress the coach that he is chucking up crazy shots like he is Ron Artest when Artest goes into chucker mode. Dante Cunningham leads the Blazers In PER’s, has only gotten 6 minutes of playing time, and Nicolas Batum has not played a minute this season.

Let’s face it; the Blazers are one loss away from imploding. There is simply too much talent on the roster to seriously consider the Blazers a championship team. If you take a look at the Lakers roster, you can see that the Blazers have no one on the roster crappy enough to match up with Adam Morrison or Didier Ilunga-Mbenga. Championship rosters need D-League level talent for balance. Think about it; say the Blazers won it all this year, which Blazer would fans from other teams say, "I can’t believe THAT GUY got a ring?" You might say Juwan Howard, but that’s kind of stretch since he is not a bad guy and he has been in the league longer than the internet has existed.

So, now I know what you are thinking, how do we get more scrubs on the Blazers roster and who should the Blazers ship out? Well, you will be happy to know, that it absolutely cannot and must not be Travis Outlaw. Outlaw has a stellar +/- of +30, just one below LeBron James. Basically Outlaw has been playing at a LeBron James level this year while LaMarcus Aldridge has a +/- of +3. Aldridge’s +/ is so crappy that the NBA.com +/- page doe not even list comparable players. I had to look at individual team rosters to find a comparable player. Watch today’s Grizzlies game and keep an eye on Hamed Haddai, because he has the same +/- as Aldridge. They are basically the same player only Aldridge makes way more money.

Now, before I give you the consolidation trade to beat all other consolidation trades, let me share with you some more numbers that will blow your mind. I am sure you think that Andre Miller should be the starter, well guess which five Blazers combined have the best +/-?

I will give you a moment to guess.
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Feel free to write it down.
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It should only take you a minute.
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I am sure you already had an idea, so if you have it written down, I will proceed.

The top five player combination for +/- on the Blazers, and the five players who should be starting are: Joel Przybilla, Travis Outlaw, Martell Webster, Rudy Fernandez and Jerryd Bayless with a combined +/- of +16. The most recent starting five comes in second at +12.

I am pretty sure I just blew your mind. I know you are like me and you are thinking, "The Blazers would be 7-0 if Nate would have gone with P.O.W.F.B. from the start of the season." Well, let me break it down for you a little more.

The Blazers best four player combination is Steve Blake, Aldridge, Brandon Roy, and Greg Oden with a +/- of +23. The best three player combination is Blake, Roy, and Oden at +33, and the best two player combination is Blake and Roy at +34.

Now, you all can see that adjustments HAVE to be mad and a consolidation trade MUST happen soon. The consensus at Blazers Edge is that a backup banger is needed and we all agree after reading the data I just presented to you, that Aldridge is the most expendable.

The trade that ABSOLUTELY MUST HAPPEN on December 15th is a trade of Aldridge and Batum (who is out and will not help the Blazers win NOW) for Anderson Varejao (+/- of +46), J.J. Hickson (+/- of -23) and Coby Karl (+/- of 0). Varejao would easily step in to replace Aldridge, Hickson is a scrub backup banger, and Karl is the guy who would not deserve a ring when the Blazers win it all. If that trade were to happen, the Blazers would likely not lose another game this season.

I would love to read your thoughts, please discuss.

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I have made an effort this year to make fewer FanPosts, FanShots, and Junk Drawers, but I saw a need that had to be filled.  The beautiful and talented galacticlove made a Junk Drawer just ten hours ago, and it already has close to 800 comments.  The hamster in Southern Oregon's computer will not be able to generate enough energy to read the Junk Drawer once it reaches 1,000 comments.  For Southern Oregon's sake, I made this one. 

via www.uinotebook.com

Please talk about fantasy basketball in the other Junk Drawer and save this Junk Drawer for U of O and OSU games.  They both should win handily.  Sophia said on Facebook that both teams will lose today.  She is wrong.

A quick reminder, Breast Cancer Awareness month is winding down.  I recommend donating what you can to the American Cancer Society and/or BlazersEdge Night.  (BlazersEdge night is not related, but figured it deserved a link.)

via www.cammyproductions.com  (Warning, never ever, ever photo search for "breast cancer" when you mean to search for "breast cancer awareness.")

Like most of you, I can't wait for this season to get over so we can really get into the draft.  Follow me after the jump.

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I hate Christmas.  It is the worst holiday ever.  I hate that is is in the winter.  I hate that I have to fly to some cold place in an airport filled with jerks, on an airplane filled with sick people, to spend the day eating too much, and opening gifts that I don't want.

I hate spending the day with family when there is football and basketball on.  I hate that I can't watch every game because of Christmas.  I hate that I can't go to the Blazers game on Christmas because I have to spend that day with family.

I hate wasting vacation time on Christmas when I could use that time and money spent flying home, to do something fun.

I hate Christmas cards.  I hate sending them and I hate getting one from someone that I forgot to send one too.

The same goes for Christmas gifts.  It's no longer about giving someone something from the heart; it's about giving them something better than someone else gave them, or buying them exactly what they want because they'll just return your heartfelt crap.

I hate Christmas shopping.

I hate Christmas traffic.

I hate how everyone is pissy around the holidays.

I hate Christmas carols.

I hate that Christmas crap comes out in the stores around Halloween.

I hate Christmas decorations.

I hate when idiots on either side say a Christmas tree is a religious symbol.

I do like that you can rearrange the letters in "Santa" to spell, "Satan."

For over two years, Kevin Pritchard has told us that building the Trail Blazer’s team is a "process" and that it is similar to "baking a cake." Has anyone ever bothered to ask Pritchard if he has ever baked a cake? I personally do not know Pritchard that well, but I do not imagine he spends a lot of his free time in the kitchen.

I am not much of a cook, if I cannot make it into a sandwich or cook everything in one pan, because I hate doing dishes, then I do not bother. Baking on the other hand is a different story. I find it relaxing and although I do not bake very often, I am pretty good at it.  Over my years of baking breads, cookies, cakes, and the like, the only thing I really messed up were some muffins. The recipe called for some berries and I used frozen berries with too much ice on them, which caused the muffins to come out so dense that many of them collapsed into themselves and became black holes.  A few of the black holes muffins are now with the Grizzlies.

My wife is a great cook but has trouble baking because she likes to eyeball the ingredients. I, on the other hand, am kind of anal retentive and measure everything precisely. My wife is normally responsible for bringing in a cake to work for her coworker's birthdays, and I normally bake them for her. We even have a round cake caddy, so I normally bake the cakes in two nine inch pans and make a stacked cake.

If I am in a rush, I will bake a cake from a box mixed, but I prefer to mix and bake the cake from scratch. My favorite recipe is a Betty Crocker carrot cake. I follow the recipe almost exactly, except I do not include the walnuts, because it seems like there is always someone who is allergic to nuts.

A cake out of the box is very simple, just a few steps that involve preheating the oven, greasing the pan, mixing the box with an egg or two, some oil, and water. Then you bake the cake, take it out of the oven, let it cool, and then frost it.

Making a cake from scratch take a little more work, but it is not overwhelming. I will assume that when Pritchard uses the cake analogy, he is talking about a cake from scratch. Here is my bare bones explanation of baking a cake.

1. Find a recipe
2. Collect the ingredients
3. Preheat the oven
4. Grease and flour the cake pan or pans
5. Mix the cake ingredients
6. Pour the cake mix into a pan
7. Put the cake in the oven
8. Bake the cake for 30-45 minutes depending on the pans and other factors
9. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool 10 minutes
10. Remove the cake from the pan and cool the cake on a wire rack
11. Mix the frosting ingredients
12. Frost the cake, if it is a double-decker cake, then frost one of the cakes round side up
13. With a double-decker, place the second cake on the frosted cake, round side down, then frost it as well
14. Decorate the cake

There you have it, fourteen steps that could easily be trimmed back to ten. Now that we all know about cake baking, it is time to ask the questions that really matter.

• Does Kevin Pritchard have any experience baking a cake?
• If the Blazers are a cake, what is the step they are currently on?
• Regarding the last step of decorating the cake, is that winning a championship or winning multiple championships?
• Is eating the cake a step, and if so, would that be the parade?
• Is there a conspiracy in the media to cover up Pritchard’s poor cake baking skills?
• Can Pritchard bake a cake that is worth eating?
• Would the media eat the cake?

These are all questions that deserve answers and they also bring another question to light.

Why hasn’t the media address Pritchard’s baking ability?

All these questions deserve answers, yet the Portland media gave Pritchard a free pass at the last media day. Will one of them step up and ask the tough questions that need asked, or will they instead write another fluff piece on the fifteenth roster spot? I would like to read your thoughts on the matter.

My anonymous sources have given me information that implies that the 92's JD record may not be legit.  The information is below.

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