Got to see the Kings live for the first time this season at the Rose Garden. Obviously I was super happy with the outcome, what with the Blazers winning and Ime Udoka having a nice game. Win-win for me. But some quick thoughts on seeing some other, less familiar Kings live.

Udrih- Was the target of a lot a flak from the crowd early on, what with that horrible miss,  but they pretty much shut up later.

Evans- looked very impressive frequently, definitely up to the hype, but seemed lost when he didn't have the ball. not a ton of off ball movement in his offensive game yet. one particular time when he should have already rotated to the corner and Udoka had to tell him what to do stands out. (i'm pretty positive it was him but still, i was up in the nose bleeds, so i could be wrong) very good overall and great moves to the hoop.

The Kings fans in front of me- normal fans and despite drinking plenty, not obnoxious at all. this pleased me, though I think I confused them by cheering for Udoka in addition to the Blazers.

Hawes and Nocioni- ugh, not a good game for those two.

Kings as a team- had a lot of charges they could have probably avoided by not trying to plow through a defender, but didn't look bad as a unit.

I was very pleased to hear other blazer fans grumbling about how we should have signed Udoka.

I'm not what you'd call a huge Kings fan, but I've often come to this site from the myriad of links I find that Blazersedge has to the copious amounts of excellent coverage here. Seeing as how the Kings just signed one of my favorite players and fellow Portlander Ime Udoka, I thought I could maybe give some insight into their new and underrated acquisition. Also, to voice my bitterness that he did not become a Blazer again, evidently not by the coaches or general managers choice. Thanks Paul "now second richest owner in the NBA to that one guy who bought the Nets" Allen. You have made my dream of getting a Udoka Blazers jersey UN-POSSIBLE!

According to adjusted plus minus (found here) Udoka has been quite valuable over the last two seasons to the Spurs, even with modest minutes. He wasn't just carried by Duncan and the other top spurs players, performing well in many weaker units, the Bowen-Gooden-Mason-Thomas-Udoka five for example.

PER, a statistic favoring offense, doesn't look very kindly on Udoka, but his defensive rating and defensive win shares relative to his minutes are quite good. (stats from here) A new defensive metric, found here, rates Udoka very highly, giving him a 98, which puts him in the somewhere around or in the company of the 14th and 15th ranked defenders in the league, with the caveat that he played considerably less minutes. For quick reference here is the top 15 defenders list.
Rank    Team    Player                          Rating    Std Error    95% Confidence Interval
1           BOS    Kevin Garnett                90                     2.4    (84.9, 94.2)
2           ORL    Dwight Howard            90                     1.7    (86.2, 92.9)
3           CLE    LeBron James             92                     1.9    (88.3, 95.6)
4           LAC    Marcus Camby             92                     2.2    (88.2, 96.7)
5           CHA    Gerald Wallace            93                     2.0    (89.1, 96.8)
6           NOH    Chris Paul                    95                    1.8    (91.5, 98.7)
7           POR    Joel Przybilla                95                    2.2    (90.5, 99.3)
8           BOS    Rajon Rondo                96                    2.0    (92.0, 99.8)
9           CLE    Anderson Varejao        96                    2.1    (92.1, 100.3)
10         UTA    Andrei Kirilenko            96                    2.4    (91.7, 101.3)
11         HOU    Luis Scola                    97                    2.0    (93.0, 100.7)
12         LAL    Lamar Odom                 97                    2.0    (93.5, 101.4)
13         SAS    Tim Duncan                  97                    2.0    (93.7, 101.3)
14         DEN    Chris Andersen           98                    2.6    (92.6, 102.7)
15         LAL    Trevor Ariza                    98                    2.2    (93.9, 102.6)

His 3pt% took quite a dive last season, but one should expect at least a mild bounce back in that department. The Pro Basketball Prospectus Guide projects Udoka to shoot 3's at a respectable .368% clip with a resurgence in overall fg%.

I haven't approached Udoka with every advanced metric or stat, I haven't seen him play very often in the last couple of years and obviously I've got the fan bias, but I think what I have shown would support the idea that Udoka would be a fine addition as a role player on a contending team, which, uh... the Kings, um, aren't. Oops, that was awkward. But for what was available, the Kings got a nice player on the cheap who will work hard and contribute. So don't feel too bad and enjoy this story of Udoka that has made the internet rounds, in which he takes "people out like in Mortal Kombat" It has been in various places but originally conveyed here, by former teammate Gabe Muoneke.

THE IME UDOKA STORY

It’s a trip when you get to know people. Ime was so quiet and I figured he was just some guy who could play with a Nigerian father. Well, folks in S.A., don’t be fooled. That dude in an Afr-I-CAN! I mean damn! The only thing non-African about him is his accent. We went to Nigeria, man… When they brought out the food I figured uh oh… He aint eatin’ th… What the?! Ime was tearing that Fu-fu (thank Jay-Z for everyone knowing what that is now) to shreads. I asked him about his adornment of the vittles. He said that’s all he ate growing up. Imagine my surprise when I saw he must have grown up doing the African ju-jitsu too.

When the National Team went to Algeria for the African Championships in Algiers, every team was on edge because the Top 3 squads got the invite to the World Championships. So after we lost to Angola in the semis and had to play Algeria for the third spot, they knew, we knew, everyone knew they had no shot. First quarter… Tactics. African ball, man. Trust me: as corrupt as can be. Despite all the cheating from the three-man (North African) refereeing crew they just couldn’t beat us. So the coach sent in their best player, who was injured but came in with a purpose. I think his name was Ali Bidane or something. We had the ball out of bounce under. He guarded me. As the ref handed us the ball, he turned, looked at me as if there was not a game going on. And pop! Not an elbow, not even a signature yours truly gutter. He decked me right in the jaw. I couldn’t believe it. And come on. I freely admit when I throw cheap shots. I wouldn’t hide it if I started to. I mean, I’m in the middle of basically middle eastern country playing the local team. I know better (read on to see my contradiction). He nailed me, we turned it over, and yes, my Rodman 101 class did well. I looked up court, saw both refs back and calmly asked him in by most polite French, "Pardon me sir, I object to you striking me." Next thing you know… Both teams on the court going at it. Wow.

Imagine my surprise! (My cheeks hurt). That wasn’t the real brawl. After we won was the real issue. After the game, they were waiting for us to come out of the locker room. And seriously, I didn’t start it. Kingsley Ogwudire was in front of our team in an all-out tirade in his best Arabic. The next thing you know, there were three Algerian players on him. Everyone was engaged in combat save me, if you can believe it. And lo and ehold… Ime! He was taking people out like in Mortal Kombat. Finish him! Incredible. I was so out of it as I had five guys I was fighting (oh yeah, the crowd jumped in as the fight spilled over to the court of the championship game of Senegal and Angola).

In the middle of the whole thing I heard Ime, literally in mid-swing of another opponent say,"Watch back, Gabe" and he calmly, I mean calmly, smeared a guy who, as I turned to see his warning, jumped from the stands with a chair to probably kill me or knock me out to where the crowd would have. I mean, Ime caught the guy in mid air with a fist and calmly continued his dispacthing of oncoming people. He and other guys (yes, me too) were whoopin’ so many people the crowd backed up. True to the letter! But Ime had the most notches by far. As we retreated to the locker room to kind chants of, "You cudly blackies! We highly doubt your ability to leave this gym with lives intact" in French, (it might have been a bad translation) all I could do was marvel at Ime. This guy, I thought, was a quiet American guy was standing there – all his stuff gone (gym bag, wallet, shoes, jersey) – with a stick in his hand we tore off the walls of the locker room in the middle of North Africa quite literally with our lives on the line… laughing. All the while I was texting my wife that I loved her and might have a hard time seeing her again while she was watching the whole incident on BBC News. And Ime… laughing. He is and always will be my 9ja broda. Ime… Wetin happen bros? Abi na notin. Notin dey happen. To this day I don’t know how we got out of there. But that night we ate like kings at the Nigerian Embassy. And Ime was with us… Killing his Fu-fu.

Tell me how I could have seen a thing like that if I had made the NBA out of college! You just can’t make this stuff up.

Shalom.

From Basketbawful,

On December 7, 1956, the Hoop Gods gave us their only son, Larry Joe Bird, the Basketball Jesus, to save the National Basketball Association from greed, selfishness and exceptionally low television ratings. And save the NBA he did, even though he had to sacrifice his heart, his back, and his ability to speak the English language to do it.

And so every year on December 7th, we at Basketbawful celebrate the greatest of all holidays: Birdmas (originally "Bird Mass"). But the celebration actually begins the night before, on Birdmas Eve, when Santa Larry travels across the world on a magic parquet floor pulled by 80's Celtic roleplayers -- On Carr and Robey and Henderson and Buckner! On Kite and Wedman and Sichting and Vincent! -- delivering jump shots and no-look passes to all the good little boys and girls who believe that he was the greatest player to ever rock short-shorts and a blond afro-mullet.

Just remember, dear readers, making everyone's basketball dreams come true in a single night is hard work, so leave a little something next to the fire place for Santa Larry and his reign dears. But not milk and cookies and carrots. Leave a plate of steak and potatoes for Larry...and don't worry about the reign dears. They're used to feeding off his table scraps.

It's also important to observe certain hallowed Birdmas traditions, such as wearing green and white, reading selected passages from The Holy Bird Bible, and watching Larry Bird: A Basketball Legend at least four or five times. You can also spend a little time in quiet contemplation of how much you hate the Lakers, even destroying something yellow. (This can be almost anything, from something as simple as a mustard-colored shirt or, for more hard core Birdmas celebrations, a live canary.)

In honor of this year's Birdmas, which falls on Sunday, we have prepared a very special video tribute to the season of basketball giving. Written and videographically presented by Evil Ted, and narrated by yours truly, this video is sure to bring a tear to the eye of even the most time-hardened cynic. So sit down, grab a wad of tissues, and prepare to be amazed by...The Night Before Birdmas!

The Night Before Birdmas (via EvilTedBasketbawful)

From CelticsBlog,

By his own admission, Brandon Roy wasn't ready to play Tuesday night.  The third-year guard went just 5-for-15 with 5 assists as the Blazers got wiped out by the Lakers in their season opener.

The Blazers' captain made sure none of that was to occur again on Friday.

The youngster looked nothing short of lethal against the Spurs.  He drove to the basket with a level of aggression raised even from what he showed throughout a productive first two years in the league.  That earned him seven trips to the foul line.  But it was his midrange game that truly astounded. 

Roy looked as comfortable as I've ever seen him taking the ball in isolation sets, breaking down his defender with a hard dribble move at the top of the key and then pulling back to rise rise up for a jumper.  His entire shooting motion looked fluid and natural, and he rose above Spurs defenders with what seemed like startling ease throughout the evening.  He finished with 26 points on 10-of-19 shooting to go with 7 assists, and he made it abundantly clear once more that he is the catalyst that makes this young Blazers team go.  It was a very nice recovery for both him and his team from a rough season opener in LA.

Quoted from the blogger reactions on ESPN. (Same link as the one Dave posted)

Also from the roundtable, just in case you missed it. I don't particularly agree with the assertion that the point guard play on the Blazers will be worse than last year, but to each their own.

LET'S TALK ABOUT THE BLAZERS FOR A SECOND.
HOW GOOD CAN THEY BE?

Getty Images <!-- end wide photo -->

"Depends on what you mean by legitimate. They'll be good enough to make the playoffs in the West. They won't be experienced enough to advance. Considering where they've been the last few years that's hella legit. But compared to Utah or New Orleans they still have some cred to earn."

-- DAVE FROM BLAZER'S EDGE

"Here's my question: when was the last time a team was universally expected to make a quantum leap based on the contributions of three rookies (Oden, Fernandez and Bayless)? The future is astoundingly sunny in rainy Portland, but I think they need another season or two. You can make a case that they got worse at point guard this summer since Bayless is going to have a tough time transitioning to the role of NBA point while Jarrett Jack is gone, and teams don't get a lot better while their point play drops off."

-- STEVE FROM CLIPS NATION

"Not quite as good as the Spurs were the year Robinson got hurt and then they drafted Duncan…but whatever # of wins that team finished with, knock off five and you'll have Portland's tally. They should flirt with 50."

-- THE BIG LEAD

"Good, potentially very good, and eventually great. I can see the Blazers cracking the West's top 4, in fact, before I see them missing the playoffs. The Oden-Roy-Aldridge trio is perfectly matched. Guys like Rudy Fernandez and Martell Webster (when he's healthy) give them more scoring. The key is the point—Steve Blake just can't keep up at an elite level. So either Jerryd Bayless needs to develop quickly, or Roy will have to slide over and handle the ball more."

-- BRENNER FROM ESPN THE MAGAZINE

8.  Portland Trail Blazers

What's good: This has to be considered the best stable of young talent in the game at this point, right?  The 2006-07 Rookie of the Year (Brandon Roy) enters his third season and his second as a captain after another steady sophomore campaign.  The league's most heralded young big man of the last decade (Greg Oden) finally makes his professional debut.  The Blazers have a lengthy power forward who only figures to keep getting better in LaMarcus Aldridge, a rookie combo guard waiting in the wings (Jerryd Bayless) and one of the world's best international players in swingman Rudy Fernandez. 

Nate McMillan had these guys playing way over their heads last year without the big fella from Ohio State, and even if Oden isn't dominant right away, he will almost assuredly be a presence from the get-go.  The guy is going to be a force at the defensive end for as long as he can stay on the court (conditioning and fouls will be issues), and the offense will come.  Roy and Aldridge are already young veterans, and this group will play hard team basketball on a night to night basis.

What's bad: Questions remain at small forward.  Martell Webster will be out until December with a foot injury, and the team isn't sure how to address that.  There was talk of moving Fernandez to the three, using sixth man Travis Outlaw as a starter, or possibly starting draft night acquisition Nicolas Batum.  Fernandez is really a two, Outlaw is best used as instant offense off the bench, and Batum's ability is relatively unknown.  The good news here is that Webster wasn't any world-beater either, so perhaps they won't be much worse off than they would be if he were healthy.  But the position is still an issue either way.  My Blazer fan pal Acks spends most of his days envisioning a run at Danny Granger next summer.  As for now, I heard Darius Miles was available.

What happens: Oden will have his ups and downs, and like many young teams, the Blazers will run hot and cold throughout the year.  But McMillan's steady hand and the fact that this team is filled with legitimately hard-working players focused on the task at hand will help the Blazers sneak in to the playoffs.

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