Portland Trail Blazers Thread

[Wu-Tang]

Season-assessments 2009/10 on video:

The NATURAL:

http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2010/05/trail_blazers_perspectives_bra.html

Batum:

http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2010/05/trail_blazers_perspectives_nic.html

Marcus Camby:

http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2010/05/trail_blazers_perspectives_mar_1.html

Fernandez-I'm-on-contract-with-Portland:

http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2010/05/trail_blazers_perspectives_rud.html

Aldridge:

http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2010/05/trail_blazers_perspectives_lam.html

[rikhardur]

My favorite Portland players all time were:

No love for Sabas?

[LordOfLeyte]

No love for Sabas?

I forgot about him but as a Blazers fan, we got Sabonis that on the time where Sabas was sloping in his career. If only they got him 5 years sooner then we can definitely have a discussion.

[Blackie]

Yea Grateful Red : "Throw it down big man"

[sinobball]

No love for Ruben "Wife beater, Nanny raper" Ruberson, Qyntel "Dog fighter" Woods, Ha "I'll Sue! I'll Sue!" Seung-Jin, and the rest of 'em jailblazers?

I must say Brandon Roy really changed the face of the franchise.

[LordOfLeyte]

Back then they also had Darius "Marijuana" Miles. While Rasheed Wallace collected most of his Technical Fouls during his Portland Days.

I got nothing on Dale Davis yet.

[sinobball]

I got nothing on Dale Davis yet.

Also don't forget
Sebastian "guns on plane" Telfair
Shawn "cocaine" Kemp
Damon "pot in car" Stoudemire
Zach "I beat my teammates" Randolph
Bonzi "I spit on crackers" Wells
Isiah "arrested 12 times" Rider
and probably half a dozen more

[LordOfLeyte]

Let me add Jermaine "Juvi" O'neal.

Those were bad times for a Blazers fan. But they managed to clean up in 2006 starting when they drafted Brandon Roy.

[rocketstar47]

how about scottie?

[Wu-Tang]

The Natural was selected into All-NBA third team 2009/10. Congratulations to Roy.



The Natural making immediate impact on teammates by his mere presence and the mental awareness of teammates for what is coming:



Didn't know you were a Blazer Leyte. Nice to see a fellow Blazer aboard the IBN community.


P.S. I am hereby gently requesting the mod. team to add a tag or two to this thread, as it didn't occur me while creating it. Suggestions: Portland, Trail Blazers

[LordOfLeyte]

I've been a Blazers fan since the day of RIP city.

how about scottie?

Pippen was the veteran wingmen that what made Portland back then a potent mix of young talents with the savvy presence of veterans like Dale Davis and Scottie Pippen.

[Wu-Tang]

Leyte, care to articulate an opinion of team shortcomings and possibilites for next season? tfh, as long as key players remain healthy and Oden is fully recovered and in shape at time of season start - i am content with the rooster.

Miller/Bayless/Mills (a vet combined with players with an upside)
Roy (add a draft pick)
Batum/Webster/Cunningham (weakeast spot, solid players)
Aldridge/Camby/Pendergraph (Camby supplements this position good)
Oden/Camby/Przybilla (good rotation, excellent actually)

Fernandez likely to leave. I would inquire for the option of signing Outlaw as his contract expires with the clips. Maybe likewise concerning Steve Blake.

I dont think the fo will be particulalry active during the off-season. a rational action from the fo perspective would be to trade Rudy and or a SF (except Batum) for a higher pick, stash the current picks in europe.
If Blake is signed, Miller could be considered as a trade bait.

[raph]

Well imo they need to fix the LMA crap, even if the return of oden will prolly be a good thing for him.

This guy has been good during one game against phoenix, choking in all others (minus 1st game where he was at least not too bad in defense, considering how soft he is). Looks like for every good game he makes, you have to do with 5 bad ones. Not my definition of a supposed all star player (all star or not, the team is often weakened when he's defending a strong pf and/or a physical defense - think denver, bucks, atlanta etc).

If he can't be shoped (most likely with his contract now /), i am sure KP and portland 's staff will try to bring some forward to give a boost to the bench's offense. We will see if that's supposed to be pendergraph, freeland (if he decided to move this time) or another solution (which would be most likely a trade as they already have pendergraph as sophomore next year and i dont see them stockpiling rookies)

Another spot that really needs to be fix is the point guard. Miller brings some leadership and more tools when the blazers have to run the fastbreaks but he's kinda limited as well. If he's well defended he tends to keep shooting jumpers over jumpers, and he's not what we can call a consistent shooter.
I just wish they could develop mills as i don't see why he could not meet the expectations some scouts had in him. He's fast, has a very decent shooter, and he can learn a lot playing from the bench. At least he s playing (for the few mn's he had) with much more control than bayless who will never become the pg this team needs from the bench. Bayless takes awful decision quite often, and his defense is certainly not spectacular (worst i have seen was when he was trying to defend the rotation from westbrook for okc but he's regulary lost on switches, especially on mismatches).

I would try to shop bayless for sure, i would add webster if it's necessary. A trade that coudl work would be to land hinrich (defensively he's decent and he would be a nice addition along roy imo) even if his contract is quite expensive. But i think his contract ends in 2011 or 2012, so it could be a decent trade bait in the next future if needed.

Basically i would like to see something like that :

miller - roy - batum - lma - oden
mills - hinrich - cunningham - camby - przy
freeland + one decent FA (most likely an experienced shooter, allen would be perfect if he's not too expensive) + some rookies

Knowing that przybilla won't be available for a while and pendergraph will most likely take his place in the rotation (well, pendy at the 4 and camby at the 5). Add freeland to grab some minutes so that he can learn (what he needs to) from camby/przy/oden on the defensive end. Offensively i think he's better already.
i wish blazers could land a decent pf for LMA but that's not likely to happen, my wish would be boozer (no matter how he is disliked here & there) or even lee (worst defensively but way less stereotyped game imo). As i am really fed up with alridge's fade away jumpers.

Przy's contract is interesting (8M$, last season if he takes his player option) as trade bait during the next season, we will see if portland uses it to do a good trade if the team needs it.

ps : on a side note, there is a rumor according to which the blazers would be willing to sign Mark Warkentien (from denver) knowing they lost penn earlier in the season (who was the salary cap specialist). Kevin pritchard is no longer the untouchable gm he looked like, some change might happen in that area (even if the draft is pretty close).

[LordOfLeyte]

With the recent signing of Camby, (contract worth $8.3 Million) that has placed us beyond the salary threshold and bound for luxury taxes. In which case, we are in no position to sign even the middle tier FA's this summer; unless we convince them of a sign-and-trade for players that have the Team Option clause on their contracts. Our player salaries will be around $65 Million in estimate even if next season, we are finally free from the Darius Miles contract ($9 Million) and Juwan Howard's contract ($1.7 Million)

Patrick Mills will be a free-agent this summer and the Blazers could either sign him or let him walk away and look for the draft which is not really favorable for the Blazers in which we are in the 22-30 Lottery Draft pick for the 1st round and 44-53 in the second round. Blazer fans are hoping for a steal in the draft again.

As a fan, I am banking on the belief of the RIP city days were if our players are all healthy come playoff time, we can be among the elite in the west alongside the emerging Thunder.

[Wu-Tang]

Appreciate the time spent. Unfortunately my answers are bound to be very brief out of that same reason. I agree on the most parts of your post.

Well imo they need to fix the LMA crap, even if the return of oden will prolly be a good thing for him.

Actually, I think LMA will have his game facilitated once we got more centers in rotation. He was 2nd option and sometimes first on the defensive scanner of opponents during the season. I wouldn't like to see him leave. You need a lowpost guy and a player with a decent jumpshot in your frontcourt. Oden, Camby, LMA will be great i believe.

This guy has been good during one game against phoenix, choking in all others (minus 1st game where he was at least not too bad in defense, considering how soft he is). Looks like for every good game he makes, you have to do with 5 bad ones. Not my definition of a supposed all star player (all star or not, the team is often weakened when he's defending a strong pf and/or a physical defense - think denver, bucks, atlanta etc).

I agree that it would be desirable if he could add some toughness during the course of summer. And yes he forces those fadeaways far too much at times. As long as LMA is a borderline All-star and Roy and Oden are yileding all-star play - im more than content.

If he can't be shoped (most likely with his contract now /), i am sure KP and portland 's staff will try to bring some forward to give a boost to the bench's offense. We will see if that's supposed to be pendergraph, freeland (if he decided to move this time) or another solution (which would be most likely a trade as they already have pendergraph as sophomore next year and i dont see them stockpiling rookies)

Freeland would be interesting. Yet, with Oden hopefully back, Camby will play some PF and it would be ridiculous not to involve Pendergraph into the rotation. I disagree that an addition is need here.

Another spot that really needs to be fix is the point guard. Miller brings some leadership and more tools when the blazers have to run the fastbreaks but he's kinda limited as well. If he's well defended he tends to keep shooting jumpers over jumpers, and he's not what we can call a consistent shooter.
I just wish they could develop mills as i don't see why he could not meet the expectations some scouts had in him. He's fast, has a very decent shooter, and he can learn a lot playing from the bench. At least he s playing (for the few mn's he had) with much more control than bayless who will never become the pg this team needs from the bench. Bayless takes awful decision quite often, and his defense is certainly not spectacular (worst i have seen was when he was trying to defend the rotation from westbrook for okc but he's regulary lost on switches, especially on mismatches).

Fully agree. Miller is ok. It's good that he is aware of his limitations to a certain extent. Bayless is not a long-term option in my eyes, back-up at the very best. Were on the same page regarding Mills as well.

I would try to shop bayless for sure, i would add webster if it's necessary. A trade that coudl work would be to land hinrich (defensively he's decent and he would be a nice addition along roy imo) even if his contract is quite expensive. But i think his contract ends in 2011 or 2012, so it could be a decent trade bait in the next future if needed.

Im willing to sacrifice Webster for any type of PG/SG/SF upgrade, i don't think hinrich would fit well with the Blazers unless we take him for Miller.

Przy's contract is interesting (8M$, last season if he takes his player option) as trade bait during the next season, we will see if portland uses it to do a good trade if the team needs it.

I like Pryz but the fo should consider trading him, Wester and Rudy for draft picks upgrade at 1-2-3 condisreing he may not even be in adequate shape for who knows how long - if hell even return.

With the recent signing of Camby, (contract worth $8.3 Million) that has placed us beyond the salary threshold and bound for luxury taxes. In which case, we are in no position to sign even the middle tier FA's this summer; unless we convince them of a sign-and-trade for players that have the Team Option clause on their contracts. Our player salaries will be around $65 Million in estimate even if next season, we are finally free from the Darius Miles contract ($9 Million) and Juwan Howard's contract ($1.7 Million)

Good thing is that we have a title-competitive rooster under that luxury taxes unlike other teams. As i've pointed out. I am perfectly satisfied with what we have other thatn some minor modifications. The foundation is valid.

Patrick Mills will be a free-agent this summer and the Blazers could either sign him or let him walk away and look for the draft which is not really favorable for the Blazers in which we are in the 22-30 Lottery Draft pick for the 1st round and 44-53 in the second round. Blazer fans are hoping for a steal in the draft again.

keep him and provide him with decent playing time.

As a fan, I am banking on the belief of the RIP city days were if our players are all healthy come playoff time, we can be among the elite in the west alongside the emerging Thunder.

Im not religious by any means, however there is an old Serbian proverb saying (translated literally): "from your mouth to Gods ears" fruitfully suited in the context.