Hedo to the Blazers? posted by Matt Clark

If Hedo Turkoglu signs with Portland, I think that makes them the team to beat in the Western Conference.  That would give them a core group of Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge, Greg Oden, Rudy Fernandez, Travis Outlaw, Hedo Turkoglu, Joel Pryzbilla, Steve Blake, Nicolas Batum, and Jerryd Bayless.  To me, they have all the ingredients of a really good team.  They were damn good last year, being so young.  Adding Turkoglu and another year of experience could put them over the top in the west.  If Oden can get a little better, this team will be awesome. Continue reading "Hedo to the Blazers?"

Blazers' McMillan to meet with Orlando's All star Turkoglu posted by Christopher White

Portland Trail Blazers coach Nate McMillan is flying to Orlando to have a Wednesday night dinner with the Blazers' top free-agent target, Hedo Turkoglu.

Turkoglu's agent, Lon Babby, said Wednesday that Turkoglu will then travel to Oregon for a Thursday tour of the Blazers' facilities and meetings with Portland general manager Kevin Pritchard and assistant GM Tom Penn.

With the Blazers projected to have $8 million to $9 million in salary-cap space this summer -- with firm figures not known until the league announces next season's salary cap on July 8 -- and the Orlando Magic lacking the financial flexibility to re-sign Turkoglu after trading for Vince Carter last week, Turkoglu is widely expected to land with the Blazers as the first marquee free-agent signing of Pritchard's reign.

Teams and free agents were permitted to strike verbal agreements on new deals as of 12:01 a.m. ET Wednesday but new contracts cannot be signed until the cap figure is announced and the NBA's moratorium on signings is lifted next week

Stay classy,

Cwhite

Portland working on Turkoglu posted by john howard

Portland coach Nate McMillen is flying to Orlando today to meet with free agent Hedo Turkoglu.  Then tomorrow, Turkoglu is flying to Oregen to tour the Trailblazers facilities.  Portland is definately a team that has changed it's direction the last few years.  The team figures to have 8 to 9 million under the cap to offer Hedo.  The starting lineup of Steve Blake, Brandon Roy, Nicolas Batum, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Joel Pryzbilla wasn't bad during the playoffs.  Batum would start the game on the other team's best player and then not play much after that.  Now, Turkoglu  will start at small forward.  That leaves Batum, Channing Frye, and Gerg Oden as pretty good backups.  The next step will be to find better backups for starters Blake and Roy.Continue reading "Portland working on Turkoglu"

Portland sends 3 to Mavs to move up--bad move. posted by john howard

Portland traded their 24th and 56th picks this year and their lowest pick next year to the Mavs to move up two spots at 22.  Usually picks in the 50s don't amount to much and trading two of them to move up in the draft is a safe bet.  But, the Blazers only moved up two spots late in the first round.  And, historically, 22 is a bad spot.  In the past 14 years, the 22nd pick has produced only 2 starters while the 24th has produced 3 and the 56th 2.  That's right, the 56th pick has generated just as many starters as the 22nd pick.  Also, if you look at bench players, 4 have come from the 22nd spot while 7 have come from the 24th.  So, trading down doesn't figure to be a good thing, it has given teams better players.  Historically, it's not a good move.  Logically, it is. Continue reading "Portland sends 3 to Mavs to move up--bad move."

2010 Finals posted by Matt Clark

Here's my 2010 Finals prediction:  Cavs vs Blazers.

Here's why:  Obviously, LeBron can carry almost any 4 other people on the planet to the Finals with him (seriously, look at that 2007 Finals roster after LBJ, it's atrocious) but the Cavs are going to have a lot of cap room this summer, with Wally's bloated contract coming off the books, and Ben Wallace's money maybe coming off too.  So, they're probably going to get LeBron a little more help.  Factor in LBJ's improvement as a player (scary) and a couple free agents added, they should be able to get back to the Finals.  Now, Portland is absolutely loaded with young talent.  Who doesn't like this team?  Roy is one of 15 best players in the world, and super clutch.  LaMarcus Aldridge is only getting better, and he can definitely be the 2nd best player on a championship team.  Point Guard play is going to be huge, and if they can get anything at all out of Oden, they're going to be challenging LA.  Travis Outlaw should be starting.  This past season, they were a little young, but they could win 60 games this season and contend.  

Shaq in Red and Black? posted by Nate Schuelein

     Between now and Halloween every team will have traded for Shaquille O'Neal.  That's the way the web works.  The game of basketball is nowhere near as important as the delicious trade rumors that litter the net.  Basketball is a granola bar, but the water-cooler rumblings and guy talk, that's the bucket of triple fudge brownie ice cream that everyone thinks about while they're nibbling the dependable, flavorless bar of grains and health.  At some point between the draft and the start of the preseason, Shaq will have been traded for Elton Brand, then maybe Corey Maggette and Andris Biedrins, then one morning after a slow news day the Knicks will swoop in and get "The Big Whatever His New Nickname is Today" for Chris Duhon, a second-rounder and Spike Lee's '88 Jordans with the ketchup stain on the tongue.  And, we'll all eat it up.  Then we'll ask for seconds.  Tis the nature of the off-season.   And I love it.

     Shaquille O'Neal.  One of the greatest centers, if not players, of all time.  Four time champion.  Master of the monotonous quip.  All around nice guy.  That Shaquille O'Neal.  You know him.  Right?

     I really think that Shaq is going to be traded this off-season.  Most of us do.  Despite his resurgence in Phoenix last year Shaq doesn't fit the Suns' plans, and they don't fit his.  Assuming Alvin Gentry comes back and passes Terry Porter amazing 50ish game run, the Suns are going to stick with the run and gun style that they tried reimplementing towards the end of last season.  While I don't know Shaq, I do know enough 350 pound men to know that they don't really like running.  Do you think Shaq, at this stage of his career wants to channel his inner greyhound and run up and down the court at a break-neck pace like he did that first year in Phoenix?  Not without a Roundabout he doesn't.  It's only a matter of time before he starts freestylin' about how Alvin Gentry can't carry his jock, or how Steve Nash stole his MVP.  A pissed Shaq is a cancerous Shaq, and the best way to deal with him is to remove the tumor before it spreads.

Completing the Puzzle Part 1: Off-Season Tasks posted by Michael J. Shambaugh

The objective for the last three seasons has been to take a 21-win, 61-loss Blazer team and rebuild them into the Playoff-bound, title-contending team we, the fans, want them to be.

Objective accomplished.

The team has been rebuilt, the crazy trades have been dealt, and the risky drafts have been selected.  Now it’s time to sit back and insert the last few puzzle pieces this young Blazer team needs to make it to the finals.

Several players understand and are excited about the direction their team is headed, while others wonder what jersey they’ll be wearing next season.  Let’s take a look at where we are and what we have to look forward to this off season along with some tasks and questions the Blazers will face before the 2009-2010 season begins.

Before Darius Miles played his 10th game with the Memphis Grizzlies, the Portland Trail Blazers were looking at having a $16 million budget to play with this off season.  Those 10 games cost Portland $9 million in cap room, bringing them down to $7 million.  Portland will be losing Raef LaFrentz, Shavlik Randolph, and Michael Ruffin to free agency this year.  These three players combined saw a grand total of 72 minutes of play while pulling down a whopping $14,317,662 in salary.

Channing Frye will be an Unrestricted Free Agent this off season which means that Portland can match any offer Frye is given, even if it causes them to surpass the Soft Cap, as long as they stay under the Hard Cap.  It’s unknown at this time whether or not Portland will take advantage of this.  Last season Frye made a salary of $3,163,769, ranking him 6th highest on the team among active players.

The Outlaw Blues posted by Nate Schuelein

Ain't it hard to stumble

and land in some funny lagoon?

-Bob Dylan-

     Travis Outlaw found out that it's actually pretty easy to stumble.  That's what happens when your field goal percentage has to be rounded up to 32% for what was probably the most highly anticipated playoff series in team history, or when Shane Battier outplays you in every facet of the game, or when "The Great" Greg Oden glares at you from the sidelines with a "what the hell were you thinking" look in his eyes.  I'm beginning to think that if Tonya Harding saw Travis' name come up on caller ID she'd let the machine pick it up.

     This isn't to say that Travis is a bad guy.  He's not.  Just the opposite.  He was around for the end of the Jailblazers era and came through it relatively unscathed.  He helps out in the community and seems to actually enjoy it (how many NBA cares clips have you seen with Kobe Bryant wearing his Stretch Armstrong-rubber smile while hugging little kids or high-fiving burn victims and thought to yourself he'd rather be wearing a tux and alligator-skin Jordans to a Will Ferrell premiere?).  Travis' dad was in law enforcement and you can tell, just by listening to him, that Papa Outlaw taught him right from wrong.  And that's the thing about the whole Travis situation, you feel bad for his having played so bad.  He's a sympathetic pariah. 

     Even though Rudy Fernandez was the guy that everybody was comparing to Manu Ginobili before the season began, I'm starting to think that our Manu-lite was born in Mississippi instead of Spain.  Travis has been our ultimate x-factor.  When he plays well off the bench we've generally won.  When he plays the Rockets we've generally lost.  Travis can be extremely exciting when he wants to be.  He's one of the very, very few Blazers that can get to the hole whenever he wants.  He can hit impossible shots with hands in his face.  He even plays defense a bit like Manu, not the most fundamentally sound, but he gambles and when he can get his hands in the passing lanes there's usually a couple extra points on the scoreboard when he's done. 

A Season to Be Proud Of posted by Michael J. Shambaugh

It’s set in stone.  The Houston Rockets will play the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round of the 2009 NBA Playoffs, while the Portland Trailblazers start their off-season earlier than any of us would have liked.

This first round elimination for Portland helped me realize something that I should have known all along: people will jump off the bandwagon as quickly as they jumped on it.

When I came into work today, a co-worker pointed to my Portland Trail Blazers lanyard and said, “Oh, take that off.  That’s embarrassing.”  This was the same “fan” who, prior to the start of the season, was excited about “his team’s” chances this year.  Now, they’re embarrassing.  He was also quick to do the “I told you so” speech about Greg Oden being a bust. 

Let’s take a minute to clear things up.

Last year the Portland Trail Blazers grabbed 49.3% of rebounds per game.  Not even half.  This year they improved 4.1%, bringing their total percentage to 53.4%.  That was good enough for 1st overall in the league.  They pulled down 5.4 more rebounds per game than their opponents, which isn’t bad considering they were coming up 1 rebound shorter than their opponents the year prior. 

Where did this rebounding come from?  Let’s look at last year’s main rebounding players and compare their positions to this year’s players.  Brandon Roy, Portland’s All-Star, stayed the same in his average rebounds between this year and last.  Joel Przybilla averaged 0.3 more, while LaMarcus Aldridge lost 0.1.  Travis Outlaw lost 0.5 and Channing Frye’s dropped dramatically, which could have been a direct reflection of his drop in minutes. 

Congrats Blazers...Now Get Over It posted by Cal Conrad

Congratulations Portland Trail Blazers on a great season. You overachieved, brought the city to hysteria not seen since the early 90s and created a solid foundation on which to work on. Now get over it.

It's time to start looking towards next year. The Blazers, if they keep their roster intact, are a lock for the playoffs for the next decade. But is that what management wants? To be the Utah Jazz? I don't think so. It's seriously time to consider making this team into a title contender. Barring a miracle draft pick in the next few years, their needs to be some roster shake-up, otherwise the Blazers will be piddling around third or fourth best in the west for years to come.

First, let's look up what makes a championship team. Over the past 20 years, there has been a pretty simple formula to great teams: You have you have your 'Big 3'-a guard, a wing, and a post, surround them with a few shooters and some defensive stoppers and you got yourself a title (This excludes the 2003-2004 Pistons, because the Lakers self-destructed in that series and any Shaq-led team because all the centers sucked in the early 2000s). Seriously look back at the past winners: 2007-2008 Celtics (Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett), The Spurs dynasty (Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli, Timmy Duncan), The Bulls dynasty (MJ, Scottie Pippen, Toni Kukoc/Horace Grant), The mid-90s Rockets (Kenny 'I'm Barkley's Bitch' Smith, Clyde Drexler and Hakeem). Let's add in the team that will win it this year, The Cavs (Mo Williams, Lebron, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas). All those teams had great shooters and defensive stoppers. This is the blueprint and Portland needs to get on board.