shambaughj Blog Posts

Completing the Puzzle Part 1 Off-Season Tasks

Sun, 10 May 2009 02:56:21 PDT

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.

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A Season to Be Proud Of

Mon, 04 May 2009 23:59:48 PDT

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.

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Playoff Excitement Part 2 Beasts of the East

Sat, 02 May 2009 04:20:54 PDT

In continuation of my post on 04.30.2009 it’s time to take a look at the East and everything it has brought us so far. And to think, it’s only the first round!

Detroit Pistons versus Cleveland Cavaliers. There’s quite a few of us who are still scratching our heads and trying to figure out where the positive for Detroit was in the Billups/Iverson trade. Winning their games by an average of 15.5 points, Cleveland sent the Pistons home for the season with just one question: “How quick can we get Allen Iverson out of a Pistons jersey?” A quick side note: Cleveland is averaging a higher winning margin on the road than they are at home this post-season. That’s not good news for Miami or Atlanta.

Boston Celtics versus Chicago Bulls. I can be the first one to admit that I did not think this was going to be one of the greatest first round matchups of all time. You’ve got the defending champion Boston Celtics, with a record of 62 and 20, going up against the 41 and 41 young, high paced, Chicago Bulls. We all saw this last year, with Atlanta and Boston going at it in seven games, but that was nothing like this series. There have been six full games played as of this writing. In those six games alone we’ve had 7 overtime periods, 5 games decided by 3 points or less, Chicago win in Boston, Boston win in Chicago, and 29 potential game tying/winning shot attempts in the final 24 seconds of regulation/overtime. A good series? Let’s just say, I’ll be watching Game 7.

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Playoff Excitement Part 1 Winning in the West

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 21:03:19 PDT

With the first round of the playoffs slowly crawling towards the end, and so much excitement developing around the league, I want to take some time out side of the Blazer Box and take a quick look at the two conferences and what they have brought us this playoff season.

We’ll start with the West…

Los Angeles Lakers versus Utah Jazz: It was no question as to which of these two teams would be moving on in the first round, but building up to their season finale match up, a lot of people wondered: “Is L.A. going to give their final home game of the season away to Utah for a chance to play Dallas in the first round?” Most of us expected as much to happen, but there was obviously something the Lakers knew that we didn’t. We saw it once Dallas destroyed San Antonio in the same fashion that Los Angeles destroyed Utah. Not much excitement out of this series.

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An Inexperienced Team Shows Some Veteran Abilities

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 05:37:31 PDT

Steve Blake: 9 games, 197 minutes.

Joel Przybilla: 5 games, 35 minutes.

Michael Ruffin: 19 games, 254 minutes.

That is the total amount of playoff experience we have on the active roster of the Portland Trail Blazers, making Michael Ruffin our most experienced playoff player. Let’s not forget he’s only played 35 total minutes this season for the Blazers.

Not scared yet? Okay, how about this…

Thursday, November 6th, Houston 99, Portland 101. How? Brandon Roy’s incredible shot at the buzzer in overtime to sink a Houston team that just had Yao Ming hit a two point field goal and foul. The free throw put Houston up one with 0.8 seconds left.

Tuesday, February 24th, Portland 94, Houston 98. How? Ron Artest’s 21 points. Aaron Brooks’ 20 points. Luis Scola, 15 points and 11 rebounds. Sound familiar?

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Its Just A Game

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 23:41:27 PDT

Sport: Noun. An athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature. Nice try Webster, but it’s a little more complicated than that.

Sports help us build on a character trait that so many of us lack these days: Faith. Faith that our team can come back from being down 20 points in the fourth quarter of a basketball game. Faith that our Quarterback can drive 97 yards and score a touchdown with less than two minutes left in the game. Faith that, even though our pitcher hasn’t hit a homerun in his entire career, he may still get his first one right here. As a Grand Slam no less. Yes, faith in the “impossible.”

My faith lies with the Portland Trailblazers.

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