ucatchtrout's Portland Blazers fan blog

The center position is one of the strongest spots on the Blazers roster.  And if you combine last seasons stats for Joel Pryzbilla and Greg Oden the numbers look pretty good. 13.4 pts, 15.7 rbs, 2.3 bks.  What team wouldn't be happy with that? 

Last season began with the Trailblazers annointing Greg as their starter at the 5 spot.  It was and up and down year for the youngster from Ohio State.  He started 39 games for Portland, had a career-high 24 points and 15 rebounds in a win against the Milwaukee Bucks on January 19.  If he'd been able to average 36 minutes per game his PER would have been 14.8 pts, 11.6 rbs, and 1.9 bks.  The season also had its low points for Oden.  Not only did he have trouble staying in games due to foul trouble, ( his PER for fouls if he'd averaged 36 min was 6.5) he had physical problems as well and suffered an injury to his foot during his first game against the Lakers, and fractured his kneecap in February during a collision with Corey Magette and missed three weeks. 

Continue reading "Breaking down the Blazers....Part Five"

If you think about the power forward spot on the Blazers there is only one name that really comes to mind.  LaMarcus Aldridge.  LA.  L-Train.  After three seasons with Portland Aldridge has proven to be one of the best, if not the best young power forwards in the league.  And sometime within the next month or so he will likely be rewarded for his play with a near maximum contract.
 
The draft day move that brought the former Texas Longhorn to Portland has paid off.  LaMarcus has been a good fit here in not only on the floor, but in the locker room and in the community.  Touted by many as a future all-star, he has the starting 4 spot on the Portland roster locked up. 

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Depending on how you look at it there are as many questions about the three position on the Blazer roster as there are at any other position.  And that of course is one reason the Blazers made a run at signing Hedo Turkoglu. 

Coach McMillian said last season that a starter would not lose his spot in the starting lineup due to injury.  He said that after Martell broke his foot the first time.  By the end of the season he was saying that young Nic Batum would be the starter this year.  Then, as we all know as soon as they had the chance the team did everything it could to sign free agent small forward Hedu Turkoglu.



Heading into training camp I see no clear cut choice for a starter at small forward, despite what the coach may say.  The top two players at this postion will battle it out for the starting spot.

Continue reading "Breaking down the Blazers......Part Three"

Breaking down the Blazers by position....Part Two

Who is our point guard? And who do we want to be our point guard?  These are two questions that have often been asked about our Portland Trailblazers over the last couple of seasons.  We've had a number of players look to claim that spot over the years, Steve Blake, Sergio Rodriguez, Jerryd Bayless, Petteri Kopponen, to name a few.  And we had another hopeful in Summer League camp in Patty Mills until he went down with an unfortunate foot injury.

Our point guards going into the 2009-10 season.
Andre Miller, starter
Steve Blake, backup
Brandon Roy, may pick up a few minutes here and there at the point
Bayless, not likely to see much time at this position unless there is an injury to Blake or Miller.

Continue reading "Breaking down the Blazers.....Part Two"

[quote][b]In the second night of back to back games the Trailblazers head to Washington to take on the WIzards

Gametime is four pm Pacific time.

Since this is our first look at the WIzards this season here is a video preview of the 2008 Washington Wizards
http://www.nba.com/video/channels/nba_tv/2008/10/17/nba_20



Projected starters
Portland Trailblazers
[img] http://assets.espn.go.com/i/teamlogos/nba/med/trans/por.gif[/img]
[img] http://assets.espn.go.com/i/headshots/nba/players/65/1994.jpg[/im
Steve Blake -PG
Brandon Roy-SG
Nic Batum-SF
LaMarcus Aldridge-PF
Greg Oden-Center





Projected starters
Washington Wizards
[img] http://assets.espn.go.com/i/teamlogos/nba/med/trans/was.gif[/img]

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from Club Blazers

Game preview, Minnesota at Portland 11/8

Saturday nights game against Minnesota here in the Rose Garden will be the second game of a back to back for the Timberwolves who will travel to Portland after taking on the Kings in Sacramento on Friday night.

Some of us were hoping Greg Oden would be back for this game but it looks like it will be another week before number 52 returns to action.

This seasons Timberwolves roster features Oregonian Kevin Love, former Blazer Sebastian Telfair, and former Blazer Jerry Sichting as a member of the coaching staff.

Here is a look at their roster

2008-09 Roster
NUM PLAYER POS HT WT DOB FROM YRS
52 Calvin Booth C 6-11 230 05/07/1976 Penn State 9
22 Corey Brewer F-G 6-9 188 03/05/1986 Florida 1

Continue reading "Minnesota at Portland game preview 11/8"

from http://www.clubblazers.com/game-preview-houston-at-portland-116/


This game would have been the first time Greg Oden got to play against Yao Ming. I remember watching Ming and Shaq battle head to head a couple of times during Mings rookie season. Instead, Greg will watch from the bench and prepare for Saturdays game against the Timberwolves and the rest of us will get our first look at this seasons version of the Houston Rockets and Center Yao Ming. Ming is leading the league in minutes played by centers, and appears fully recovered from last seasons stress fracture and his Chinas poor showing in the Olympics.

Steelblazer and his wife will be attending this game complements of ucatchtrout and ClubBlazers.

This game will also feature the return of Von Wafer and Steve Francis, fomer OSU Beaver Brent Barry, and former Oregon Duck Aaron Brooks, as well as our first look at Ron Artest in a Rockets uniform. Should be fun.

Continue reading "Houston AT Portland 11/6 Game Preview"

To enter post your name in THIS  thread,
http://www.clubblazers.com/forums/win-a-blazer-hat-win-a-shirt-why
AND your beginning post count.

To win a hat correctly pick the point spread and winner in the game threads.  In case of a tie, additional hats will be awarded.

To win this tshirt you MUST win a hat.

[img] http://fans.trailblazers.com/CampusStore/images/Large%20Retro%20Gray

And you must be the hat winner that posts the most number of times during the contest.

Contest will run from now until midnight Monday November 10.

Hats can be won for the Utah, Houston, Minnesota, and Orlando games.

Good luck

Continue reading "Win a Blazer hat, win a tshirt, why not win both?"

from http://www.clubblazers.com/game-preview-blazers-at-utah-115/

Game Preview of Portland at Utah 11/5

On the road vs the Utah Jazz. A hard nosed veteran team that won 54 games last season and a division title. The Jazz beat us twice in preseason. But in both games a number of our frontline players sat the game out. The second time we did this there were rumors that Nate didn't want to show Jerry Sloan his full bag of tricks. We'll see. Everyone should be available for this game against the Jazz.

Speaking of Jerry. He is a throwback. A hard-nosed ex-player coach. A former Chicago Bull from the Van-Arsdale twins era of NBA basketball. He is a tough old bugger and perhaps the NBAs leading proponent of good old fashioned pick and roll, pick and pop basketball. He doesn't do anything fancy. Just the same old stuff over and over and over again. He is a master at getting his team to execute these simple plays to perfection. And he is also a master in the art of game adjustments. Before we hired Nate I really wanted our team to go after Jerry Sloan. He may be the best coach in the league. Sorry Phil, you had MJ and Pippen, and Kobe and Shaq. Yes, Jerry did have Malone and Stockton, but not much else. And I question whether their careers would have been the same if they had played for a different coach. Jerry Sloan has done more with less than any coach in this league.

Continue reading "game preview Portland at Utah 11/5"

Here we go.  I've waited what seems like a long time to say it, but its time for our first game of the year.  We'll be playing the Lakers in Los Angeles, in their house.  We'll be on national tv, and playing in front of Jack Nicholson, Diane Cannon, God, and everyone else.  Its a good test for these guys and a good opportunity for them to learn to step up to a challenge.  You can say what you want about Kobes knee or his hand, Odoms attitude, or Bynums contract, but one thing is for certain.....Phil Jackson will have this team ready to play basketball. 

This Laker team is much the same as the one that played Boston in the finals.  The big change though is the return of seven footer Andrew Bynum to the starting lineup, allowing LaMar Odom to slide over to small forward.  It will be fun to see how our own Greg Oden matches up with Bynum.  Up until now Chris Kaman has been the best center he has faced and he gave Kaman fits.  Certainly some pundits and most Laker fans will disagree with me but I'm calling this matchup even.  I'm expecting big things from Oden in this game.  This is the stage he has been waiting to play on for a long time and I will be surprised if we don't see him at his best.  How this affects Bynum I'm not sure.  We'll get to find out Tuesday night.

Continue reading "Game Preview.... Portland vs LA Lakers"