Despite, as of 5:07 PM today, still being up in the total vote count, The Oregonian called the gubernatorial election against former Trail Blazers center Chris Dudley, in favor of former (and future?) governor Kitzhaber.
I have a very concrete view point on this subject, but I'm going to try to take the middle road, and suggest some of the good that came out of Dudley's run, regardless of your political leanings.
Opened the door for other former Blazers to hold office in the state. Maybe it wasn't that a Blazers center couldn't run Oregon, it was that Dudley was the wrong center. Bill Walton could be the candidate the lefties yearn for, with a strong baby boomer connection. Perhaps Joel Przybilla could have a future as more of a folksy centrist candidate, known for his prudent financial mind (after all, he's the player that teaches his teammates about the NBA's 401(k) program). Most obviously, though, it's a portent of Arvydas' forthcoming campaign. The posters have been made. It's only a matter of time.
No awkward moment on Thursday night. If Dudley were to win, he would probably make an appearance at the game on Thursday against the Thunder, prompting a round of boos from the mostly blue Portland crowd. In the RG (except on Civil War night), we're all on the same team. We need to focus our collective outrage on Clay Bennett, not a political candidate.
The OLCC is in danger. I promised I wouldn't get political, but I don't think there's a single person in Oregon who thinks the OLCC is a good idea.
This picture:
Once again, if you're confused as to where the recaps are, I'm writing them on Bust a Bucket this week, so check them out there.
If you're looking for the Bulls game recap, I've posted it over on Bust a Bucket, as I'll be guesting there this week, writing recaps. Don't let that make you think I'll be leaving Trail Post high and dry this week, as I will most certainly be posting content here as well.
The Blazers played only one game over the weekend: a tight win at Madison Square Garden against the Knicks.
Yet again, the team took an early lead and allowed the other team to eventually get back in and take over the game. Of course, it ended with the Blazers going on a huge run to finish the game. Though winning is nice, I think just about every Blazer fan would take a wire-to-wire win right now than a heart attack.
A large piece of happened on Saturday night was the presence (and non-presence) of Nicolas Batum. The Blazers appeared to be a different team when he was on the floor, with the offense flowing more easily, as Batum was able to do what he pleased on offense against the point guards that D'Antoni was putting on him. Obviously, he brought the defensive spark as well. He got us that lead in the first quarter, and when he came in again when we were down nine in the fourth, our fortunes changed quickly. I don't know how much longer Nate can continue to play Nico for less than 30 minutes per game.
This game wasn't nearly as bad as LaMarcus' suicide watch game against the Mavericks when Andre went crazy, but it was close. He was missing open shots and worse, free throws. He hasn't quite put it together again, yet. LaMarcus being able to hit big shots again could be the difference between a close loss and a close win, or during Saturday's game, a close game and a runaway.
Brandon Roy did what Brandon Roy does.
Andre is looking better integrated into the offense than ever. He's going about his business, and at the end of the game, you realize he has 19 and 10. Just beautiful to see.
The Wesley Matthews bandwagon keeps getting bigger.
Finally, we had to see Fabricio Oberto play for 17 minutes due to Camby's foul trouble. That could be a reason why the game was closer than it should have been. Okay, it was a reason. Okay, Oberto is kind of terrible. Okay, he had two good plays, and was pretty much terrible otherwise. One rebound in 17 minutes when you're seven feet tall? Still, a valiant effort and a constant reminder why we should all be rooting to have Oden and Przybilla back on the floor.
"Yeah, well, we all know where the words come from," says 6'9", 215-pound Maurice Lucas, the quintessential power forward and enforcer of the Portland Trail Blazers. In Lucas' case, the word got out and around three years ago when, as an ABA rookie, he decked 7'2" Artis Gilmore and dared to duke it with Julius Erving, which is roughly akin to spitting on the flag. "A lot of people think I'm just one of these mean guys," he says indignantly. "Well, I just play rough. That's the way you play when you're in my game."
Can I watch Blake Griffin during every Blazer game? I just want to see him play basketball always. I have an unabashed basketball man crush on the guy. If the Blazers could trade LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden for him, I would do it in a heartbeat. He's like Joakim Noah if Noah wasn't overrated and didn't frighten small children. Noah wakes up in cold sweats each night after dreaming of Griffin's freckles, knowing that he'll never be the insane rebounder that Griffin is. He's just good. I never would have guessed that someone who came back from season-ending knee surgery would fly around the court like that.
Apparently there was a game last night, too.
So, the team itself had a mediocre performance through the first three quarters, just like the Phoenix game, and during the fourth quarter, it flipped a switch, went on a huge run, stop me if you've heard this one before. Road wins are worth their weight in gold (weight of a road win: 3.43 kg) and the Blazers picked up one that maybe they shouldn't have gotten.
As Mike Rice suggested, if they kept a stat called "Most Improved 3-Point Shooter" (by the way, I think you can do that, easily - just subtract last year's percentage from this year's), Nico Batum would lead it. I think Batum would be happy to win Most Improved Player this year instead. On a bad shooting night for everyone else, Batum went 6-7 and 3-4 from deep, along with a few rebounds and a couple of steals. I guarantee there's some suburban Portland kid who decided to start studying French in middle school just to be more like Nico. Vous faites le travail de Dieu, Nicolas.
Brandon Roy put up a Brandon Roy-like line of 22-10-2. Dude is automatic. The three pointer over Gomes was some cold blooded business.
LaMarcus also had a double double, and played a large role in the fourth quarter spurt that won the game. He was abused early by Griffin, but came back and held his own. You can talk about how soft you may think LaMarcus is, or how he doesn't charge after rebounds enough, but the dude seriously knows how to pass out of a double team. It is a now-regular occurrence, and LaMarcus easily sees and recognizes it coming, finding the open man. It's a great way to be in the flow of the offense, even if he's not making his shot.
The other double double came from Marcus Camby, the ghost of Clipper rebounding past. He took Griffin's activity as a challenge, going for 11 and 14. During the first quarter he was driving from the top of the key for lay-ins, something he probably hasn't done for six years.
In terms of +/-, Andre was the game's MVP with an absurd +19, and he contributed with a bit from everywhere, as he got 14 points, 4 rebounds, 7 assists, and 3 steals. His offensive rebounding extended some key possessions late.
The bench was really nothing special at all. Johnson and Cunningham were beset by foul trouble. Matthews didn't come close to duplicating his opening night performance (the countdown to the next Simmons Matthews insult starts now), and Oberto looked lost. Rudy looked good again, hitting half of his three point attempts.
Now, we have a long break until the next game, a time where we can reflect on the fact that instead of waiting three months for another game, we only have to wait three days. My recommendation for the downtime: play NBA 2K11 or read the Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History.
No, that's not the number of turnovers that Steve Nash committed. It's the number of fans left in Portland who still think that the Jerryd Bayless trade was a bad idea.
The debuts of new guards Wesley Matthews and Armon Johnson were the polar opposite of Andre Miller's coming out party last year. Whereas before it was a storyline of uneasy coexistence with Brandon Roy, last night's opener was a perfect example of right sized pieces for right sized holes. Both Matthews and Johnson played the defense we expected of them, living in the jerseys of Phoenix's guards, and picked their spots on offense. One account compared Matthews' performance to a rave, which is odd, because I would never figure a large warehouse to be that strong of a defender or three-point shooter.
The Blazers and Suns started the season off like they ended the last, with a back and forth game that was very much in doubt throughout the first three quarters. The Blazers held a lead from the first quarter through the third, but it was never that large. Then, the third quarter run from the Suns got them the lead going into the fourth. Then Nicolas Batum happened. And Brandon Roy happened. A balanced (huhwha?) attack to end the game put the Suns away with ease and gave the Blazers their first win on the way to an 82-0 season.
Nicolas Batum put together a double double, absolutely making the Suns pay for putting Steve Nash on him, grabbing offensive rebounds by the sackful.
LaMarcus Aldridge was double-teamed every time he touched the ball, so he never really had a chance to get anything going. That being said, he never made any dumb mistakes when the double-team came, so that should be taken as net victory. He also ripped down nine rebounds.
Marcus Camby was the night's other double-double man, and he was a force again on the defensive end. Camby's wandering hands were everywhere, tipping passes and rebounds to create new possessions and keep possessions going.
Brandon Roy played like Brandon Roy. The 20-5-5 is just what he does.
Andre only played 27 minutes, and didn't stand out as much as the other guards, but still had a near double-double with 10 points and 9 assists.
Finally, Wes Matthews had a +22. Holy crap, what a steal.
Tonight, we have the Clippers, and a chance to see Blake Griffin's surreal ability to pull down rebounds first hand. Aside from Roy, our starters didn't log too much playing time last game, so we can hope that everyone will be fresh.
There is literally nothing left to say at this point.
(Except the rest of this blog post.)
The last six games the team played were against the Suns. They were beat through an array of...just kidding, Jason Richardson killed the Blazers at the three point line and that was that. The Blazers were injured as all hell and simply couldn't keep up.
Today, the team is still not 100%, but doing a lot better than back then. The players certainly think better of their team than Steve Nash thinks of his. Basically, The Blazers are expected to win.
Now comes the waiting game. We're only 12 hours away from tipoff, and you feel like the kid from the Disneyland commercial. "I'm too excited to sleep!" Work is going to be a slog, as you glance at the clock every two minutes, and feel like time is actually going backward. When you eat lunch, you'll get red pepper and roast beef on your sandwich, just to do the closest approximation to Blazer colors.
Finally, you'll get the last seat at the local watering hole, and pour a little of your Total Domination out for departed players Jerryd Bayless, Juwan Howard, and Steven Hill.
It's opening day. Anything can happen in a season. The last two years have proven that, for better or worse. Let's enjoy the ride.
One of the great joys in being a sports fan is choosing someone to blame it all on. Every bad bounce, every missed shot, every horrifying knee injury. It feels natural. Sure, there's a reasonable part of you whispering, "Don't be overreact, don't be stupid," but who wants to listen to that? Blazer fans are as capricious as any in the league, and that's what makes it so fun to be one. We love to place blame.
Past lightning rods included Travis Outlaw during the 08-09 season (until his improvement then injury last season), Andre Miller at the beginning of last season (until the Dallas game), and Juwan Howard to finish out the year. Of course, there are always mainstays in the Blazer fan haterade, such as Nate McMillan, Paul Allen, and of course, the refs.
These rankings are not my own opinion. Someone being on here doesn't mean I personally have anything against them. They are simply a (not really) objective interpretation of the state of mind of Blazer fans at large. Who do they think is going to destroy the team at any given moment?
5. Nate McMillan - The "Fire Nate" warcry has existed as long has he's been here, and has almost never been justified. Still, his one year deal looks ominous to the national media (even though he signs one every year), and his performance against Phoenix last spring still stings.
4. Paul Allen - It was Paul Allen who lobbied for Patty Mills over Wesley Matthews in the draft. And again, we have Patty Mills, cutting Pendergraph to do so.
3. Brandon Roy - Brandon's calls for the ball have been read by much of the fanbase as egotistical, as if he's the bastard son of the unholy triumverate of Stephon Marbury, Vince Carter, and Allen Iverson.
2. Rudy Fernandez - If there's one thing Portlanders hate, it's insults to the city. Remember the time when New Yorkers tried to tell us that their food carts were better? Bloodbath. Rudy's preseason suggests he won't be on the list for long, though.
"Yesterday we celebrated Sir Isaac Newton's discovery of gravity. Today, Fabricio Oberto is defying it."
Quote comes from the newest issue of GQ, which was published from Free Darko's The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History, which drops tomorrow at bookstores everywhere. If you are reading this blog, you need to buy that book.
(I am not conflating my level of writing with Shoals and co., I'm just saying that if you are willing to delve this deep into the world of Blazer blogdom, you obviously love basketball with a nearly unhealthy passion.)
"I feel like someone just traded my cat for a bag of goldfish." - Wilson Peery
While I'm not of such a strong opinion, it really does hurt. The Blazers lost someone that seemed like he was being groomed to be a core player. And for what? A pick in the 13-15 range. Hey, we need the space, and if we don't have to do the cold-blooded move of getting rid of Pendergraph, that's worthwhile enough, right
(Update 6:30 PM: Jason Quick reports Pendergraph is gone. Well, doubly cold-blooded, I guess. Maybe Patty Mills is the PG of the future, because, he hasn't already been beaten out by a rookie or anything.)
The trade can be read as serious vote of confidence in the abilities of Armon Johnson and Wes Matthews at the point guard position. Beyond that, Rudy Fernandez' strong performance in preaseason probably made it reasonable to have Wes play more minutes at the 1.
Basically, all we can hope is that Andre remains the Injury Vampire that he's been throughout the last decade and play all 82.
After a summer full of speculation and drama, you know what to expect from a Blazers season preview. Before previewing it the right way, I'll post a preview review, in bullet form, TrueHoop style.
The Blazers lost approximately 7,024 player games to injury last year. At one point, they started a Tigard child who had recently graduated from the Larry Steele Basketball Camp at the 2 guard.
Greg Oden gets injured like all the time, what's the deal with that? Basically, the fact that Oden is oft-injured is obvious, cliched, and necessary to any preview. It's like three-word sentences in Canzano columns. It really is. It really is.
Batum will make the leap this year. Everyone's told him. You know, it's a good sign when a player buys into the hype surrounding them. That's never gone wrong, ever.
The Blazers have been terrible in preseason, yet Wesley Matthews has been great. Many are trying to take this as a sign that Matthews is a hell of a player, yet we shouldn't be worried about our terrible record. The truth: you can't have it both ways. Our preseason is irrelevant, and Matthews' play, though encouraging, is just as irrelevant. Depend on it the way you depend on reports of LaMarcus Aldridge gaining 20 pounds in the offseason.
Brandon Roy is the offspring of the unholy triumvirate of Stephon Marbury, Vince Carter, and Allen Iverson. He plans on taking every single shot for the Blazers this season, and some for the other team, too.
The Thunder really aren't that good, except when they're challenging the Lakers at the top of the conference. Evidently, having everything go right and only getting 50 wins means that you're jumping up to 70 wins the next season.
I think those are all the main storylines that we've been reading throughout this offseason in a desperate, flailing attempt to get any possible news about this team we all love so much.
Now onto the real preview.
The Blazers are the team with the largest presence on the internet, with the Raptors gasping behind them for second place. Blazer fans spread across the web, an army that attacks anyone who says anything negative about the team, taking over comment sections on ESPN.com and Yahoo.com. There's another group out there that's just as volatile and dogged as Blazers fans. They've gone after Apple, AT&T, Verizon, and Sarah Palin. That group? 4chan.
For those of us who aren't fans of corporate sabotage or images which you can't unsee, 4chan's greatest contributions to culture are memes. With two such large groups, there's no surprise that there's some overlap. That overlap: the Trail Post 2010-11 Memeview.
Nate McMillan: Serious Cat
Only one internet meme could ever hope to match Sarge's no-nonsense approach to basketball. That computer in the back matches well to assistant coach Kaleb Canales' sophisticated video review system.
Leeroy Jenkins: Jerryd Bayless
Jerryd Bayless charges in, no matter how heavy the defense is. So does Leeroy.
Dancing Baby: Andre Miller
Both have been around forever. Also, Andre Miller had a 2-episode arc on Ally McBeal.
Sad Keanu: Rudy Fernandez
So much bench-related ennui.
Trololo: LaMarcus Aldridge
Eduard Khil's smooth breed of singing matches the matches the smoothness of LaMarcus Aldridge. Still, you feel like something's missing. In Khil's case, it's actual words. In LaMarcus', it's post game.
Watermelon Head Shot: Armon Johnson
Did you see the way that watermelon face-guarded her? Armon taught it everything it knows.
Yo Dawg Xzibit: Marcus Camby
Just as the Xzibit meme has the rapper constantly stuffs cars into other cars so you can drive while you drive, Marcus Camby stuffs the stat sheet.
Zidane Headbutt: Nicolas Batum
They're French. Of course, Batum's not particularly violent, but we can hope him to become to French basketball what Zidane was to French soccer.
Keyboard Cat: Brandon Roy
There's only one match for the Blazers' ultimate finisher: the internet's ultimate finisher. Brandon is the one who plays the team off during games, and we all know what Keyboard Cat does.
After all of that, what do we have? What can we expect from this team? Well, anything less than 50 wins would be a disappointment. There have been statistical projections that put our ceiling at more than 65 wins. That doesn't pass the smell test, either. Basically, we should expect at least 52 wins. Ideally, if everything comes together, our ceiling is at 59. Why can't this week be over?
My favorite part of preseason? The desperate pleas for cash on Craigslist from season ticket holders. The flood of tickets going for 60, 70, 80 percent off of face value says it all about fans' reaction to preseason. Sure, it has its value. After all, you have all the stars back after what felt like years off, but it's not quite right. It's like the season of The Hills after they got rid of LC. Why even do it?
Just this morning, the Blazers hit my inbox with an ad on Groupon for half off tickets to the (now annual) preseason game at the Memorial Coliseum. I love what the Blazers did here. Every preseason game should be half off. The teams are giving half effort, why should the fans be asked to pay full price? The games themselves are a competition between coaching staffs praying that the players don't get hurt before October 26.
Basically, preseason is the worst kind of sample taste. Sure we get actual basketball at the Rose Garden, but all it does is leave you with the knowledge that the season still doesn't start for yet another three weeks.
Late last week, the NBA unveiled a new set of rules that define what conduct leads to a technical foul being called. New additions in that release included asking about the call, demonstrating emotion about a call, or aggressive gestures. The NBA has since released a few more technical foul-worthy offenses.
Wearing a jersey with the word "Wallace" on it.
Winking
Low Fives
References to the movie Sharktopus
Not hashtagging "#nba" during your in-game tweets
Speaking Spanish
It's fair to say, that's a bold new stance for the NBA.
NBA Jam occupies a special place in the hearts of every NBA fan of a certain age. Sure, the 2K and Elite (formerly Live) games can have intricate plays, and special right stick moves that make you do elbow passes and turn into a panda. Too bad they missed out on what counts: dunks, shoving people around, and high drama.
Thank goodness the one game that had that is finally back. Every game in NBA Jam ends in a last-second shot attempt. Or at least that's how I like to remember it. You play for ten minutes, and then it comes down to John Stockton throwing a last second underhand heave across the court. The best possible result is time to run out during said shot, Stockton frozen in time, the ball resting on his fingertips, never to know if the shot when in or not.
In the original game, the Blazers were one of the better teams you could play as. Drexler was as good an all-around player as you could find, and you could choose from solid supporting castmates in Terry Porter and Uncle Cliffy. My personal favorite was the overwhelming offensive onslaught of Porter and Drexler, with Drexler tossing dunk-passes to Porter in the corner for three. Of course, they couldn't play defense a lick, but the idea was that they could both take care of the ball and hit an open shot.
Imagine my disappointment when I learned that I couldn't reunite my favorite NBA Jam team of all time. While teams such as the Hawks (huh?), Bulls, Cavaliers (double huh?), Pistons, Warriors, Heat (Rony Seikaly! By the way, I would love to play against the guy who went with the Rice/Seikaly duo over LeBron and Wade), Nets, Knicks, Magic, Sixers, Suns, Spurs, and Jazz got two greats, we were left to make due with the Glide. I can only imagine the possibilities of a two towers combo of Oden and Walton, or combining LaMarcus and Porter.
Still, if you're a true Blazer fan, you'll play as the home team when you get the game. Now to choose the team for the style you want to play.
Beginner: You have never played the game before, and you just want to have fun and dunk a lot.
Drexler and Roy: The past and present greatest 2-guards the Blazers have are your best options if you are a beginner. They lack in three-point shooting but will be able to get by anyone of the dribble and attack the basket. They will keep you in a game no matter what. This is also your best offensive option for the team.
Defensive Juggernaut: You know what you like, and that's blocks.
Oden and Aldridge: As the video that has already circulated on YouTube can account, Oden is one of the game's best blocked shot artists. Use that to your advantage, while the rangy and quick Aldridge D's up on the opposing guard. With this team, you can also run a football offense, with one player shoving defenders as the other goes for an easy dunk.
Overall Best: You want to win the right way: great defense, and heart (aww).
Oden or Drexler at all times: Use the lineup combinations depending on situation each quarter. If you're looking to hold a lead or cool off a run, use Oden. If coming back, give Drexler a shot. No matter what, one of these players should be on the floor at all times.
Now, all we need is a proper Blazer fan NBA Jam tournament while we hold out hope that the Seattle Supersonics will be an unlockable team.
With the win today, France won a chance to advance from its group in the World Championships. Sports.fr spoke to Batum about the tournament so far and his future. I translated.
Sparkling against Canada (68-63) Tuesday night in Izmir, Nicolas Batum has taken matters into his own hands to enable the French team to qualify for the knockout stages of the World 2010.But, instead of looking backward, the tricolors look ahead. "Want we want is to finish first in the group," he assured, even if the next game against Lithuania is "still more difficult."
Nicolas, you are already in the fourth round. Is that your dream scenario? Dream, I don't know. Let's say it's a good first step, the best start, even. We had a great performance.It wasn't the best way, for sure, but the win is what counts. Now, we are not going to be satisfied with that.What we want is to finish first in the group and we will continue like this until the end of the first round.We really want to show that we must be counted on in the future
In any case, Team France can count on you! You were able to take your responsibilities this evening ... My self confidence helped me a lot. I was able to adjust to what Canada gave us, I had to take matters into my own hands because I knew babaca (Boris Diaw) and Mike (Gelabale) were a little tired from the first two games. I tried to get the game to my style in the second half and I was decently helped by the interior players. They defended Joel Anthony well, and kept him from getting rebounds. It was scary, we had a lot of luck, but, for once, it's on our side, and we won't complain.
Personally, we imagine that it is very satisfying ... It's true that it reassures me a little. In preparation, particularly in Villeurbanne, I tried to do stuff like that but it wouldn't work. The fact that I succeeded this evening makes me feel good about my game and allows me to be even more confident next time.
Do you feel more sure than before in your offense? I try to keep a cool head. I had the chance to evolve throughout the year with a player who masters composure, Brandon Roy. I watch a lot, and when I see his sureness and composure, I admire him. And when I play at the end of a game like today, I copy him. I have a good teacher, I think.
Can this kind of game become a reference for this team? Yes. Last week, a game like this, we probably lose by twenty points. If we had played like this against Canada two weeks ago, it would have been thirty. We've reached a new level, we've matured a lot in one week.We didn't panic, we played our defense, they made a run at the end, and we stole the victory.That's the most important part.
Did you think you would start so well before arriving in Turkey?
We did.You didn't.Compared to what we showed during the practice, we aren't too surprised.
Was the intensity that Canada showed you surprising? They were missing Andy Rautins but it wasn't obvious.For them, the game was the last chance. With the outcome of Lebanon-New Zealand, they were screwed if they lost, so their lives were on the line this game.Now, they'll be going home, it's pretty much mathematic. It was complicated for us.
Les Bleus (the nickname for team France) have had trouble with free throws.How can you explain it? I don't know, there maybe was a slight lack of concentration, a feeling of complacency. The rest day ruined our flow a little bit.There was a lack of rhythm, a lack of legs compared to the first games. Today, we weren't very rigorous, whether it was offense or defense. But we obtained the essential: the win. We have to forget that and think only of what awaits us tomorrow (Wednesday against Lithuania, ed.). We have to get back to "Spain mode."
What type of game are you expecting against Lithuania? It may be more difficult because Lithuania is still more organized.They have experienced players, Linas Kleiza really is a great scorer.We will really have to be careful.We know them, the Lithuanians, they shoot from everywhere and it's a three pointer every time. We will have to be very serious to be able to beat them.But if we want to finish first in the pool, we have to beat them.
Have you looked at Group C? Logically, it will end with Russia and Puerto Rico.But I do not want to calculate, to think about the future.As long as I avoid Turkey, that's fine with me.I'm not looking forward to playing against them.As late as possible.
The Emmys have the silly effect of not mattering at all, yet still getting my guile up. Lists or rankings are catnip for my ill-informed criticism. The show's end, with Modern Family taking home the honor of the top comedy, immediately made for an easy NBA comparison.
ABC's new beloved sitcom is the Oklahoma City Thunder. It's based on a good ensemble cast, has two breakout stars, with one of which is one of television's funniest characters. Still, it's not even one of the top five comedies on television right now, but is a critical darling nonetheless.
Which brings me some of the other big Emmy nominees, and their television counterparts.
Mad Men = The Lakers: They win every single year.
Lost = The Celtics: A powerhouse over the last few years, their title chances are over.
30 Rock = The Suns: Formerly the fastest show on television, and has lost a step over the past couple of years.
Glee = The Heat: The most hyped show on television.
The Office = The Mavericks: Always good but not great, past its prime, and each has a terrible boss.
Friday Night Lights = The Blazers: High drama, plenty of tragic injuries, and completely unwatched around the country, save for a devoted fanbase.
It's damn nice to know that the Blazers are back in good hands. I've made my argument earlier for why and how Rich Cho is the perfect fit as a GM for this team, and how choosing him is the ideal move not just from a strategic perspective but also a public relations perspective. It's just great to see the organization make the right move. More than being the guy we wanted, Rich Cho is the guy we needed.
Despite the team's impressive record, this year's summer league came down to a point guard duel between two (as of right now) marginal NBA talents. Sure, it was fun to watch this team march to a 4-1 record (with that only blemish due to three last-second misses). Even better, it was great to see Caleb Kanales pick up the record in only his first year coaching. Still, the league's there for player evaluation, so let's get to the evaluatin'.
Jeff Pendergraph was a little lost out there. His last game of the tournament was his best, as he was everywhere, and completely owning the glass. In his second year, his shot still has not come around yet. That's going to make it difficult to get any playing time. If he can't play past Dante Cunningham, good luck trying to get past Marcus Camby. As he showed last year, though, he's a decent spot replacement for the big man position, a great practice player, and the best hype man in the league.
Dante Cunningham seems like the same player he was a few months ago. He's the guy that can knock down the open shot and hustle for the ball. He was the team's most veteran influence.
Luke Babbitt has work to do. He led the team in scoring a couple of times, but his field goal percentage, save for the last game, was in the crapper. Due to the last game, his free throw percentage bounced back to a respectable 85%. I feel like I didn't see enough of Luke during this to peg down a real judgment on him. He needs to be against real NBA talent to be judged.
Patty Mills is done. He is not the right player for this team. He's far too selfish, which will not mesh with the team at any time. No matter who he's with on the floor with the Blazers, he won't even be one of the top three options. He's a good player, and a fun player, but not one for the Blazers. He's a Nate Robinson All-Star, a guy that's fun to watch, but you would never want on your team. I heard a story about how he wanted to lead the league in assists coming in. That idea went out the window after his first game, when he tallied 9. He never topped 4 the rest of the way. The Blazers need someone who can defend, create for others, and stay out of the way. Patty doesn't do that.
Armon Johnson does do that. He hit his shots at a better clip than Patty, racked up more assists, and played much better defense. If there's one way Johnson could make an impact, it's through his D, which is already comparable, if not better than that of Bayless. And this is his first go-around in the league. Patty has played in the NBA for a season, and has years of international play under his belt, yet was totally outperformed by a rookie. I wish the best to Patty in his NBA future, and hope he catches on with a decent team, but he needs to be jettisoned, and Armon needs to be signed soon.
Though I'm sure that the last blog post had little to zero to do with the decision (most likely zero or below), the Blazers have added the Thunder's assistant GM, Rich Cho, to the list of candidates to be interviewed for the GM position here.
It's good to see that the organization is looking at new guys, rather than the staid options we've had shuttled into the city so far during this process. Hiring Cho is good karma.
Summer League games occupy an NBA importance standing that ranks somewhere below a preseason game and above All-Star Weekend's 2Ball (RIP). The game means nothing, but at least you learn something about guys that hope to occupy one of the last three spots on the team. Of course, there are exceptions, with touted first rounders, but mostly it's a carnival of desperation. Still, that's what gives the Summer League its appeal. These guys won't be dogging it because they simply can't afford it. The game means almost nothing to the people watching it on television or from the stands, but means everything to the guys on the floor, the guys begging to get called off the bench just so they can show they can knock down the three to anybody who can see them. Summer Leaguers, I salute you.
Let's get down to the Blazers.
Patty Mills is the easiest guy to go after because he has by far the most to gain or lose in this round of Summer League. He's in the best position to make a run for another NBA contract. No matter what though, it's safe to assume that contract won't be paid for by Paul Allen. Anyway, last night he played the best of any outside player, with a surprising number of assists. If he leads Summer League in assists, while putting up respectable turnover and point numbers, he should catch on somewhere. The Heat are looking for a PG to take the minimum.
Babbitt neither impressed nor distressed. His shot looked pretty (Martell-esque, I may dare to say) and he took it whenever he had any space. He wasn't afraid to put the ball on the floor, but that may be more of a result of his level of competition than of his actual ability.
Dante looked like he was a step above anyone on the floor. His numbers weren't that eye-popping, but he did what he's always done. He also led the team in +/- at +24. I cannot wait for year two of the Inferno.
Jeff looked lost. Let's just take a mulligan.
Armon Johnson fit in nicely, filling up the stat line and making plays for himself.
Overall, with such a dominating performance over the team thought to be the best at the tournament, this may be the best Summer League team the Blazers have fielded since that Brandon Roy-LaMarcus Aldridge juggernaut from 2006. Then again, being a dominant Summer League team is like having the world's greatest collection of commemorative plates. Some work went into it, but overall, it really doesn't matter.
You know what's soul-crushing? Okay, the oil spill. And the Uruguay goalkeeper's weak Dikembe Mutombo finger wag. Even more so, our GM search. When I heard Mike Dunleavy's name on the radio, I honestly thought it was a joke. We're a team trying to make the next step, make the jump into the upper tier of contenders and all we have available to us are guys who've fallen flat on their faces in creative and depressing ways.
That's why I'm advocating some new blood. We know what we're getting with the proven commodities we're interviewing: crap. They'll do some mediocre deals and leave the franchise hamstrung when they inevitably are fired for doing such an abysmal job. (Say hello to a five-year extension for Andre Miller) Pritchard got us to where we are now because he was young, new, and creative. We shouldn't be trying to court a bunch of has-beens to take us to the next level. We should be going for young and hungry talent.
When you build a team, or even more importantly, when you rebuild a team, what do you aim for? Quality and youth. You want the guy to be good, and you want him with your team forever. Right now, the Blazers are rebuilding their front office, and the way I see it, they have two options. They can either sign the GM equivalent of Drew Gooden, or they can make a splash and grab someone unproven but daring and smart, the NBA equivalent of a lottery pick. Sure, the lottery pick can bust out, but at this point, can Paul Allen really care about looking bad to the media? At this moment, he's being portrayed as an egomaniac, or insane, and most often, both. That's why the Blazers should go after Rich Cho, the Thunder's current assistant GM.
It makes sense for Allen to want to rebuild his reputation with a so-called "safe" maneuver. Still, how safe is it to hire a guy you will absolutely fire and part with acrimoniously within the next three years? You're Paul Allen, you don't need to be safe. Allen spends a couple of million dollars on a few picks and he's the best owner in the NBA again. Flex the deep pockets and all is forgiven. With Cho, we have a chance to the next step by continuing in the footsteps left by Kevin Pritchard. We want creative and smart analysis, rather than the staid "pile up veterans and cross your fingers" strategy from the unemployed GMs.
Of course, the idea behind this came from the TrueHoop post in reference to the Sports Illustrated article that featured Cho. He's a numbers guy with experience on the business side of running a basketball franchise along with the personnel side. How can this not be the most attractive option to Allen? It's like he's getting one of his Vulcan guys but minus all that pesky complete lack of basketball knowledge.
Let's cancel the interviews with the failures and continue that Kevin Pritchard started on the court with someone completely new running the front office. Let's go for Cho.
Bold new direction. Bold new direction. Bold new direction. Just keep whispering that to yourselves Blazer fans. It's a load of crap, but at least it sounds positive, right? We didn't just fire the guy who changed our team from a cellar dweller to a perennial playoff contender, we just took a bold new direction.
Other bold new directions in history: Fidel Castro in Cuba. Trading for Shawn Kemp. Manifest Destiny.
Too bad our direction isn't really bold at all. Nor, particularly new. Out with Kevin Pritchard last night was Martell Webster, because honestly, why would the Blazers want a guy who has roots in the area, works his ass off on defense, and has a great outside shot? Okay, I'm judging too harshly, through the prism of Martell fanboyism. He was by far the most honest and funny (non French-speaking) Blazer on the team. It'll be sad to see him go.
Coming back in the trade, though, was Luke Babbitt, who basically is Kyle Korver Jr, minus the trucker hats and punking. Also involved was Ryan Gomes. Initial red flag: the dude can't even pronounce his own last name. Still, he could be the down-low banger that Blazer fans have been aching for ever since the departure of Brian Grant. He probably won't be. Overall, as a cost-cutting measure, this trade was a huge success. From a human perspective though, we came out way behind. Babbitt looks like the kind of dude who would try to steal your girlfriend.
Next, we got Elliot Williams, because why not carry four different point guards on the roster, right? Hey, at least NBADraft.net has his closest comparison listed as Larry Hughes. Jesus. Honestly, though, I could see him working out, if we get rid of Jerryd or Rudy, both of which seem pretty likely.
The final guy was Armon Johnson, who's big and strong and likes to create for himself and get to the line. Basically, PG #5. Here's the irritating part, does anyone think that either of these guys will actually end up better than Jerryd Bayless? Hopefully there's another move in the pipeline, because I haven't seen any improvement in this draft.
Still, the worst loss was KP. Before, as a Blazer fan, I always felt we had something on everyone else, like the Blazers were always going to figure out a way to be better than everyone, just because of KP. During this whole ordeal since the Penn firing, I've had my head buried in the sand, acting like the US before World War II. Who's Mussolini, don't care don't care don't care. Then we had the Blazer equivalent of Pearl Harbor firing Pritchard. Right now, the Blazers are a lot worse for it. For once, though, I'm happy we have a long summer ahead of us to get this sorted out.
I don't know how Algeria did it, but they managed to recruit former Blazers point guard Jarrett Jack to their cause. Jack had one of the luckiest days I've ever seen between the posts, with US players missing open point blank shots again and again, to say nothing of the goal the referees waved off. Fortunately, the Americans broke through Jack's stout defense in stoppage time. Jack never could play defense at the end of games.
Long short: Jarrett Jack looks exactly like Algerian keeper Rais M Bolhi.
When the Lakers won it all, things went predictably. Cars turned over, fires, police, general mayhem. They've been there before, that's what they do. Asking Laker fans not to turn over cars when they win it all is like asking LaMarcus Aldridge to rebound. You can try, and they may do it for a while, but in the end, they'll give in to their baser instincts.
A recent experience I went through gave me a much clearer picture of what it would be like if Portland won a title. I was in Chicago when the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, their first in almost fifty years. Think about that number. That's more than fifteen years longer than we've been without a parade.
We all have our vision of what it's like when our team wins it all. The event in Chicago didn't fit into any notion you'd expect. When Patrick Kane hit in a goal from an impossible angle, the initial second was silence and confusion. I shot up cheering while the rest of the bar was seated. "Did that just happen?" "Did the Hawks win?" Then the horn sounded. Cheers rise, "Chelsea Dagger" played over the loud speaker, victory smoke fills the air, cups of Miller Lite spilled all over the place. The cheering and celebrating and hugging at that bar went on for an hour straight. Everyone was telling other people stories about their experiences with the Hawks, I nodded like I knew how to pronounce "Jonathan Toews." On the television, there was an helicopter shot of Wrigleyville with the title "Fandemonium!!!!" (yes, the four exclamation points were necessary), and we knew our next destination.
The walk over was filled with screams and yowls. The love in the air made Woodstock seem like a GWAR concert. High fives in were in plentiful supply, as a simple yell of "Go Hawks" made you the most popular man alive. Stopping at a buddy's fourth floor apartment, we took a breather and looked out on the deck to check the scene. Four helicopters were circling the area with spotlights, and the only sounds you could hear were sirens and car horns. It was Dawn of the Dead.
As we got closer to the epicenter, I expected the LA-style celebration featuring turned-over cars and open flames. Instead, I got a lot of people just strolling around with open containers giving each other hugs. There was a father and son rollerblading through the ruckus in jerseys. The cops set up a boundary, and the people inside were just left to do what they wanted, which apparently, was to just hang out.
Being in the middle of that is a moment you can never forget. Winning it all is when the true character of a city bubbles to the surface, as the exhilaration of victory removes all social conventions. Some cities, like Detroit, see a championship as an excuse for looting. Chicago saw it as a chance to get drunk with friends.
Portland wasn't far from my mind during all of this, and I easily saw our celebration of that imaginary future championship going the same way. The clock would wind down, and a deafening cheer would arise from across the city. The celebration would crowd the Broadway Bridge and the Steel Bridge as fans streamed from the Rose Garden to downtown, where Old Town and Pioneer Square would be clogged with celebrants. Portland would behave the same was as Chicago. Cars would be relatively unharmed. The only lasting consequence from that night would be a wave of children named "Brandon" nine months later.
That night in Chicago was the first time I've been in a city for a championship. I can only hope that the next experience is in the near future.
So, the World Cup is coming up, and you don't have a team yet. Of course, the United States seems like the easy pick, considering personal geography, along with the fact this year's team is full of great young talent and are lovable underdogs. They're basically what the Sonics would be if they were still in Seattle today. Great stuff. Well, why limit yourself to only one team?
A recent post from the Unlikely Fan makes a great case for a team Portland fans can root for:
Holland:
From a land of free spirits comes a team who will never be able to completely let slip of the long-hair hippie image their greatest sides exuded. They’re not in the list of never-wons, but they’re not quite among the all-time greats either, as they’ve fallen victim to a) some of the greatest performances ever, b) some gut-wrenching choke jobs and c) some horrible injuries to players who could have been all-time greats. Still, this is a widely admired team, respected for the way they play the game and their amazing fans.
Let's just take a second to imagine where we'd be if Oden had not been injured this season. Let's just, for the hell of it, pretend that maybe he missed ten games this season (tweaked ankles and various bruises as the culprit, after all, this was an injury-prone season) and continued to improve like he was before. What would this team look like? Where would we be?
The Blazers would still be playing right now. Oden being around all season would have been a great boon to us, and probably would have led to a win total of about 55 or 56 games. That would have put us in at probably the number two spot in the conference, with an easy road to the Western Conference Finals through Dallas and San Antonio.
Steve Blake will have been both a scapegoat for at least one game, and also a hero for yet another for hitting a dagger three pointer. Travis Outlaw would be doing the work that could have theoretically led to his preseason prediction of getting paid like out of this world. Indeed, Travis could have been that option we needed to create his own shot when Brandon went out during the playoffs and Bayless and Andre went ice cold.
Instead, we did the only move that we could, and arguably one of the best trades of the Pritchard era, exchanging the two for Marcus Camby. Still, that trade would have been entirely unnecessary, even with the Joel Przybilla injury.
Without the injury, Oden would have continued to grow as a player, and probably be considered as one of the top three centers currently active in the Western Conference. With the emergence of Andre Miller as the Blazers' go to point guard, Oden's role would have grown even more, as Andre would look to oden to continue to make plays in the post.
But now that's just wishful thinking.
Instead, we got an injured Oden. At the time of the injury, we even had hopes that perhaps Oden could make a comeback late in the season or perhaps in the playoffs. The playoffs are long over, and the only recovery news we've heard is that the Blazers organization is "optimistic" for training camp. That's frightening.
Oden's injury is a contributor to the dire straits now faced by Kevin Pritchard. If Oden pans out is anyone thinking of firing Kevin Pritchard? Of course not. Still, the stigma of taking Oden over Durant even if it was The Right Move, has brought him to this place.
Finally, the Oden injury has ended much of the promise and hope around this Blazer team. Two years ago, it was, "We just have to be patient and we're going to be racking up championship after championship." Now it's, "Please don't get hurt." All of our hopes for a championship are pinned to a center that has been out injured for two thirds of career. This team is not good enough to contend for a championship without Greg in the middle.
Still, there's a flip side to that last sentence. This team is good enough to contend for a championship when Oden is healthy. He is the second most important player on the team. He's the gamble you have to take, especially now. We've already lost big-time with picking over Durant. It would be an even bigger blunder to give him up for nothing, especially as he's already proven himself as a worthwhile contributor.
So, Greg, what else is there to say: Get better. The Blazers desperately, desperately need you.
Just a few weeks prior, Andre Miller had a heated exchange with Nate McMillan that called back memories of the Darius Miles era. Fans and radio hosts were calling for Miller to be shipped out, and Steve Blake had never been more popular. Then Miller had the best performance of his career.
The night was epitomized by a shot that Miller took in the fourth quarter. Andre, who shot 20% from the three point line for the season, went to the right of the key, and was left wide open. There, he was left wide open. He looked around furtively, saw no one was coming to him, then put up one of the ugliest three pointers ever. Swish. There was no stopping Andre Miller.
To be fair, that three-pointer was only a small percentage of his total output. Most of that output came from a series of lay-ups and runners. By the end of the game, his shot chart blacked out the paint with darkened spots. Miller put together one of the most impressive efforts in Blazer history.
Still, that game wasn't won by Miller alone. Indeed, he was supported again by Juwan Howard, who stepped up in the clutch. It was this game where Juwan cemented yet again how important he was to Blazer fans, at least in their minds. Of course, this was somewhat of a detriment as the season went on, as Dante Cunningham improved and Juwan started to break down under the rigors of the season. Still, he did more than we possibly could have imagined throughout the season.
The final verdict of the performance, though? Total change in the franchise. It wasn't simply that Miller took the starting spot for good: he made Steve Blake completely expendable. This game was the reason why Marcus Camby is currently a Blazer. It showed us that we have one of the top point guards in the game. Aren't we lucky? Too bad it took only twenty injuries to get to that point.
It was the picture that launched a thousand shaky-camera-tripod jokes.
The picture showed up at World Star Hip Hop and was apparently put there by an ex of Greg's. It was yet another piece put on the Greg Oden pity pile. (Unless, of course, you were a reporter at the Willamette Week.) It had only been a month since Oden's injury (upcoming) and then he ended up like this.
This blog posited that perhaps Oden's picture wasn't the negative it was originally thought to be. I joked that Oden's penis was put out there by his publicist. Of course, that wasn't true. However, it still changed the image of Oden, added another facet to his public personality. He's more than the mopey injured dude. Now there's a little bit of Wilt in him, albeit with a million times more fouls per game.
What made it worse for Oden is that the picture hit at the most boring portion of the season, deep in the dark cold January doldrums. What are desperate basketball writers supposed to cover? The actual game? Where's the fun in that? What is there between Christmas and the All-Star Game? Just a lot of East Coast trips and quarter-filled arenas because no one feels like braving the gray snow lining the streets.
In the time since the photo was released, Oden has been redeemed a bit, simply in the fact that he was the first in a line of such pictures being released. Where before these pictures were the domain of actresses and singers such as Rihanna, Oden was the first man to be outed in this way. In a way, he's the Jackie Robinson of sexting. Later, athletes such as Mariners closer David Aardsma, George Hill, and Grady Sizemore have been caught exposing themselves.
Where are we now with this? The fallout from this story has been non-existent. Greg Oden isn't any less beloved around the city. All this story is at the end of the season is its funniest moment. It was one of the biggest media moments of the entire season, and that's why it's here in the top five.
Only a few weeks before, Greg Oden went down to a disturbing knee injury. Just the night before, Joel Przybilla went down with almost the exact same version of that knee injury, with his kneecap breaking apart like an Oreo cookie. Still, the Blazers won that game in Dallas, due to the heroics and consistency of Brandon Roy. Well, Brandon Roy was gone that night in San Antonio, ailing due to a bum shoulder. The Blazers only had eight players dressed. Turns out that was all they needed.
This game featured the Blazers at their most short-handed, missing their star player, with interior duties handed to a couple of unproven rookies and a should-be-over-the-hill Juwan Howard in a place where they've had difficulty winning for the past decade. It didn't matter.
The biggest story of this game was Jerryd Bayless exploding for a career high 31 points. He scored through an array of aggressive layups, bowling down San Antonio defenders, and leftTony Parker stunned and existentially bruised (until he got home, at least). He drew the whistles and calmly knocked down free throw after free throw after free throw.
Story 1A from this ridiculous victory was Juwan Howard. The old bones still had a little life in them. This game was the beginning of an impressive run from mid-December to mid-February where Howard not only played center as the starter, but also played the position serviceably well, keeping the Blazers in games despite their total lack of interior presence. In this game, he took on the younger Tim Dun can, and did enough to stay somewhat even with him, gaining 12 rebounds to Duncan's 11 while LaMarcus Aldridge abused his Spurs defenders for 22.
The spread in Vegas for this game was -11. In the hearts of Blazer fans less than 24 hours after Joel Przybilla's potential career-ender, it could have been -100. No game this season showed the Blazers' collective heart and will than this performance. The Blazers became a hydra; one guy went down, two more popped up to take his place. This is the game that defined the tone and style for the team for the rest of the season.
Honestly, I originally had an idea of doing a per-player review of the season, but it just didn't seem quite fair to all that had happened. Except for Andre Miller and Martell Webster, it would have been a disheartening series of INCs. No one wants that. When you look back on a basketball season, it isn't the fact that Martell Webster had a +/- of -1.2 per game that comes to mind. It's the moments that flood back. It's Webster's redemption in LA, coldly knocking down three free throws after nearly costing the Blazers the game. So, starting next week, Trail Post will count down the five moments that made this Blazer season what it was.
Today, though, we look at the top five honorable mentions for the season, in chronological order.
December 22, 2009: Joel Przybilla's Knee Explodes - After playing the entire season the year before, Przybilla was primed to continue his run as the best back-up big man in the league. That job got upgraded to starter with Oden's absence. Things were going fine until went up for a rebound against Erick Dampier and came down badly. Cries of "The season is over!" rang out across Oregon.
February 15, 2010: The Trade - Travis Outlaw was the last bastion of the old era, drafted by the (term used lightly) Nash-Patterson brain trust. He was maddening up until this season, where it seemed like he finally got it before going down to injury. Blake was one of the hardest workers on the team. Still, the golden opportunity for a starting center came along, and the Blazers took it, getting rid of two of their most tenured players.
March 7, 2010: The Dunk - Andre Miller doesn't even jump off the ground for a lay up. Who knew that he would be the source of the Blazers' best highlight this season? Back in his old stomping grounds of Denver, Miller received an outlet pass after a steal by Martell Webster and rose for the most athletic and surprising play of the season.
March 16, 2010: Tom Penn is Fired - The first cracks in the Kevin Pritchard era are exposed. This could be a harbinger for a KP dismissal. This is the beginning of the storyline that will dominate the off-season.
April 12, 2010: "Mar-Cus Cam-By" - During this season, the Thunder became the league's young darlings as they won 50 games. With this, the Blazers lost their former status. Still, at the end of the season, the two teams were in the same place as they faced each other in the second to last game with heavy playoff implications. Going into it, the story was Kevin Durant. After, it was Marcus Camby, as he tallied 30 points and 13 rebounds. As he left, he was chanted loudly off the floor by the fans in one of the most chilling moments in the Rose Garden's history.
There's something depressing in the fact that "Who Do We Root For" is becoming an annual tradition here at Trail Post. It's even more depressing that we have to choose from eight teams rather than four or two or one. The first round exit simply is not enough any more. Where last year it was depressing in a "the other shoe finally dropped" kind of way that we lost, this year it's simply painful sustained noise, like the sound a bus makes when backing up, except that it's forever.
With that, basketball still is not dead. Just because our guys are out shouldn't be the end of basketball for you. Also, the playoffs are much more exciting when you have a horse in the race. Well, it's time to pick a horse to ride all the way to the finals.
Eastern Conference
The Cleveland Cavaliers: You're so hurt by the Blazers loss that you want to choose a sure thing and you love speaking in the third person. The Cavaliers are your choice. Sure, you'll suffer the ignominy of being a front runner, but your team will win some games.
The Boston Celtics: You want to revert back to Jailblazer heyday. Rasheed Wallace comes off the bench for the Celtics and for the first time all season, finally has had something resembling production. Then again, Kevin Garnett's an a-hole, so maybe you just want to avoid this altogether.
The Orlando Magic: You may just get flashbacks watching the Magic as a freakish center is totally ignored by his guards. Still, they're a good choice if you like jump shooting, rebounds, and team names that belong in the WNBA.
The Atlanta Hawks: Screw 'em. They killed the Deer.
Western Conference
The Phoenix Suns: Yes, they eliminated us. We could jump on the bandwagon and hope the make it all the way so it reduces the sting. Last year with the Rockets, it worked until Yao went down, making that loss hurt less. Also, Channing Frye is still one of us, along with the fact that Steve Nash is disturbing.
The Utah Jazz: The Jazz are a great choice for the underdog in all of us. If only they had a chance in Hell.
The San Antonio Spurs: Don't you want to see these old men try for it one more time? Too bad the Suns' trainers are better than the Spurs' trainers. Also, this could be the last season of Tim Duncan relevancy (as I've said each year the last five years).
You've had a long, empty weekend to come to grips with what has befallen us. I'm sure there was a Saturday afternoon wasted looking into Charles Barkley's dead, dead eyes hoping he'd at least belittle the Blazers for being a jump-shooting team. Instead, nothing. The Blazers are gone, and they won't be back for six months. After devoting so many hours per week to the team, it can be a frightening proposition to move on and find another hobby for the off-season. Hopefully this guide will help you.
Proposition 1: The Seattle Mariners. This seems to be the most obvious one. The Seattle Mariners season runs until the end of September, and maybe into October, taking up the entirety of the Blazers offseason. The only catch? It's baseball. Baseball is a difficult sport to get into, and is almost something you need to be born into to enjoy (like being Amish, for example). The team is incredibly likable with the good-natured weirdness of Ichiro and the Rasheed Wallace-esque assholery of Milton Bradley. Also, by July, they will have the best top of the rotation in baseball. Still, the downside is they don't score any runs, so basically every single loss will be a heartbreaker and will drain your soul.
Proposition 2: The Portland Timbers. Obviously, you will miss the wild atmosphere of the Rose Garden during the summer. Sure, you can go into the venue at times during the summer, but they really don't appreciate it when you start a "Let's Go Blazers" chant during Disney on Ice. The closest you'll get to the Section 314 atmosphere in Portland during the summer is section 107 at PGE Park. Once again, this requires interest in a relatively slow-paced sport without much scoring. Still, the Timbers are one of the best teams in their league. Also, it's better to jump on the bandwagon now rather than be a Johnny-Come-Lately when the team jumps up to MLS next year.
Proposition 3: Watch All of Lost. Lost is the most important pop culture phenomenon on television in the last decade. Yes, that includes The Wire. (An Analogy: Lost : The Beatles :: The Wire : Velvet Underground) Now, the series is ending at the end of this month. That doesn't mean it's too late to join. In fact, now is the perfect time to join in. You will have the benefit of watching the series on your own time, while still getting to watch the series finale live with a bunch of friends to be part of a historical event. Today, it is May 3rd. Lost ends on May 23rd at 9 PM. That's nearly three weeks. Now, how do you condense almost six seasons of television into those three weeks? Strict scheduling. By the airdate of the season finale, a total of 119 Lost episodes will have been on air. What does that mean for you? A little simple math. Divide 119 by 20 to get a little under 6. That's how many episodes you will need to watch per day. Needless to say, that Blazers-sized hole in your day will be more than filled.
Proposition 4: Start an Internet Meme. Internet memes are a great source of humor and joy, something severely lacking since the Blazers' premature exit. This could give you great pleasure, and ease the suffering of fellow fans. Well, to start one, you first need a blog. Tumblr has the hipster cred, but Blogger's easier to use. Up to you. Next, you need to create a meme. For example, some funny recent ones are mashups of disparate ideas, such as Hipster Puppies or Michael Buble Being Stalked by a Velociraptor. Animals are always a fine choice. Here's an idea I came up with just writing this. It's called Nate McMillan Is the Life of the Party. I'm sure you can do better than that.
Nate McMillan is the Life of the Party
The Blazers being done isn't the end of the world. We can all have different hobbies. And if you don't want to have them, just ride the Trade Machine until the season starts again.
At the tail end of that 17-7 delirium, LaMarcus Aldridge stepped up to the line to shoot the potential tying and leading free throws. He took a quick breath, put it up, and saw it harmlessly bounce off the rim. A thousand fans behind the basket cringed simultaneously, stopping their jumps, clenching their fists, trying to look away. That was our last gasp. We couldn't take it.
Believe me, it was there for the taking. The Blazers played the kind of defense they needed to win the game, holding the Suns under 100 points. The Suns even coughed up the ball 17 times, giving us plenty of opportunities to pay for their carelessness. The Suns even only shot 52% from the free throw line (including a Louis Amundson airball that I truly want to take credit for the creation of). The home court advantage was there in spades. The opportunity was ripe.
Then, our two best players simply couldn't step up enough to win the game. Combined, LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy shot 9-33. That's the ballgame, right there. It doesn't matter that Martell Webster was looking to redeem his whole season and auditioning for sticking around on the team next year. Rudy's first appearance in what seems like months didn't make anything happen. Bayless' hot play wasn't enough. The Blazers needed something even remotely resembling production from their two best players, and the production wasn't there. Instead, we got traps on Roy at the top of the arc, and bricked jumpers from LaMarcus. The futility is summed up in Brandon's 1-8 mark from three.
Now, we can't analyze this game without noticing Nate's completely changed (for the worse) substitution pattern. The first man off the bench, to the delight of any fan who has actually watched a game in the last two months, was Dante Cunningham, and not Juwan Howard. Dante Cunningham stepped up accordingly, filling the stat sheet in a tragically low 9 minutes of play with 5 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 points. Despite this flirtation with smart substituting, Nate decided to get Juwan his minutes elsewhere, this time by taking them from Marcus Camby. There is absolutely no logic to this. The man, in 16 minutes of play, tallied a rebound, and no points. There may be some ballyhoo over the substitution at the end of the run for Roy over Bayless. The real problem was no Camby for Juwan. We forfeited our defense, and Phoenix walked right in for easy buckets.
Still, the fans continued on, even as the game became more and more unreachable, as the Suns hit one dagger after another. In the waning moments of the game, the fans let out one last cheer to let the Blazers know how much what they did meant to them. During the "Let's-Go-Blazers" chant, even Louis Amundson was joining in on the Suns bench.
The Blazers gave it their all, and this season, after so many injuries and so much turmoil, that all just wasn't enough.
I wish we could go back to the first quarter. Or better put, the first quarter of the first quarter. The Blazers were a good team then.
Too bad everything went wrong again, for the third time this series. I've never seen a team look as invincible and vulnerable as Phoenix has during this series.
It was yet another blowout and it was decided by yet another night of entirely listless play. You could count the Blazers who cared about the game on a Ninja Turtle's hand. LaMarcus couldn't be bothered to show up for more than two games in a row, tallying only 2 rebounds in 40 minutes of play. Juwan Howard retreated back into his senior moments after having a moment of clarity in Game 4. Rudy Fernandez was invisible again, despite inexplicably getting more playing time than Dante Cunningham and Martell Webster, and nearly equaling Nicolas Batum in playing time.
Just about everything was wrong. Yet, still, in the middle of the third quarter, the Blazers were only down 7 and were on a run. Then The Worst Call of All Time™ happened.
Yes, that was Marcus Camby called for his fourth foul, removing him from the game, for apparently choking Steve Nash, who was twenty feet away from him.We always knew Marcus had long arms.
After that it was pretty much a fugue state of Jared Dudley whooping and hollering like he just heard that there would be Double Downs in the locker room after the game.
Still, after this game, can we be depressed? Yeah, for a day. It sucks when everything goes wrong, and now we'll have to win two games in a row with our backs against the wall. Still, if there's a team that thrives on an identity centered around defying the odds, it's these Blazers.
There is absolutely nothing about these teams that is new. After Brandon Roy's return, nothing can be surprising in this series. We aren't going to see any adjustments from either team, as everyone knows what works and what doesn't. The Suns know to come hard and fast in the first quarter and discourage us as much as possible. Blazers know to hit the Suns again and again, discouraging that free-wheeling play. Unless of course the starting lineup tonight consists of Robin Lopez, Thunder Dan, and Greg Oden. But I doubt it.
Game 5 and after is where you just get to turn your brain off and enjoy. These two teams are fighting for their lives and know each other in and out. We all know what works and what doesn't, it's just a matter of execution.
The best part about tonight's game, though? It's on TNT, where the Blazers are 2-0 this series. TNT: Give Us Drama.
What was that sound mid-way through the first quarter? No, it wasn't the whole of Arizona crapping their pants. No, it wasn't the Rose Garden exploding. It was Ch-ch-ch-ka-ka-ka. In Friday the 13th, everyone thought thought Jason would be finished after getting an axe to his head (or a torn meniscus), but yet again, some teenagers needed some killing, so you know what happens. Brandon Roy operates under the same principle (well, substitute "killing teenagers" to "giving grown men chills"). The Blazers were down 7 and Phoenix looked to be doing the same thing that they did in Games 3 and 4, simply running away with the game. Then Brandon stood up. Just having him exist in uniform near a court changed everything.
The game swung immediately back towards the Blazers, in just about every way. The pace got slowed down. Suns fast break baskets evaporated. Rebound became plentiful. Now, all of this can't be pinned on Roy's play (he scored ten points in 20 minutes), but it can be pinned on what his play represented. It fundamentally changed everything. The Blazers have hope again, and they're overflowing with it.
LaMarcus Aldridge, that happy second banana, showed up for the first time this series on Saturday. With Brandon Roy back, he was able to finally take a breath and make some good decisions. I only counted once that he held onto the ball as a double team came. Beyond that, he carried the team through the first and fourth quarters, just drilling jumpers all over the field. This was the best playoff game of Aldridge's short career.
Andre Miller wasn't the factor he was before during the Game 1 win, but you'll be hard-pressed to find a moment where he really screwed up. Shooting 4-13 isn't so hot, but when all those shots come in the flow of the offense, you can't really complain.
Nicolas Batum is showing as much heart and grit as anybody (and with Brandon on the floor, that's saying something). He's had to leave two games this series with soreness in his shoulder, yet he still goes. Is there any reason why the Blazers shouldn't just lock him up for the rest of his career right now? He's the ultimate hustle player, he has ice in his veins, he plays amazing defense, and his arms can span the Fremont Bridge. He also put up 10 points and 7 rebounds. Also, he shoved Amare, which was completely justified. Here's the deal with injuries in basketball. In a game, you should absolutely attack a player with an injury on defense. Make him move, go toward his bad side. That's fair game and part of the danger of putting an injured player on the floor. However, when you start hitting the guy in the injury during stoppages, you're just being a prick. In boxing, you can't even hit someone during a play stoppage. Amare is a prick. He's Kevin Garnett with better knees and less skill.
Mar-Cus Cam-By did the job he needed to do. Sure, it didn't stand out like that OKC game (who knows if he'll have another one of those), but he hit some big jumpers, and simply cleaned the glass and tipped out like we know he can. Basically, an aggressive LaMarcus severely limits Camby's rebounding opportunities in the best kind of way.
Jerryd Bayless showed the mean streak that the Blazers need, committing a hard foul on Richardson (It was called a flagrant, but, along with Channing's hard foul, wasn't. Good calls by the refs though to maintain control of the game, though. We would have seen a brawl if they hadn't made those calls.) He also made Nash work, bodying him close at the top of the key. Just a solid performance.
Finally, Juwan Howard woke up for the first time in months and played like an NBA player. He contributed and made some big hustle plays to keep us in the game. With Cunningham out of the game, that made it even more important. I severely hope that Juwan can keep that up the rest of the series.
No one else on the team really stood out, as Marty went scoreless with an amazing block and Rudy hit only one three pointer.
We're not back in the driver's seat for this series, but we definitely have called shotgun.
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