21 days

(photo from @pdxtrailblazers twitter feed)

So football season is here, that's nice.  I enjoy the once a week games, prepping for fantasy football competition with friends, and the highlight plays that Megatron and other big names provide.  But one day after the Thursday night game between the Cardinals and the Rams on October 5th, the Celtics will be tipping off the first preseason game against Fenerbahce Ulker Turkish club team in Instanbul.  A full season lies ahead of us following the abbreviated disaster of a season last year.  I will likely be even more NBA obsessed this year as the NHL looks to repeat history with another lockout, freeing up my time.

The picture above is from the Blazers twitter feed and has some of the only returning players from last year.  Even that picture is now outdated as Elliot Williams is out for the season with knee surgery, and his spot may be filled with the ever under-whelming Adam Morrison.  But AmMo would be one of many newly signed vets and rookies that promise to make the Blazers season interesting, as well as likely unsuccessful.  Either way I'll be watching and cheering in 21 days.

Lillard - Grain of Salt

(from blazersedge.com)

Lillard is putting up awesome numbers, against sub par competition.  The Blazers are looking for their point guard of the future aka pgotf.  This seems eerily similar to when Jerryd Bayless tore up the summer league.  Everyone was reeeally excited, myself included.  And I am currently excited that we have a player that is proving he can do well against not quite nba level talent.  He is already getting comparisons to Derrick Rose without having played a single nba game!

I hope that Speed Demian Lilliard is the next great league guard, but I am going to wait until the regular season.

Draft/Trade Thoughts

(picture from bostonherald.com)

Just had a crazy thought and wanted to write it down..  Luckily nobody reads this blog.

I think there is an unwritten rule that you never trade away proven all-star talent for draft picks.  However, what if the Blazers could get a total of three lottery level draft picks this year?  Our only three proven talented players by my count are Lamarcus, Batum, and Matthews.  What if we traded away 1 or 2 of these guys for additional picks?  The problem is that this also has to be worth it for the other team.

Scenario 1 - Lamarcus and Matthews for Anthony Davis/salary.  Trade a proven big and a starter for the #1 draft pick.  Who wins this trade at first glance?  I have no idea.  We lose a proven big about to enter the prime of his career as well as a a starter to the Hornets to pair with Eric Gordon.  I don't know if draft slots #6 and #11 are enough to put us over the top, so I'm OK with that.  We get someone in Davis who has the potential to be an amazing all-star for years to come, and he grows along with the #6 and #11 pick of a deep draft! 

Scenario 2 - Trade Matthews or Batum for somewhere between a #5 - #15 pick.  Batum would obviously bring a higher pick than Matthews.  Here we end up with 3 young talented players to pair with Lamarcus.  Who knows who will eventually pan out, conservatively 2 of 3 become starters.  None of our last couple drafts have turned out to be very good, so this scenario hedges on high picks and lots of them to turn our fortunes.

Both of these scenarios are in the OKC model of letting a young talented core grow together.  Based on last night's Western Conference championship game, I'm a fan of this scenario.  This is all likely moot based on Olshey's desire to "re-tool" vs. "re-build."  

Lastly, I would like to mention that I would mourn the loss of Aldridge and/or Batum, but don't tell me either of the above scenarios would not be exciting to watch unfold.

ND 2012 Draft

(pic stolen from some other random blog)

Two picks in the lower first round, I love it.  We need a point guard and we need a center.  There are a couple of good centers in this draft, and some not-so-amazing point guards.  My take is that we draft the best point guard available to us at 6 and the best remaining center at 11.  We then let Mr. new PG duke it out with Nolan Smith for the first half of the season.  I don't think Smith is the answer at the point, but we haven't really given him a shot either.  We already have one of the best PF/C in the league with Aldridge.  Just get him some support!

My Blazers mock draft:

Pick #6 is a)Damian Lillard first or if he is gone b)Kendall Marshall

Pick #11 is any of the following with this best health history: Andre Drummond/Tyler Zeller/Meyers Leonard

You pull the trigger on these draft picks unless you can get an elite PG or Center without giving up Aldridge or Batum.  OK maybe even Batum depending on the trade details.

Hope vs. Expectations

(photo from Oregonlive.com)

I'm getting excited about the blazers losing...wait, what?

The point of this post is that I am torn between high expectations and hope for the future.  When I had expectations of the Roy/Aldridge/Oden trio, I stressed whenever they did not live up to the humungous potential I had built for them in my head.  But now, having a base core of good (not great) players, I am hopeful that we will be able to do something good with what will likely be 2 low draft picks.  That is way less stressful, it's actually exciting.  I want to get back to the high expectations point in my relationship with the Blazers again, but for now I'm going to enjoy the Hope this draft brings.

Feeling Out the Competition

3 hilarious pictures from the Blazers 3/22/12 game against the Memphis Grizzlies.  I got these from the oregonlive.com Blazers photos.

1st off, Crawford does a cup-check on Gasol.  I'm going to guess he is not wearing a cup.

(photo from oregonlive.com)

2nd, Batum is jealous of all the PDA and gets in on the action.

(photo from oregonlive.com)

HILARIOUS.

Lastly, Felton was so tired from all the funny business, he decided to take a nap on the bench.

(photo from oregonlive.com)

Building a Team

(picture from Yahoo! sports)

Holy moly mother of guacamole, this has been a weird season for the Blazers.  2 of the three pillars are still out in Oden and Roy.  Now Roy is retiring!  Now Oden needs 2 knees surgeries!  Now there is only 1, LA.

So our supposedly "soft" LA became an all star.  He deserved it last year and definitely earned it this year.  He is an amazing player, I wouldn't trade him for basically anyone in the league.  But it seems kinda weird having him as the team leader, right?  I mean he was backseat to Roy for so long.  Either way, he started the season charging the Blazers to a 7-2 record, so I was happy.  From that point on the team stagnated.  A large enough sample size developed with Felton to realize he was a downgrade to Andre Miller.  Wallace and Crawford were completely inconsistent.  Batum didn't have enough playing time to develop into that player that we all believe and want him to be.

The Blazers were crashing out of the playoff picture.  Leading up to the trade deadline there were numerous reports of locker room mutiny against Nate McMillan.  There were some significant losses against all sorts of teams ranging from the lowly Wizards (the Wizards!?!?!?!) to the likely playoff bound Celtics and Knicks.  It was easy to point fingers at the new guys, Felton and Crawford.   The Blazers front office got into action and traded away 2 starters for draft picks and cap space.  I will miss Camby and Wallace, but they were there to help our foundation, and with our foundation broken they became dispensable.

I loved these moves.  The Blazers did this when they last gave their fans hope at the end of the Jail Blazer era.  They picked up 2 amazing stars in Roy and Aldridge as well as got lucky with Oden as the first pick the next year.  I was so excited, we were the talk of the NBA, the Blazers were the up and coming title contenders for years to come.  We added veteran studs to the roster like the defensive master Camby and the king of hustle Gerald Wallace.  Once our stars were healthy we would take on anyone, anywhere.  Injuries stripped us of that dream, and instead of rebuilding by putting up new spackle on a mostly rotten foundation, we tore down and will put up a new, stronger base.

I would much rather suffer a little now and end up like the teams that build well through the draft (Thunder) or through cap space and trades (Celtics), or the draft and trades (Clippers).  The Thunder, Celtics, and Clippers are all teams who were patiently awful for awhile, and are now very successful.  We could have stuck with Lamarcus as our core and not given him enough to ever build a championship with (see the Suns and Steve Nash), but we have higher aspirations.

I am excited to see what our draft picks will become, hopefully they both land in the top 10 (very likely according to this article).  We can trade for quality veterans around Lamarcus' age, or develop through the draft.  Either way I'm excited.