Game 6...

I had the pleasure to attend the Blazer vs Rockets game 6. I'm not sure what to say and it's been two full days now. I could write all about the game, the crowd, the lead up...but no...it's all about one play, one second...well almost a second. In that 0.9 My emotions went from a high level distraught to a inability to breath (I'm assuming I shared that with 20,000 other people) to jubilation. 

At this point I with I had taken some film or more pics of that play, but all I have is some pics after wards. See below. This might be the next great Portland memory. On April 23, 2012 I wrote a 1 year annivsary post about Brandon Roy's 23 point comeback against Dallas in the playoffs. It seems like along time ago but it's great to have that feeling again.

Read the rest of this post...

2013 Crazy Blazer bets

It's the better late than ever Crazy Blazer Bets. As a recap we make predictions related to the Blazers that are so far fetched that if anyone of them were to actually happen you'd be willing to pay $5 to the person who made that prediction. As always please feel free to add your predictions to the bottom, of course you're not eligible for the cash.

Derek – Robin Lopez will score 50 points in a game.

Loren - Robin Lopez will be the NBA defensive player of the year.

Philipp - Damian Lillard will score 200 points in a 5 consecutive game period.

Ryan - Will Barton wins 6th man of the year..

Carlos – Robin Lopez gets more All Star votes than Brooke Lopez.

Read the rest of this post...

Crazy BLazer Bets

It’s time for a new NBA regular season and with it our yearly Crazy Blazer bets. As a recap we make predictions related to the Blazers that are so far fetched that if anyone of them were to actually happen you'd be willing to pay $5 to the person who made that prediction. As always please feel free to add your predictions to the bottom, of course you're not eligible for the cash.

Derek – Myers Leonard will have one game of at least 25 points 20 rebounds and 7 blocks.

Loren - Three Blazers from the 2012/13 roster make the 2013 Western Conference NBA All-Star team.

Philipp - Damian Lillard will win Rookie of the Year averaging at least 20pts and 10assts per game.

Ryan - Blazers score less than 74 points in a game…and win.

Cliff - Brandon Roy will record a triple-double in all four Blazers-Wolves games.

Carlos – Nic Batum wins the Slam Dunk Championship.

Mike - Blazers will have at least one game where they start 4 white guys.

Chris - Coach Stotts will be head coach of the Western Conference All-Star team this season.

Read the rest of this post...

Wait...The Blazers did what?

I've been planning on writing Blazers trade blog for the last couple of days, but I figured I'd go something like this.

Blazers fail, again, to use their "assets" to pull off a meaningful trade.

Honestly after the Wallace trade seemed to fall through yesterday I was PO'd. But I've got a big Blazer smile on my face today. Now will this trade bump the Blazers into title contender status? No, but it is a step in the right direction. The Blazers were able to acquire the best player off a team for their own spare parts. Let's break it down.

Blazers get:
Gerald Wallace. A starting small forward and an upgrade at the position. Yes I know most Blazer fans think Batum is the next Jesus Shuttlesworth but will never be much more than a third option on a team and he's not there yet. Wallace has proved he can score rebound and defend in this league. He was even on the All NBA defensive team last year along with averaging a double double.

Wallace's style of play should have a great positive affect on the stale Portland offense. The team is constructed of jump shooters and Wallace is a take it to the rack kinda player. Couple this with the now constant double teams LaMarcus is facing and he should have plenty of assists to the new guy.

Blazers lose:
Joel Przybilla. At this stage of Joel's career he's a back up and looking at him play recently he's a hurt back up. Sure the guy brought toughness and a take no crap attitude. But when all is said and done he was on the last year of a contract that was paying him $7.4 million a year and that's a trade chip that cannot go unused.

Dante Cunningham. A cheap role player. Sure good teams have players like Cunningham on their roster, but you can find these guys everywhere. Dante was also on his last year of a second round draft contract which means he was due for a raise if the Blazers wanted to keep him after this year they'd need to go deeper into the luxury tax and this is not the type of player teams do that for. Sure he brought a toughness and go get'em attitude but Portland got that back in Wallace.

Sean Marks. I was surprised a found a player profile on Marks on NBA.com. Some say he might be the worst player in the league but he's got a big body and that can be enough to keep a job in the NBA. Reports indicate the Bobcats will waive him.

New Orleans #1 pick in 2011. This is the pick Portland acquired in the Bayless trade at the beginning of the year. So Cho was right when he said he was accumulating assets. This pick should be in the early 20's this year much like the Blazers own pick.

Portland's 2013 first round pick. This is a couple of years off so the Blazer obviously feel they won't be a lottery team then and I'm inclined to agree. If the Blazers think they need a mid to late fist rounder in 2013 they have time to complete a trade or just flat our buy one, which they've done twice in the past 3 years.

Read the rest of this post...

Blazers could get the #3 seed

Philipp a friend of the show has his own thoughts on how the West will finish out this season. I'm sure Blazers fan will be happy.

Derek

According to my calculations, the best the blazers can do is the 3rd seed according to the tie breakers. I think I understand the tie breakers but here is my scenario in which the blazers face the Mavs with home court advantage. The following games have to be won in that order with in order to have this scenario take place.

#1 seed – Lakers (56-26)
#2 seed – Jazz (52-30) – Wins tie breaker vs Suns due to head to head, Wins tie breaker vs Blazers due to head to head.
#3 seed – Blazers (52-30) – Wins tie break vs Suns due to head to head, Co-Division camps again :)
#4 seed – Spurs (51-31) – Guaranteed top 4 seed due to Division winner, Wins tie breaker vs Mavs due to head to head
#5 seed – Suns (52-30) – Has better record than Spurs so has homecourt advantage
#6 seed – Mavs (51-31) – Wins tie break vs Nuggets due to head to head
#7 seed – Nuggets (51-31)
#8 seed – Thunder (50-32)

Yup it’s going to happen.

Read the rest of this post...

Blazers remaining games

With ten games to go in the NBA season the Portland Trail Blazers stand at 43-29 and in a virtual tie with the San Antonio Spurs. As mentioned on the show a couple weeks ago the number the Blazers should be looking for is 49, as in 49 wins to end the regular season. Looking at the competition and remaining schedule, 49 wins should put the Blazers in the 6th or 7th spot, and hopefully a match up with the Dallas Mavericks, a hope that was cemented last night.

Blazers remaining schedule:
At New Orleans
At Oklahoma City
Vs New York
At Denver
At Sacramento
At LA Clippers
Vs Dallas
At LA Lakers
Vs Oklahoma City
Vs Golden State

The Blazers need to go 6-4 to reach the 49 win mark. Going 6-4 in 10 games should be achievable for a team 14 games over .500. However there aren’t 6 gimmie games remaining. They SHOULD win the games against, New Orleans, New York, Sacramento, Clippers and Golden State. That’s 5. Could they pull a 6th out of the remaining 5 games? Sure. But let’s forget about the 49 wins for a second, if this team wants to be considered a serious threat once the playoffs start then they need to go on a tear entering the playoffs, think last year.

1. No losing the above five games that the Blazers SHOULD win.
2. Must take 2 out of the 3 remaining games against division opponents. Two against OKC and one against Denver.
3. No giving up games late.

If the Blazers can follow these three objectives, coupled with last years experience and the addition of veteran toughness, we could see a nice playoff run this year.

Derek

Read the rest of this post...

What a combo

The Blazers pulled out a very good win tonight. Of course another horrible injury happened. Joel Pryzbilla suffered a ruptured patella tendon and dislocated patella and will be out for the year.

However there is good news according to ESPN, Travis Outlaw and Brandon Roy have combined forces in some sort of transformer move and become one player. See article below.

Read the rest of this post...

Blazers Opener - Recap

Almost everyone has experienced that morning after where you look at the person still snoring next to you and wonder what comes next. Was last night just the booze, the party, and a carefree feckless attitude? Will the two of you be able to hold a conversation? Have you made a horrible, horrible mistake?

Be honest, the answers to these questions are usually yes, no, and would I be a complete tool if I just quietly got dressed and snuck out?

But not everyone gets a morning after that starts with you both waking up at the same time, dying for a greasy breakfast at the same run down diner, and completely unable to stop talking to each other. You're hooked, you're intrigued, you're understandably nervous, but you see real potential.

These are your Portland Trailblazers.

They definitely have some flaws. Only time will tell if they become cute and endearing or if they become an overwhelming focal point of negativity. For instance, we have one point guard with a ton of heart, intensity, and a decent outside shot. Most importantly, though, he's figured out how to fit in with this team and contribute without being disruptive. We have another PG with amazing talent, size, and experience. Unfortunately, he doesn't have history with these players and his touches seem to come at the expense of our established scorers and leaders.

Will we figure out how to work around the flaws and come to terms with them, or will they grow and fester until they strangle the relationship?

Okay, enough with the metaphor. You get it.

Players that stood out:

Travis Outlaw - As much as it pains me to say it, Travis was very effective last night. He still only makes the correct drive-or-pull-up decision about half the time, but his athletic gifts tend to make up for his mental errors. I did like seeing him active in traffic on a few defensive possessions instead of getting lost, but his focus wavered as the game wore on. Even after last night I believe we should sell high for him.

Martell Webster - Played like he has something to prove, which is good because he does have something to prove. We need to see the 6th overall pick from 2005 on the floor. We need to see the shooting touch. We need to see an evolved understanding of offensive sets and a willingness to mix it up. But most importantly we need to see Martell have fun. Last night he showed all of those things plus a defensive intensity that could take him to a different level.

Greg Oden - What impressed me most about Greg is what he didn't do last night. He (mostly) didn't pick up cheap fouls due to being out of position or bringing his arms down. But he still went after players early and often. This had a noticeable effect later in the game as the Rockets started shooting fall-aways, away from the defensive pressure and away from the rim. He put the other team off balance just like a big man should.

Brandon Roy - It's definitely early to make this a blanket statement, but he was certainly getting All-Star calls last night. It was such a departure from previous seasons as to be staggeringly obvious. Hey, I'm not complaining. It's about time he started getting the benefit of the doubt.

Question marks:

The PG dilemma needs to be solved soon, whether it be from the players accepting their roles and buying in to the system or one of them taking command and making it a moot point. But you can quote me, if this doesn't get sorted quick it will cost the Blazers wins. They can't afford that in a stacked Western Conference.

Rudy Fernandez - didn't look happy, didn't look in rhythm. He played with a lot of hustle and I commend him for that. I just can't shake the feeling that his need to start, his desire to be a superstar and focal point of a team, will wear on him and the rest of the team. He's a triple caramel non-fat macchiatto and the rest of the Blazers are a cup of coffee. Get my drift?

Thank god it was the Rockets last night and not a good team. Not to demean the Rockets, but the Blazers overall performance last night would not have resulted in a victory against any other Western Conference teams but the Clippers, Kings, and Grizzlies. Though sometimes efficient, even inspired, the Blazers were more often careless with the ball and hesitant. Teams with killer instincts would have seen that and found ways to capitalize. With Denver, Atlanta, and San Antonio in our next 6 games, there's no time to waste. Cohesion should be the word of the day.

Read the rest of this post...

Crazy bet time for the 09-10 season

For the third season in a row the PMS crew/fans will be makeing crazy prediction for the upcoming Blazer season. Here's how it works. We each make a crazy prediction, then we discuss if it is crazy enough and then if your prediction comes true you get a cool $5 from everyone else. So without further ado...

Derek: Oden scores 50 points in a game
Loren: Webster wins three point contest
Chris: Juwan Howard wins sixth man of the year
Philipp: Oden records a triple double
Ryan: Blazers win 63 games in the regular season

Go ahead and leave your crazy bets in the comments section (please note we ain't paying you nothing). GO BLAZERS!!!

Read the rest of this post...

Blazer update #3

Rudy Fernandez
I’ll make this short. Rudy surpasses all my expectations this year. I thought that he would be a solid #2 off the bench, able to make a fantastic play here and there and heck even win a game by himself. What I did not expect was the rate of three pointers he would make. Setting an NBA Rookie record for made threes, purely great, especially for a player who is not a smooth shooter like Ray Allen.

Nicolas Batum
Obviously the biggest surprise of the year, did anyone see him in the summer league? If you didn’t let’s just say his shot would always end up with the sound of “clank.” He looked dreadful, but there he was a few games into the season as a starter? Why? Sure the injury to Webster but he also complimented the other starters too well, not to play him, and for an 19 year old rookie for overseas he played beyond his years. And don’t forget the dunks on Pau.

Jerryd Bayless
Talk about a ticking time bomb waiting to go off, and I mean that in a good way. This is one of the few players in the league that can explode to and even through the hoop. He busted onto the scene in during the summer league and left all of Portland drooling. But the summer league competition is a far cry from the NBA and Bayless never seemed to find consistency or playing time.

Nate McMillan
How do we judge a coach? Overall I’d say buy wins. During his tenure he has gone from, 32 wins, 41 wins, to 54 wins. Looking at those numbers you’d have to say he has done a terrific job. Of course some of that has to do with the new players that have been brought in and the growth of those players. Then again is it not’s the coach’s job to develop those players? Lets say he has one big player to develop and this team will be competing for championships.

Read the rest of this post...

Blazers in review part 2

Travis Outlaw
By far the most polarizing player on the blazers roster. Most people either love him on this team or hate him. I fall somewhere in the middle, occasionally thinking to myself this guy has to be on our team he has won some many games for us, and then quickly changing my mind and thinking this guy jacks up too many bad shots.

Whatever you think of him you have to say he has progressed every year. That is except for this year. His number remained about the same as last year. Which leads me to the conclusion that this might be it for Travis. The Blazers brass and fans alike have said year after year that this next season will be the year we get to see what Travis can do, but once a six year veteran has similar years are you not at that point? I now firmly believe that Outlaw will always be best suited as a 6th man, who scores roughly 13 pints a game, gets a few boards and hardly passes the ball, a great scorer off the bench but not a third option on a championship team.

Joel Przybilla
First off I want everybody to know I spelled his last name correct first try. Joel from all accounts had a great year, not only did he play in all 82 games for the first time in his career, but he played every game as if he was the starter. Coming into the year he was primed to be the best back up center in the game. But the true professional that he is prepared himself to be a factor anytime he was on the court. He had increases in almost every category you could as for but the most telling in this case was his plus-minus, which went up 4.92. Not only that he became the Blazers back up leader, and was the only full time hard nosed defender on the team.

Steve Blake
Blake must have been listening to everyone this past summer. We said we needed a PG who could hit the open three, Blake increased 3-point % this year by 2.1% coming in at 42.7% which ranked 13th in the league and attempting one more three per game this year. We said we needed a PG who could score bit more to take the pressure off of Roy, Blake increased his scoring by 2.5 points per game for a total of 11ppg. We said we needed a PG who could defend, well ok he's not perfect.

Blake improved greatly from last year to this year. Really solidifying himself as the Blazers #3 leader, behind Roy and Przybilla. That being said is he the PG who will lead us to a championship? I'm not sure many people say you have to have a great PG to win, I'm not sure about that either, who was the last great PG to win a championship? Look at the last 5.

2008 Rajon Rondo
2007 Tony Parker
2006 Jason Williams
2005 Tony Parker
2004 Chauncey Billups

Obviously Rondo is not there yet as a great PG, he may be one day but it's too early to tell now. Parker is borderline great, Jason Williams we can just throw off this list, and Billups has proved he belongs. So what can we take away from this? Do you need a top tier PG? Not necessarily, but having a great PG does not guarantee a trophy.

Read the rest of this post...

And your new Portland Trailblazer is Michael Ruffin?

I’m sure this I not what most Blazer fans expected or even wanted. While the Diogu for Ruffin trade looks minor, it does provide the Blazers with a $3 million trade exception. This can be used to take back other teams players or draft picks without sending anything back. The last time Portland had a trade exception they received James Jones and a draft pick from Phoenix. The pick resulted in Rudy Fernandez, so yes these can be very useful. Yesterday on 1080 the Fan, Kevin Prichard was asked if he was going to get a first round pick with the exception, he laughed and then said, and I’m paraphrasing here, if there is a pick we want we will get it. The only reason this deal was done was for the exception Ruffin won’t play this year, if anything he will be waived. This also lowers the Blazers payroll by about 2 million which would save a dollar for dollar penalty in luxury tax. It also helps them out this summer, because Ike is a restricted free agent and the Blazers would have a hold placed on their cap until they signed him or released the option, which would have dug into their free agent money.

Now on to the bigger news of the trade deadline, this was the lack of a significant trade by the Blazers. I feel that the team had a real opportunity to become much better for now and in the future. I think they could have made a move that would cement them in the top 4 of the West and give them a hell of a shot at winning their division. Now would they have had to give up some young players, most likely yes. But here is the problem with young talent, you don’t know for sure what you have. We could have traded possibility for actuality.

Now yes they do get ride of Raef’s contract this summer and that should give them about $6 million to play with including Ike’s money. Now since they are below the cap they can trade for a player that would put them over by that much. So you could get a $10 million player by trading a $4 million player. KP’s thoughts on this basically boil down to the economy. He believes that most teams this summer will not be able to sign/afford players as they have in the past, so the Blazers can get players for cheaper than normal. This is all well and good but in that case you are limited to the free agents out there.

So in short I’m disappointed that the Blazers did not add a big time scorer, this team needs one more. However I still think KP will get something good down the road, but I’m not convinced it will be better than what we could have had.

Read the rest of this post...

Blazers front office makes mistake

In an email I’m sure you’ve read or read about the Portland Trail Blazers have issued a warning to the other 29 NBA teams. Letting them know that if they sign Darius Miles with the purpose of affecting the Blazer salary cap and tax situation then they will contemplate legal action. Below is a copy of the email from Team President Larry Miller.

'Team Presidents and General Managers,

'The Portland Trail Blazers are aware that certain teams may be contemplating signing Darius Miles to a contract for the purpose of adversely impacting the Portland Trail Blazers Salary Cap and tax positions. Such conduct from a team would violate its fiduciary duty as an NBA joint venturer. In addition, persons or entities involved in such conduct may be individually liable to the Portland Trail Blazers for tortuously interfering with the Portland Trail Blazers' contract rights and perspective economic opportunities.

'Please be aware that if a team engages in such conduct, the Portland Trail Blazers will take all necessary steps to safeguard its rights, including, without limitation, litigation.'

And to follow up on that here is a short summary of the situation.

The Blazer released Miles after he was declared unable to perform because of a medical injury. Once this happened the Blazers still have to pay Miles but the remaining $18 million ($9 million for this season and another $9 million for next) does not count against the cap, unless Miles plays 10 games in either this season or next. So far Miles has played in 6 preseason games with Boston and 2 regular season games with Memphis, who recently waived him.

For me this all boils down too the Blazers over reacting. If the Blazers felt that teams are thinking of signing Miles just to put his contract back on their books they should talk to the league about this and not threaten the other teams. This is a league were you have to work with other teams in order to get better. In addition David Stern is not a guy you want to piss off. I think this should have been brought to his attention first and handled from a league stand point.
It feels almost like a bullying statement. It makes me feel like the old regime is back and trying to lay down the law.

And I’m sure that Darius Miles “People” will have issue with this. Obviously it would be easy to argue that the Blazers are trying to hinder Miles career.

Look Portland signed him to this contract. When it became more than clear they did not want to have Darius on the team they had a few choices, cut him, trade him, or try to get him to retire. They decided that his knee was bad enough that an independent doctor might rule that he was unable to play on the knee anymore and could file for a medical retirement. They knew the risks when they decided to go down this road. It was the best choice they had and they went with it. Good for them. But now is not the time to whine about it. The Blazers have made many strides over the past few years. Let’s not revert back, hey you win some and you lose some and the Blazers front office has had quite a winning streak as of late. Perhaps it was time for a loss.

Read the rest of this post...

Blazers news

Brandon Roy to have Surgery!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok everyone lets just calm down. Roy is going in for arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus. This will be the second time Roy has gone through this procedure. The first time was in college and was on his right knee, this will be on his left knee. Typical recovery time is four to six weeks.

Roy should be back right around the time the Blazers start training camp. Meaning the only time he would miss is the volunteer workouts. So all in all everything should be fine Portland fans. My greatest concern here is that this guy just does not seem to be able to stay healthy missing 24 games his rookie year and 6 last year. If Portland is going to start contending for championships it starts with Roy.

McMillan says no to OKC

Nate McMillan recently told the Seattle Times that he does not want his retired jersey to be hung up in Oklahoma City. “I never played in Oklahoma City. I spent my who career in Seattle, you know.”

Good for you Nate.

Read the rest of this post...

Championship games, looking head for the Blazers, and missing podcasts.

Well your 2007-08 NBA Champions are the Boston Celtics. Boy one year ago that line would have been a laugher. First let’s get down to my prediction. I had Lakers in six. Well at least I got the number of games right. This series was completely dominated by the Celtics. Looking back the C’s could have won this thing in four, but they had one game where Paul Pierce played terrible and another where they could not overcome a slow start. Then again the way things turned out you could say the Boston lost two in LA on purpose so they could win on their home court, watching last nights game, it makes you wonder.

This was one of the series that for me personally I really did not want either team to win. Obviously I’m not a Laker fan and can’t out right rout for them to win. Then there is Boston who in my opinion got very lucky in a number of things. Landing Kevin Garnett because of a buddy buddy deal between Danny Ainge and Kevin McHale. Over coming an inept coach over the course of the season. And somehow squeezing out a series win over Cleveland. But hey luck is part of the game, and the Blazers got lucky in the draft last year so the heck with it. Go luck!

Speaking of the Blazers I was listening to 95.5 The Game and they posed an interesting question this morning. “How soon will it take the Blazers to get to the level of the Lakers?” First off I love how the question is asked. It already presupposes that the Blazers will get to their level, and by level we have to assume that means a Championship caliber team. I’m going to say two years.

Here’s my take. Next year will be all about introducing Oden to how the NBA is played. Especially fouls, this is going to be the big guys main problem area. He’s a smart, quick, athletic player and will adjust within that first year, plus he has the bonus that most rookies don’t have when they first start in the league, he’s already a known commodity to the refs. Just like Shaq was when he first came in the league, he will actually get some calls. Now couple this with the core of last years team, add a year of experience, plus let’s throw in a player who has won everything there is to win in the world of basketball that does not say NBA on it, and you have the makings of a strong young team. We also have to factor in that LA will get a bit older, Derek Fisher will be retiring in the next 2 years or so, and nobody has any idea of Bynum’s return will be good or bad.

On the Podcast front we were unable to get one recorded last week despite our best efforts. The machine did not corporate and did not record our podcast. We had a good one too, I swear. We talked about the NBA referee non-scandal, Ken Griffey JR., the US Open, and the French Open. No worries though. We will post some of our thoughts on those topics shortly.

Read the rest of this post...