Archive for July, 2009

Well represented, both in dunking on and getting dunked on. But that comes with the territory when you’ve got two centers who perfer to be perpetually in the mix in the paint. Here’s the Top 25, and you can find the other 75 here. Any guesses as to which dunk made the Top 10? I’ll give you one hint: I’m fairly certain Brandon Roy prematurally ended his career. In case you don’t want to watch every single minute of goodness (why not?), the other two Blazers in the list are Travis Outlaw and Nic Batum. There’s a ton of good [...]

Unexpected news coming out of the ESPN story that Lamar Odom is returning to the Lakers: On Tuesday, the Portland Trail Blazers also got into the mix, offering a five-year, $40 million deal, according to a source close to Odom. At least, that’s what the story originally read (thanks O-Live). As I refreshed the link to put in this post, all of the sudden the middle part of that sentence — about the five years $40 mil — is missing. Source close to Odom should already make you super dubious, but the fact that the details of the offer were [...]

For weeks I’ve been saying that if Andre Miller was Portland’s big move of the summer, I wouldn’t be able to help being disappointed. I’ve known that for some time now and, with Miller being “the” acquisition this July 24th, I was prepared for this moment. So once all the national websites confirmed that Miller was going to sign a 3-year, $22-million contract with a (golden) team option on the third year, I had to take a step back before writing. So I made myself a sandwich, turned my air-conditioner to “Death to Humidity” mode and plopped down on my [...]

ESPN reports it and Jason Quick has confirmed that the Portland Trail Blazers and Andre Miller are very close to a deal to bring the guard to the Rose City. ESPN has reported that the deal is for 3 years, $21 million. $14 million of that is guaranteed with a team option for the third year. We’ll have more as the days go on. Kevin Pelton could not have said it any better on his twitter page when he stated the following: “Andre Miller is a very good player. Unfortunately, he happens to be all wrong for the Blazers.” I’ve [...]

Yesterday, the dormant Andre Miller-to-Portland talks re-emerged. Today, Marc Spears of Yahoo Sports reports that Andre Miller has met with officials from both the Blazers and the Knicks. According to the report, Miller met with Nate McMillan on Saturday but there is no deal on the way. Groan. I’d much rather hear about the Blazers taking to Lamar Odom and David Lee or working on an uneven trade than sniffing around Andre Miller. I’d even rather have Portland talking to Ramon Sessions than Andre Miller, he’s at least got upside going for him. We’ve already stated our case against him, [...]

This from Marc Spears: @SpearsNBAYahoo: bayless out of usa camp due to wrist injury javelle mcghee in I would’ve traded his playing in Summer League for participation in this camp any day of the week, but that’s just how the cards fell this July. Won’t be hearing about him tossing lobs to Oden for awhile.

Last night, it was better just not to write about this game. I slept on it and haven’t changed my mind; we won’t do a full Re-Thoughts. The game was, apart from a couple “Wooooooww” dunks (Hello, Sonny Weems), completely forgettable, and you could tell the crowd in attendance knew it. What I took away from the night was that Jeff Pendergraph is going to be a dependable short-to-mid range threat off pick-and-pops and the occasional post-up, and that nobody quite gets the crowd buzzing with a simple pullup jumper like Jerryd Bayless can. Looking at the bigger picture, we’ve [...]

It’s time to give up on those Paul Millsap pipe dreams. And in other news, people gambled in Vegas. I wonder if the next offer will be as “toxic” or if the Blazers will, in the future, be more environmentaly conscious: The Utah Jazz will match the four-year, $32 million offer the Portland Trail Blazers tendered their restricted free agent Paul Millsap, the team posted on its Web site and a league source confirmed to ESPN.com Thursday evening. So what’s next. David Lee? Raymond Felton? Lamar Odom? A trade for Hinrich or any other player? Stand pat?

Today showed us why, rather than making snap judgments based on a game or two, we must all do like Amar’e Stoudemire and be like Sun Tzu. Be patient. What Game One tells you, Game Two will probably disprove, while Games Three and Four will find the gray line that spells the word “TRUTH”. So, it was just another game and another loss for the Blazers in the Vegas Summer League. Fortunately, they mean about as much as handcuffs in a prison full of ninjas. Blazer fans should just be happy to get another chance to see their three guys [...]

Volume I of Vegas Summer League is in the books for the Blazers, and other than the loss which means absolutely nothing it was mostly successful. UNLV has a great setup with Cox Pavillion joined with the Thomas and Mack Center,  so when two games are going at once you are free to roam wherever you please. Lots of the big names in the industry were walking among the fans, from front office players to current and former stars. If you’re an NBA nut, this is the place for you, as long as you can deal with some trash hoops [...]