Well, we just played the Rockets the other day and SJ covered most important points about them in his preview, so we won’t be doing anything full today. Here’s a list of what we’ll be watching for:
-Expect to see LaMarcus Aldridge with the ball early and often. Against two physical opponents, he has yet to really show up at all on the offensive end. You can’t just wait until you play the OKC Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves of the world to get your star players going, so the Blazers should make a concentrated effort to get LMA points in the [...]

Games with the Denver Nuggets are not going to be pretty this season. They are going to be chippy, lots of fouls will be called, and the better defensive team will usually win. But the small things will decide key possessions, and though they will always be targets of an unfair amount of blame, it’s easy to cut yourself off at the legs in the divisional race if you miss too many freebies.
So, plenty of people will blame Greg Oden — even though Aldridge and Miller both missed important free throws — and he will blame himself as well, but [...]

I’m not sure but I’m pretty sure this as significant as a second game of the season can be.
Ok, so win, lose or draw this still won’t be the end of the world, but you can’t argue that there is some significance to tonight’s contest. It’s the Nuggets and Blazers. Some believe it’s a rivalry, I still think it’s in between. Either way the Nugs are the Blazers main competition in the Northwest Division. Both teams shared the division title as co-champions…although honestly, since we lost the tie-breaker doesn’t that mean we weren’t really division champs *ducks*. Anyways, it’s the [...]

Well Opening Night was good, great, bad, awful and everything in between those words. It was a win that, due to 26 turnovers and the ever-fighting Rockets, should be deemed an ugly win — the type that good teams find a way to get. It was also, I’m guessing, not dissimilar to how many Houston games will play out this season. They will scrap, they will take charges, get put backs, force turnovers and generally attack things with a fervor that most NBA teams don’t. An unlike last postseason, the Blazers took what the Rockets pushed and their talent succeeded [...]

If you’re a basketball junkie like me, you’ve circled this date for a long time. Finally, the NBA returns back to our lives. I feel so whole again. More importantly though…Blazer Basketball is back.
That’s right, one of the most anticipated seasons in recent Blazer history begins tonight at the Rose Garden. Fun fact: this is the first time since the 2002-03 season that the Blazers actually kick off their season at the Rose Garden. Fun fact #2, the Blazers have not lost a home season opener (i.e. the first game at home) since the 00-01 season. Just throwing those out [...]

From the many Blazers twitter accounts, bad news for another young Blazers small forward. Pretty much the exact opposite of last Fall when Martell Webster went down, now Webster will probably get his starting spot back from Batum while the forward recovers from surgery. Let’s just hope this doesn’t turn into a season-ending injury.
@pdxtrailblazers:
Nicolas Batum will undergo surgery on his right shoulder to repair a torn labrum, it was announced today by General Manager Kevin Pritchard.
@BlazerFreeman:
Breaking: Nicolas Batum will have surgery Friday on his right shoulder to repair a torn labrum. Return tbd.
@blazersedge:
Batum was injured while playing for French national [...]

SJ and I did a Q&A with Andrew Kamenetzky of the LA Times Lakers Blog over the weekend. We touched on all the usual preseason subjects like Andre Miller, Greg Oden and team defense. And I did nothing to dispute my claim over the top spot of the Martell Webster booster club. Check it.

There is nothing like being away from technology for a couple hours and watching from afar as things starts brewing.
That’s what happened today when I was blindsided by this “uproar” surrounding Bill Simmons’ annual NBA preview. My UberTwitter was going nutty. I was tempted to just ignore this and take it for what it is. An entertaining columnist making a bold prediction in a pre-season article. I’ve done this before, I mean a few years back I swore up and down the Bobcats would make the playoffs for unknown reasons. Sometimes you just go with an angle. Of course Blazer [...]

Tons of Blazers links for your weekend.
Denver Nuggets - Denver Stiffs | The Nugg Doctor
Minnesota Timberwolves – Canis Hoopus | Empty the Bench | TWolvesBlog
Oklahoma City Thunder – Blue Blitz | Daily Thunder
Portland Trail Blazers – Blazersedge | A Stern Warning | The Rip City Project | Blaze of Love | BustaBucket | Trail Post
Utah Jazz – SLC Dunk | True Blue Jazz
Bonus Links: See full schedule here | Also see SBNation preview storystream

Per @YahooSportsNBA Twitter, LaMarcus Aldridge will get a five-year extension to remain with the Blazers. Oh, Happy Day. Apparently the contract is full of incentives, but if LMA meets all the requirements he’ll be a $14 million dollar man. I was hoping we could get him a little lower than that, just for future cap ramifications, but LMA is completely worth the money he’ll be getting. Now just think about the deal Zach Randolph was given back in the day and give yourself a minute for a dumb grin.
Lamarcus Aldridge has agreed to a five year extension worth approximately $70 [...]