Archive for May, 2010

Via Fiba.com, Nic Batum will represent the French National Team at the FIBA World Championships in Turkey this offseason: “My decision is definite,” [Batum] said at Bercy, where he watched the French Cup Finals over the weekend. “I will be present in the French squad for the World Championship. To join the national team again was a big desire after we (I) made our (my) debut at the EuroBasket. The two clear sides of this are that you want young players getting as much experience against top competition as they can, but you also don’t want them getting hurt or [...]

If you’ve been reading us lately, seeing us go on about South Florida’s Dominique Jones as a nice draft sleeper that should be available to Portland at pick No. 22, thinking, “Who is this strange fellow they speak fondly of,” then Mike Prada of Bullets Forever has your answer. Jones was recently in Washington for a draft workout, and Prada writes of both Jones’ confidence level and the trouble finding a good fit for him in the NBA, as Jones has the talent of a lottery pick but never played with comparable teammates. Here’s a guy that had to do [...]

This is part of an offseason series on various things of certain natures that each Blazer can work on during the summer to prepare for the 2010-2011 title push. This is strictly about on-court performance, so topics like trades and contracts are not discussed at length. Remember to click “Continue Reading” at the jump. The easiest way to describe Martell Webster’s 2009-10 season is to say he did not progress like we all thought he could. So far in this ‘Summer Reading’ series we have talked about Blazers who took step forwards in their game and ability to contribute to [...]

No, we’re not talking about LeBron possibly leaving and how the Cavaliers handled that situation. We’re talking about four things that went wrong with Cleveland against the Boston Cetics, whether it was the player’s or Mike Brown’s fault, that the Blazers can learn from in future playoff runs. Consistency Matters: What is the opposite of a thing of beauty? A thing of horror? That’s what Mike Brown’s rotations and adjustments were in this series. Zydrunas Ilgauskas played in Game 1, was terrible, then didn’t play until being handed major minutes in Game’s 5 and 6. JJ Hickson — who Cleveland [...]

I had the opportunity to write a column for Foxsports.com last night on, you guessed it, LeBron James, which you can find here. On top of that, here’s my usual recap for NBA.com of Boston’s Game 6 victory. And now we’ll return to regularly scheduled programming.

The following exchange is a series of emails between SJ and Coup. It’s unedited, but words are spelled correctly. Coup: Clearly, the topic du-jour on a national level is LeBron James‘ “B-Rabbit in the first rap battle of 8-Mile” against the Celtics last night which, while not having anything to do with the Blazers, is interesting from the standpoint of how we react to certain players. I’ve watched the game twice now, and you’re not going to convince me it was simply a bad game, as James implied with his post-game quotes. There’s a difference between having a bad shooting [...]

For more mock drafts, check out Fansided’s NBA Mock Draft Database, part of DC Pro Sports Report, for a breakdown of literally every NBA mock on the ‘net. This mock is also listed at the Football Fanspot NBA Mock Draft Database.

This is part of an offseason series on various things of certain natures that each Blazer can work on during the summer to prepare for the 2010-2011 title push. This is strictly about on-court performance, so topics like trades and contracts are not discussed at length. Remember to click “Continue Reading” at the jump. It’s been a strange journey so far for Jerryd Bayless. He’s gone from no playing time, to playing time, to being awful in playing time, to being better in less playing time, to offseason excitement, to an uneven Summer League, to Andre Miller being signed, back [...]

If you’re still feeling a little down after Portland’s playoff exit, or if you just want something good to read and don’t feel like overloading on draft research just yet, then Ben Steele of Order of the Court has the thing for you. This week Ben is doing an in-depth analysis of the Blazers-Sixers Finals in ’77, beginning with Game 1 earlier today: But it is hard to find much to wax eloquent about in Portland’s performance in Game 1 at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. Maybe it was the nine-day layoff after eliminating the Los Angeles Lakers, but Portland’s venerated [...]

Just passing this along from earlier, both Geoffrey C. Arnold of the Oregonian and Sixers.com are reporting that the Philadelphia 76ers met with Trail Blazer assistant Monty Williams about their vacancy at head coach. Here’s what 76er President and GM Ed Stefanski had to say about Williams: “Monty has proven to be a valuable asset on the bench in Portland,” Stefanski said. “He has a wealth of experience both as an assistant coach and as a player in this league.” Gotta love the GM speak from Stefanski. Monty’s stock is clearly sky high considering he is also talking to New [...]