Archive for June, 2010

From Ken Berger of CBS Sports: The Trail Blazers’ GM position remains Danny Ferry’s job to turn down, and that’s exactly what Ferry is expected to do, a high-level coaching source familiar with the situation said. The meddling ownership elements that resulted in the demise of Kevin Pritchard and Tom Penn are still in place, and that’s a concern for Ferry, who may not be eager to step back into such a situation after an exhausting experience in Cleveland. No surprises here. UPDATE: The following report by Nathan Begley of Portland Roundball Society has since been retracted — caught up [...]

Via the official twitter and website of the Portland Trail Blazers, comes the announcement of their roster for the 2010 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, Nevada. Here is th efull 15-man roster who will be coached by Blazer assistant Kaleb Canales: Name                     Pos     Ht      Wt      Birthdate       NBA Yrs Luke Babbitt              F        6-9     225       6/20/89             R Jimmy Baron             G        6-3     195      5/23/86             R Dante Cunningham  F        6-8     227      4/22/87             1 Michael Fey               C        7-0     270      5/29/83             R Mike Green               G        6-1     175      6/23/85             R Ekene Ibekwe [...]

From Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski: Former Cleveland Cavaliers general manager Danny Ferry will meet with Portland Trail Blazers officials to discuss the franchise’s GM vacancy on Wednesday, league sources told Yahoo! Sports. Since Yahoo! Sports reported on June 5 that the Blazers had hired a search firm to identify and feel out potential candidates, Ferry has steadily stayed near the top of Portland’s wish list. This should make you nervous, but to be fair to Ferry, there’s no telling how different a GM can be when given a completely different roster and owner to work with. That said, all we [...]

Today, the Portland Trail Blazers announced the much-expected move of waiving forward Ryan Gomes. The move was made for luxury tax purposes. Despite rumors of Gomes possibly being traded, the Blazers were unable to find a deal to their liking and opted to waive the 6-year vet before the 3 PM deadline.

Writing about the firing of Kevin Pritchard on draft night was not the fairest thing to do. The situation, with KP running the draft as ESPN’s “On the Clock” graphic essentially running down his remaining minutes as Portland’s General Manager, was so ridiculous it was a task not to approach the height of reactionary prose. So, a few tweets aside, I decided not to write about it. Let a situation breathe and it becomes less bloated. And once the swelling resides, it’s easier to see the wrinkles. What wrinkles have come out, then? Steve Patterson and Brian Berger have given [...]

Here’s a quick update on the Ryan Gomes story talked about yesterday. Minutes ago, from the twitter of The Columbian’s Brian T. Smith: #Blazers releasing Gomes is not a done deal. Team is considering trade offers, with talks ongoing. Re-stating what Coup noted yesterday, it would be silly for Portland to not explore the possibility of trading Gomes. At the very least you have to see if that trade asset can net something. As Coup stated yesterday, Gomes’ contract has incredible value for not only those trying to shave cap space now, but also for teams who may have luxury [...]

From Jason Quick of The Oregonian the other day: Team president Larry Miller said the Blazers will probably release newly acquired forward Ryan Gomes in order to avoid taking on the remaining three seasons of his contract. The team has until Tuesday to make a decision, but Miller said he has already told Gomes’ agent not to fly him to Portland. On one hand, you can understand the Blazers wanting to save some money this season — about $3 million will be saved the next season alone — when they have possible contracts for Greg Oden, Nic Batum and Jerryd [...]

SJ and I participated in a roundtable draft discussion with Nathan Begley of Portland Roundball Society last night, where we covered just about everything, from sleeper to busts to risers and fallers to fits and well . . . Kahn. Head on over there to check it out, where I apparently completely forgot that Dallas traded the rights to Solomon Alabi to Toronto.

I don’t want to keep you here long. There is tons of masterful writing to be done about Kevin Pritchard. I just want people to see a different take on this. I’m not trying to defend anyone or anything. I’m just opening up a different perspective. Before and after the draft, all I heard was negative this and negative that. I’ve always thought to truly analyze a situation you have to think rationally. To properly take a look at someone else you can’t put demonize them or put them on a pedestal. There is so much to this story we [...]

There is plenty to talk about regarding the poorly-time firing of Kevin Pritchard, but for now let’s discuss how the Blazers did in the draft. After all, it always comes down to the guys who get on the court. Pick No. 16 — Luke Babbitt, 6’9″ SF, Nevada: Babbitt, along with Ryan Gomes, was acquired in a deal for Martell Webster and, as sad as it is to see Martell Webster go, Babbitt will probably be better than him, at least offensively, very, very soon. While he isn’t a fantastic athlete and will have trouble guarding faster players, Babbitt is [...]