Archive for October, 2010

The Oregonian’s Jason Quick reports via Twitter that Maurice Lucas, former Trail Blazers player and assistant coach, has passed away at the age of 58. Lucas had been battling bladder cancer for several years, undergoing surgery in 2009, which forced him to step down as assistant coach under Nate McMillan, a position he had held since 2005. Lucas played professionally for 14 years, first in the ABA and then in the NBA. His career included two separate stints as a power forward for the Blazers, highlighted by his integral role on the legendary 1977 team that won the franchise’s only [...]

Fresh off playing spoiler for Blake Griffin’s professional debut on Wednesday, the Trail Blazers were given the opportunity tonight to crash another highly-publicized party: Amar’e Stoudemire’s first home game at Madison Square Garden. And they just managed it, pulling out a 100-95 win over the Knicks in much the same fashion as their first two wins this season: a hot start, shaky middle quarters, and a late run. This has been the pattern so far for the Blazers, although their performance tonight had the most obvious flaws of any of the three so far. The Blazers came out firing on [...]

Blazers: 2-0 Knicks: 1-1 Game details: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY. 4:30pm TV: CSN Radio: 95.5 FM (KXTG) Projected Portland Starting Lineup: PG Andre Miller (#24, 6′2″, Utah), SG Brandon Roy (#7, 6′6″, Washington), SF Nicolas Batum (#88, 6′8″, France), PF LaMarcus Aldridge (#12, 6′11″, Texas), C Marcus Camby (#23, 6′11″, UMass) Projected New York Starting Lineup: PG Raymond Felton (#2, 6’1″, North Carolina), SG Landry Fields (#6, 6’7″, Stanford), SF Danilo Gallinari (#8, 6’10″, Milan, Italy), PF Amar’e Stoudemire (#1, 6’10″, Cypress Creek- Orlando, Florida), C Timofey Mozgov (#25, 7’1″, St. Petersburg, Russia) When Portland takes the floor [...]

So far in the infancy of the 2010-11 NBA season the Blazers have proven they are capable of two things. First, they know how to make a game interesting; take bad shots, give up offensive rebounds, let speedy wings and ancient point guards beat you up and down the court. And second, they know how to take over a game in the fourth quarter. Tonight, like Tuesday night, had a fair amount of the former and just enough of the latter to keep Portland undefeated. The Trail Blazers had the luxury of playing the spoiler Wednesday night, and although there [...]

Blazers: 1-0 Clippers: 0-0 Game Details: Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA. 7:30PM. TV: CSN/ESPN. Radio: 95.5 FM (KXTG) Projected Portland Starting Lineup: PG Andre Miller (#24, 6′2″, Utah), SG Brandon Roy (#7, 6′6″, Washington), SF Nicolas Batum (#88, 6′8″, France), PF LaMarcus Aldridge (#12, 6′11″, Texas), C Marcus Camby (#23, 6′11″, UMass) Projected Los Angeles Starting Lineup: PG Baron Davis (#5, 6’3″, UCLA), SG Eric Gordon (#10, 6’3″, Indiana), SF Ryan Gomes (#15, 6’7″, Providence), PF Blake Griffin (#32, 6’10″, Oklahoma), C Chris Kaman (#35, 7’0″, Central Michigan) In last night’s season opener against the Suns (recap), the Trail Blazers [...]

The regular season is upon us, and that was most evident in the middle of the fourth quarter of tonight’s season opener. With the Suns hanging around, riding great games from ageless guys Steve Nash and Jason Richardson, the Blazers were playing with four guards on the floor, and a missed jump shot by Hedo Turkgolu fell into the hands of Jared Dudley who was not being blocked out by anybody. It was one of only seven offensive rebounds for the visiting team on the night, and Dudley easily knocked down the resulting 17-footer. A week ago, in the preseason, [...]

Blazers: 0-0 Suns: 0-0 Game Details: Rose Garden, Portland, OR. 7:00PM. TV: KGW. Radio: 95.5 FM (KXTG) Projected Portland Starting Lineup: PG Andre Miller (#24, 6’2″, Utah), SG Brandon Roy (#7, 6’6″, Washington), SF Nicolas Batum (#88, 6’8″, France), PF LaMarcus Aldridge (#12, 6’11″, Texas), C Marcus Camby (#23, 6’11″, UMass) Projected Phoenix Starting Lineup: PG Steve Nash (#13, 6’3″, Santa Clara), SG Jason Richardson (#23, 6’6″, Michigan State), SF Grant Hill (#33, 6’8″, Duke), PF Hedo Turkoglu (#19, 6’10″, Turkey), C Robin Lopez (#15, 7’0″, Stanford) For the second year in a row, the Trail Blazers will kick off [...]

Mike and I are happy to announce that a podcast will become a weekly feature on RCP. Here’s the first episode, recorded over the weekend, in which we talk about the offseason, training camp, the preseason, and the outlook for the season that starts Tuesday. Be on the lookout for our real-time reactions to the Jerryd Bayless trade, as we were in the midst of recording when the story broke on Twitter, after we had already spent several minutes discussing his role with the Blazers. This podcast, as well as all future podcasts, will be on iTunes in the coming [...]

ESPN’s March Stein interrupted the recording of the Rip City Project’s first podcast to say that Portland was sending back-up point guard Jerryd Bayless to the New Orleans Hornets for a draft pick. Here’s Stein: The Portland Trail Blazers have found a trade to create some extra roster room, agreeing Saturday to deal guard Jerryd Bayless to the New Orleans Hornets for a conditional future first-round pick, according to sources close to the situation. Bayless all but confirms the deal with this tweet. Selected 11th overall in the 2008 draft, Bayless struggled to find a home in Portland’s rotation, but [...]

ESPN’s Marc Stein reports that the Blazers have signed 35-year-old Argentine power forward/center Fabricio Oberto to a one-year contract. Details of the contract haven’t been disclosed, but it’s pretty safe to assume it will be for the veteran’s minimum. Given the team’s deficiency in the middle, this signing makes perfect sense, as it will give the Blazers a competent backup center to spell Marcus Camby until Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla return, and allow LaMarcus Aldridge to stay at power forward full-time. Oberto’s numbers are nothing spectacular (3.2 PPG and 3.5 RPG in four seasons with San Antonio and one [...]