The Portland Trail Blazers waived Gred Oden in 2012. Credit: Steve Dykes-USA TODAY Sports

We’re halfway through December, meaning that there are only a few weeks left in 2012. The last year has been one of ups and downs for the Blazers. As fans, we’re in probably the best position we could ask to be in: we started 2012 watching a team self-destruct and we’ll finish the year watching a young team starting to come into its own way ahead of schedule.

To prepare you for the end of the calendar year, here are my top stories of 2012.

The Sell Off

The day: March 15^th 2012. The night before the Blazers fell in shameful fashion 121-79 to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. Back home, the Rose Garden was hosting the second and third rounds of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. On the East Coast, the Blazers were struggling through a seven-game roadie and sitting on a 20-23 record. A 7-2 start, a top seed in the Western Conference, and the promise of a bright future long in the rear view, it was time to make a change.

The first shoe to drop was head coach Nate McMillan. Many speculated the Blazers would wait for 2011-12 to end before brass decided to make a move in the head-coaching department. They speculated wrong.

Marcus Camby followed McMillan out the door. The veteran center, brought to the Rose City to try and make people forget that Greg Oden was a bust and Joel Przybilla was well Joel Przybilla, was a fan favorite, but wasn’t they type of player a bad team should be carrying if they are serious about rebuilding. Camby’s parting was amicable. His time in Portland was not great but memorable enough. Camby’s replacements, Hasheem Thabeet and Jonny Flynn, were also not guys to build around, but they were also not guys anybody would blame for losses or miss when the season ended and they moved on to other locations.

The Blazers’ March 15^th fire sale continued, though, and the next trade was the one that mattered. Portland flipped Gerald Wallace the then New Jersey now Brooklyn Nets for Memhet Okur, Shawne Williams, and a top-three protected first round pick. The Blazers waived Okur to make room for J.J. Hickson (who they pulled off the waiver wire), and Willams was bought out after the season (as a side note, Williams has found himself in hot water recently following his inability to find a job as a professional basketball player). The pick mattered.

What also mattered was how Gerald Wallace left town. Crash came in more as a savior than a Band-Aid. As an established young star looking for a long-term home, Wallace brought with him the hope of making the jump from first round playoff doormat to second round playoff contender. The name Gerald Wallace was tailor-made to ring out through the upper reaches of the Rose Garden. By the time the door slammed on the Wallace Era, though, there was rampant speculation that he had been the voice of dissent poisoning the Blazers’ locker room (or at least he play a role in locker room poisoning). Beyond that too, Portland fans complained of Wallace phoning it in during 2011-12, and then quitting on his team when the going got rough.

Whatever the case may be, whether he dogged it and quit or simply wasn’t as good as advertised, not very many people were sad to see Crash exit, a real shock considering the relative fanfare around Wallace’s long-term Blazer potential following the 2010-11 trade that brought him over.

As almost an afterthought, Portland parted ways with first overall pick Greg Oden on March 15^th. The time had come to waive good-bye to one of the most disappointing players in Blazer history. NBA fans will remember Greg Oden as being the guy drafted before the best player of his generation; Blazer fans like me will choose to remember GO for the stretch of 2008-09 when he was healthy and looked like an important element of a dominate young team on the upswing.

Front Office Hiring and Firing

The Portland Trail Blazers unceremoniously fired General Manager Rich Cho in the spring of 2011. The team would go without an official GM for the entire debacle that was the 2011-2012 season.

Just as the player dump started slow, so too did the rebuilding of Portland’s front office. Neil Olshey, hired as GM in early June 2012, was the first brick in the new wall. Olshey came to Portland by way of the Los Angeles Clippers. His first press conference as a Blazer employee was peppered with buzzwords like “deal flow,” “no quick fixes,” and “cross mojination” (OK not that one). He very obviously meant business.

But just like no good burn-off consists of one player leaving, no rebuild worth its salt is limited to just one guy. Terry Stotts came next. Not a marquee head coach, but also not Kaleb Canales, a young guy with lots of guts and gusto but no track record of any kind. Stotts’ staid and professional manner engendered confidence that even if Portland hadn’t found the name guy that would spark the interest of the national media, they had at least gone out and found a guy who looked every inch the part of NBA head coach.

All was not well at One Center Court, though. The hiring of Olshey maybe ruffled a feather or two, or maybe usurped another executive’s authority. Hard to know exactly what happened, but early in the 2012-13 season, President Larry Miller resigned. A stalwart Paul Allen confidant, Miller had seen the team through it’s rebirth and re-demise (if such a thing exists).

Larry Miller was one of Portland’s executives to finish his term in the Rose City in 2012. Credit: Craig Mitchelldyer-USA TODAY Sports

The sudden need for a President took most in Portland by surprise, but Paul Allen and his team of Vulcans made quick work of reaching back to Los Angeles once again and bringing Chris McGowan into the fold. Fresh off overseeing a Stanley Cup win with the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL, McGowan brought with him AEG bona fides. More importantly, he vowed to leave the basketball to Olshey and Stotts, and spend his day-to-day developing the business side of the Portland Trail Blazers.

Just as Olshey coming to town might have chased Larry Miller, McGowan’s hiring was followed closely by the resignation of Chief Operations Officer Sarah Mensah. Mensah had served the Blazers for 19 years, reaching the highest office held by a woman in the NBA. Rumor was, she wanted McGowan’s job and didn’t get it.

As President, McGowan trimmed some staff, leading some in the local media to question whether or not he was aware that his own demise was probably eminent considering the history of the Blazers and their owner. However, he did at a VP, proving that he can be a job creator and destroyer at the same time.

If you’re keeping score at home, the Blazers added a GM, a President, a head coach, and a couple of VPs in 2012, and lost a President, a chief executive, a couple of VPs, and a couple other high-level functionaries.

The Draft Lottery and the Draft

The NBA Draft Lottery was held at the end of May 2012. The story of the day was which team would claim the number one overall pick, and thus the right to draft University of Kentucky big man Anthony Davis to lead the re-building of their franchise. That honor fell to the New Orleans Hornets.

But The Brow Sweepstakes wasn’t why Blazer fans tuned in to watch David Stern get heckled and booed and then casually read the name of an NBA team.

When Portland blew up its roster, they brought back a top-three protected pick from the New Jersey Nets. If the Nets name came up in one of the top three spots, they retained their pick; otherwise it went to the Blazers. Brooklyn, as they were officially known by May, ended up with the sixth pick overall. That pick was Portland’s, meaning that the Blazers owned not one (they landed at 11^th overall all by themselves) but two very nice lottery picks.

Holding two high picks lead to all kinds of various scenarios. Should Portland trade both picks for a veteran All-Star? Should they trade one pick and keep one? And then of course if they keep the picks, who should they be used to pick? All those questions would be answered on Draft Night.

June 28, 2012; Newark, NJ, USA; Meyers Leonard (Illinois), right, is introduced as the number eleven overall pick to the Portland Trail Blazers by NBA commissioner David Stern during the 2012 NBA Draft at the Prudential Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports

The 2012 NBA Draft was held on June 28^th 2012. As expected, Anthony Davis went first. Second through fifth went Michael Kidd-Gilchrist of Kentucky to the Charlotte Bobcats, Bradley Beal from Florida to the Washington Wizards, Dion Waiters from Syracuse to the Cleveland Cavaliers, and Thomas Robinson from Kansas to the Sacramento Kings.

With their sixth pick, the Blazers selected a red-shirt junior from Weber State University. Although nobody knew too much about Damian Lillard or where exactly Weber State was, he led the nation in scoring for part of his final college season, was Big Sky Player of the year, and in three seasons of play finished as the number two scoring in Wildcats history. Lillard was projected to land in the lottery, but a string of outstanding workouts, including one in Portland, elevated his draft stock. The Blazers might have gambled on draft night, leaving Harrison Barnes, Andre Drummond, and Austin Rivers on the board, but at this point in the 2012-13 season every team short of the Hornets that drafted before Portland probably wishes they’d taken Lillard instead of the guy they chose.

The Blazers used their second lottery pick on a seven-foot sophomore from the University of Illinois. Meyers Leonard has proven to be a bit of a project, but if a legit seven-footer with a high ceiling is around at the 11^th pick, you take him.

Drama with Minnesota

This is a story in a few parts. It started long before the 2011-12 season ended and the 2012-13 off-season began. The Blazers failed to reach a deal with Nicolas Batum in the final year of his rookie contract, and when they extended him a qualifying offer at the end of 2011-12 he officially became a restricted free agent. The Minnesota Timberwolves were the first team to make an offer at the French wing. Nicolas signed Minnesota’s offer sheet on July 15^th 2012.

Batum’s free agent period was fraught with stories about his desire to play for the Timberwolves and then counter-stories retracting the initial stories saying the Nicolas wanted to be in Portland long-term. Most if not all of the news was based on conjecture. Almost everything to come out of Batum’s camp was likely done in an effort to get the absolute most money out of the Blazers.

Portland had no choice in the end. They’d lost Roy Hibbert, their big free agent target, and they couldn’t let Batum go for nothing. In the end, the Blazers locked up Batum for four years to the tune of $46 million on July 18^th, bumping Nic up to number two on Portland’s payroll.

Nic wouldn’t end up in Minnesota, but that wouldn’t be the end of the Twin Cities vs. Rose City off-season showdown.

Brandon Roy announced his retirement from the NBA just after the lockout ended and just before the 2011-12 season began. He waited a whole season, showing up at the Rose Garden one time to blindside the few Portlanders who made it out in the middle of the week to watch a bad Blazer team lose by a lot to the Milwaukee Bucks, and then in June 2012 he announced his un-retirement.

The best and most recognizable Blazer of the last decade entered the free agent market on July 1^st 2012. Only one thing was certain at the time. Regardless of how well or how long Brandon Roy’s second act was, it would be for any team in the league but the Portland Trail Blazers. It was the worst fear of some Blazer fans realized. Brandon Roy playing in the NBA wearing some other team’s colors.

That other team turned out to be once again the Minnesota Timberwolves. On July 31^st 2012, two weeks after the T-Wolves failed to land Nicolas Batum, Brandon Roy signed a two-year deal to play in Minneapolis.

With the Batum and Roy stories filling up the NBA news cycles, many people began calling the Timberwolves the Blazers of the Mid-West. The fact that Minny was also home to Pacific Northwesterners Kevin Love and Luke Ridnour, and had a coaching staff littered with former Blazer player/coaches Rick Adelman, Terry Porter, and Bill Bayno didn’t help.

Sadly for Timberwolves fans, being the Mid-West Blazers comes with some baggage. Brandon Roy went down on the 10^th of November with a sore knee that needed surgery and has yet to return, Chase Budinger (an off-season acquisition) tore his left meniscus the next day and has been out every since, and second-year player Malcolm Lee was sidelined indefinitely on the 14^th of December with cartilage damage in his right knee. Trail Blazers is synonymous with knee injuries.

Brandon Roy joined the Timberwolves in 2012, making headlines in Portland. Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

The Rise of Damian Lillard

Damian Lillard’s emergence is 2012’s most recent, and possibly biggest story. I’ll spare you all the details. Here’s what I wrote about where Damian stands in Portland’s sometimes storied sometimes sordid history of the point guard position

Here’s video evidence of Lillard’s latest feat:

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Welcome Gerald Wallace back to the Rose Garden. Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-US PRESSWIRE

Blazers; 25-29 (4th Northwest Division)

Nets: 19-36 (5th Atlantic Division)

Game Details: Rose Garden Arena Portland, OR. 7:00 PM. TV: CSN. Radio: 750 AM (KXTG)

Projected Blazers Starting Lineup: PG Raymond Felton (#5, 6’1”, North Carolina), SG Wesley Matthews (#2, 6’5”, Marquette), SF Nicolas Batum (#88, 6’8”, MSB Le Mans, France) PF LaMarcus Aldridge (#12, 6’11”, Texas), C Joel Przybilla (#10, 7’1”, Minnesota)

Projected Nets Starting Lineup: PG Deron Williams (#8, 6’3”, Illinois), SG MarShon Brooks (#9, 6’5”, Providence), SF Gerald Wallace (#45, 6’7”, Alabama), PF Kris Humphries (#43, 6’9”, Minnesota), C Johan Petro (#27, 7′, Pau Orthez, France)

Because the trade deadline stuff was so insane and this season’s pace has been so break-neck, I never really got a chance to get down my thoughts about the Blazers losing Gerald Wallace. I’m going to take the time to do that now, not in lieu of a regular preview but more as an added bonus. I’ll do the same next week when the Home Coming Tour 2012 returns with Marcus Camby and the Houston Rockets.

Since Crash was dealt to New Jersey for a really good pick and a guy that’s already not a Blazer and a guy that will probably never really be a Blazer, I’ve been plumbing my personal creative depths to come up with a metaphor that most aptly fits Gerald Wallace’s time in Portland, a period that was so brief it will most likely show up as little more than a blip on Gerald’s personal NBA timeline and in the history of the Blazer organization as a whole.

I was unable to come up with anything. I got close when I thought he could be compared to a friend you would make at summer camp. In that scenario, the Blazers’ relationship with Gerald was like the one that shines in a setting that is isolated from reality, where two people see each other every day for a short period of time and decide that they’ll be best friends forever, but then when life returns to business as usual things aren’t as wonderful as they might have seemed.

This analogue loses steams as it stretches out. For instance, it only makes sense if the camp in question is a day camp and the friends in question go to the same school or see each other outside of a camp-style setting. It also falls apart because it implies that Wallace and the Blazers had some kind of falling out, which they didn’t.

Therefore the best way to deconstruct the Gerald Wallace era might just be to look at it literally. Wallace didn’t work out as a Blazers due to timing. It’s as simple as that. Portland gave up Gerald Wallace because his value was higher in a trade than it was in having him on the team. Some will speculate that Wallace thumbed his nose at management when he said he was going to test the free agent waters, or that he was shipped because he gave up on the season.

I don’t agree with either of those opinions. In my eyes, Crash was always a great pro. He played hard every night, even when he didn’t play well, and he decided to try free agency because that’s where a guy gets paid for the work they’ve put in.

When Gerald comes back to the Rose Garden on Wednesday, he’ll get a big ovation. He deserves it. I don’t have a specific favorite memory of Gerald as a Blazer, but I will say this, he was always fun to watch. What I really think about is how great the Blazers could have been if Kevin Pritchard had flipped Joel Przybilla and a low rotation guy for Gerald Wallace in the early spring of 08-09.

With Crash starting alongside a healthy Brandon Roy, and Nicolas Batum and Rudy Fernandez anchoring a killer offensive second unit, that Blazer team would have pasted the Houston Rockets.

But that’s kind of what we’re left with when it comes to Gerald Wallace, wondering about what could have been, and speculating as to why it wasn’t better than it was.

As for Thursday’s game, beyond Gerald Wallace and future Blazer Deron Williams, the Nets aren’t much of a team. A solid 48 minutes from Portland, and they’ll get this win. Of course a win isn’t what this team needs, especially not against New Jersey. Everybody knows if Portland wins tonight they’re back in the Playoff race and the Nets automatically get the number one pick, which is protected and won’t go to the Blazers. My suggestion to Kaleb Canales is play one on five with only Hasheem Thabeet on the floor, that will guarantee the best possible outcome: a 45-point Blazer loss.

Email me: mike.acker1@gmail.com

Twitter: @mikeacker | @ripcityproject

April will be the first full month for head coach Kalen Canales. Will it also be his last? Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

Hey Blazer fans, if you’re still here, watching this team on the 1^st of April, give yourselves a big pat on the back. It hasn’t been easy, this 2011-12 season. It hasn’t been fun. It has been a test for even the most die-hard fans. And it has been, at least, very interesting to watch.

April is very likely going to be the final month of this season. Portland isn’t completely finished in the Playoff race, but there isn’t really enough time or enough games left for the Blazers to make a real push.

If Portland can’t make a Playoff push they can at least continue to play with heart and with effort, something the Blazers that survived the purge have been able to do very well in the last weeks of March, and hope that finishing a sub .500 season with something resembling a flourish will bring the more casual fans back for what will hopefully be a better season in 2012-13.

With that said, here’s my finally monthly preview of the season:

What Happened in March: Where should I start with last month? March 2012 was a season defining month for the Blazers. Some will say that it was a franchising defining month. Although I think that it might be wise to wait a while before bestowing that distinction on last month, I will go as far as to say March 2012 was certainly the end of an era.

March started off badly. Portland lost four of their first five games (six of their first eight), and after back-to-back blowouts in Indiana and New York, an extended road trip that everybody knew was going to be rough turned into Nate McMillan’s swan song.

While on the road, management blows up the team, fires the coach, waives Greg Oden, and promotes Kaleb Canales. Tanking, and wait until next year become the rallying cries of the fan base.

Canales wins his first game as head coach; a game won on pure emotion, but ultimately can do no better than 4-5 to finish a 6-11 month. For the third month in a row my prediction is way off, as if that’s important at all.

As March closes, Blazer fans can at least take solace in the emergence of J.J. Hickson as a potential full-timer, and in the fact that every loss might actually turn into a win when Portland heads into the 2012 NBA Draft holding all the high cards.

Number of Games in April: 14

Games Breakdown: 4/1 vs. Minnesota, 4/2 vs. Utah, 4/4 vs. New Jersey. 4/6 at Dallas, 4/7 at Milwaukee, 4/9 vs. Houston, 4/11 vs. Golden State, 4/13 vs. Dallas, 4/15 at Sacramento, 4/16 at Phoenix, 4/18 vs. Utah, 4/21 at Memphis, 4/23 at San Antonio, 4/26 at Utah.

Steve Nash's Suns are one of the teams Portland will have to jump in April to reach the post season. Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

Games to Watch: As of this moment, Portland is four whole games behind Denver for the eighth spot in the Western Conference. Of Denver’s final 14 games, only six are against Playoff teams. Between Portland and Denver are Utah, Phoenix, and Minnesota in descending order. The Nuggets play the Wolves and the Suns twice in the season’s final month, meaning those four games are a wash with regards to how the outcome affects Portland’s hopes at stealing the conference’s final Playoff spot.

Basically, what I’m saying is that the games to watch are going to be the ones that don’t include the Blazers. Denver, Utah, Phoenix, and Minnesota are going to have to lose a lot of games for Portland to get into the post season. So if you are inclined to believe the Blazers still have a chance of playing in May, watch those four teams play. But don’t watch when they play each other. That will just give you false hope.

As far as Portland is concerned, I would say that the games to watch down the stretch are going to be the roadies. The Blazers are 7-19 on the road. Next season, if this team really wants to be taken seriously, they have to find a way to win on the road. Portland has Dallas, Milwaukee, Sacramento, Phoenix, Memphis, San Antonio, and Utah all left to play on the road.

The Kings beat Portland in Sac at the beginning of February (02/02/2012). The Blazers were dealt their first blowout loss of the season in Phoenix, they lost a double-OT gut ripper in Dallas, and were outscored 34-18 to lose a game in San Antonio that they led in the fourth quarter. So there’s revenge motivation for at least three of Portland’s April road games. Not to mention that I bet J.J. Hickson would love to show the fans in Sacramento what they gave away for free.

If, and this is a big if, the Blazers want to play meaningful games in April, a road sweep would be a great start. In the likely event that that doesn’t happen, winning four of their last seven road games would at least show that this team understands the importance of winning games outside of the Rose Garden.

Game(s) of the Month: This one is a no brainer. Since we’ll take it as a given that the Blazers aren’t going to make the Playoffs, and games in which winning will jump them up the standings are really only bait for potential dream crushing, April’s two games to watch are going to be on the 4^th and on the 9^th when the Nets and the Rockets hit the RG respectively.

If you don’t know why those games are going to be important, then you probably aren’t really a Blazer fan. Let me explain: Gerald Wallace and Marcus Camby.

I don’t believe for a minute that the trades of Wallace and Camby had anything to do with them leading a mutiny against Nate McMillan. They were guys with expiring deals that were likely going to walk away from the smoking heap of the Portland Trail Blazers when 2011-12 ended. Management knew they needed to get something for them, and that’s what they did; they tried to do the same thing with Jamal Crawford and Raymond Felton, they just didn’t have takers

Crash gets his home coming first, which is good. Gerald played 65 games as a Blazer. That’s not that many. He had some great games with Portland (notably a 40-point night in OKC last season), but I never felt like he had the big-time impact that he could have had. That won’t matter to Blazer fans. From the first moment he showed his face in the Rose City, he was a fan favorite. He will get a very healthy ovation. My favorite memory of Wallace is bittersweet. In Game Six of Portland’s first round Playoff series with Dallas, Crash absolutely destroyed the Mavericks in the first quarter. He made the home crowd believe the series was headed for a seventh game. Unfortunately Wallace spent the second quarter in the locker room with a back or neck injury of some kind (I think it was back spasms but I’m not sure), and when he came back to the court the deficit was too much for Portland to overcome. The best part of that night was when the RG broke out into the Gerald Wallace chant (during the quarter when Crash was AWOL), begging for him to be put back into the game, knowing the Blazers needed him if they wanted to extend the series.

Gerald Wallace will get a standing ovation, there’s no doubt. I’m guessing that there will be some fans on Monday the 9^th that will be petitioning for Marcus Camby to have his Blazer jersey retired on the spot.

Again, Camby didn’t play that many games with the Blazers, only about a season more than Crash, but from the drop he was a hero. It’s not hard to forget why Portland needed Marcus Camby (Greg Oden), but he did his absolute best to keep the Blazers relevant when they couldn’t keep a center healthy. Think about this too, Camby was traded for one of Portland’s major favorites (Travis Outlaw), and not for a second did anybody think it was a bad trade.

Like Wallace, Camby talked about ending his career in Portland. It seems like a lot of lip service in hindsight, but I truly believe they both enjoyed their time as Blazers. I know I enjoyed watching both of them, as did every Portland fan. It will be nice to see them again while they are still fresh in our memories. Need I remind you that Jerryd Bayless has yet to play in the Rose Garden since being traded in the pre-season of 2010-11? Who is going to remember him if and when he finally gets his Blazer homecoming?

Gerald Wallace returns to the Rose Garden in April, get ready. Credit: Cary Edmondson-US PRESSWIRE

Prediction: 6-8. I’m trying to be conservative and realistic for the first time this season. I may also be trying a reverse jinx, although I probably blew it by mentioning it. My picks for W’s are Sunday night the 1^st against Minny, the 4^th against the Nets and Gerald Wallace, the 11^th against future hall of famer Charles Jenkins and the Warriors, and the 18^th against the Jazz for home games, and the 15^th in SacTown and the 16^th in Phoenix for road games. Among the eight losses, there are winnable games too: at home against Houston and Utah, and on the road in Milwaukee, Memphis, and possibly San Antonio if Popp is resting his old timers.

What It All Means: Probably nothing, maybe a whole lot. If Portland gets ridiculously hot and finishes the final month with 10 wins or more, then they have a chance at achieving the unthinkable. It’s incredibly unlikely, not Mega Millions unlikely, but close. I know the staff and the players will keep talking about the Playoffs until the math says that they should stop, and that’s fine with me. You can’t sell the product of the NBA if you are admitting to not trying to be the best team you can be. What Portland needs to do is keep doing what they’re doing. They have no choice but to play the games. If they keep trying to get better, keep trying to figure out which guys to keep and which to junk, and keep at least attempting to stay engaged, then regardless of overall wins and losses, the final month of the 2011-12 season can be productive.

Email me: mike.acker1@gmail.com

Twitter: @mikeacker | @ripcityproject