“I like where his head is at,” McMillan said. “We talked about where his mind is, and what he needs to do to get back, and the thing is, he know how to get there. But I liked what I heard.”

Oden is scheduled to start running in early to mid-July, and should start playing 2-on-2 or 3-on-3 by mid August. The goal is to have him ready to participate in 5-on-5 action the first week of September, when many of the Blazers players return to Portland for informal scrimmages.

Well, timetables are always good. Without getting too TMZ-ey, I’ll just point out that Oden was in Los Angeles a little more than a week ago, where he attended the premier of The Karate Kid and was also spotted at the nightclub Hyde (not sure which venue) by a number of NBA writers in town for the NBA Finals. Supposedly he was in L.A. primarily to see a knee specialist, but this has not been confirmed by the team, nor is it clear whether he was seeing a specialist about his left patella fracture, or if it was more of a fact-finding mission in search of preventative measures, as both Oden and his agent have mentioned doing. Nothing to read much into, just something I thought I’d pass along.

UPDATE: From Yahoo! Sports’ Marc Spears, who has a little more about why Oden was in L.A.:

Prodded by his agent, Oden recently met with a nutritionist in Los Angeles to improve his diet. He also has tried to improve his mental outlook after playing in just 82 of a possible 246 games in his first three seasons because of injuries.

“I’m being open-minded to a lot more things,” said Oden, who is eligible for a contract extension this summer. “I’ve got to stop being stubborn. There are a lot of things I’ve tried and I keep getting injured.”

Trail Blazers coach Nate McMillan is poised to shake up his staff, and it appears he has targeted longtime NBA coach Bernie Bickerstaff to serve as his right-hand man.

Sources say lead assistant Dean Demopoulos and assistant Joe Prunty will not be retained, which comes after assistant Monty Williams left the team to become the head coach of New Orleans.

(…)

It is also believed that Bickerstaff’s son, John-Blair, will be added to the Blazers staff. John-Blair has spent the past three seasons as an assistant with the Minnesota Timberwolves after serving two years as an assistant in Charlotte.

The article also mentions that Demopoulos and Prunty are not returning in large part because of the interest they’ve shown in other coaching positions. If that was the case — and I don’t believe it is, as it’s hardly unusual for assistant coaches to show interest in other jobs — then  you can’t fault McMillan for moving on, but it’s probably fair to reserve judgment on this until the picture becomes a little clearer. It’s more than likely the real reasons for these changes will not be made public, at least for some time.

Miller said he hopes some sort of resolution is reached before the June 24 draft, and he expects to have input on the decision.

“A decision at that level ultimately comes from Paul,’’ Miller said. “But from my perspective, we have had a very successful season. And I know that Kevin is under contract to be the GM, and that’s where we are. Kevin and I have worked really good together.’’

Pritchard declined to comment Friday. He is scheduled to meet with the media on Monday.

Let’s hope this gets take care of quickly so everyone can go back to focusing on basketball related things and people’s knees.