LaMarcus Aldridge talks with Blazer play-by-play man Mike Barrett prior to the beginning of Fan Fest.

Last night the Blazers held their obligatory Fan Fest celebration in an effort to both let the community know that basketball starts pretty sure, like this coming Monday, and to introduce some of the team’s newest additions.

Along with getting a first look at Raymond Felton and Kurt Thomas in Blazer jerseys–some people saw Felton at the Rip City Basketball Classic but that wasn’t a team-sanctioned event–Blazer fans had a chance to watch Cornell seven-footer Jeff Foote get some burn and cheer for Portland native Seth Tarver one more time. They also were made privy to Craig “Rhino” Smith’s million-dollar grin and Elliot Williams’ hops, and if they looked closely they could see LaMarcus Aldridge and new Blazer sixth-man Jamal Crawford whispering like school kids. (I know all those tweets are mine, but I thought I’d run them back just in case you missed them last night.)

Something like Fan Fest is hard to quantify. As fans we see things that we like, and we are quick to make a value judgement on those things e.g. last night Raymond Felton did a good job of pushing the pace, finding open shooters and slashers in transition, and basically running the offense, and that means that the Blazers shouldn’t have to worry about the point guard position going forward. Now it’s true that Felton did a lot of those things, and will continue to do those things well. But beating up on Nolan Smith, and basically running a couple of rookies and sophomores off the court probably won’t translate when it comes to actual games against actual players.

The same is true when you flip it the other way. Everybody was sloppy, nobody could hit jumpers with any consistency, the Blazers are very limited at the center position offensively, and aren’t much better at the power forward when you take LaMarcus off the floor. READ: We’re screwed. Again, it’s just a scrimmage.

Yes Portland lacks for scorers inside, but Chris Johnson and Craig Smith are finishers (Smith didn’t play last night so there’s that), and yes Wesley Matthews and Nicolas Batum can be streaky with their Js, Eliott Williams is untested at the pro level, and Luke Babbit just plain can’t hit, but Jamal Crawford is a tested outside shooter, as is Raymond Felton. Will Portland rely on the jumper a lot? At this point is that even a valid question? Of course they will.

The hope is guys like Williams will get their sea legs early, and Wesley and Nic will learn when they’re hot and when they aren’t and will start attacking the basket to get lay-ups or free throws when the mid-range and threes aren’t falling, and that Babbitt only plays when the score is plus/minus 15. Just as we shouldn’t read too much into the good that comes out of an intra-squad scrimmage, so too should we not dwell on those things that looked bad at times and at others downright awful.

Here are my takeaways in brief:

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Portlanders know Seth Traver from his days at Jesuit, and some non-Portland Oregonians will remember him from his time spent with the Oregon State Beavers. Although Tarver is a long shot to make the team, as many important bloggers have noted on this site and others, it is nice to see a local kid given a shot at the big time. It seems that every training camp features one home town guy who gets a lot of cheers. Its fun for the fans, and I’m sure it will be fun for Tarver to throw on a Blazer jersey and run a few sets with some of the regulars.  Because it’s training camp, and there probably won’t be any more Seth Traver stories for the duration of the 2010-11 NBA season I thought I’d include a couple of links to articles about Mr. Tarver from his college days that may have been missed the first time around.

Here’s a piece from the Corvallis Gazette-Times about Tarver’s role with the Beavers.

And a link to a story from the Oregonian about the final Beaver home game for Seth and his brother Josh.

Seth Tarver vs Stanford image courtesy of Yardbarker

The big(ger) news was the following from Freeman:

Point guard Patty Mills, who played for the Blazers as a rookie last season and on their summer league team in July, is not expected to be a part of camp. The Blazers issued Mills a qualifying contract offer over the summer, but he has not signed it.

It’s newsworthy, but it should not be surprising. Going into summer league there was a some sort of unspoken battle between Mills and Armon Johnson. I figured Mills’ days were numbered considering the Blazers had made an effort to move up in the second round to grab Johnson. That investment, plus them signing Johnson to a contract put the nail in the coffin of Mills’ tenure in Portland. It’s unfortunate to see such a talented kid go, but there was no room for Mills. Management is clearly high on Johnson and believe his overall ceiling to be higher than Patty. Mills needed to show a better ability to ‘run the show’ as a PG, and obviously didn’t do enough of that.

Back to the invites to training camp, considering the fact that Portland’s roster is already over-loaded, it seems like a classic situation where extra bodies are brought in for the first few two-a-days. Nearly ever team does it and all of these guys seem like supreme longshots to make the roster. An interesting point was brought up by Ben Golliver over at Blazersedge who passed along a quote from D-League guru Scott Schroeder of Ridiculous Upside.

The Development League’s new allocation system allows for each D-League team to acquire the rights to 3 players cut from their affiliate’s training camp. With the Blazers bringing these guys into camp, assuming that they are cut and interested in playing in the D-League, they will be automatically be assigned to the Idaho Stampede instead of going through the draft/waiver process and potentially ending up on another D-League team.

This could be a scenario where Portland is looking at using the D-League better and getting guys more ingrained into their system. It’s interesting that three of the four players Portland is looking to bring in are perimeter players, considering the fact that Portland is stacked on the wing. An extremely speculative mind would wander towards thinking Portland could be preparing for a major move…I wouldn’t go that far, but certainly something to think about.