(Heads up, I pretty much ripped the idea for this post from Blazer’s Edge. I figured I’d be classy enough.)
A lot of anxiety going into this season if you’re a Blazer fan. Pick your poison. You could be the one who can’t wait to finally see Oden, Bayless and Rudy in the red and black. Or you could be wondering if Martell will make the leap. Could be thinking about if Steve Blake can be a playoff PG. Pondering if Nate can continue to teach but settle in on a rotation. Praying over Roy and Oden’s knees. Cringing at the thought of Sergio jacking up threes. Thinking that Troutlaw is cute. Whatever your flavor is….a lot going on as training camp begins. What Blazer fans don’t have to worry about? Position battles. For the most part, the lineup is pretty much set. And for that matter so is the whole roster.
Except for one spot: #15.
You may be scratching your head. ‘All this talent and this guy wants to talk about the #15 guy?’ Yes I do. Isn’t it a good thing that the battle over #15 is so meaningless? Absolutely. There’s no other way to state it but we’re positively stacked from a depth chart perspective. We don’t have All-Stars left and right but everyone is more than serviceable. You can’t win without players and we have a lot of those. So whoever steps into the #15 spot isn’t looking at having much of an impact on the court. More than likely he’ll be the happiest man on the planet.
In Blazer history we’ve been known to have some ‘popular’ bench players. Who didn’t love Boumtje-Boumtje? Who also didn’t cringe when Boumtje-Boumtje got real minutes? Matt Carroll anyone? For the old heads…what about Alaa Abdelnaby? Will Purdue, Joe Kleine, Gary Grant, Antonio Harvey…I’d even put Antonio Daniels in that category. Sure he played a lot more than anyone trying to make this team will….but come on. He had one dunk. I couldn’t have been the only one who just wanted to see him do the Statue of Liberty.
(And boy did he ever do it. Dang Kirilenko.)
When I think of who can fill that spot I think three men. ‘The Mountain Man’ Steven Hill, Luke ‘I Used to be Really, Really, Really Good’ Jackson and Shawn ‘I promise I still have a knee somewhere in that leg’ Livingston. The only signing which would truly have an impact on the team would be Livingston. And that’s a big leap considering last I saw him he could barely do rehab drills. Obviously he can do a lot more now but I’m just saying, Outside the Lines don’t lie! Bob Ley will beat you down. If everything’s fine, as Coup stated earlier this would be a steal and a half that would pay dividends down the line. If not you’ll never see him near Tualatin again. You could sign Luke Jackson and pull the same thing like when they had Fred Jones on the team for a hot minute. Except I don’t think Luke will play at all. I mean he’d need a lot of people to go down. I don’t even know why Luke chose to come here I mean….he actually had some buzz after the Rocky Mountain Revue. But I disgress. Steven Hill is just awesome. He has a built in nickname (The Mountain Man) and could easily be the Hippie 2.0. He could also have fouling contests with Big Joel. And could indirectly end the season of LMA or Oden. Who knows.
If I had a vote…I’d have to sign the Mountain Man. Please do it KP. There’s too much comedy there. Cool Hand Luke can go to Europe and Livingston will find some work. Besides having Livington’s knee, Oden’s knee and Roy’s knee in a locker room would form an axis of evil and someone’s leg would explode. So yeah.