Monday Blazer Courtside
(also comments from the 24-hr Rip City kick-off at the end)
10/27/08, 6-8pm, Live on Simulcast on Comcast Sportsnet and 95.5FM The Game
Hosts: Mike Barrett & Mike Rice
Mychal Thompson – interview
Blazers
- Consider Brandon Roy one of the top three SGs in the NBA behind Kobe Bryant and Dwayne Wade
- He thinks Rudy Fernandez plays a lot like Manu Ginobli, very unselfish player.
- Greg will be Rookie of the Year with him leading Portland to 50+ wins and into the playoffs.
- All the great centers come out and made an impact their first year in the NBA and doesn’t see why Greg can’t do the same.
- Stop trying to downplay Oden, this guy should have a lot of expectations.
- Oden is going to be one of the best defensive centers in the NBA this season and it may take a season or two to figure out his offensive game.
- Blazers have a great core of talent and looks forward to seeing them contending for a championship for the next 10 years
- If he was Nate he would tell Greg, you are going to be a great player. You are on your way to being a great player, go out there and be aggressive and pick your spots. Greg is already a great jumper and timing with blocking a shot. He is fast enough that he can wait until the player releases the ball and go after the block. Oden is going to be a terror on defense.
- He has told the Lakers they need to win a championship in the next two years as the Blazers will be ready to compete against the Lakers for the Western Conference.
- Lakers is the deepest team in the NBA and he thinks the Blazers are second deepest
- Great days ahead for the Blazers as they have really built a team of strong character guys that are strong with the community and the community is now strong with the blazers.
- Nate needs to tell his team that the Lakers are the standard, the signature team, the defending Western Conference champions. Everybody is picking them to win the NBA Championship.
- Nate needs to send a message. Pat Riley used to circle certain games on the schedule where he wanted to send a message. Nate needs to do the same thing. He needs to tell his team to be physical and send a message. The Blazers have beaten the Lakers in recent years on their home court and the Blazers need to make a statement that they can beat the Lakers on their home court.
- The Blazers can handle the next 25 games and the Blazers have experienced and intelligent players in Roy & Aldridge and should embrace the opportunity to play a challenging schedule and not be afraid.
- [MR & MT] - The Blazers are like the Detroit Pistons with balanced scoring and good defense.
- Mychal is looking forward to seeing in late May a Western Conference final with LA vs. the Blazers.
LA Lakers
- Comparing Gasol & Bynum and how they will play together. Mychal compares them with the past greats of Kevin McHale and Robert Paris, Tim Duncan & David Robinson, and other great twin towers. It is Pau Gasol excellent passing and does a good job of finding Bynum inside and that Andrew Bynum is a very underrated passer.
- [MR & MT] - The Lakers are like the Chicago Bulls of the past with a Michael Jordan player in Kobe Bryant and with Lamar Odom being a 6th man like Toni Kukoc.
Nate McMillan – interview
Team Lineup and Rotation
- He is starting Nicolas Batum at the SF position.
- He agrees with Mike Rice that it will probably be 9 man rotations, but will look at the positions for the next month and make adjustments where needed.
- He thinks he can give Nicolas about 14-15 per each half. He thinks Batum can go out and be relaxed and play off of Roy, LaMarcus and Greg. What Nate wants is for Nicolas to defend, rebound and run the floor. Nate thinks he can do that and have seen him do that in practice.
- He said then he will bring Rudy and Travis into the lineup, followed by Joel and Frye.
- Sergio will be the first PG off the bench. Only about 5-10 minutes a game.
- He said the 10th man whether it is Sergio or Jerryd will get about 10 minutes a game.
- Nate really wants to give Rudy a lot of minutes off the bench.
- He said it will probably be 9 ½ men in the rotation.
Portland vs. LA
- He wants his team to be the aggressors and initiate the defense first, attack them on offense and then make adjustments throughout the game.
- Nate has found it is much easier to tell a team “whoa” then “giddy up” in a game.
- He doesn’t want the players to think about the stage (i.e. national TV audience / opening night) he wants them to focus on what they need to do on the court.
- He showed a tape on the Lakers and with Bynum and Gasol in the lineup they are a big team. They are efficient on the offensive end and are doing some good things on defense.
- It is going to be a good challenge for his players.
- Nate’s game plan is to take this game from the Lakers.
- Nate asked his players are they nervous about the game tomorrow and they said “no”. There is going to be jitters, but he wants them to be the aggressors.
Blazer team
- He is having the players working on their timing, setting & using screens, ball movement, spacing on the court and help defense.
- Execute the offense without using the dribble as much. We have guys that can shoot from the outside. Attack from the inside / outside, run pick n’ rolls or isolate guys. It is just a matter in what the other team will give them on the court and for the players to recognize it.
- Big key is their spacing on the court and giving certain players with the ball the room to play and giving him enough space that forces a team to double team and look for the open man.
- The NBA game is all about spacing. We have guys who can put the ball in the bucket, but they need to spacing to either know when the double team is going to occur or not. It is one of the hardest thing for a young team to learn on how to read and know when double teams happen.
- Spacing on the offensive is going to be a big key and will help the defensive end of the ball with rebounding and knowing when to double team.
- Spacing also helps a team with offensive rebounding and defending the ball off of rebounds.
- Everybody is so excited about getting this season. They are going to be seeing themselves get better quickly after these next couple of weeks.
Greg Oden
- Nate has asked his coaches and other people that they don’t know any player that has higher expectations in his first season than Greg Oden has had.
- Nate is going to bring Greg along slowly on offense. He is going to be the third or forth option on offense.
- Nate will use both Brandon and LaMarcus as the 1st and 2nd option on offense, then they will drop the ball to Greg.
- He would like Greg to focus on defense and rebounding and worry about offense later.
- They will slowly mix Greg into the offense more later, but doesn’t think it will take long at all for him to adapt to the NBA.
Brian Wheeler – interview
Miscellaneous
- New group of flight attendants on the Blazer plane and a table normally empty is filled with fruit and all kinds of treats. The new stewardess said as long as she is flying along she will make sure that table is full of treats.
- He will be glad when the elections are over and not have to listen to people like Antonio Harvey’s political views.
- Wheels will be on tonight from midnight to 3am in the 24 hr. kick off of the Blazers.
Team
- Guys like Brandon and Aldridge are keeping the team very calm and confident.
- Greg is calm and said it may change when he gets on the court.
Ric Bucher – NBA Analyst – interview
- It’s not too big of a stage for the blazers. What this team needs is all sorts of big game experience for this team to do what everybody is expecting. What people need to understand is that this Blazer team needs some time.
- Short term he likes what he sees in good leadership, good character and good talent on paper. They meet all the things you see in building a dynasty on paper.
- Before we talk about a real dynasty and a run of multiple championship runs there are two major things.
--- 1) They are a frightfully young team, they don’t have a solid veterans in the locker room that can hold it together to show players how to workout. Now the Blazers have some good young veterans, but it is always good to have a couple of old heads around.
--- 2) They have all young guys and you are not going to be able to keep, play and pay all of them in what they think they are worth. So the Blazers need to decide who is their core? Who they can move for maybe some of those older veterans he has been talking about. Otherwise, you run the risk as the Bulls were where every team is low balling you in trade offers, because they know what the Blazers.
- You don’t want to create what the Knicks have today or what the old Blazers were of a $90M payroll, plus luxury tax and no flexibility for acquiring the veteran players you need for a championship.
- How much will the Blazers use Raef LaFrenz’s contract will depend a lot on how close they are with the playoffs.
- The names he has heard that are out there (i.e. Lamar Odom, Shawn Marion) will probably not really help the Blazers.
- The thing that Pritchard was looking at last year and will look for at trade deadline this season is an experienced veteran who has been to the playoffs.
- He expects the Blazers to make the playoffs and expect 48 wins.
- Adding Greg will make a 5-6 win swing is pretty good.
- Adding Rudy is also going to help in the win column.
- He hasn’t seen the Blazers make a move that will give them a 10 win type player yet, so he thinks they will finish in the 7th or 8th playoff spot, but that could change depending what Pritchard does at trade time.
LA Lakers - comments
- [MR] - He picked the Lakers to win the championship, but the more he sees them the more he thinks the Lakers will have problems chemistry wise getting everybody to play on the same page.
- [MB] – The billing of a Bynum vs. Oden and the expectations of a break out year with a 4th year for Bynum and a break out rookie year for Oden. The expectations maybe too high for both players.
- [MR] – Rice picks the Lakers to win it all, because Phil Jackson has players that fit into his system and believe in Phil’s plan.
Blazer team – comments
- [MR] – Nate hasn’t really played the players on the first team with the second team very much. He hasn’t really had Brandon and Rudy on the court together a whole lot.
- [MR] – Nate has worked a lot on team defense and a lot on team execution of plays. Not on running.
- [MR] – If you look at the next five games, none of the teams will be double teaming Greg Oden. That is different from the rest of the NBA teams.
- [MB] – If you look first there is Andrew Bynum (i.e. LA Lakers), second is Tim Duncan (i.e. San Antonio), third is Shaq (i.e. Phoenix), forth is Yao Ming (i.e. Houston) and fifth is Mehmet Okur (i.e. Utah).
- [MR] – In all the seasons he has been with the Blazers this is the toughest opening of five games he has seen ever. All five teams are potential NBA championship contenders and were last year at least 55 win teams.
- [MR] – He talked to Roy and Aldridge and he loves the leadership as they responded with we will have to play them sometime.
- [MR] – He has Batum-14 minutes, Sergio-10 minutes. He just doesn’t see how Channing and Bayless will get any minutes in the game and they both deserve minutes.
- [MR] – Last year the Blazers tried a three man rotation at PG with Blake, Jack and Sergio and that didn’t work. This year the Blazers want to go with only two PGs. Right now Bayless is a scorer and Sergio is a setup man and the Blazers want a setup man at PG. That may change as Bayless gets used to the NBA and Nate’s system.
- [MB] – Has seen all the NBA predictions going around and has seen anywhere from 6th to 8th in the Western Conference and hasn’t seen one yet that the Blazers will miss the playoffs.
- [MR] – They are a 41-41 without Greg and Rudy. Now you add those two and if it wasn’t for Sergio’s improved outside shot you would be adding Bayless to that reason.
- [MR] – The Blazers will win in the Rose Garden, but will need to win at least ½ their road games in order to make the playoffs. They will need to beat the Eastern conference teams they should’ve done last year, this year in the Rose Garden. They need to beat the non-playoff teams both at home and on the road.
- [MR] – The buzz around the fans and blazer office reminds him so much of the late 80’s, early 90’s.
- [MR] – No reason why the young Blazers can’t make at least 78% of their free throws.
- [MR] – Nate has a system where players like Darius Miles and Rueben Patterson don’t know how to play in a system. The players that Pritchard went out to get all fit into Nate’s system. Teams who believe in a system will defeat teams that aren’t bought into a system more times than not.
Greg Oden – comments
- [MR] – The expectation on Greg is so high is that Greg has been acting very cautious in practice on defense.
- [MR] - Greg needs to relax and play aggressive and go after every shot and bang some bodies. He should know that Joel (one of the best backups in the NBA) has his back and can come in if he is in foul trouble. Greg needs to establish a presence in the NBA and refs.
Nicolas Batum - comments
- [MR] – Question from fan, is AK47 a good comparison for Batum? Rice thinks that is a good comparison. Rice said it will make it an easier transition when Martell returns as Nicolas will go from playing major minutes to no minutes.
Steve Blake – comments
- [MR] – During this summer, he has seen a marked difference in Steve Blake.
- [MB] – People forget that Pritchard believes in acquiring players that have won championships. Blake won a NCAA championship with Maryland.
- [MR] – When it comes to who is not functioning well on the offense of defense, Blake will step up. All this summer Blake was the leader on the court.
- [MB] – Blake really looks for Greg Oden and don’t be surprised you see the Blake-Oden combo on slam dunks.
Martell Webster - comments
- [MR] – Martell went out on the court off his crutches and in his socks shooting jump shots. Jay Jensen saw that and escorted Martell off the court and explained to him that him shooting jump shots is not going to slow his healing down. So Martell went back to his rehab.
- [MR] – Rice thinks that Martell will be back like Channing sooner than people thought.
- [MR] – With Martell in the lineup the Blazers are easily a 50 win team. Without Martell they are a 45 win team.
- [MR] – Pritchard is going to be watching both Martell and Travis this season. He thinks that Martell has really changed his game over the summer.
Mike Barrett
- Mike Rice and Mike Barratt will be at Buffalo Wild Wings, downtown Portland. TNT will be broadcasting the game instead.
- Individual game tickets on sale now.
- Mike Rice and Barratt plan on doing the fifth quarter after the game.
- People in Phoenix are really excited about them bidding for a championship with Nash, Stoudamire and Shaq.
- Because of the work of Kevin Pritchard and staff has done with a quick turn around you still see articles of comparing where the Blazers were several years ago with the Jail Blazer label.
Mike Rice
- 15 years ago he used to be known as the Swami, but now after visiting China this fall and receiving a good luck charm. He is now being called “Confucius”
- “Confucious” say the Lakers will win, that the stage is too big right now for the Blazers. He thinks that Roy and LaMarcus will do well, but the rest of the Blazers will be intimidated.
- Rudy will play about 28 minutes and Rudy will probably play the point guard.
- It was disappointing to see Travis not grab a hold of the starting position.
- A player like Allan Iverson will hurt this team a lot.
- Jason Kidd would also hurt the team as he needs the ball almost every time he is down the court.
- A player like Richard Jefferson is a good fit.
- If the Blazers make the playoffs. Mike Rice will shave his head into a Mohawk.
Additional information:
Travis Outlaw
- [Kenny Vance [KV]] – Rumors circulated that the Blazers were inquiring over the summer of the value of Travis and found out his value isn’t as high as the Blazers thought. Now with his current poor performance in exhibition, his value is even lower.
24 hr. Rip City show
Midnight – 3AM show with Brian Wheeler, Antonio Harvey, Kenny Vance and Jay Allen
Blazer first game
- [BW] – Nate trusts his players and many have already turned in for the night as Oden, Rudy, Sergio and Jerryd walked by before midnight after dinner out and were heading off to bed. The fans will be happy to hear that all the Blazers were accounted for and well in their rooms before the midnight curfew.
- [BW] – This will be the first time in Blazer history, they will have three new players in the starting lineup. With both Greg Oden and Nicolas Batum, but also Steve Blake as he was not the starting PG at the beginning of last year.
- [BW] – Lakers really like their bench and the Blazers like their bench. So it may come down with the benches making the difference in the game tonight.
- [KV] – The wild card for the Blazers is Greg Oden and the wild card for the Lakers will be Lamar Odom coming off the bench.
- [KV] – He has watched both Bynum and Oden and he thinks that if Oden can stay out of foul trouble he can easily over power Bynum inside as Bynum is a smaller player.
- [BW] - [7:30am] - The team is relaxed and know the importance of the game and very anxious at the start of the season.
- [BW] - [7:30am] - Nicolas feels better these last few days of practice after he realizes he can do what he does best with rebounding and defense. Some teams are already figuring out who Batum is by scouting the pre-season games and he will not be sneaking up to any team.
- [BW] - [7:30am] - It will come down to which bench is playing better tonight against Los Angeles.
- [BW] - [7:30am] - Lakers can't ask for more tonight as they will be celebrating their Western Conference championship. There is a buzz in the air with the Lakers knowing what this game will mean to them as the young talented Blazers come to town. Phil Jackson will have his team focused tonight knowing the Blazers want to be up their with the Western Conference champs.
Miscellanous
- [Caller-Chris] – works in a sporting store and Roy is still the big uniform seller, but LaMarcus is the most requested jersey from the women.
- [AH] – [D69] asked about Blazers acquiring an NBDL team and locating them in Tacoma. Antonio Harvey knows the trend is for NBA teams to own their own minor league club, but he doesn’t see it happening soon for the Blazers. The owner of the Idaho Stampede is making money after just winning a NBDL championship and is the main franchise in this territory. He doesn’t see the Idaho owner relinquishing his territorial rights to the Blazers and the Blazers don’t really want to deal with the headache of trying to run another franchise.
- [BW] - [7:30am] - 16 out of the first 24 games will be on the road. Over half the games will be against playoff contending teams. Roy & Aldridge say to bring it on, they look forward to the competition.
- [BW] - [7:30am] - 48 wins should be enough for the Blazers to get into the playoffs. Maybe more if they can play together.
- [BW] - [7:30am] - Larry Miller is well connected into the entertainment world as Larry will have Earth, Wind & Fire will be providing half time entertainment to the fans at the opening night of the Blazers vs. Spurs game.
Trade Rumors
- [KV] – [D69] asked a question which player of the three or someone else will be the best fit in a trade (Richard Jefferson, Tayshaun Prince, Shane Battier or someone else). Kenny thinks Richard Jefferson has taken a step back in his game since being traded. It was something the Nets saw and decided to trade him. Kenny thinks players like Tayshaun Prince and Shane Battier would be perfect for the young Blazers.
- [BW] – A lot will depend how the season goes for the Blazers as the Lakers have proven that excellent deals can be made as the trade deadline gets closer where some teams who aren’t going to make the playoffs, high in payroll and/or luxury tax territory. Will want to make a deal to save money. Pritchard will be looking for a Pau Gasol like deal by trade deadline. Where Pritchard can hold onto to Raef’s contract and use the cap space this summer or find a star quality player that can fit into Nate’s system and help the team make a run into the playoffs.
