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This is the best article written about the Blazers this off season. I think KP f'cked his mother.
http://tsn.ca/nba/story/?id=292262#YourCallTop
Well, the fairy tale had to end some time, and for the Blazers this summer was that time. Though, considering how hard reality strikes some teams, the Blazers were let off fairly easily.
After all, this was a club that should have had far worse karma after the way they handled the Darius Miles situation last summer and the way the early parts of their contract negotiations went with Brandon Roy, but things went all right in the end. Did they get to spend their money on their number one free agent target (Hedo Turkoglu)? No, they didn't.
Did they get to spend their money on their odd second choice (Paul Millsap)? No, they didn't.
What they did get was a two-year rental on Andre Miller in an attempt to save face in a summer where no one seemed interested in playing in Portland.
Perhaps that, though, is the real trouble spot that has arisen this summer.
Portland is a club on the rise with one of the most talented guards in the game and a highly respected coach on the sidelines. Yet they had trouble spending nearly $10-million in cap space this summer because players and agents seem wary of linking themselves with the club. Surely part of it is the aftermath of the Miles fiasco, but GM Kevin Pritchard has begun to get himself a reputation as an arrogant malcontent who sees himself as bigger than his club and his club as better than the league.
Agents steered their clients away from Portland during the draft due to uncertainty as to when their clients would ever play. Portland's coach Nate McMillan was vocal during that process and this summer about the differences he and his boss have over the makeup of the roster (so much so that McMillan refuses to extend his contract beyond one-year increments so that he'll be available should a better opportunity present itself in the future).
Rudy Fernandez was displeased with the news that Turkoglu could be coming to the team and what it could mean for his already mid-sized playing time. Sergio Rodriguez, now of the Kings, was frequently frustrated with his role within the club and Jerryd Bayless has since taken up his cry. Heck, one has to wonder why Turkoglu would spurn a team that spent two solid days courting him like he was a southern belle for a club that was only willing to lift a telephone.
As nice as it is to have a team that the media adores, that isn't nearly as nice as having a team that players adore, because the media is fickle and is already poised to ditch this club for their division-mates in Oklahoma City.
Perhaps one of the issues leading to this circumstance with players is that players in Portland don't feel that the club has their best interests at heart. While a team must always remain dispassionate its their players to a certain degree, there are few organizations that (at least outwardly) treat their players with less humanity. These players are frequently reminded that they are assets first, people second. Bayless will never get a chance to play this year behind Miller, Roy and Steve Blake, yet he is theirs and they want no part of a trade discussion.
Travis Outlaw, one of the most dependable options on the team, has been sitting on the trading block for over a year without the club making any effort to dispel notions to the contrary. Teams shouldn't go out of their way to indulge every player's whim, but nor should they act as though there are no people inside the uniforms. A team like Dallas is the preferred destination of nearly every trade demand because players are cared for while in Dallas.
Part of Boston's legacy is that once you enter the Celtics family you are a Celtic for life, an honour that extends far longer than any one player's on-court career. Heck, one of the reasons Turkoglu may have ditched this club is that Toronto Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo has a reputation for making sure his players are done right by.
Portland may improve on their successes of last year or they may take a step back, but it's their long-term future that should have fans worried because having a reputation as an inhospitable club is very hard to shake.
PROBABLE STARTING LINEUP
PG – Andre Miller
Miller is one of the more underrated point guards in the NBA, but he simply doesn't fit this roster. He was the biggest name available that was willing to take their cash after two failed signing attempts, though, so now he's Blazer. It was amusing to watch the club try and spin this as Miller having been the player they wanted all along, but it still doesn't exactly account for how he's going to improve this club with his style of play. He excels in the open court, up-tempo systems like Philly ran, while Portland is one of the slowest and most deliberate teams in the league. Miller is a playmaker, but in Portland that is Roy's duty. What this team needs at the point guard spot is actually a scoring guard that plays solid defence, and neither is a great strength of Miller's. Miller had a disastrous year with the Clippers playing for a mid-tempo club so McMillan has his work cut out for him to avoid a repeat of that here in Portland.
SG – Brandon Roy
Roy is simply a marvel of consistency who also seems to improve with each year. It's a paradox that defines his career to date, because it isn't like any part of what Roy does fits into conventional thinking. He was a four-year college player, generally the least desirable draft commodity, yet his experience afforded him a composure that allowed him to easily and naturally slide into a leadership role in year one with the Blazers. He's as unspectacular as they come yet he's a two-time representative at the All-Flash All-Star Weekend. He's declined invitations to join up with Team USA in an era where every young player is clamouring for the chance to try out for the team. He is who he is and now we have to see if he can add "playoff leader" to his résumé next season.
SF – Nicolas Batum
Batum was a last-minute starter last season when Martell Webster couldn't go, and he's probably entrenched himself in the spot permanently now. He was a late first-round pick by the Houston Rockets that made his way to Portland and has now become their resident defensive stopper with a quasi-reliable three-point shot. He's been a legit contributor for France's national team this summer in the Euro Championships and if he continues to improve his game he's going to accelerate the Travis Outlaw Express out of town (Outlaw is a free agent next summer). Behind Batum is Outlaw, Webster and Fernandez, and all dying for minutes so he'll have to keep the improvements coming to keep his playing time from diminishing.
PF – LaMarcus Aldridge
When Aldridge gets the hang of rebounding at the rate of a starting power forward in the NBA, watch out! He's a wonderful shooting four-man who also happens to play some defence and he wound up upping his averages in the Playoffs (after a shaky Game 1). To get himself up into the class of guys like Chris Bosh, David West and Carlos Boozer, though, he's going to have to learn how to rebound the ball. He had only 19 double-digit rebounding efforts last season, compared to 28 for West and 43 for Bosh. Until we see if Greg Oden can become a 10-12 rebound-per-night guy, that responsibility is going to fall on Aldridge and he's going to have to shoulder that burden if he wants to raise his stock at a very competitive position in the NBA.
C – Greg Oden
Glimpses; a word that Oden must hate more than any other besides "injured". All anyone wants to talk about is how Oden continues to show glimpses of the kind of player he can be, but we all have to wait to see if he can turn those glimpses into anything more substantial. The pressure on his shoulders is immense and is certainly unenviable. Making it all the worse is that Kevin Durant, picked one spot after him in the draft, has turned himself into a dominant force already in just his second year in the league. Optimists expect Oden to turn into the second coming of Dwight Howard. Realists, though, have scaled back expectations to someone more like an old-school Theo Ratliff. Considering that a pessimist now looks at Oden and sees Michael Olowokandi, the Ratliff comparison doesn't seem so bad. He needs to have a healthy year to start giving people something more than "glimpses" to go on.
http://tsn.ca/nba/story/?id=292262#YourCallTop
