Trade Deadline

Thursday the 21st is the NBA trade deadline (12 PM PST) and a lot of names are being bandied about such as Portland's own Jarrett Jack. With all of the trade activity over the past month, I think there could be a couple more big money makers moving over the next couple of days. The Nets are going to try hard to get rid of Vince "Half-Man Half-Amazin'" Carter, the Pacers would like to dump J. O'Neal and Jamaal Tinsley (good luck, his contract sucks, bad, real bad, one of the worst out there), Udonis Haslem, basically anyone on Miami not named Wade or Marion, and countless others are waiting to get the call.

Should Portland be part of the trades? Pritchard isn't going to do anything to jeapordize the young talent development on the team, but we also currently have four point guards (and a half if you count Roy) and have Rudy Fernandez and another first round pick potentially coming in next year, not to mention 3 or four second round picks (you have to think that they will either trade those or just pick big potential foreign players and stash them). Really there are too many eggs in the basket, so here is a list of potential trade options for the Blazers, either at the trade deadline, or before the draft.

1. Jarrett Jack

Jack is a big point guard that other teams covet. He can certainly pass the ball, and score in bunches, but the Blazers still haven't really figured out how he fits in with the team as he is not a natural PG and is kind of a tweener. Another interesting argument I have heard is that he is one of the last of the John Nash picks on the team (so is Martell Webster, but I think the entire team likes this guy and why wouldn't you, I think he is blossoming into a very complete player, plus I think he was Nate's pick), and Pritchard obviously did not like the way Nash picked players. So we could definitely see Jarrett moved by tomorrow, or soon. I think he is the point guard they do not want to keep, we know they like Blake for his high level of mistake free basketball and the fact that he is a true PG, Pritchard loves Rodriguez as much as Nate gets frustrated with him, I think they see him developing into a good if not great PG (and he is only 20 and will likely play with fellow Spainiard Fernandez next season). And I still think Taurean Green will develop into a solid PG as well. So Jack, as much as I like ya, you are the odd man out.

2. Channing Frye

Hey Frye has his pluses, but he is a SF trapped in a PF's body. He just does not really fit, this team does not need another soft PF (yes LA12 this is a dig at you!) they need a banger, someone with post moves, someone who can get rebounds, score in the post, and just muck it up. Think about it next year when Oden is our starting center, he will complement LA's soft game well, and we could just use a banger to side with Joel who can score, then you could put Outlaw at the 3, but I don't know if Nate likes him there, which leads us to.........

3. Travis Outlaw

He has a heap of potential, can be a great scorer, is a good team guy, has a very reasonable contract. I'm kind of on again off again about trading Trout. I really like the guy, thinks he is a great bench guy and could really be an awesome sixth man in this league, but I just don't know how he fits, another tweener, they have tried playing him at the 2, 3, and 4 spot, and Nate sees him as a four, but is he? I don't think he is rugged enough, I mean his body type is more of a T-Mac, Rashard Lewis, Tayshaun Prince, and none of them play PF. I could see that with a small ball lineup, but not with Joel in the middle. I would be okay with trading him if we got the right player, but only if it is in a deal that makes sense for us.

4. Darius Miles

We don't want him and we don't need him. Then again, I don't think anyone else does either, the only reason he is on this list is because we just really want to get out from under his contract. Maybe we could entice the Knicks to trade us Malik Rose and Mardy Collins for Miles and his potential. Rose's contract is up after next season (as opposed to the season after for Miles), and really he could be a solid big body backup at PF. Collins is just thrown into to make the dollars work, and we could just buy him out since we don't have the roster space for him, or trade him for a 2nd round pick in like 2010 or something. But if we trade Miles it will be something similar to that deal, because he just isn't worth much at this point.

Really I don't see any other player that we should trade at this point. I like the makeup of the team and think they will only get better.

As we are seeing right now, this team is hitting a wall, with many players playing in more games and getting more minutes (like this here) than ever before. But think about our lineup, not only is Roy playing more than he ever has, Aldridge is getting way more minutes than he ever has (he didn't exactly play a full season as a starter last year), Webster is playing a lot more, Outlaw is playing a lot more, these guys are just learning what it is like to play an 82 game season with significant minutes. Sure the All Star weekend gave some of them a break, but not much of one, not enough to totally recover. I feel this explains LaMarcus' slump (so ease off him Nat!) and the lack of fire and energy this team has right now. So patience is what we need to have with this team and these guys, whatever their record gets to be this season, all of these players will reap the benefits, trust me, this season will pay off big further on down the line......

All about Roy?

One of the highlights of the All Star game, is that the one guy who looked like the most unlikely to actually be on the court with the other players was our very own, Brandon Roy. The thing is it's not like I don't think he should be an All Star because he definitely has the talent to be on the same court as the other players, but you can just tell he is of a different breed than most of the others. Unassuming, humble, quiet, reserved, and a team player. And in doing all of this he also commands a certain amount of respect different than most of the other All Star caliber players. That and he played the most minutes on the West squad, and had the best all around game of his team, here is an article that suggests he was the Most Productive Player on either team. More on the humble, quiet, and respectful player Roy has become from the Sunday Oregonian right here (great article gives some insight into Roy as a youth). Then the Oregonian article from today on the All Star game for Roy here.

But I think all of the attention on Roy ever since he became a Blazer deserves some dissecting. In the two seasons previous to Roy's arrival, the Blazers were still known with the prefix 'Jail' and still had selfish, ball-hog type players who genuinely believed that there is an 'I' in team. Telfair, Miles, Randolph these players all talked as though they cared about wins and losses and playing as a team, but they never really showed it. The organization had been attempting to woo fans back to the arena with the 25-point pledge, pinning up the faces of the new young players who were supposedly good kids. Well guess what they weren't, and the front office was still being run by some fairly shady personnel who really weren't doing their due diligence concerning putting a competitive, character driven team together, but they got us the pieces. Then came the draft of '06, we essentially traded Viktor Khryapa for LaMarcus Aldridge, and then take Raef LaFrentz' contract off Bostons hands in order to get Roy. And this move was a stroke of genius, we got a 4 year college kid who was just a good guy, naturally humble, and a natural leader, yet with the drive and passion to win just like all the great basketball players have. Roy wasn't happy losing, and he also wasn't happy with ego-centric players. He quietly usurped the role of leader of this team, and in my mind, single handedly changed the culture surrounding the Portland Trail Blazers. He reminds me of Tim Duncan, not in his game of course, but in his demeanor. Obviously he has a bit more flair than TD, but not much, he quietly goes about his business and plays his game. He knows his strengths and uses them to his advantage, and most of all he puts his team above or at least on the same level as himself. He is clearly the best player on this Portland team and is definitely the star, the one player who truly makes the team 'go', but he doesn't take credit for that. He never has and even after all of his personal success since joining the Blazers, I doubt he ever will. Look at the article from todays paper, and notice the last quote he has in it:

"But I'll go back and tell my teammates about this whole weekend and the experience," Roy said. "I'll tell them this wouldn't have been possible without them."

Do you think Kobe Bryant would ever say that, LeBron James, Amare Stoudamire, Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade, 'Melo? I highly doubt it. We have a very rare player on our hands, one I could see taking less money just to give his organization and team the best opportunity to win. One who I hope never leaves our fair city, one I don't see leaving our fair city, one whose number should be hanging in the rafters of the Rose Garden some day. And like Duncan, he rubs this unselfish attitude onto his entire team, he embraces his team and does his best to put them on his shoulders, to make them feel as important and as responsible for his own personal accolades. He has quietly, humbly become the heart and soul of this team. We are fortunate to have him, and I am fairly certain he feels the same way about the city of Portland and it's fans.

All Star

So this is what I have gathered from reading about All Star weekend, a lot of attention, and rightly so, focusing on the NBA and the help they have generated in the community of New Orleans. It's interesting, I read an ESPN magazine story about the NBA and how it is viewed by the public. Most people think the game is filled with thugs and self-centered, drug smoking hoodlums. And I wouldn't argue that there are those kinds of players out there, but seriously, this league does more community service work than any other major professional sports league, yet this gets constantly shoved aside by the general public. It is time the league received its due.

Other All Star hubbub, whether or not LeBron James should have been MVP, most people think it should have been Ray Allen. I think it is stupid to let the fans decide in the first place, it is not a popularity contest, so don't make it one......and I will get two new vending machines for center hall.

Then of course is the dunk contest, which Dwight Howard won (see all of his dunks here), due mainly to the fervor surrounding his non-dunk Superman dunk, but I was quite impressed, but it was a year too late for him to win, as I think this dunk should have garnered more attention than it initially received.