Arena RIP CITY UPRISE: The Portland TrailBlazers Fan Club

In the 2008-2009 NBA season, the young Portland TrailBlazers, despite a disappointing first-round playoff loss to Houston, showed great potential. Behind stars Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge, the Blazers were albe to rack up 54 wins in the regular season, a huge change from two years previous, when they had about 24 wins all season. A young and dynamic cast of players made it happen, and now they are seen as seriosu threats in the Western Conference, known for power teams. In a couple seasons, the Blazers could be on their way to the NBA Finals. This is the Fan Club dedicated to the Blazers and their players.

The Roster (As of Today):
Brandon Roy, G
LaMarcus Aldridge, F
Greg Oden, C
Steve Blake, PG
Joel Przybilla, C
Travis Outlaw, F
Nicolas Batum, F-G
Martell Webster (injured for all but five minutes this season) G-F
Sergio Rodriguez, PG
Rudy Fernandez, G-F
Channing Frye, F-C
Jerryd Bayless, PG
Michael Ruffin, F-C
Shavlik Randolph, F
Raef LaFrentz (injured all season) F-C

It looks as if Ruffin, Frye, Randolph and LaFrentz will take a walk, and Roy and LA lead the group of players expected to be signed to contract extensions. It is also possible that Rodriguez will leave as well, given his comments a few days ago about needing "a change of scenery". I find that this is not a good thing for Portland; Sergio brought a dynamic passing style to the team, something that they will lack if he leaves for another team.

If the team stays mostly intact, this team should go far next season. If Oden can stay healthy and learn from his mistakes this season, he will give the team a strong center presence, and Joel Przybilla should get a lot of minutes either off the bench (for LA or Oden) or in the starting lineup. Fernandez, Bayless and Outlaw bring flair off the bench, combining to make a great young group of players that add depth to the roster, and the return of Webster to the lineup will give the team another scoring threat off the bench (if Batum stays at starting SF). Batum is a smart young guy that provides lockdown D (sort of like Bruce Bowen of the Spurs; doesn't score much, but plays good D and can knock down the occasional 3-point shot). The Blazers have 5 draft picks in this year's draft; hopefully, they will add a few extra pieces to the puzzle, and then the Blazers can have a strong follow-up season next year.

 

Package Blake with some draft picks for elite PG.

Webster will be nice to have back.

If Oden takes basketball serious over the summer and works really hard things will be much better in the middle.

 

If Oden keeps in shape and can learn from this year, he should be a great player next year.

What elite PG's do you think the team should look at?

 

Blake is the perfect point guard for the team we have. He's not flashy, but he's efficient. You can always expect him to knock down at least 10 points a night and have a number of assists as well. Think of him as a poor man's John Stockton.

From the "active" roster, I can only see us getting rid of Frye and Rodriguez. Everyone else should stay put.

 

Same here. I see Blake as being a good role-playing PG who can score and dish out the ball (he got 14 assists in one quarter in a game this past season) to the other scorers. Although the fans like Rodriguez, he's not going to get a lot of playing time next year with Bayless improving, and Frye is the odd-man out.

 

Frye was very useful last year as a backup for Przybilla. But this year, with Oden returning, Frye became much less useful.

 

Who should they draft this year? I'm not exactly sure what the brass will decide to do, but it will involve some trading due to having four second-round picks.

 

Apart from Griffin and Rubio, I don't know who's good in the draft this year. We should probably draft the best point guard or power forward available. We're pretty much set at the other positions.

 

The trade history for the Blazers is active so I could see a trade with the picks. They also might pick some players and stash them overseas.

 

I agree with that. Most of the picks are on their way out of town, and a player or two might go overseas (or into the NBADL all season long).

 

I think I'll be surprised if Portland isn't involved in at least two trades on draft day

 

"At least" are the keywords for the draft. 3 trades wouldn't be out of the question in my mind.

 

How many draft day trades have they made the past two years? Its a bunch, I know.

 

Once the Draft comes around, someone will publish the number of trades they have made in the past two years on Draft Day.

 

The Blazers chose Victor Claver of Spain with the 22nd overall pick. If they don't keep him, they will save some extra cash for next offseason's possible free agent market.

Also, Sergio Rodriguez is going to the Kings. While I like Sergio, he just didn't fit into the system this year.

 

Channing Frye has departed for the Suns. And the Blazers have made an offer on Paul Millsap. This puts Utah in a tough situation, salary cap-wise, so either way the Blazers come out on top with this deal.

 

After a couple weeks of failures in acquiring interesting assets (Turkoglu, Millsap), the Blazers have finally officially landed Andre Miller. He will work well as a backup point guard for Steve Blake (or vice versa) and this will definitely help out the team a lot.

 

I'm not liking this manuever much; it means that Blake might be on the short end of the stick and will have to play backup. Also, the team has been trying to develop Jerryd Bayless into a Point Guard during the Las Vegas Summer League; with the Miller signing, that makes him #3 PG on the roster. Doesn't seem like a way to get him to develop into a better guard.

 

Miller only really helps if the Blazers are actually planning on running more. He's not much of a shooter. I suppose having a veteran presence on a young team would be nice also...

 

Well, they've only signed Miller to a 2 year contract, with a 3rd as an option. That will give Bayless time to develop into a stronger player when Miller's contract is up. Plus, they can still call Bayless' number if Blake or Miller get hurt or something.

 

Still, it's hard to develop a lot when you're on the bench most of the game.

 

Still, the Blazers will have a very strong second unit with Miller's addition. Now we can have Miller, Fernandez, Outlaw and Oden all coming off the bench, and all are excellent players. With the departure of Channing Frye, I'm not sure who the backup power forward should be when Aldridge takes a seat, but maybe Outlaw can fill that position and have Webster be the backup small forward.

 

I had a feeling the Pdx would try and make a move for a vetern PG. Miller cans score, distribute, and rebound. Makes the Blazers much, much better.

 

Oden and Miller were mighty impressive in the preseason opener against the Kings tonight.

 

Oden looking really strong so far.