Toronto: Please Make Calderon Unhappy

We all heard KP unsuccessfully pursued Jose Calderon at the deadline. With Calderon's stock at an all-time high, the Raptors were understandably less than interested. While the pointguard is entering restricted free agency this summer, Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo has said he'll match any offer from other teams.

Message: "Don't waste your time."

Message 2: "If you want him in a sign and trade, I'm being very picky."

As a Calderon fan, I'm biased here, but I can see him fitting in great with this team and filling a huge need. What would the Blazers have to give up to get him? Draft pick(s)/expiring contract(s)/young player(s)? Bring in more teams to make it work? KP and his crew can figure that out.

Beside the fact that Calderon is very good, the Raptors are hesitant because of formerly-starting pointguard TJ Ford's issues. When Ford went out with another scary injury in December, Calderon shined especially bright, and has thus far held on to the starting spot upon Ford's return. To the casual observer, all seemed fine. Damn.

Today, some hope. TJ Ford might not be that cool with coming off the bench after all. Yes TJ, please please please force management to make a decision. Your health issues and comparatively large contract make you much less tradeable than Calderon, you're more likely to be the one who stays. Portland could send you some real backup pointguards that won't steal your light. Excellent.

In the first round of the 2008 NBA Draft, the Portland Trailblazers...

Unrestricted speculation is fun. ESPN knows this, and their NBA Lottery thingie is back. It is pretty pointless, but I recommend it, especially if you should be working. I keep running it over and over and the Blazers keep ending up with UCLA super soph-point Russell Westbrook. The system seems to be designed for Portland to take the best PG available at their awarded spot, and so far he's the guy. Interesting that DraftExpress has him as the 15th pick in the 2009 draft, the ESPN must love the guy a lot more. I have heard KP himself checked out a UCLA game when Portland was in LA.

Whatever the Blazers pick ends up being, I wouldn't be surprised to see some vintage KP trades (he has all those second round picks, expiring contracts, and some young talent-mostly available for the right price!) to move up and take the a player he really likes, assuming he's found one he'd want to move up for. Or he could even end up moving down, or using the pick to get someone already in the league (Hi Jose!). Being made of magic is fun like that.

Portland vs Toronto: No jinxes here

That was cute when I thought this obscure blog mentioning that the Blazers were the hottest team in the league would jinx the game. By my tally the Blazers TV crew referenced this joyous little distiction about 3,897 times, and I took a break to get some cereal. I would think they have considerably more jinx juice than I. In any event, none of this matters tonight:

Portland 101, Toronto 96 (boxscore)


Nine in a row.

A flu-symptoms fighting Brandon Roy had it going all night, contributing his usual all around excellence to the degree of 25 points, 9 rebounds, and 8 assists. This city knows how much this guy means to the team, as evident from the "MVP" chants as he was shooting free-throws in the fourth quarter. How long has it been since Portland fans did such a chant? Clyde Drexler?

With the schedule Portland has played, the record they have, and the way Roy has played, he deserves to be an All-Star. It has nearly zero chance of happening this season, but thats fine. We know, and the rest of the league is still learning.

LaMarcus was back after a five game break, and didn't look all that rusty. He didn't have the impact we've grown accustomed to this season, but contributed a quiet 15 and 7.

Much of the game the Raptors had the Blazers infamous zone defense downgraded from The Octopus to The Seamonkey. Only after a fourth quarter surge did Portland finally take the lead. That international collection of shooters Toronto has must have been excited to hear they'd have a zone defense to shoot over and spread out all night. That Calderon, he's a cold man.

The game was made more difficult largely because Portland's usual gangbusting second unit wasn't shooting quite as hot. Toronto has their own nice zone defense, but Portland's two big bench guns-Outlaw and Jones- didn't resemble their offensive selves we've seen during much of the streak. Despite Outlaw's cold night (4-12 from the field), he got some critical buckets in the closing minutes, which speaks volumes to his growth as a player. James stepped up and iced the game from the line. Both played good defense and made big intangible plays throughout the game, especially Outlaw down the stretch.

This is getting scary. What a team.