More draft-related fun activities to waste time with

If the 2008 NBA Draft confirmed anything to me, it would be that the whole thing would be a lot more boring for everybody if Kevin Pritchard wasn't involved. Here is my 3rd grade reading level obligatory recap:

Players the Blazers ended up with: Jarryd Bayless, Ike Diogu, and Nicolas Batum.

I have been in like with all these players. Don't sleep on Diogu, he is a good banger style scorer in the post. The fact that he's undersized won't be that big of a deal considering Portland has enough trees to protect the rim. Batum will be stashed in Europe for a while.

There is a lot to love about Bayless at the point. Local media seem to be knocking him a little, but I haven't heard or read any legitimate claims to back up the criticisms. Basically, the argument seems to be that he is not a sure thing star that we know will definitely fit in. Duh. Being contrarian is fine, do what you gotta do to pay the bills, but I would appreciate it if you were not so lazy about it. Please, come with a more solid case. Need I remind you there are, conservatively some would say, three legitimate stars already on this roster? Bayless need not be Derrick Rose my friends.

Blazers sent off: Jarrett Jack and Josh McRoberts were sent off to Indiana. Both can be good NBA Players, I would hardly be surprised to see them both have reasonably long careers. Both could also probably use the fresh start. Best of luck.

I would give a rundown of all Blazers transactions and who they actually you know, drafted, but there is no point. KP traded every player the team drafted, so I'll save us both a few seconds and skip all that.

Also, I know everyone is linking to this, but I could get my sports bloggers license revoked if I didn't post this years' entry from the Stephen A. Smith Heckling Society of Gentlemen. It did make me like Kevin Love a little more. Sort of somber this year, but still well worth watching:

The Post-Duke Career of Josh McRoberts

Ah, the journey of Josh McRoberts. When he was at Duke, people naturally hated the guy. But being hated isn't so bad, it is acknowledgment of existence and probably relevance.

Then, after getting drafted in the second round, Josh McRoberts entered a new and exciting phase of his life: irrelevance. The guy had been known on the basketball scene since high school, so the sudden relative anonymity must have been strange.

Little NBA playing time, little D-League dominance. (Role player for D-League Champion just doesn't seem to grab people, wadayagonadooo?) Now you can't really discount the argument that his most positive contribution to the team is being Greg Oden's friend. Although I still like some of his potential as a player (remember all these nice things I said?), the basketball universe has seemingly made its final judgment that he doesn't matter after all. Its up to him to battle that.

All of this is brought home in Oden's recent workout clip for ESPN. Here, McRoberts plays the role of anonymous workout partner to perfection. Watching the first couple scenes, I actually was wondering who that white guy was working out with Greg. He looked kinda tall, I wonder if he plays basketball? I believe this is a sign that Josh should do all he can to maintain this friendship.

Blazers on Myspace. I know I'm a loser.

It was Blazers media day today, and everybody who is anybody was there. I was going to get a press-pass and get all sorts of scoops, but I had to shower and do some stuff.

So I decided to have my own media day. There will be no microphones or cliche questions/answers at this one. To get to really know a person, they have to open up. You have to see them stripped down to their most honest self-expression. Thats right, we're going to Myspace!

I guess its important to keep in mind anyone can pose as anyone on myspace. I mean, if I really wanted to I could create an account claiming the name "Raef LaFrentz," throw up some pics and a Kelly Clarkson song, and BOOM, I'm hooking up with "LaFans" until I get "LaClap."

Full disclosure, here's mine.

Lets assume that at least some of these are real, and we can learn all types of interesting personal trivia. For example, did you know Raef LaFrentz would like to meet "Bill Russel, Magic Johnson, Jesus, " This is just the beginning my friend.

I ran the entire roster through the name search (I added the draft picks who will remain stashed in Europe for a while). Then I took my shirt off, took pictures at extreme angles that hide my flaws, and got my social-network on.

If you don't see your favorite Blazer on the list, there could be a couple of explanations. They could actually NOT have a myspace, it is sort of possible. Or, and this was more frequent, they have a common name and I didn't feel like sifting through 9 million other Steve Blakes of Chris Elisseses (Ellisi?). I guess I could of tinkered with the zip code filter on my searches, but um, I didn't.

LaMarcus Aldridge
Title: "The Official LaMarcus Aldridge Myspace"
Song: Get 'Em by lil Wayne
Friends: 144
Last login: 10/2/07
By reading the quote, you might think his page is more corporate-marketing tool than actual myspace. You're wrong, you'll be assured of this by the Weezy track and high volume of basketball pictures stuffed into the columns.

Channing Frye
Title: "with any new job, you embrace it, accept it, and move on proudly"
Private Page
He looks to be a serial-myspacer, with a few older accounts. If you're curious, I linked to one he had when he played for the Knicks. The move to a new private page with a positive mantra serving as title (his old one is "Go Knicks!!!!!!")? I like it.

Taurean Green
Title: "gators back to back champs"
Song: Low by Flo Rida
Friends: 945
Last login: 9/27/2007
If you have read this blog, you know I love Taurean's game. He's also impressing the pants off of Nate McMillan, which I always imagine as being hard. His teammates are in his picture, but he didn't just make this to show them some love. You know he can score effectively on his own: "Ladies I'm lookin for i girl that will treat me the way that i will treat the and da way i treat them is good." Awwwwe ya.

Jarrett Jack
Title: "Jarrett Jack"
Last login: 4/28/07
Private Page
Break down the walls, Jarrett, let me love you!

Raef LaFrentz
Title: "Trail Blazers on their way up"
Song: Streamline by Newton
Friends: 295
Last login: 1/5/07
This is the one profile I absolutely insist you visit. Really its too funny to be real (Dane Cook and Bishop Don Magic Juan are top friends), and I can't do it justice.

Josh McRoberts
Title: "im a lucky guy."
Last login: 9/7/2007
Private Page
I admit, I wanted to see this one pretty bad. But not as bad as the next one.

Darius Miles
Title: "Dunkin' Darius"
Song: Where it started at by Hi-Tek
Friends: 3987
Last login: 5/24/2007
Whatever people think about D.Miles, they still think about him. When I talk Blazers to those that don't really follow the team, his name comes up often. Further evidence is the multiple fake myspace pages that are dedicated to him. I linked to the one that seemed to have the most effort put into it.

Greg Oden
Title: "The Ohio State"
Song: Get them hands hi by Ten Days Till
Friends: 368
Last login: 10/2/207
Ordinary enough. Stick to his blog.

Travis Outlaw
Technically has one, but its totally blank. No bad joke equating that with his court presence. Not from me.

Brent Petway
Title: "Holla at ya folk!"
Song: None.
Friends: 3
Last login: 7/8/2005
Brent is one of those guys we should all cheer to catch on somewhere and make the league this season, if only so he can be in the dunk contest. Air Georgia's not really into myspace, though.

Joel Pryzbilla
See Travis Outlaw above.

Sergio Rodriguez
This search yielded 1183 hits, so I let it go. I do write about Sergio often, so I hope to satisfy your needs. Did that sound weird?

Martell Webster
Title: "YA ITS ME MARTELL"
Song: KOBE by Kobe Bryant
Friends: 42
Last login: 8/20/2007
Its not Martell, but it is hilarious. If you didn't know, Martell has angered teammates with the love he gives Kobe, especially when its moments after Mamba has snatched yet another W away from Portland. Kobe's rap song is one of the greatest gifts ever given to us, but for some reason it doesn't get the attention it deserves. This page keeps that alive.

Joel Freeland
Title: ""
Song: none
Friends: 15
Last login: 10/2/2007
Joel is in a frustrating situation. The Blazers know he's good enough to play here. Joel knows he's good enough to play here. But he isn't playing here, instead there is another frustrating season with Gran Canaria ahead. They signed him after he got drafted, seemingly in hopes of securing a nice buy-out payday from Portland, and have played him little and worked to develop him even less.
Trying times. But going emo won't help anything, there are no emo-guys in the League. Thats why his picture selection worries me a little:

People in Indiana hate Josh McRoberts, 3

I like to talk about how on draft day the entire sportsbar I was at was cracking on the free falling Josh McRoberts. When he landed in the Blazer's net, I was pretty happy. After all, review these official bullet points (bullet points are always official, by the way) for why Portland should be happy to have him:

• He's 6'10, athletic, and can handle the ball and pass like few players his size.
• He's Greg Oden's friend.
• He's known to be at his best as a complimentary player, so struggled a little at Duke when Coach K kept trying to make him the man. He will never, ever, have to worry about this in Portland. Rumor is he made his name nationally playing alongside Oden in highschool AAU Ball.
• He's a second round pick, so if he doesn't pan out, eh.

Ok, hooray for us, feeling good about ourselves? There is one red flag, and that is that people from his home state seem to hate him a lot. Off the OLive Blazer's Blog, there's a link to an article from the Indianapolis Star about McRoberts, and the reader comments are the real read, here's some highlights:

"McRoberts is one of the most overrated players I have come across in the past 20 years of watching NCAA basketball. He finished 3rd in Mr Basketball, but was the top ranked senior nationally? How does that happen? We was getting smoke blown up his **** in high school, more smoke after his first year of college and then it finally all came tumbling down after last year. "

"who cares about him? he cried when he was drafted in the 2nd round, ungreatful punk."

"I am not sure why we keep seeing him in the paper slow news day again.Here is McRoberts legacy top 101. Never won a sectional title in high school2. Never won a conference title in high school3. You never even beat Noblesville when you played4. Wasn’t even in the top in the state in scoring or rebounding5. Josh you where lucky to get third. But since you where 7 foot and half your points where dunks over little guys you where spotted a position6. No big wins in High School, in Fact Broad Ripple your junior year with a losing record beat you. George Hill was the true recruit in that game.7. Senior year Eric Gordon single handedly beat you.(That’s how you take over a game)8. Ever body get noticed when they get to play on a good team even I would of scored if I played with JJ 9. Last year you did what? And now your going to play what with who?? Oh well mommy got her BMW for you being 7 foot not a good TEAM player.10. Please move out of Indiana its about the game not the person. You turned your back on the ALL-Stars, You turned your back on Duke I am sure Greg is your good friend. You get to be on TV because they are there watching him and you can walk into the shot??"

There's more, a lot more. According to Josh though, people have hated him his whole life, so he's fine with it. If it were me, I dunno, I might wonder why people have been hating me my whole life. It will be interesting to keep an eye on public perception of McRoberts in Portland.

What I'm looking for: Portland vs. Dallas Summer League

As I'm waiting around for Portland's second Summer League game (schedule), I thought I'd post a few things I'll be looking for based off some notes I made from the first game:

• Oden showed some nice passes to Aldridge, and some that resulted in turnovers. This stuck out to me because we haven't heard much about Oden's passing ability yet. A post that knows how to pass to the other post is a huge asset, and indicates that Oden has a great feel for the game. It also shows he may be more comfortable deferring to Aldridge (who's future nickname I hope can be "The Big Truth") in the post. Some would say this is good, and assume that Oden will take more of the offensive load as his game develops. I imagine some critics would say this shows his lack of that "dominant mentality" thing. We'll probably know more as the regular season unfolds, but for me its showing he understands how to play basketball.

• Koponen more minutes. The Finnish Finagler got less than 3 minutes of playing time the first go round, which was a little disappointing. As a side note, about 15% of visitors to this blog over the last seven days have been from Finland according to statcounter, which I take to mean there's a country that wants to see more. Don't let Finland down! Play The Finnagler! Or else face accusations of being Anti-Finnites.

• Taurean Green's play. It was just one summer league game, but Green was Portland's best guard that night. I know its against the collective thinking, but if he turns out to be better than Sergio what will Portland do? Will Taurean become the go to backup? A trade?

• I'm hoping to see more of Oden, Freeland, and McRoberts and less of Mancinelli. Terrance Green actually getting an opportunity wouldn't be bad to see either. Should be interesting. I'll be watching and hopefully have a post up soon after.

Oden's Debut: Portland Notes

I just finished watching Portland kick-off their summer league in Vegas against the Boston Celtics. Oden's debut will obviously command much of everyone's analysis, but there was quite a collection of young talent on both squads to be excited about.

(Because of blogger length limitations, I've broken my Portland and Boston notes up into two separate posts: Boston Notes are here. Also, read why David Stern wants you to hate him.)

The Celtics won 74-66 (boxscore). It wasn't as close at the final score, Boston was comfortably in control a majority of the time.

Notes from the game:

Oden: Lets just say he took full advantage of the generous foul system in place during Summer League. He collected 10 fouls in 20 minutes, and was far from dominating offensively in the post. He is pretty unselfish with the ball, he gave a few nice looks to Aldridge when they ran high-low. Even while struggling, it was hard to ignore his presence. He changes games just by being on the court. Him and Aldrige showed they will play well together on both ends, it will be great to watch this dynamic develop.

Taurean Green: Sergio is obviously going to get the minutes this summer as they try to raise his consistency, but Green was no doubt Portland's best guard tonight (not bad for a guy taken #52 in the draft). He plays hard and showed his toughness getting numerous steals and rebounds. Plus its always fun to watch players that are that fast. Just like the scouting report says though, the jumper is a little shaky.

Lamarcus Aldridge: He is the truth, and it was all on display tonight. With his array of jumpers, post moves, blocks, rebounds, and ability to run the floor, Aldridge is on another level than the summer-league competition. He won't have any problems shouldering the offensive load this season down low if Oden needs time to develop.

Sergio Rodriguez: The Blazers are playing him a lot in an attempt to raise is quality of play when logging big minutes. Rondo was on his hip all night, and although Sergio managed to shake free on several occasions his teammates were often ill-prepared to do anything with his passes. A little disappointing tonight.

Joel Freeland: Gets a bullet point just because I've been hyping him up so much lately. Sadly, we didn't see much of Freeland (the pattern continues), but he had one very nice play on defense where he blocked a Leon Powe dunk attempt. I yelled, "White Keon Claaaaaarke!"

Martell Webster: Don't let the stat line fool you, Martell was mostly a non-factor until the fourth quarter when the outcome had been determined. He managed to show his potential with his athleticism and beautiful shot, but still didn't really seem like he has put it all together. He had some success when Portland would run him off of screens for catch-and-shoots (as opposed to what we saw all last season-Martell standing in the corner), maybe they'll explore that route more in the future.

Stefano Mancinelli: Wow, anyone predict this guy to get so much burn? Despite almost 20 minutes of PT, Mancinelli didn't do much. I spent the whole game wondering why he was in instead of forwards like McRoberts (4:32) or Freeland (9:46).

Unfortunately, we didn't get to see much of "The Finnagler" Petteri Koponen or hometown guy Terrance Green. Terrance is in the impossible position of needing desperately to impress to get on with an NBA team, but not getting an opportunity to play. Hopefully that will change, but as a 4th pointguard on the roster, isn't likely.

Overall the game was typical Summer League in that the quality of play pretty much sucked. The tempo was disjointed and there was a whole lot of fouling going on. With all these talented young players it would have been great if the teams could have gotten out and ran more, but this happened rarely. It was still nice to see how players are developing, and let us all pray for the end of internet blackouts.

NBA Summer League Kickoff

Can you smell it in the air? Might wanna crack a window.

The NBA Summer League is starting today (schedule). The turnovers, the lack of organization, and the bricks, oh the bricks. This can make the action difficult to watch.

Even with this in mind, I still get excited. Maybe I'm a basketball masochist.

Or maybe its still fun to see how the draft picks look. Also, you can't be mad at the fringe-NBA Players giving it everything they've got in an attempt to beat the odds and secure a spot on a team's final roster. Plus I'm not that into baseball.

As a Portland fan, I've came up with a few things I hope to keep tabs on during my team's Vegas run:

• Oden: Everything Oden.

• Joel Freeland:How can you not be curious about the white Keon Clarke? Blazers drafted the mostly unknown young Englishman in 2006. He played ball in one of the top Euro-leagues last season (Spain's ACB League) and averaged 15 and 7 in 26 minutes per. Oh ya, and he's still new to the game.

• The Oden/Aldridge dynamic in the post (oh my god!)

• Spanish Chocolate

• Terrance Green. A recent addition to the roster. Terrance Green is a Portland product who played college ball at Nevada and then for The Guangdong Southern Tigers in China with Yi Jianliang. There's a big shortage in roster spots this year, but I'm really hoping he will have an opportunity to show himself enough to catch on with someone.

• Martell Webster. Does he get it yet?

• Josh McRoberts. His plummeting stock in the draft was a popular joke at the local sportsbar. I had a big hand in that, but I'm glad he dropped low enough for Portland to pick him up. He reportedly is best as a complimentary player (which is how he got famous in highschool-playing with Greg Oden), he always will be that in Portland.

• Petteri Koponen. The work-out wonder from Finland that we know so little about. He'll probably stay in Europe for a while, so this is a rare opportunity to get a good look. I want to nickname him "The Finnish Finagler," but Casey Holdahl of the Blazer's Blog told me its "The Finnisher." I'm not sure if he's badass enough for that nickname yet, but we'll see.