Petteri gets a nickname

It's been far too long since I last blogged. Not a lot of exciting stuff has come and gone. But there's been some tidbits.

Greg's rehab has us all atwitter to see what he can do next season.
Bill Bayno getting a much deserved head coaching job at Loyola Marymount.
The draft day excitement of dumping Jarret Jack for Jerryd Bayless.

All rather pedestrian compared to what I think is the most exciting news of the year. Due to his late game heroics against the Washington Wizards in last night's Summer league game he has had the nickname "the Finnisher" bestowed upon him.

I added it to the NBA section of his Wikipedia page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petteri_Koponen#NBA

Let's see how long it is before someone labels it as patent nonsense.

Also Jerryd Bayless didn't have a bad game either. But it wasn't nickname worthy like the Finnisher's game was.

Frye trade rumors, Greg Oden's rehab and more

One of the more interesting things in the rumor mill lately is the rumor that the Blazers are trying to trade Channing Frye LINK. According to this article we at least offered him to Chicago for Tyrus Thomas. That seems a little ridiculous to me as there's no way in hell that Chicago would consider such a deal. You also have to consider the source. The New York post is widely regarded as a rumor spewing rag.

On top of that there's this article LINK, in which they talk about Pritchard sitting down with Channing Frye and swearing it's not true.

A slightly less interesting (at least short term) subject is Greg Oden's rehab. Here's a video of Greg rehabbing in the pool. LINK Looks like he's workin' hard to make sure he'll be in top shape for next season. From what I've heard of Greg's rehab he pretty much gets up in the morning, goes to the practice facility to do some rehabbing in the pool, goes out to lunch somewhere and then spends the rest of his day in a machine that moves his leg for him while he watches movies. Word is, he loves the Comcast on-demand.

Another interesting development, if you wanna call it that, is the free agent crop for 2009. As you may or may not know the major asset we received in the Zach Randolph trade (Other than getting Zach out of town) is cap space in 2009. With Steve Francis (forgot he was part of that trade already?) and Raef LaFrentz expiring in 2009 the Blazers will have a lot of cap space.

It's actually a little more complicated than that, but that doesn't really matter. What does matter is who's really going to be available in 2009. The only really good player that will be an unrestricted free agent thus far in 2009 in Joe Johnson, who doesn't really knock my socks off. The rest of the possible free agents that year are from the 2005 draft and they'll all be restricted free agents. So sure, we could offer Chris Paul a max contract, but the Hornets would likely match. It's almost like those guys aren't free agents at all.

But word is there are some players from the 2004 draft that aren't happy with the extension offers they're receiving. If those players don't get offers they want they have the ability to take their one year qualifying offer. That would make them unrestricted free agents in 2009. The most notable players in that group are Ben Gordan and Luol Deng. There's been a lot of articles about how the two of them aren't exactly thrilled with the offers that Chicago has given them thus far. Here's the latest one LINK It's one of the notes near the bottom of the article.

So there's a little ray of sunshine for people like me that are generally skeptical about the idea of our 2009 capspace being useful.

Words of Wisdom from Bob Ristau: "If you haven't ever lived somewhere and you claim to be a fan of a team from that place, it brings into question the validity of your fandom. Sports fandom is similar to religion in that if you weren't brought up in it, I question your motivations."

Seriously, don't panic

Ok, so Greg's out for the season. Still no reason to panic. Keep your chin up and look forward to an entertaining season.

Up front we still have (ranked by importance by me) Aldridge, Frye, Przybilla, Outlaw, Josh McRoberts and (lest we forget him) Raef LaFrentz.

We've got a good young group of point guards that are gonna keep this team on the move in Blake, Jack, Sergio, Taureen Green and Petteri Koponen.

We've got a nice collection of swingmen in Roy, James Jones and Martell Webster.

We won't make the playoffs, but it'll still be a lot of fun to watch.

Don't panic.

The number one piece of advice given to the intergalactic hitchhikers that Douglas Adams created is the one that Blazer fans should follow right now.

Greg Oden is going to be fine. So don't panic.

We'll know a lot more later today when he's had the procedure done. But it shouldn't be a big deal. Here's the latest on the situation and it's all just speculation. So everybody just chill out, stay strong and don't panic. We'll all get though this together.

Bold predictions

I have two bold, or as bold as putting something in an internet blog can be bold, predictions today.

Prediction #1: Steve Blake and James Jones will be the starters at point guard and small forward, respectively (I hope I used that word right). They will play upwards of 30 minutes at those spots.

Because Oden, Aldridge and Roy, respectively, have a strangle hold on the Center, Power Forward and Shooting guard spots it's kind of been assumed that the small forward and point guard spots are up for grabs. Beyond that there's a certain amount of belief that neither of those spots will have any sort of hierarchy and will be run by committee.

I say that's hogwash. I say Blake and Jones are the obvious choices to start and they're so much better than the rest of the field at those positions that Nate McMillan is going to have a hell of a time trying to find any sort of consistent minutes for Outlaw, Webster, Jack and Sergio.

I've thought this from the moment we acquired both players but today my feelings were strengthened by This Article

I know, it's not the most objective article because it comes from the Blazer web site. But it still tells me that not only are Blake and Jones the best option we have at point guard and small forward, but they're also the hardest working players at their position.

Prediction #2: The Blazers will win more than 45 games and make the playoffs this season.

I mostly make this prediction based on my first prediction. I figured the big three would do well and it would be up to the rest of the team to play their roles properly in order to propel us to real success this season. With Blake and Jones playing most of the minutes at the other two spots I am confident that not only are we a team of the future, but we're a team that people will take notice of this season.

my famousness

I just figured out how to really put in links. So I figured I'd throw out the links of my post draft fame.

Article that quotes me

You Tube video with me in it

I'm with my friend Garen (Who's the one that deserves all of the credit for the brilliant "Welcome to the Garden of Oden" slogan. Maybe he should look into patenting that and maybe making some money off it.) at about 1:30 and then at 1:50 you can see my beautiful back side with my sign.

I figure this takes up a good 2 minutes worth of my allotment of 15.

Waiting for the season to start

I don't expect anything to happen between now and the start of the season. That said, I do expect the Blazers to be shopping Jarret Jack, Martell Webster and Joel Przybilla HARD.

It would not surprise me one little bit if the Blazers started the season with a starting lineup of Jack, Roy, Webster, Aldridge and Oden with Przybilla getting all the backup big man minutes in order to better shop these three to other teams.

To get us a little excited about what's comin down the pipe the Blazers have been kind enough to release the pre-season schedule.

Link to Pre-season Schedule



This is a shoutout to Mike Staley. I'm hoping you can be there on the 21st in your best red and black to represent the home town team.