Archive for the 'Portland Trailblazers' Category

Kenji Johjima took 4th in the AL Rookie voting. Justin Verlander of Detroit took top honors, and it’s hard to argue with the three guys who finished ahead of Johjima.

Meanwhile, if you’re ready to really look ahead to the Mariners’ future, a site called TopProspectAlert.com has its list of the 2007 Top 10 Mariners Prospects.

Staying with the M’s for a moment, Dave at USS Mariner details why he thinks Richie Sexson should be traded. It’s a convincing argument, but when he says

He turns 32 next month, so he’s likely at the end of his prime and entering the decline phase of his career.

… well, that’s what USS Mariner (and most everyone else) said about the Raul Ibanez contract, too.

A very different Dave, this one at Blazers Edge, is keeping a chart to track Brandon Roy and other NBA Rookie of the Year candidates.

And finally, there’s a new Seattle sports blog waiting to be read: Buzzer Beater, by Mike Seely of the Seattle Weekly. The tagline says it all: “Seattle Sports (but mostly just basketball).”

No, not a prediction for the game tonight — a season prediction.

Sonics: The Sonics like to brag about the great depth and versatility they have. Ridnour and Watson can both play PG. Collison and Wilcox and both play the 4 or 5 spot. Lewis can step into the 4 spot if needed. Great depth and versatility, though, can be a coverup for an overall lack of talent. And that’s the problem here: not enough weapons in the arsenal.

I don’t think the Sonics are as bad as Sports Illustrated thinks, but they’re not good enough to reach the playoffs. They need a steadier point guard and a center that can give them anything on the offensive end. The Sonics should win about 36 games, and probably finish 10th in the conference.

Blazers: Zach Randolph has all the talent in the world, and has been such a good citizen so far this year that he’s been named co-captain (along with C Joel Przybilla). If he plays up to the expected level and stays out of trouble, that should make everything easier for the young guys like Brandon Roy, Martell Webster, and Jarrett Jack to grow into NBA players. But if Randolph implodes … watch out. The Blazers are so young and have so many questions, it’s hard to give them much of a chance to accomplish anything. They will surpass last season’s 21 wins, but the playoffs are a pipe dream at this point.. I’ll put the Blazers down for 29 wins, which, all things considered, will be a very respectable improvement.

Oh, and I do think Brandon Roy wins Rookie of the Year. Adam Morrison will get all the publicity and a lot of points, but Roy will ultimately be viewed as having the better overall year.

If a Sonics center goes down for the season, but they were expected to suck anyway, does it really matter?

Young Robert Swift, who just this week was named the starting C, is out for the year with a torn ACL suffered during Wednesday’s preseason game. Ouch.

But would it make much of a difference if he was healthy?

Apparently not. In the Sports Illustrated NBA Preview issue, the Sonics are ranked 14th out of 15 teams in the Western Conference. Double-ouch.

Who’s #15, you ask? Why, the Portland Trail Blazers, of course.

Better sit down. It’s an NBA-related post. In fact, it’s a Trail Blazers post. Whoa. Talk about “the few, the proud….”

Ace NBA writer Henry Abbott of TrueHoop.com shares his Portland Trail Blazers season preview.

ESPN asks several NBA media types today to give their choice for who among the young players is most likely to become a superstar. Ex-Bulldog Adam Morrison is the pick made by 3 of the 6 experts, including Orlando Magic beat writer John Denton, who has some harsh words for the Portland Trail Blazers.

I had the pleasure of covering the Orlando Summer League back in July, and of all the rookies there, Morrison was far and away the most impressive. It left me wondering just what the Portland Trail Blazers — a team desperately in need of a box-office draw and a scoring machine — were thinking.

None other than Indiana Pacers president Larry Bird, Morrison’s boyhood hero, left the Orlando summer camp shaking his head at just how skilled Charlotte’s floppy-haired rookie is. And Bird had this prediction: “He’ll probably win Rookie of the Year with the talent that he has.”

Washington Wizard Gilbert Arenas is still upset about being cut from Team USA, and he’s coming after you, Blazer Fan. Arenas tells the Washington Post that he’s planning to take out his frustration on two of the assistant coaches from Team USA this coming NBA season:

“I’m going to be the silent assassin this year,” he said. “I can’t wait to play the Suns and Portland. Against Portland, Nate McMillan, I’m going to try to score 100 in two games and against D’Antoni, I’m going to score 100 in two games. I’m going to try.”

Gilbert, please. It’s the Blazers. You can aim higher than that, can’t you?

Gary Washburn has a good analysis of what’s to come as the Sonics, NBA, and Seattle officials tap dance through the next 12-16 months and determine, via their actions and decisions, what the future is for NBA hoops in Seattle. Ultimately, really, the ball is in the city’s court.

The city has the option of meeting the owners’ standards for a new or refurbished arena and has every right to force the tycoons from Oklahoma City to honor every day of the final four seasons on the lease.

The NBA realizes it will look poor on its image to snatch a team from Seattle, one of just eight cities to house an NBA team for at least 40 years. So they are not going to push for relocation. They are going to give the city of Seattle enough rope to reel the team back from extinction or hang itself.

No one is talking about it much, but I say this also impacts the Blazers’ situation. If the Sonics should leave, as I certainly expect they will, then the NBA is left with one team in the N’west — and that’s a team which also has a very tenuous future. Would Stern be happy losing both N’west NBA teams within the span of a year or two? I doubt it.

And if both teams take off, that leaves the NBA with nothing north of Sacramento and west of Minneapolis. In fact, go draw a line on a map from Sacramento to Salt Lake City to Minneapolis. You’re cutting off a pretty big chunk of the country. Admittedly not the most populous chunk, but isn’t it too big to be ignored?

So the Sonics (and Storm) have been sold, and Starbucks is out of the NBA — at least at the ownership level. Howard Schultz’ ownership lasted only slightly longer than the drive-thru line at my nearest Starbucks. The buyers are a group of businessmen from Oklahoma City, and the coming NBA season will amount to — in Seattle, at least — a farewell tour.

Oh, the new owners are saying all the right things. Here’s what Clayton Bennett says in the official news release on NBA.com:

“The Sonics and the Storm are synonymous with Seattle, and it is our desire to have the Sonics and the Storm build upon their great legacies in the Greater Seattle area,” added Bennett. “We believe with the right dynamics on the court, the right community support, the right business model and a financially committed ownership group that recognizes and respects Seattle, we can succeed here for decades to come.”

But a blind man can read between the lines. In fact, you don’t have to read between the lines — it’s right in the agreement of sale. Here’s Greg Bishop writing on the Seattle Times web site:

The fine print: Only the next 12 months are guaranteed in the $350 million deal. In the interim, the new ownership group needs to do what the former ownership group could not — negotiate a better venue and lease agreement at KeyArena or another local venue.

Which adds up to what president and CEO Wally Walker called “the biggest year in the history of the Seattle SuperSonics.”

“At that time,” said Bennett, chairman of Dorchester Capital and the head of the Oklahoma City-based investment group, “we have an opportunity, contractually, to evaluate our position.”

Oklahoma City has an NBA team at the moment — the Hornets — but might not in one year if/when the Hornets go back to New Orleans. OKC is a city which showed rapturous support for its first-ever major pro-level franchise, and despite its size, can obviously support an NBA team. And as Jenni Carlson writes in The Oklahoman, the city can start preparing to welcome the Sonics in 2007.

The only fly in the ointment would be if Seattle voters opt to build the Sonics a new arena. That’s about the only way they’re staying there, and frankly, if passing that bond issue has been difficult before it became nearly impossible Tuesday. If the fine folks in Seattle wouldn’t build an arena for Mr. Seattle, Starbucks’ grand barista Howard Schultz, why would they do it for a bunch of Oklahomans?

If the new owners were from Spokane or Walla Walla, well, then OK. But Nichols Hills and Oklahoma City? Seems it would be difficult to agree to spending millions on an arena that might not have a tenant when it’s finished.

The Sonics’ future has been up in the air for some time now, with Schultz and his group trying both to sell the team and negotiate a better arena situation at the same time. But now that the team has been sold, it actually opens up more questions than before:

With an immediate and real prospect of losing the team staring them in the face, will Seattle officials change their tune at all about working to keep the Sonics around?

How will Sonics fans respond to the likelihood that this is the last year they’ll have an NBA team in town? Will attendance go up in support of the team, or will it tank in protest to what’s become an ugly situation between the team and city? Will fans put any pressure on city officials to save the team?

How will this “musical chairs” scenario play out in Oklahoma City? How will they react to the likelihood that the Hornets are just temporary hometowners?

How does all this play out at the NBA level? Will they be happy to lose a team in the #13 TV market and have it replaced with a team in the #45 TV market?

And what impact does this have on the Blazers? They’re losing money and available to be sold to the highest bidder. What if that bidder is someone like Anaheim Mighty Ducks owner Henry Samueli, who reportedly wants to move the Blazers to Anaheim? Is the NBA going to allow a complete vacancy of the Pacific Northwest?

So many questions … so few answers … but one thing for sure: What a strange, strange year this is going to be.

Couple quickies here….

Gary Washburn has a really good status report on the Sonics’ current situation with respect to Chris Wilcox and the team’s draft plans.

And there’s a brief note in the Morning Journal (OHIO?) about the Blazers wanting to move up to pick Gonzaga’s Adam Morrison.

With no big studs at the top of the draft, there’s a lot of uncertainty and that should make for an interesting couple days leading up to Wednesday. Don’t know how much of it I’ll be able to keep track of since I have a lot of travel ahead between now and then….

Looks like the guys and gals with deep pockets are starting to take spots in the Maybe-I’ll-Buy-the-Blazers line.

According to the LA Times, Anaheim Mighty Ducks owner Henry Samueli is interested in buying and moving the Blazers to Anaheim. Does the L.A. area really need three teams? Well, now that the Clippers are good there is an opening for NBA doormat there.

And then this from the Journal Times (Wisconsin): Michael Jordan, who came ever-so-close to buying the Bucks a couple of summers ago, has made it clear he still wants to be an owner. And that’s why some NBA officials aren’t dismissing the possibility of Jordan and some of his deep-pocketed friends buying the Portland Trail Blazers.

Hmmm. This is coming from a small paper that covers the Milwaukee Bucks, in an article that mainly addresses the Bucks’ draft plans. So my guess is that the reporter heard some Bucks officials talking about the Blazers situation and mentioned the Jordan possibility…..