Long story short Blazers will finish 7th/8th in the West, and get bounced in the first round by OKC or the Lake Show. The same standard procedure Rip City fans have become accustomed to under the Vulcan’s ownership, and there is no reason to believe the they will ever be in a position to compete for a title under his watch. The guy is clueless when it comes to building a championship quality NBA franchise. He should just focus throw his money at a ridiculous space-travel-plane prototype. Since the Vulcan took over ownership in 1988 the Blaze have made the playoffs 18 out of 23 seasons. Not bad. However, they have taken the 1st round exit 13 (6 since ’01) of those 18 appearances. Not good.

Considering the Blazers still don’t have a GM they have still made some decent moves in the context of perennial 7/8 seeded teams, nothing substantial though.

New additions:

Raymond Felton – PG

Jamal Crawford – G

Craig Smith – PF

Kurt Thomas – C

He gone:

Dre Miller – back with the Nugs

B Roy – Joined the AARP

Greg – physically unfit to participate- maybe instead of knee surgery he should get his dick shortened, just an idea. I’m sure most people who walk around with a fungo bat between their legs are going to have knee problems from getting hit every step they take.

Patty – Chinese mission- It would be a shame if Patty wasn’t able to return until March from playing ball over in China, but it is currently looking that way. Who will join Armon to wave a towel and meet the team a half court during timeouts? He at least better be pulling some sweet Chinese tail, General Tso’s Hoe’s, while he’s over there.

Current Roster:

Pos.	#	Name	Height	Weight	DOB (Y–M–D)	From
F	12	Aldridge, LaMarcus (C)	6 ft 11 in (2.11 m)	240 lb (109 kg)	1985–07–19	Texas
F	11	Babbitt, Luke	6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)	225 lb (102 kg)	1989–06–20	Nevada
C	40	Barron, Earl	7 ft 0 in (2.13 m)	250 lb (113 kg)	1981–08–14	Memphis
F	88	Batum, Nicolas	6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)	200 lb (91 kg)	1988–12–14	France
C	23	Camby, Marcus	6 ft 11 in (2.11 m)	235 lb (107 kg)	1974–03–22	Massachusetts
G	–	Crawford, Jamal	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)	200 lb (91 kg)	1980–03–20	Michigan
G	5	Felton, Raymond	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	205 lb (93 kg)	1984–06–26	North Carolina
G	1	Johnson, Armon	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	195 lb (88 kg)	1989–02–23	Nevada
C	17	Johnson, Chris	6 ft 11 in (2.11 m)	210 lb (95 kg)	1985–07–15	LSU
G	2	Matthews, Wesley	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)	220 lb (100 kg)	1986–10–14	Marquette
C	52	Oden, Greg	7 ft 0 in (2.13 m)	285 lb (129 kg)	1988–01–22	Ohio State
G	4	Smith, Nolan	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	185 lb (84 kg)	1988–07–25	Duke
F/C	–	Smith, Craig	6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)	265 lb (120 kg)	1983–11–10	Boston College
F/C	–	Thomas, Kurt	6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)	230 lb (104 kg)	1972-10-04	Texas Christian
F	3	Wallace, Gerald	6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)	220 lb (100 kg)	1982–07–23	Alabama
G	9	Williams, Elliot	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	1989–06–20	Memphis

Depth chart

While the Blazers have considerable depth in the back court, they have no depth in the front court. Every team’s big men go down at some point during season, even more so when they push 40 and are members of the Blazers. Chris Johnson will get substantial time, which should be good if he can play like he did towards the end of last season. Adding Craig Smith should offer some size and much needed defense for the second unit. Again, don’t expect anything different from the Blaze this season.  A bunch of  “6th men” and no front court depth doesn’t equal great success. They will finish 39-27 an exit in the first round.

No Roy, no Oden. no problems. Kurt Thomas is coming to the Rose City with all the hoopla of shingles, greasy sweatpants and tap water! And no, this isn’t just some ‘quick fix’ for the Blazers acting GM (someone refresh me on his name?), Kurt is here for two years! Give the Blazers organization credit, just when things look as bleak as they could, they reach in like Sub-Zero and just rip spines straight out of our bodies. Well played, Blazers, well played.

Fuck the regular season and playoffs, just hand the trophy over to us after this savvy deal. The parade starts now!

PS-That is Kurt Thomas in the video, right???

So I should be throwing this up on ebay, right? Think I can get $1000 for it????

Look at the TMZ staff laughing when they found out it was Greg Oden, a straight ‘scoff-fest’ at the man with the bad knees. Listen if they can’t even remember you were the guy taking pics of the swinging 2 foot meat hammer between your legs, that pretty much sums up how your NBA career is going up to this point. As far as the not being good at basketball, I don’t even care if it was a joke, it was brilliant. If it was an attempt at humor, kudos for being able to make fun of himself. If it wasn’t, kudos for having the self-awareness to admit you can’t play in the league. And no, Oden can’t play in the league. Continuing the plague of busts that lays upon the house of the Blazers.

Yeah, wouldn’t wanna do that. There is probably at least 50 current NBA GMs just knocking down the door to get into the Portland front office….

Part of me hopes the NBA comes back after the lock out with some sort of a hard cap, thus ending any pull Paul really has with his boat loads of cash. Then he can take his ass back to Seattle and full time and watch the Vulcans tear apart the Sounders or something.

YahooSports- The Portland Trail Blazers currently have the 21st pick in the NBA draft on June 23 but would like to trade up much higher in the first round, the Portland Tribune reports.

A league source tells the paper that the team “would like to get into the top seven to be in position to take Connecticut point guard Kemba Walker.” The Tribune notes that this may mean sending disgruntled Blazers point guard Andre Miller and the 21st pick to another team.

This move sounds good and all, but what team in the top 7 is going to want to make this move. Cavs aren’t giving up their picks, Wizards have Wall, Kings have Tyreke, T-Wolves have too many from last draft and no way the Jazz are passing up on the white wonder that is Jimmer. That leaves Monty Williams and the Raptors as the only suckers that could possibly take this trade and I just don’t see it happening.

All this Kemba talk is just a smoke screen to try and keep everyone off the shitshow that has become the Blazers front office. I hate to say it but the Blazers will never win an NBA title with Allen and the Vulcans running the show and no matter what move they make it is just to keep people going to the Rose Garden to fill their pockets not to try and win a title.

Here’s what we could be looking at if someone falls for this trade. A little different then the way Dre moves.

After Paul Allen’s firing of General Manager Rich Cho, many comparisons to Al Davis have crept up.  Those are a tad unfair, Davis belongs in a loony house, Allen is a spoiled rich owner who acts like a kid while he’s trying to run a big time business.  

 A more apt comparison would be to Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys.  Both are super rich and are willing to spend their money to help their team, both have super sized egos and both like to meddle in their teams business, usually to the detriment of the team.  

So who would you least rather have as your owner of your favorite team?

 Personally I’d rather have Jones than Allen.  Allen’s firing of Cho shows he’s a total baby and has no control of his organization.  That makes two fired GM’s in two years, both of who were fired for reasons other than job performance.  In fact Cho did great in his limited time here.  His game of chicken with Charlotte took brass balls.  He could have done the easy thing and given up Batum to secure Wallace.  It would have still been a win for the Blazers.  But he knew the Bobcats were in a position of weakness and he held strong, netting Wallace for nothing.  But Cho didn’t cater enough to Allen’s child like ego and now the Blaze are trying to find another GM and are sure to butcher another draft.

OregonLive. For the second time in less than one year, the Portland Trail Blazers have parted ways with their general manager.The team announced Monday that they have fired Rich Cho, who had been general manager for 10 months. Chad Buchanan, the team’s director of college scouting, has been elevated to acting general manager. “The fit between Rich and our team simply wasn’t right,” said team president Larry Miller, in a release. “This was a tough move because I respect Rich and he’s a good person with many strong skills. But it simply wasn’t a good match. “The move comes less than a year after owner Paul Allen fired Kevin Pritchard as general manager on draft day, June 24. The team conducted a search for Pritchard’s replacement and hired Cho, then assistant manager of the Oklahoma City Thunder, on July 19.

What a complete shit show the Blazers have become. About as stable as Lindsay Lohan’s sobriety.

Perhaps it will come out in the next couple of days that Cho kicked puppies and peed in the Vulcans coffee pot, because unless it’s that, I don’t get it. The guy was here for 10 months and no doubt did some good things, Gerald Wallace, anybody???Of course this will be painted as a ‘mutual arrangement’ but come on now. I think at this point we can see the Blazers pattern clearly. And open discussions will be squelched and if you disagree with Paulie and his boys, you’re out.

What Paul and the Vulcans bent that Bayless got shipped to New Orleans or something? Maybe it was the report that Cho wanted to suspend Roy after his pity game following game 2 against the Mavs? Or probably most likely, Paulie didn’t like that Cho was scoffing at offering Oden a max deal this summer….

I can’t wait to see who gets hired here next as the GM. Because why would anyone want it? The GM position in Portland has a shorter shelf-life than cheap sushi. The inter-workings of the organization probably smell worse too.

Oh well, the Blazers are a mess, Jesus Freaks are scary, and water is wet. Par for the course. None of it will probably matter anyways, as once October rolls around we’ll all be enamored with some D League guy they brought up who will be the next Karl Malone, Pimping LMA as a perennial all star and still showing up to the Rose Garden, buying jerseys and inflating local TV ratings. It’s just what we do as Blazer fans. There’s nothing else to do when its pissing rain and dark by 4 for 7 months out of the year…

Good luck, Paul, finding someone with any competence to take this job.

PS-When can we start the Jerry West and Mitch Kupchack rumors???

NEW YORK — The Trail Blazers’ LaMarcus Aldridge has finished third in the voting for the Joe Dumars Trophy, presented to the NBA player who best exemplifies sportsmanship.
Golden State’s Stephen Curry won the award with 88 of a possible 347 first-place votes from fellow players. Luol Deng of the Chicago Bulls was second with 84 votes and Aldridge was third with 56.

Nice guys don’t always finish last, some finish in the first round!