To start I'll say that preseasons of all sports can be highly overvalued come time for the regular season to start, but with my boundless Blazer enthusiasm, I need to blow off some steam.

Diogu will most likely play the season out with the Blazers, but that is it. The guy is serviceable, but he's a liability defensively, he's ok with his help d, but he puts pressure on the center to cover his defensive miscues. More than once I have seen Pryz posterized covering for Ike, and I think if he was KP, he would have cut him on the spot with the look I saw Pryz give him. Offensively he plays a little like ZBo the black hole. I like his aggresiveness to the hoop and his soft hands. But the tell to me was his decision to pass on playing summer league ball because of his perception that it was unneccesary considering his time in the league. What Blazer on this current roster would have said no, none of them considering the short actual playing time history of Ike. Ike is a NBA player, but any more to take up a roster spot on this team you have to be solid or improving and I don't believe he is either.

 Tatum is going to be nice on a NBDL team, no disrespect to him it's just where his talent level is currently at.

Steven of Nazareth hasn't had much of an opportunity to show what he can do during preseason. You wonder if the Blazers are hiding him from the rest of the league. If I had to pick a position to fill our 15th roster spot it would be center, considering our current roster depth at all positions. But I have to say without having seen much of HIll in preseason; I really like Randolph for that last spot. Based off of preseason I would cut Diogu and keep Randolph it the team is dead set on HIll. Randolph is a solid rebounder, defender, and he has a nice shot; he has the height for possible backup center and definite power forward minutes he's a little slight of frame for Center minutes but he can make up for that with his hustle. 

Luke Jackson is 15th man material he gives great energy, but our 15th man is like another teams 10th. I'm sure he will make the end of some teams roster, it just won't be the Blazers.

Bayless, will be a player, he's just not going to be pushing for as many minutes as one would have thought from watching Summer League, and with minutes being one of our top issues on this team that may not be the worst thing to happen. What makes me fearful is how Jarred responds to that lack of playing time when he does get PT. I worry that when he does play he will force things trying to prove to much too fast, and get him self in a pretty good midseason funk (I.E. Sergio 2007). This guy is ridiculously determined and is a phenomenal player; hopefully he will see that at some point during the season when any of our guards get hurt he will get serious blow and not just 2007 Sergio minutes. 

Sergio is coming along nicely, and I would be fearful of Sergio falling into the traps of last years play, but I think he has matured and he has a friend around who will keep him straight. He seems to be feeling out that line of forcing fast play and letting it come organically. For Sergio to play with GO, he needs to really work on getting him the ball consistently and more importantly getting him the ball in spots where he can be effective. I think Rudy will be huge for Sergio this year; on numerous occasions I have seen Rudy tell Sergio to slow down or to take the shot instead of passing. Rudy can critique Sergio and it doesn't hurt his confidence because he knows Rudy believes in him.

OK I can't wait any more I have to talk about Rudy, I expected so much from this guy and I have to say he is everything I hoped he would be. Not since Clyde the Glide have Blazers had their very own highlight reel of a player, it's about time! Rudy is learning the nba game and pushing things to see what works and what doesn't. I love his skill, humble confidence, creativity, and bbiq. He is like Roy in so many ways, I am wondering how well the 2 of them will mesh, and how Nate fits them on the floor at the same time. I don't care if Rudy doesn't start, but when it matters (4th quarter) they will always be on the floor together. I know a lot of people are saying why do you take an all star 2 guard and move him out of position;  I'll tell you why, Rudy is that good! 1 of the them will have to play out of their natural position. Rudy fits better at the 1 while Roy fits better at the 3 in regards to defense. 

We all know the story of Coach Knight calling up Jack Ramsey and telling him he had to draft this kid Jordan playing for the Olympic team he was coaching. Jack replied they already had an up and coming SG named Drexler and that they needed a center; Knight said well play him at center then I don't care he's that good. Now I'm not completely wasted on the Blazer sauce to say that he is Jordan, but what I am saying is, Rudy's that good. Rudy needs to get close to 30 minutes a game, so Nate is going to have to figure out how to make it work. Sorry Marty, Travis, & Blake collectively the PT is going to suffer, for the sake of playing Rudy. The clincher for me on how well Rudy is playing, was the point when Rudy went down holding his ankle, first thing I noticed was Nate running out on the floor like a worried dad. (Side note KP immediately went back into the locker room to wait for Rudy to be brought back.) I've seen him react that way one other time, and that was when Roy went down grabbing his knee, Roy ended up being fine and so will Rudy, in my eyes that was a poker tell as to how good Nate thinks Rudy is/will be.

Gregory Oden is a mamoth, he will dominate the league next year, but through this year he will bide through some rookie roller coasters. I have to keep reminding myself this guy has not played ball for an entire year along with the fact this is his first year. GO has endless upside, first thing first he still needs to really grasp his size and how to effectively use it to get into position to recieve the ball, and where to be on defense so that he may enforce his will not only with blocking shots but also rebounding. I think with increased playing time around Blake and Roy we will see they will help immensely in getting him the ball often and where he can be most effective. Just with increased Cardio endurance we will see huge diviends  in the way GO plays, but he will still have a lot of peaks and valleys his rookie year especially on back to back games. I'm excited to see his level of play come March!

Batum, wow I expected nothing, and I'm blown away by how much he is showing us progessively every game. (Another reason why Summer league play isn't everything.) Incredible length and timing, is the first thing that comes to mind. He just gets to balls that others can't. If he can shoot the way he did against Utah we are set. Hello Bruce Bowen/Tayshaun Prince Jr. I'm going to take a wild stab right now and say that our five players on the court come the 4th quarter in next years playoffs will be Roy, Rudy, Batum, LA, & GO. If we can have a solid defender who doesn't have to get his shot on offense, but at the same time keeps the opposing defense honest, watch out! To what we have seen so far, Batum appears he could be that man.

KP oh KP let me count the ways... seriously I could go on forever about this guy, but lets just stick with 1 aquisition and how it came about. The guy went scarface on his old boss and stole Batum right from under the Spurs. We all thought the huge bamboozle of the draft was Bayless, what if it was actually the guy he swiped down in the 20's. That would be 2 years in a row! The thing is I think KP knew that when he made the pick. This guy had the draft down before it happened he knew what team wanted who and what picks they were going to try to get them at. Good thing we won't be in the lottery for a long time because I think some GM's are going to be pretty tight lipped around him for a while. You could just go on and on about the guy. He's the Bobby Fisher of NBA GM's, it's hard to comprehend everything he has done in such a short time frame. The ZBO trade and the other moves it allowed to happen should put him in GM lore. I am extremely curious to see who KP will go after with his Raef chip; I'm guessing like every move he has made besides drafting GO it will be something none of us had seen coming. I'm going with trading for T Prince come Feb.

Nate is a great coach and more flexible in his game plan than we all know or give him credit for. This year will set the tone for the dynasty to come. He will be establishing who will play key roles for the team, and who is expendable. My only concern with Nate is how he takes the pressure and second guessing that will come from Blazer nation. The pressure will be bad this year, but it will get exponentially higher in the years to come. Here's hoping it's water off a ducks back.

For those of you who actually endured my lengthy Blazer gushing thank you for the patronage.