I didn’t feel like Roy was playing hard, and his casual attitude was apparent from the very start. Making a delayed entrance into the Rose Garden, the whole place stood up with chants of “ROY”. The whole time it didn’t seem like he was playing hard. But don’t worry, the occasional slashing drive shows that Roy is still the force he was before surgery. Rudy and Bayless were fantastic, but really, it was Outlaw that surprised me. He drained a couple of threes, displayed a deadly cross over, nailed the mid range jumper, and exploded for some nice dunks. Outlaw showed that amongst all of the hype of Oden, Bayless, Rudy, and Roy, he might be the one to shine. That said, Rudy was also phenomenal. Not only did he drain about four threes, but he also showed better defense and good chemistry with the team. Oden was the only blemish in this inter-team scrimmage. From his missed lay-up on the 1st possession, to the end of the first half, he had no effect on the game. This was primarily because he wasn’t actually in the game much. He didn’t seem sharp, but this is to be expected from our newly recovered giant. Lets just hope that he doesn’t get caught up in all of the hype. All in all, this was an awesome event!

LMA, Rudy, Outlaw and Bayless were all superb. I was really impressed with Bayless playing teamball while still showing off with some fancy dunks during warm ups.

LMA was all over. He was deserving of the MvP trophy tonight. Jump shots, dunks, fast breaks, defense, rebounds, fancy passing… not much more you could ask of him.

Those passes Rudy did. Wow, a behind the back pass and one through Luke Jackson’s legs in the same game. Not to mention draining those 3s. He’s got some weird one handed shots that somehow go in. I think I’ll become Rudy’s biggest fan/stalker. Sorry twiggs.

Outlaw was playing defense, and doing a good job! He was also taking smarter shots than usual. His shot looked good, and he made plenty.

Roy was Roy, but he wasn’t trying too hard tonight. Not that he really needs to. The way he played was great if he was anyone else, but maybe slightly below average for Roy. You could tell he wasn’t going all out tonight, which is good.

Oden looked tired. Joel was all over him on defense, he just couldn’t get a shot to drop for him tonight. That said, his block was great, and when he wanted to back someone down they had no choice but to do as he commanded, or give the foul. In his defense for tonight it really wasn’t a big man game tonight, like a lot of scrimmages this was played around on the outside. Aldridge did good because of his shooting ability and fast break skills. Oden definitely has to get in better shape, but that will only come with playing. He needs to work on his positioning for rebounding but I think a lot of if was him trying to pace himself because of the ankle and not overdo it. I think if it wasn’t for the fans Oden probably would not have even been playing tonight. He didn’t play much which tells me he wasn’t ready to get back into full force.

Jackson was good, Hill was good… I think it’s going to be one of them if anyone is signed. Shav and Tatum were not real noticable.

Webster was playing a lot more like I had always wanted him to, attacking the basket. Unfortunately much like Oden he couldn’t get much to drop tonight.

Batum was looking MUCH improved since summer league. He looked like he had more confidence and knew where to be, even getting a steal (or 2?) and making some nice passes.

I hate to say it but Sergio does not look very improved. Diogu looked ok, but not great.

The rest of the guys looked good, Joel really stood out. He made Oden look like the rookie he is. (though I already gave my reason for Oden looking not great)

First, Rudy & Bayless did not look like rookies. Not at all. Sure, this was a scrimmage. But still, there’s a level of assuredness there that’s remarkable. Neither player rushed anything or seemed confused at any time. If you know how to play, you know how to play. Rudy in particular is instantly one of the best players on the team.

As for GO, you have to assume he was protecting his ankle. If that’s the case, then kudos to him for coming out and trying to give the fans what they wanted so badly to see. Also, in fairness this is a rookie going against an above-average defensive NBA center.

Oden couldn’t have been expected to dazzle us with dunks & jumphooks while being defended by Joel. Joel set the tone early on when he put Greg in a bearhug to keep him from dunking. That was kind of a drag in the context of the Fan Fest. But much more importantly, from Day 1 of training camp, GO is getting the schooling he needs in order to develop. There will be no shock when he gets in his first NBA game; he’s already experienced NBA-level defense. Joel Przybilla is the best thing that could happen to Greg Oden.

…pret-ty good.

Hey Mutumbo ain’t bad. Ain’t bad at all. Would be a prize for the Blazers to have a guy who resembles Mutumbo.

But frankly I don’t know if we’re going to get a lot of offense out of him.

Yep, Outlaw went right then cut left and dribbled in from the elbow and finished with nice layin. That is huge if he can use either hand.

Bayless is going to start at least one fight in practice or a game this year. He has a huge chip on his shoulder and seemed to take the scrimmage too seriously.

Diogu has massive shoulders, but he will got a lot of shots blocked and generally plays below the rim.

Barrett’s “Steven of Nazareth” tag about Steven Hill was pretty funny. I met Steven Hill at the entry and he seemed a nice, humble and sincere guy. Hill has my vote to be the 15th man if we have one purely for practice & team chemistry reasons.

Rudy made a lot of his shootaround threes.

Sergio looked real good on a couple of drives. It seemed like Bayless was trying to intimidate Sergio and a couple of time Sergio passed the ball upcourt instead of fighting through the pressure to start the offense…. other than that Sergio handled Bayless well on offense, but didn’t stay with him on defense.

Pryz didn’t want to let Oden dunk on him and gave him the ol’ pryzbilla bear hug once. Roy gave up an open layin on a wrap-around pass so Oden could get his first dunk…. Roy is such a great leader.

Roy’s only three ball was an answer to the only one Webster made on him.

LMA made his first 3-4 shots. I’ve noticed that he often makes his first 2-3 shots in games. I love LMA.