Podcast Returns

by Dave on Jul 23, 2008 3:41 PM PDT

Here's the post-Summer-League podcast with Gavin, Casey, and Dave. We talked about Batum and Koponen, Oden, Chicago free agents, Coach Nate, Bayless' role on this team, and a few other topics here and there. Enjoy!

Click here for mp3.

Remember if you have questions or topic suggestions for future podcasts e-mail them to me or to podcast@trailblazers.com

--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)

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1st!

1st! Whoo Hoo my first 1st!
Oh, and I heard Dave live the other night, the guy is good, not as good as me, but good.

Mike Barrett Says "Yes Sir!', Wheels Says "Boomshakalaka!'

by BlazermaniacAndy on Jul 23, 2008 4:30 PM PDT 0 recs

If you want to listen to the podcast

in a browser, Casey’s got it embedded here:

http://trailblazerscentercourt.blogspot.com/2008/07/072308-edition-of-trailblazerscom.html

by jamon51 on Jul 23, 2008 6:40 PM PDT up 0 recs

I haven't listened it all the way through

But…what do you think of the Josh Childress situation?

A Time For Heroes,
It's not right for young lungs to be coughing up blood
And it's all
It's all in my hands
And its all up the walls
Well the stale chips were up and the hopes stakes were down
Until Kp came into Town!
'Sing it Petey!

by Dheepan on Jul 23, 2008 4:33 PM PDT 0 recs

oops yep you talk about it

And Ben Gordan is gross, shame on you Gavin Dawson.

by Dheepan on Jul 23, 2008 4:55 PM PDT up 0 recs

True Hoop on Childress

is a version … hope someone hasn’t already linked it

http://myespn.go.com/nba/truehoop

Cave Canem!

by Caveowl on Jul 23, 2008 6:52 PM PDT up 0 recs

Can you guy talk about ninjas next time?

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by tominhawaii on Jul 23, 2008 4:41 PM PDT 0 recs

EXACTLY

And Ben Gordan is gross, shame on you Gavin Dawson.

What’s Gavin’s obsession with Ben Gordon? He would have 0 place on this team. Especially next year and beyond. With Rudy Bayless and Roy playing guard spots, how on earth are we supposed to find extra minutes for another guy. One of which is only a shooter.

That said, I do like Deng. His defense at the 3 is among the best in the league. He’s a physical yet athletic defender, something you don’t find too often in this league. Sure he can’t shoot the 3, but everyone that has a potential roster spot in the future on this team already does, so its not that big of a loss, especially when you throw on the fact that he can play good offensively, its just a mid-range game. I was pumped when I heard of the trouble in negotiations between he and the Bulls. He’s the type of guy that can play his role, and let things come to him. More importantly, he’s a guy that loves working and becoming a better player.

by as11osu on Jul 23, 2008 5:03 PM PDT 0 recs

Deng's D at the 3 is mediocre at best

Why do you say it’s among the best in the league? The Bulls were actually better last year – and MUCH better on defensive efficiency – when Deng was sitting on the bench. Go to 82games.com and click on him. They were like 6 points per 100 worse with him on the court – a pretty significant difference.

Bayless isn't the second coming of Jordan.
Jordan was the first coming of Bayless.

by KP Corleone on Jul 23, 2008 9:53 PM PDT up 0 recs

Deng's D is that good (You should probably watch the games)

The reason Deng’s on/off defense was so poor, was because he’s on the court when the other teams starters are out there. He also didn’t play the meaningless minutes at the end of games, that the Bulls were actually competitive during (with the other teams do-nothings on the court). He has the 2nd best man defensive numbers on 82games of anyone on that entire team (15.8). The Bulls team basically crashed and burned last year, the year before its even more apparent how good he was defensively (12.3 which would’ve rated 4th in the entire NBA this year).

by as11osu on Jul 23, 2008 10:23 PM PDT up 0 recs

Watch the Bulls' games?

Not if you paid me. A lot.

Bayless isn't the second coming of Jordan.
Jordan was the first coming of Bayless.

by KP Corleone on Jul 23, 2008 10:32 PM PDT up 0 recs

Agree

Statistics are hard to use in analyzing defense but the three stats available are Defensive Rebounds, Blocks and Steals. A sort on Draft Espress’ NBA database for last year of players playing 20+ minutes equalized to 40 minutes shows Deng is not in the top 30 of any of those categories. Some names:

Andrei Kirilenko
Shane Battier
Paul Pierce
Rudy Gay
Shawn Marion
Josh Smith
Antoine Jameson
LeBron James
James Posey
Travis Outlaw
and many more

All equal or (mostly) exceed Deng in all three categories My point is that if you are among the best in the league you ought to show up in at least one or two of these.

Aldridge said. "We feel like we can beat any team. We feel like we can beat the Spurs, Suns, Lakers, Mavericks, whoever any night right now, and we'll still be here when those teams get old and their guys retire. We're going to be here for a long time."

by lee3022 on Jul 23, 2008 10:40 PM PDT up 0 recs

People who don't understand stats...

shouldn’t use them to try and “prove” things.

Andrei Kirilenko
Shane Battier
Paul Pierce
Rudy Gay
Shawn Marion
Josh Smith
Antoine Jameson
LeBron James
James Posey
Travis Outlaw

The ones in bold are just plain laughable. Sergio was among the leaders in steals per minute last year. Was he a great defender? Your stats are even more flawed than the 82games.com on/off ones. If you watch the Bulls play, and I have, you’d see for yourself how good Luol Deng can be on defense. I’m glad its not the responsibility of Blazer fan’s to judge opposing teams talent. A lot of people here seem to be horrible at it. All the basketball people that have watched these guys play know that Deng is among the top defensive players at the position. Does anyone remember how good Chicago’s D was before they tried to acclimate all the newbies into the lineup this year?

by as11osu on Jul 24, 2008 3:21 AM PDT up 0 recs

Marion's a poor defender?

news to me…

by royroty on Jul 24, 2008 9:12 AM PDT up 0 recs

Agreed about Gordon though

He’s completely redundant of Bayless, costs five times more, and has less upside. Can’t believe that was even discussed.

Bayless isn't the second coming of Jordan.
Jordan was the first coming of Bayless.

by KP Corleone on Jul 23, 2008 10:00 PM PDT up 0 recs

Agree with Dave on Deng

If Deng is unrestricted next year.

GET HIM!

by spencerbutte on Jul 23, 2008 5:08 PM PDT 0 recs

If he is unrestricted and none of the others are

but I would rather have Josh Smith should he sign his restricted tender. Atlanta has to be in panic mode about now. The ownership fiasco there just got worse. Hurts for the fans who finally got a playoff team and Childress leaves and Smith does not want to be there.

My thought is still that rather than sign a free agent (they are all overpaid except Shaq) we are going to see teams lining up to trade with the trade exception they receive from us taking that team into 2010 free agency season.

by lee3022 on Jul 23, 2008 11:07 PM PDT up 0 recs

Re: Nate's contract

I was glad to see Dave finally mention Nate looking tired in LV. Not that I saw that, but my thought was “he’s too dang busy to have to deal with a contract extension” right now. He’s employed for the next (how many?) years so it’s really not a big priority right now. I didn’t realize that his contract history with the Sonics was so contentious – was that as a player as well as a coach? Do coaches have agents?

"We, as Blazer fans, are perhaps the luckiest fans in the league."-Idog1976, July 19.

by jorga on Jul 23, 2008 5:55 PM PDT 0 recs

As a coach they assumed he would come back and did not even offer an extension

until immediately before or after the old one expired. It was what drove him to consent to a Paul Allen interview which seemed to convince him he would be more welcome in Portland even though he was Mr. Sonic (And still is!).

Seattle also began dismantling the team under Howard Shultz and Coach Nate had to see the indicators of disaster coming.

I remember his initial interview in Portland when he said he was assured by Mr Allen he had time to reshape the team without regards to wins and losses and he warned us then that it would not be pretty. At the end of his 5 year contract he will still be below .500 in Portland even if we win 50 games each of the next two seasons. His overall record as a coach is 306-335 so it stand to reason that he would want to get a few great seasons under his belt before he leaves.

The thing about coaching is players start to tune most of them out after 4-5 years. There are good coaches fired every year in the NBA because you can change coaches more easily than change teams. Watching Chicago this year self-destruct under Coach Skiles illustrates this very well. It didn’t take long for Milwaukee to snap him up. So Coach Nate is likely to assess at the end of 5 years whether he is likely to experience the same. He likely would prefer to leave on his own terms than to be fired.

by lee3022 on Jul 23, 2008 10:53 PM PDT up 0 recs

Gavin dissing LMA?

“I would take a beat-down?” How big is he? LMA probably would fold him into a tiny box.

And now we wish fighting back? What? I agree that Bayless brings a much needed fire and we should be a little more agressive, but I don’t want to see guys getting suspended again.

Coach, I promise I wasn't running hard ...

by Norsktroll on Jul 23, 2008 6:15 PM PDT 0 recs

Re: Greg at 80% ??!!!

I’m thinking I should revise my prediction that the Blazers will go 98-0 next season. Let’s say 62-20 regular season and 16-8 in the playoffs.

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by CatMan2 on Jul 23, 2008 6:19 PM PDT 0 recs

Yeah, scary

Although I watched him at OSU when he was about 40%, and he still dominated everyone, including two top ten picks in the National Championship (Hortford and Noah) at the same time. They weren’t even in the same league. O State would’ve won by 20 except for the three-point disparity (which was something like 65% vs. 8%).

Bayless isn't the second coming of Jordan.
Jordan was the first coming of Bayless.

by KP Corleone on Jul 23, 2008 9:57 PM PDT up 0 recs

so glad this is back!

my favorite part: casey being terrified of bayless hahahaha

"You'd rather say 'whoa' than 'giddyup.'" ~ Dean Demopoulos

by Ben. on Jul 23, 2008 8:07 PM PDT 0 recs

We're back to

“someone’s got to throw a punch…”

meh

by jamon51 on Jul 23, 2008 8:08 PM PDT 0 recs

Not on board with that thought at all

Portland has regained a little respect around the league but this group is not the in-your-face type of team and neither is Coach Nate. It was the beginning of the end for Isiah in New York (yes the lawsuit was the knockout punch). LEt’s intimidate by our physical play on the court. With the stories of Greg’s strength now no punch is needed – Greg just picks them up and deposits them on their bench.

by lee3022 on Jul 23, 2008 10:58 PM PDT up 0 recs

People who start fights are just jerks.

No exceptions, and regardless of provocation. I hope no one on the team ever throws a punch.

by pualo on Jul 24, 2008 12:19 PM PDT up 0 recs

Throwing a punch really helped Melo's career

The Nuggets and Melo went from young and promising to a complete disappointment over the course of that suspension

Bayless isn't the second coming of Jordan.
Jordan was the first coming of Bayless.

by KP Corleone on Jul 23, 2008 9:58 PM PDT 0 recs

LOL! Not a good example.

Anyone who saw that altercation knows that it didn’t do a thing to help ‘Melo’s aura of toughness. In fact it destroyed it completely, which is part of the problem. He threw a complete blind-side cheap shot and then backpedaled the entire length of the court to avoid any retaliation. He accelerated his backward motion considerably when tough, mean, physically imposing Nate Robinson (5’9”, 180lbs) wanted to square off against him. Ever since that moment he has had exactly zero credibility in the league. Complete wuss out moment.

If anything that example shows why it’s important to have something of a tough image.

—Dave

by Dave on Jul 23, 2008 10:27 PM PDT up 0 recs

Granted, if you're trying to bolster your image...

it’s probably best to go with the closed fist approach. I’m pretty confident Oakley, for instance, has never slapped anyone in his entire life. Ever. (Including infancy.) And true, the 72-foot backstroke isn’t exactly a credibility booster, either. (If backpeddling were an Olympic sport, maybe he would have that gold medal, after all.) But in Melo’s defense, if he didn’t backpeddle his way out of fights back in Baltimore, more than his image might’ve gotten killed!

Bayless isn't the second coming of Jordan.
Jordan was the first coming of Bayless.

by KP Corleone on Jul 23, 2008 10:42 PM PDT up 0 recs

LOL

That last line is hilarious. And true.

—Dave

by Dave on Jul 23, 2008 11:34 PM PDT up 0 recs

People calling for fisticuffs ought to remember

what Kermit Washington did to Rudy Tomjonovich with one punch. These NBA guys are big and strong, and they can do serious damage with their fists.

I think some hard and timely fouls ought to be sufficient to send a message.

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by CatMan2 on Jul 23, 2008 11:48 PM PDT up 0 recs

Look at Josh Howard

And his lame pre-season punch to the back of Brad Miller’s head. Lame, lame, lame…. If you try to hard thats what you get.

Joel Freeland=Stud

by hightide on Jul 24, 2008 12:57 AM PDT up 0 recs

+1

Totally agree. Those Riley Knick teams and to a lesser degree, the Piston Bad Boys really set back offense for years to come with their over-the-top physical play – remember the Spurs/Nets Finals (snoring). Before the early 90s, most disputes were settled with hard fouls – loved seeing those clips of the McHale/Rambis clothesline during the finals. Hard fouls are part of the game and don’t always escilate to the Rudy punch or Artest melee. I can’t believe all these flagrant fouls being called now. It’s like throwing at batters in baseballs is the only way to keep hitters from diving out over the plate or cheap/dirty plays on the basepaths – it’s part of the game. So, lighten up David Stern and stop calling all these ticky-tack flagrant fouls everytime a player hits the ground hard even if the opposing player is going for the block.

"Switzerland is a place where they don't like to fight, so they get people to do their fighting for them while they ski and eat chocolate." - LD

by RoyDrexler on Jul 24, 2008 1:18 AM PDT up 0 recs

BTW, OT Kermit Washington is a good guy

He came and spoke at my middle school eons ago about the crisis in Rwanda in the 90s. He always gets a bad rap for the Rudy punch, but he was really friendly and was doing some really good charitable work.

"Switzerland is a place where they don't like to fight, so they get people to do their fighting for them while they ski and eat chocolate." - LD

by RoyDrexler on Jul 24, 2008 1:21 AM PDT up 0 recs

Indiana really bounced back after their fight too.

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by tominhawaii on Jul 24, 2008 5:46 AM PDT up 0 recs

The funny thing is...

It feels like their new guys have more run-ins with the law (including allegations of rape in a player’s house during a party, housing a murder suspect, lots of DWIs) than Ron and Stephen combined in recent years.

Coach, I promise I wasn't running hard ...

by Norsktroll on Jul 24, 2008 6:57 AM PDT up 0 recs