Trailblazers.com Podcast

ok well I will complain for you. I am not sure what happened to Gavin, but I would like to see him back on. I am not even a big fan of his radio show or his big personality. I do however think he added a lot to the show and added some much need balance. Dave is level headed and conservative with his approach. Casey is somewhere in the middle. Seems afraid to go to far either way. (his job and relationship with some of the players prob has something to do with that.)
Gavin speaks his mind and does not care about hurting any feelings. So you see between the 3 you had all the bases covered and it was a well rounded show. like Gavin or not it was nice to have someone stir things up a little and come at things from a whole different angle.

[Casey and Dave discuss the weather.]

Casey Holdahl: Maybe things from an interpersonal standpoint are starting to get a little brighter, but it’s still cold and not a lot to be super happy about. But we’re gonna talk Trailblazers for the next 45 minutes or so. Dave and I will give our thoughts on this last three game stretch, what’s been wrong if anyone can really diagnose it. We’ll talk about some of the upcoming games, some of the themes that have emerged, what’s going on with the team right now, and how maybe some of the problems that they’re having off the court have manifested themselves on the court. So let’s get right into it.

Casey Holdahl: Last couple games, probably about the worst three game stretch the Blazers have gone through in some time. Three straight losses which have seen the opponents shoot better than 50% from the field. So a lot of uneasiness both among the fan base and amongst the team which makes perfect sense since we went from a team that looked like they were putting a few things together and all of a sudden Travis Outlaw goes down (and I don’t know if that’s necessarily the reason) but some switch has clicked and now we’re just a miserable defensive team.

Dave Decker: [finishes chewing something… potato chips?] We always knew that back court defense was an issue with this roster. But you figured that the forwards would help compensate and certainly the centers are lynchpin… which was working well when we had forwards. Dante Cunningham is giving a lot of effort but he’s a rookie and other people don’t know exactly what he’s doing out there. Webster can only do so much. Howard is not a defender. Now your second line of defense is shaky, your first line never existed, so everybody has a straight funnel down to the centers who get in foul trouble and then what do you do? You give up 106, 108, 107 in the last three games. The Blazers just aren’t capable of scoring right now especially with those same forwards out, and that’s the end of the story. The difficulty for me is the fact that we looked so shocked or effortless in the first two games. When you come out at home versus Memphis and you can’t muster a better effort than that, I think something’s wrong. The Utah loss was not surprising. The Miami loss was not horribly surprising.

CH: I’m a little surprised by the way they lost to Miami. Utah… you could see the writing on the wall in regards to that game, but against Miami I am surprised that they got down so big again, weren’t really capable of stopping anything, the Heat finished shooting 53%, didn’t need a huge night out of Wade to beat the Blazers handily. It might have to with Aldridge being out, but that game on Tuesday was really the same as the games we’ve seen with Aldridge, it was just Cunningham and Howard played a little bit more – and Juwan played decently. So right now this team doesn’t have a whole lot going for them defensively. Offensively they’re doing an alright job but they can’t score in the low 100’s and expect to be able to win games.

DD: Right, they need to score 110 to win these games, and that’s a tall order unless you’re Memphis and they score 110 and lose. About Miami though, the key guy in there was Michael Beasley and that’s a direct hit on the power forward position. We’ve actually done a fairly good job in most games containing the opponent’s star, and we did a decent job with Wade early in that game. But how we do that is commit multiple people. Well that leaves somebody out there on an island. In this case the Heat were smart enough to exploit Beasley’s scoring ability. We had no one on the roster who could match up with him, just physically stay in front of him, and things fell apart from there. Once you have to pay attention to him, then the jump shooters are wide open which the Heat love. Eventually Dwyane gets single coverage which the Heat love. It was a like a tower that was wobbly and the Heat knew exactly what block to full. So I don’t think that was as shocking as some do.

CH: On the point of having to double Dwyane and then other guys getting shots… I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many times where there was a guy wide open under the basket waiting for a pass, and not even a difficult pass to make. It seems like in these last three games the Blazers defense is always struggling to recover. Guys don’t seem to be in the right place very often. Guys are having to jump back and recover and by that point somebody else is open, teams are swinging the ball around. The teams seem to have keyed on what exactly the Blazers are having problems with and every team is just taking it to them right now. After the Utah game, Brandon said he felt Utah really sensed that we were hurting and really jumped at them, and I feel like the Miami game was the same. The book is out on what we’re having problems doing right now which is basically defending. You make three passes and you have a decent shot at getting a good look. That wasn’t the case until fairly recently and it’s hard to figure out what exactly has happened that has led to the team being so dramatically bad on defense right now. Not that they were great but they were at least able to keep the game within reason and to play the game defensively that would allow their offense to score enough points to keep the pace low and win ballgames. Now there’s no control whatsoever when it comes to the defense.

In the next installment, Dave explains “exactly what has happened that has led to the team being so dramatically bad on defense right now.”

[Regarding defense]

DD: Injuries is part of it. Part of it is that defense the way the Blazers play it involves a lot of trust. You have to believe that your man’s gonna be there for you. You have to be watching out for your teammates and make those rotations. And you have to put out a lot of effort as well. The trust and the effort are parts that haven’t necessarily been there the same way. The trust perhaps because the lineup isn’t set because of injuries and other things. You don’t know exactly who you’re playing with. And the effort might be part of having played 20 games before most other teams although it’s a little bit of a flimsy excuse because I think everybody’s played 18. But the schedule has been packed, they haven’t had much of a rest. It felt like we were giving up these last couple games trying to get to a spot where we could recoup. Nate has been pretty good over the last few seasons at turning around situations like this where you come up with a new wrinkle… although I don’t know what’s left to wrinkle in this roster right now… and you go forward and hit wins. We’ll see if this happens again.

CH: They need something to happen right now. I don’t know what other wrinkle there is to put out there. Really the only other wrinkle, and I don’t know that it would help the problems we’re having right now, is to start Miller in place of Steve Blake instead of in place of Webster. That’s the only thing that Nate hasn’t tried. I don’t think that would work because Andre isn’t that much better of a defender than Steve if he’s better at all. But another couple losses and you try anything. And as far as playing 20 games I agree. Two more games isn’t that much and that’s not why teams are shooting 50%+ against us.

[Starting Miller and Rudy]

DD: Starting Miller is interesting to me. It’s certainly not a solution defensively. Andre and Steve have been trading the Bad Defender award back and forth this year. I know Roy’s defense isn’t that good either but I give him more of a pass because of the other things he does. I expect that whoever goes in with Brandon has to be a defender to cover for him a little. And neither Steve nor Andre have been fitting the bill especially when they get out of position, if they have to play shooting guard it’s just not working. But that said, Miller can create his own shot. That’s something missing from the lineup, especially if you have to take Aldridge out. Putting Rudy in the place of Webster might be a possible – again somewhat of a defensive liability at s.f. but the defense isn’t working that well anyway. You get a couple guys with Brandon who can create their own shot instead of him and four people who have to be set up, and see if the offense doesn’t get flowing a little easier and see if that doesn’t inspire more effort. This team is still young in terms of its emotional reaction to the game. It’s easy for them to get down and passive when things aren’t going well. But when they get on an offensive spark the defense tends to pick up too. So that’s kind of a backwards way that you might be able to inspire a little enthusiasm and energy by getting some easy baskets.

CH: It doesn’t look like anybody feels good about themselves lately. They’re all saying the right things, but the guys just don’t feel comfortable right now, Brandon Roy specifically. I don’t want to play pocket psychiatrist but he doesn’t seem to have the same aura. Both on and off the court he looks like something is bothering him and he’s said as much, that he’s let his mind think over the problems too much. I don’t know that there’s any way to take care of that other than get back to playing good basketball. As far as the offense goes, maybe putting Rudy in helps. I think your point about Andre creating his own shot is very good because nothing is coming easy right now and if nothing else, you get Andre in there early, he maybe gets some post-ups, gets something going, and it loosens the ropes on everyone else.

["Brandon time" Part I]

CH: But the guy who has been playing well is Greg Oden. And I don’t know if it’s Brandon learning to trust Greg’s offense or just trying to figure out the way they play together. But more could be given to Greg to help the team through the struggles. He’s already the best defender on that team, I think that goes without saying, but he can do things on offense. They’re trying but he’s still not getting those touches that people would expect to see him get. And he’s not getting the touches that people would expect to see him get and he’s not as much a part of the offense as the team would like. It seems like when he gets involved now it’s on putbacks or a straight dump to Greg in the post. It doesn’t seem like much movement when he gets the ball or movement to get him the ball.

DD: There are two points you touched on that are important. On the Brandon point, I hate to compare basketball and other professions but it often happens in business or in my profession where things will start to slip and you’ll have your leader step in to try to correct – because that’s an instinct. If the leader is good at that, he can bail them out, but often as he does so, so much responsibility will fall on him that everybody else ends up abdicating it. And then the leadership ends up doing the job of the other people, which doesn’t work out well. Which makes you think the leader needs to do even more which exacerbates the problem and continues the cycle. I see this happening with the Blazers. Brandon is trying to do so much and feels like he has to do so much that (a) it’s no fun for him and (b) he ends up – not taking over the number of shots – but when he touches up the ball it becomes "Brandon time". People don’t cut the same way, people aren’t hitting their jumpers and aren’t ready to shoot. It just makes it difficult and the pressure is even greater on him to perform every time he touches the ball. Even when he was going gangbusters the last two seasons it was always in the context of the team. You always knew he was dangerous because as soon as everybody paid attention to him, everybody else would kill you. And that’s not happening this year. There are shot’s missed, people turning the ball over, people not capable of scoring the ball in the same way. It’s just too easy for defenders to force Brandon into that solo role, and it’s too easy for him to keep it.

CH: It seems like that’s what’s happening with both Greg and Lamarcus. When either gets the ball in the post, we just stand around and wait for them to do what they do and then get back on defense. And that’s not how to run an offense. I don’t think it’s designed to run that way, either. Nate’s talked a lot about getting involved in the offense off the ball, and that message isn’t finding its way onto the court. When guys aren’t being directly involved with the ball it doesn’t seem like anyone is participating in the offense.

DD: Other than offense rebounding. Even the picks aren’t really sharp, and the way we’re using picks. And that’s a sure that the offense isn’t going well. If you’re doing the old 2006 pick setting routine, the Zack Randolph picks, that’s not good. I think there’s some truth there too in the Oden and Lamarcus thing in that as they’ve approached Brandon’s level – Greg isn’t there yet offensively – but in terms of their popular culture importance, they’re closer to a Big 3 this year than they have been in years past. And something happens. When you’re the under guy just trying to make your way it’s easy to scrap and play off of Brandon and that’s just the way it is. But when you start approaching a guy’s level it’s not exactly a competition – there isn’t resentment or animosity – but it’s like "This is Brandon and not me." And when you’re playing as "not me" you aren’t as active as you were playing as just the guy trying to scrap his way up. It feels like they want Brandon to prove to that they’re going to be part of this offense to because they know that in the end he holds the keys.

Next, more on Brandon getting Greg involved in the offense.

This was my favorite part in the first half that I listened to so I’m setting it aside as a matter of transcriber’s privilege.

DD: I’m not sure that Brandon is quite making that effort either especially with Greg. If I were Brandon, the first thing I would do is go to Coach and say, "You know, I know, everybody knows that I’m the guy on this team, and I hope nobody has a problem with that. Here’s what I need you to do: Help me be a guy on this team who also makes Greg a guy on this team. Let’s set up the offense to do that. Lamarcus can get his by running, and with the second unit, and various other ways. We won’t ignore him, we’ll still set him up. But Greg really needs to be set up. Design me an offense where Greg and I can play off of each other and just dominate people."

Would someone please flag the preceding duplicate of this post (21:12 to 26:07). I appear to be having trouble with the block quotes.

Yeah, but what about LaMarcus Time?

CH: I think that starts in the pick and roll, and I think Greg is setting good picks but people have commented that it doesn’t seem like Brandon is looking for Greg on those picks as often as they think he should. But it comes down to if these guys can get to a point where they realize that (1) Brandon is the man because we’ve had success doing that but also (2) getting everyone else involved, especially Greg. Can Lamarcus be fine with just getting his off of running? I think Lamarcus is concerned that those post possessions are now going to Greg, and I don’t know if he’d be happy if all of his offense comes from offensive rebounds and from transition. I think he could be happy with that, and Greg could be happy with his spot and Brandon could be happy in his. But when you’re losing as bad as they are it’s hard to see that sacrifice paying off. Because “not only am I not getting involved in the offense but we’re also getting our heads beat in and I don’t feel like I should be sacrificing this much when we’re losing anyway.” I don’t know if anyone’s viewing it that way because it doesn’t seem like anyone’s sacrificing much right now.
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DD: Which proves your point.
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CH: Exactly. There has to be some kind of carrot at the end of that stick. As much as we wish it wasn’t that way, the reality is there has to be some kind of payoff. Either the payoff is wins, or if you’re a player who’s concerned with stats and touches in losses – which I don’t think we have anyone who would be satisfied with that but at least if the games are close you can say “well, I did this and we had a chance to win this game.” The past three games we haven’t had a chance to win any.
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DD: The carrot for Lamarcus could be a lot of shots per game if you used him that way. They just don’t come at the beginning of the game. It needs to be Greg setup in minute 1 of quarter 1 to pound it inside, to draw the defense in there, and to loosen things up for everybody else. At that time it becomes a little bit Brandon Time, it becomes jumpshooter time. But as soon as that second unit starts to cycle in, my vote is to make Lamarcus the primary scorer and get the guy 14 shots a came in that second quarter, third quarter/fourth quarter bridge. And you get him whatever he can get by running the floor, he ends up shooting as much or more than anybody else. But you don’t feature Lamarcus right out of the gate, or you don’t feature Lamarcus when Brandon is in there in the fourth quarter. And frankly, he’s not getting those other shots anyway. He’s not getting good attempts this year. He has a right to complain a little bit because he has to take whatever he can get and often that’s a poor turn-around shot. They should be setting him up to where he’s the focal point at strategic parts of the game, where the lane is his, the court is his, and he’s able to do whatever he wants.
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CH: Getting Lamarcus more time, probably with Joel in whatever unit they’re working with towards the end of the first quarter, start of the second, and featuring him in the offense, would not only be good Lamarcus and the team, but it also would keep the opposing team off balance. You have to start out with Greg getting established, that opens things up for Brandon, and that opens things up for Lamarcus. If they can get to rotating where at some point everybody is featured and being put in positions where they can score, and score easier than we are now, I think that would probably solve this problem. Now that’s obviously much easier said than done. I can say we should get easier scores and then everything will be fine but until we can get to that point it’s moot.
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DD: There’s an intermediate step…

Sorry to be the spoiler, but the intermediate step is jump shots.

DD: There’s an intermediate step between Greg and Brandon that’s not happening. What has to happen is Greg draws the defense inside. Then you kick out to jumpshooters, and they only have to hit a couple shots before the opposing team gets the idea that they have to recover. As soon as they do that and you’ve got people scrambling between Greg and jumpshooters, or worrying about that possibility, then the world is Brandon’s oyster. Because he can just grab the ball and drive and they can’t commit extra players to him without exposing one the two places that they’ve already been hurt. Part of the problem this year is: Who can you depend on to hit that jumpshot on a consistent basis? Steve Blake has had a bunch of 0-3 or 1-5 outings. Rudy, 1-5, 1-6, gets hot occasionally but seems to go up or down. Martell pours in 30 points in one quarter and misses every shot in another. We have not had really good 3 point shooting this year. If our average isn’t that bad it’s because it’s come in torrential rushes where we hit everything we throw up, but then we go so dry that the opponent doesn’t have to respect that. Frankly, they’re willing to give up any shot that Blake wants to take, or Martell wants to take, knowing they won’t get burned by that.
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CH: I have seen Martell be left open more than in the past three years, and he’s not hitting those shots. Same guys for Rudy and Steve. Andre is doing a decent job but no one fears Andre’s jumpshot. When you see him get the ball out at 18 feet, guys aren’t crushing to recover an Andre jumpshot. They’ll give it up if that means Greg or Lamarcus isn’t getting an easy look in the post. So those guys really do need to be hitting those shots if we’re gonna be successful. As much as we’d like to look at Greg and Lamarcus and, to a lesser extent, Brandon and say that we have ways that we can score outside of jumpshooting, this is still a jumpshooting team. It’s meant to draw the defense in and then kick out and hit shots. That’s not uncommon for an NBA offense or an offense in basketball period, but we’re not hitting those shots and it’s making everything else more difficult. That level of consistency hasn’t been there. What we need to win games is people consistently hitting shots and guys making the right pass, and not turning the ball over as much as we have. That’s elementary basketball like Nate says all the time, that it’s a simple game. If you play it right, it’s not hard to be successful. And that segues into my next point about injuries.

CH: A rash of injuries has made it difficult to get a flow in the offense, especially with the loss of Travis Outlaw who is a decent percentage jumpshooter. As much as he might make you cringe sometimes, having him out does take away another option, especially for the corner 3, a shot that he’s good at hitting.
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DD: And Travis wasn’t a great defender but he was making an effort this year and he’s tall enough to defend. And he’s had experience defending with this team. So you wouldn’t always get a stellar defensive effort but you knew what you were going to get whereas Juwan Howard, Dante Cunningham Dante has the potential to be a much better defender than Travis but you don’t know what you’re going to get yet. Juwan does not, and you don’t know what you’re going to get with him either. On both ends of the court these injuries cause more instability than just simply the loss of talent, and that’s part of what people are missing. Games hang on such a thin balance. If you’re really elite you can win by a near double digit point margin, but even the Blazers are winning by 5 points a game. Most teams hang around +/- 3 or less. One or two possessions where you don’t know exactly what’s going on can be the margin that costs you the game. So you have to give credit to the struggle we’re going through with these forwards going down.
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CH: The fact that all of the injuries have pointed at the 3/4 hybrid position has made it difficult. Obviously losing Nicolas Batum may be the biggest loss that we could have had just from a perspective of how the way he plays the game fits into what we’re trying to accomplish in the first unit. But using Travis both from an on court and off court perspective – the way he lightens the mood – has been difficult for this team. The theme that’s emerging here is that none of these things individually are reasons why they’ve just gotten blasted the last three games, but the culmination… has made it difficult. But Travis is basically done for the season, Nicolas hopefully will get back but you can’t assume he’s gonna be back this year. So the question now becomes how do you put those things behind you and move on with the season?
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[Injury update on Greg and Lamarcus]
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CH: A small update on the injury to Lamarcus Aldridge – he’s still listed as day to day, didn’t practice yesterday, the team doesn’t practice today, but he is expected to practice tomorrow as far as we know. But I don’t really consider Lamarcus at this point to be one of the "injuries" that this team has sustained. He’s fighting a minor tweak and will probably be back. Greg Oden as well didn’t practice yesterday. He rolled his ankle against Miami on the first quarter play where Martell went up on an offensive rebound, he fell and rolled into Greg. It doesn’t appear major or even a minor injury, just a small in-season problem that hopefully won’t linger longer than the next day or two. But there’s no such thing as being optimistic with injuries for this team because we’ve been hit so hard you have to prepare for the worst every time. That makes it hard to get any flow on the court as well.
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[Dave’s prescription: 1) Attitude, 2) Greg, 3) Rudy]
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DD: So it’s prescription time. You have a bit of a flu here. You need to figure out some things that would help. I have mine. One is you need an attitude adjustment. I think you came into the season, much like the fan base, thinking of yourselves a little too highly, thinking ahead to the playoffs. Brandon’s talking about being a championship team which is good and what you want to hear. But you weren’t there yet even at full strength and in the first game of the season. You’re not there now. You have to stop thinking about yourself like a really good team who is disappointed because it’s losing games it shouldn’t and start thinking of yourself again as that scrappy team trying to make it, fighting for its survival, fighting for respect, who is gonna dig for every single win and value it. That’s step one, the mental attitude adjustment. Step number two, find ways to let Greg Oden help you more. Obviously he’s doing a lot on defense, he’s doing a lot on the boards, but find ways to work him into the offense too and let him break down some people. Even when he misses he has a pretty effect on the defense. So invest some more trust and confidence him. Also try to help him out the most you can on defense to keep him on the floor, because he’s a real threat for you. Step three is Rudy Fernandez. I think he’s the best shot of overcoming your outside shooting woes. Actually I don’t like Rudy just being the 3 point shooter, nor do I like him necessarily on his fancy dribble spin shots which have been going on a lot this season. They make me nervous and they don’t really hurt the defense much even when he hits them because they know he won’t do it consistently. What I want out of Rudy is the three point threat coupled with a willingness to dribble in about two steps and hit that open jumper once the defender has gone by or gets out of position. Because those are shots he can hit with his eyes closed, that he never misses. Not the 23 footers but about the 18 footers, and those will open up the defensive vulnerability as much as the 3 pointer will. So those are my rays of hopes, that would be my prescription going forward.

Next up: Casey’s prescription

More prescriptions. Next reply will start with the “look ahead” to next games.

CH: I’ll give my prescription as well. You touched on it with Rudy but (1) Start hitting your jumpshots and do what it takes to get to your spot on the floor where you feel comfortable hitting a shot. If that means pass it back into the post and run it inside out, that’s fine. Don’t take the 3 pointer just because it’s being given to you. (2) Find out whatever it is that’s been bothering you and just leave it. Right now, nobody seems very comfortable, everyone’s pressing the expectations. Just get over it and like you said, realize you’re not a good enough team to expect team when you’re not putting forth your best effort. (3) Get the ball to Oden more, get more movement on offense without the ball, and recognize that you are involved in the offense even when you’re not taking the ball to the hole. But I think we’re gonna have to have something happen that allows the team to start feeling good about themselves, whether it’s a good shot against a team or another nice road winning streak with another four road games after one more home game, but they need some kind of outside force to jumpstart this thing.
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DD: And people are going to say you haven’t said anything about the defense which is the trouble. But the problem is, I don’t see a lot of real good fixes for the defense. I don’t see any guard that we have coming off the bench who can play long enough to make a difference. Jarryd Bayless has defensive skills but he’s getting in foul trouble and getting out of position when he plays, so you can’t rely on him to come in and play 25 or 30 minutes. I don’t see any of the guards who can defend, period, other than him. So that’s an issue… you get steals yes, but defend not so much. I don’t see any forwards riding to the rescue except maybe Dante and you don’t know what you’re gonna get with him. The centers are doing everything they can. The reality is, until Nic comes back there isn’t a great defensive solution for this team. Now, that doesn’t mean they need to give up 105, 106 points a game. Their effort is the best solution, making the most out of what they have, and again, improving the offense will help some of that. But this team needs to seriously look about whether it is good enough defensively in the backcourt and whether that needs to be addressed.
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CH: I don’t know what the fix is for that.

DD: Want to look ahead to this trip? Well we have the Houston game first. That’s always a tough game. I believe you should win at home. They should not have enough scorers to cause you trouble if you’re able to keep a man on everybody. The effort should be there that you should beat the Rockets. That’s not to discredit them, that’s not to say they’re a bad team. The caveat being as long as Lamarcus is back.
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CH: Absolutely, and I think Scola may be out for that game. He has some kind of injury. If he’s out they’re already a small team without Yao. If Scola’s out they’re a super-small team. Chuck Hayes and Carl Landry are good at getting the most out of their defense, but there’s no reason why Lamarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden shouldn’t have big games, and I agree that should be a win. But it is Houston and they seem to have our number.
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DD: It’s a good test for Oden because the Houston centers were able to keep him out of good position in the games that we played earlier. Oden has grown since then in confidence if nothing else. If he’s taking a 12 foot jump hook, we’re in trouble in that game, but he should be able to get farther inside and finally do some damage against the Rockets. The trip afterwards: The Knicks, The Pacers, Cleveland and Milwaukee. There are some winnable games on that trip but they’re dangerous. The Knicks you should pencil in as a win but they’re a "Golden State" team that plays fast offense, and if the Blazers let ‘em go, Portland won’t be able to keep with them, no matter how bad the roster is. Indiana should be a win if you don’t let Danny Granger go off. Cleveland? Ouch. Milwaukee is playing fairly well this year. But the scary part about that road trip is, if you have a bad road trip then, you come home against Sacramento and then Phoenix, but then you go out later in the month against Orlando, Miami, Dallas, and San Antonio. You go 1 – 3 on this first road trip and you’re really scared for that second one. This road trip could really rip a hole in the bottom of the boat for the month.
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CH: A 3 – 1 trip would be fantastic. A 1 – 3 trip would be near disastrous and really a possibility too, because the Knicks are not a great team but they play the style of basketball that gives the Trailblazers problems. Indiana we don’t seem to play all that well there for whatever reason, but we will have a day of rest between the Knicks and the Pacers. Cleveland you pencil in as a loss. They did take them to overtime last year in Cleveland without Brandon Roy, but this team is not playing as well as that team was last year. And you finish with Milwaukee, a good team with a quick point guard, some size in the middle, and on the second night of a back-to-back that game becomes a real toss-up. If I’m writing it down I put that one down as a loss. So you really hope to go 2 – 2. Anything worse than that and you go on that next trip, those are four tough games, two back-to-backs with a day off in between on the East Coast. You put yourself behind the 8-ball if you don’t do well on this trip here.
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DD: And all against good teams. This month, because of the nature of the road trips, I’m looking at two games you really expect to game, that you’d better win… that’s Tuesday the 15th against the Kings and Wednesday the 30th against the Clippers, both at home. The Blazers should win those. You want to say Philadelphia but they have always given the Blazers trouble. Other than that, your home games are Denver, Phoenix, Houston, and you have a bunch of road games. A lot of games up in the air this month, the Blazers have to be careful about how far they let things slip in December.
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CH: It is still early and there’s still time to get things going in the right direction, but not a lot of time. You have to set yourself up for later on in the season early in the season. Hopefully they can get something going on Saturday against the Rockets and build some momentum.

Next reply: Update on Blazers Edge, Blazers Edge Night…

CH: What do you have going on at Blazers Edge? Give us an update on the Blazers Edge Night, and everything else you have going on at the site.
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DD: We’re getting close, we should have an official update on Monday. We still need some help but we’re closing in. I’m comfortable saying we’ll get to at least 400 tickets given away, if not more, as long as people have a little generosity between now and Christmas, which I’m banking that people will. We are down to the nitty gritty here, so be as generous as you can and you’ll find the information on the site. That’s gonna be a fantastic time. We’re doing the usual with Ben Golliver on site doing a bang-up job reporting for practice and the games, and we’re just holding on like everybody else hoping that these road trips don’t turn into the month that sunk the ship.
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CH: No kidding. We’re doing pretty much the same over at trailblazers.com. Saturday night is our Hardwood Classics night so we will be wearing the retro hardwood jerseys and warm ups. So who knows, maybe something small like that helps this team up. Maybe a change of jersey will help this team. So we’ll have a lot regarding the 40th anniversary and some look back at the 70’s. So that pretty much does it for me, Dave. We’ve gone the whole time without talking about the Civil War which I feel pretty good about, no reason to broach that topic here. I know we have fans and listeners who are Duck and Beaver and non-applicable, so we’ll leave that talk to the other folks in town, but we appreciate everyone listening to the podcast. Dave?
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DD: Just go B…
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[sorry Dave, it wasn’t to happen]
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DD: And someone needs to tell the powers that be that it’s not Hardwood Throwback Jersey night unless you wear the short shorts too, I’m still waiting to see Oden in a pair of shorts that are four inches long.
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CH: Yeah, at least high socks if nothing else… So for Dave Decker at blazersedge.com, Casey Holdahl here at trailblazers.com, I appreciate your listening, we will do it again next week.