With no trades, no added free agents...

many of us, me included, often want the quick fix and the adrenaline high. I can’t deny that I want to experience another Blazer championship, but we have a team that’s fun to watch and they compete hard most every night. That ain’t half bad. Instead of wanting to make changes, we probably should be collectively praying that everyone stays healthy this year. I experienced the incredible high in 1977, and the incredible low when Walton went down the very next year when we stood at 50-10 and were rolling over everybody until that happened. I was at that game and you could just feel the air go out of the Coliseum (which, by the way, great memories notwithstanding, should be torn down and a ballpark built in it’s place!!). Sorry, I digress.

Anyway, you made some very good points.

how KP and the PTB brass have strung out trade crazy blazer fans this off-season, as if they had any intention of shaking things up to make certain fans happy. A years experience for the core, Webster coming back, and some nice young draft picks, the PTB are right where they should be— in contention.

In fact, their job is to have knee-jerk reactions to all news. If they are polarizing, all the better, that will keep people listening and calling in. Last I heard them, it sounded like they couldn’t get Jerryd and Travis out of town fast enough. And whenever a name-brand free agent or trade target is rumored, Gavin is all for it.

I am opposed to this concept, which is why KP should steal Lamar Odom from the L*kers

If you were referring to LaMarcus Aldridge, use an abbreviation (LMA) that can’t be confused with a certain SoCal metropolex that is famous for smog (and yes I know his teammates call him “L-A” but that doesn’t mean it works as a “shortcut” when typing)

These “we should all just be happy watching the players we’ve already got” posts are getting tiresome. Nobody wants to see the roster improve more than Nate and Brandon. Nobody wants to make that happen more than KP. No fan wants to see a deal made “just to make a deal” And while it can be “fun” to watch the team play for 33 years in a row without winning a championship, nobody is relishing the thought of waiting another 33 years until the next title, either.

I keep hearing the “we can’t afford to shorten the championship window by acquiring an older player who won’t be around 3 years from now” sing-song and while it sounds logical, the reality is you’ve got to win one championship before you can even think about going on a run of titles. It’s easy to say “let’s not break up the current mix of players and they’ll be ready to win in 2 years when the L*kers and the Spurs get old” but if you take a look at NBA history you’ll see that some of these successful teams don’t rebuild, they reload. We’ve seen the evidence of this “reloading” process since draft night and especially the first week of July.

There’s a saying that veteran NBA observers use (“if you aren’t moving forward, you’re getting left behind”) and it’s apropos to the 2009 Blazer offseason. It’s not for a lack of trying, KP has been active in his attempts to improve the roster, and he should continue this process until all avenues have been exhausted. The “needs” that were identified at the end of the playoff series (more veterans with experience, adding more toughness, upgrade the PG position) haven’t gone away and aren’t likely to be “filled” by the current players aging 6 months from the end of last season until the beginning of training camp.

The “hope” and “mirage” of getting that “special” fit at or before the trading deadline shouldn’t be relied on, and the memory of the “vanishing RLEC” should remain fresh in the minds of all who wish to sail those waters. Don’t put off until the winter what should have been repaired in the summer, because you can be sure no other NBA team is looking to do Portland any favors, they are all going to look out for their own best interests.

I’m going to watch another summer league game tonight and I’ll try to “enjoy the journey” and “keep everything in perspective” but I’m not going to be sucked into the “we’ll get ’em next year” attitude. If we Blazer fans want to know the satisfaction that L*ker fans are feeling this offseason, then we can’t ease up and let the front office “glide” through the summer and keep the roster static. That’s like telling a shark to stop swimming, if it remains still for long enough it’ll drop to the ocean floor and become food for the scavengers. I don’t want to see the Blazers go through another 33 years of getting their bones picked cleaned because they hesitated to pull the trigger and make a few offseason deals that could of resulted in at least one championship, because they were waiting around for a dynasty

What is more tiresome? The "we should all just be happy watching the players we’ve already got" posts or the “let’s make a deal” parade of posts that have surfaced ad infinitum? I admit that recurring “Happy with what we got” Drawer is getting a bit stale.

For me, it’s been the latter. It’s hard to figure why the gradual and accelerated improvement in the team has been forgotten in hopes of dreams of World title fancies and ticker tape parties on MLK next June. It used to be teams would take a few years of playing together before they really clicked and became true contenders. Nowadays, if a team doesn’t win it all, it’s time to shake things up. It’s the they didn’t win it all last year so they’ll never win it all unless something drastic is done…now thinking that seems so perplexing.

Oh then there’s the other teams are doing it so shouldn’t we too approach. Yea, like the Spurs getting Jeff by dumping Bowen makes then a notch better. Or the fakers getting Artest and losing Ariza really defines reloading. C’mon. As soon as the Spurs lose Duncan to retirement and kojay wears the cross town uniform, both those teams are going to drop. Same with Boston and their changes, which do little more then keep their bobbing heads above water, but when KG is gone, that ship is going to be the NBA’s version of the Kursk. The difference is the PTB can afford the time to make wise decisions and keep improving without making sacrifices to appease the short-sighted win now at all costs fan base.

The PTB are still one of the youngest, deepest and most talented teams in the league. No matter what miracle trade has been fantasized about, this club is still at least a couple seasons away from SERIOUS contention. So I don’t think anyone is all happy happy joy joy about an uneventful off-season, but there’s a measure of content in knowing what the PTB got works, and why fix it if it ain’t broke.