a lot of folks have said that the Blazers’ best chance at making decisive improvement would come through trade and not the free agent market. Despite the avalanche of Hedo news at the moment I still think that’s true. But what I think is best and what the Blazers actually do are sometimes different things.

However I would not give up all hope even if Portland doesn’t manage a huge FA signing.

—Dave

I really don’t think that the 2 of the teams, LA( Artest covers the loss of Ariza) and Denver, will improve as much as I think the Blazers will improve. If Oden shows development and his PPG spikes like 6-7 points, how much of an effect does that have? It makes him a threat that coaches have to plan for, meaning double teams, which means open shooters, you know the whole thi. My point is that the Blazers have a higher ceiling than the other teams in the West do, if you get what I mean. (I know that baseball has the WAR system to calculate wins generated by player, but is PER an identical stat?)

However, San Antonio scares the crap out of me. There are rumors that they are going after Rasheed Wallace. Just thino of how scary that lineup is. They won’t have a single glaring hole if they get him. Ugh, scary, though it seems Boston might snatch him with their Big 3 visit or whatever suck-upery they did.

If we sign Turkoglu, great, gives us a vet, what we have always needed, and you have to think that KP would blow this kind of money on another Peja Stoyakovich. If KP thinks we can contend as-is, great, but if he thinks we can’t, I know that he will do everything in his power to make sure we are.

We have

Roy

LaMarcus

&

Oden

If people think Hedo fooled everyone this year, no one has been following the career of Ron Artest. Don’t get me wrong, I love Ron Ron, but he is a ticking time bomb. Rick Adlemen is one of the few, if not the only, coach that can contain him. Maybe Phil 10 years ago, but not now and defiantly not Kurt Rambis. I see locker room problems happening in the first 5 minutes. Two of the biggest egos in the nba on the same team and oh yeah, they are not the biggest fans of each other. By the way, Gasol is already complaining about not getting the ball enough, between Kobe and Ron, he better turn into a David Lee over night and starting getting used to taking out the garbage. When did Jerry Buss change his last name to Jones?

I don’t think the Lakers got better with Ron Artest. I’ve never been an Artest fan though, so I may be biased. We’ll see how he adjusts to the triangle, and being the fourth best player on his team.

I’m wondering who it is you thought was going to give Artest more than the full MLE, which is what the Lakers gave him? Not Memphis, Toronto, or Oklahoma City. No one else besides the Blazers are under the cap. Detroit is done. So as far as I can see, no one. The MLE from a contender was the best he could hope to do, and since the Lakers just won it all, who better to sign with?

As for the Spurs, Duncan is timing out. He just can’t do eighty two games anymore before the playoffs. If Jefferson, Parker, and Ginobli can all stay healthy, they may tread water. But I’m thinking they probably win 50 games this year.

Denver is up against the luxury tax and can’t make any moves without offloading salary or going dollar for dollar over. I don’t think they improve on last year’s record, put them down for 54 again.

Houston is in a rebuilding year with Yao and McGrady both out for the first third of the season if not more. New Orleans has figured out Peja was a bad contract and Mo Pete and Butler aren’t the answer at shooting guard, plus they’re trying to dump salary to balance the books. Dallas is trying to stay relevant, but at best they’re the same team and there’s a fair chance they lose Kidd. Utah was hosed when everyone opted in.

The way I see it, the Blazers will beat Denver out for the Northwest conference title next year, and probably finish second to the Lakers in the West, regardless of whether Hedo is on the roster. I don’t consider him an upgrade over MarNicLaw, in aggregate, on either offense or defense. So I’d just as soon not see him signed.

I agree that Artest COULD be a major upgrade over Ariza, but I don’t want to discount the loss of Ariza as insignificant or believe that the transition to Artest will be a seamless one for the Lakers.

Either way, I like the Lakers and Blazers in the WCF next year. The Lakers will win, but the year after we will be very difficult to stop. Roy and Aldridge will be bona fide All Stars, as will Oden, and Turkoglu and the other players will have cemented their roles on our team.

Don’t listen to anyone that says the Lakers have the deepest or most talented team in the league. It’s close, but I still say we have the cream of the crop of young players in the league at just about every position.

In summary you might be right. We may have to wait 4-5 years. But I won’t be shocked if we win it before then or even next year if we catch lightning in a bottle. The Turkoglu signing is that big of an impact to our roster and even if it doesn’t pan out I’m willing to wait 5 years if that’s what it takes.

I’ve already waited for 20.

Forget about Artest’s personality.

Next year Ariza is the better defender. Ariza is the better athlete. He is a better help defender because of his length. It seems people have forgotten how well Ariza defended Carmelo Anthony after the first couple of games. By contrast , being physical on defense, increasingly important as Artest loses his quickness, is less valuable than it once was. And, Ariza was already a better defensive rebounder.

Artest wil not improve the Lakers offensively… at least not in the Playoffs. We have to remember that the Lakers are starting off as about as good offensively as an NBA team can get. In addition, they already have 3 or 4 better offensive options than Artest (Bryant, Gasol, Odom, Bynum). Ariza did exactly what the Lakers needed him to do in the Playoffs. While it’s fair to say that he might have gotten lucky, the fact is that he did shoot well. He punished teams for doubling the Lakers other scoring options and that was exactly what they need him to do. He also scored in transition. His effective FG% was 60%. I don’t see Artest being able to duplicate that performance. Artests effective FG% was 45% in the playoffs. He gives you slightly better playmaking skills, but the Lakers do not need that. He might shoot better in the triangle offense, but will he improve so much that he improves upon what Ariza did in the playoffs? I doubt it. Even if Artest conforms to the Lakers cultre, my guess is that he’ll take enough bad shots to make the Lakers worse.

And that only if they re-sign Odom.

There isn’t a significant difference in quality that Artest brings in replacing Ariza. They’ll be about the same team next season that they were this season.

I’m not worried about anyone in the West next season. I think we’ll be the second-best team and play in the West finals.