Blazers 2009-2010 Season Preview

My favorite fantasy basketball writer previews the blazers. He makes predictions about different player's playing time and fantasy value. He also tells us not to sleep on Oden. It's a very well researched article and it's definitely worth a read even if you don't play fantasy B-ball

over 2 years ago roy, brandon 12 comments 2 recs |

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Before the trade deadline, Portland will send Outlaw & Blake to Chicago for Kirk Hinrich + a future 2nd round pick. However, they’ll fall short in the playoffs, losing in the 2nd round so that they can come back even hungrier in 2011.

Apparently he reads Blazersedge, lol. If we picked up Hinrich we might be WC favorites.

optimism ftw

by Cablinasian on Aug 15, 2009 12:27 PM PDT reply actions

Who?

by Mortimer on Aug 15, 2009 2:36 PM PDT up reply actions

Kurt Hinrich, he’s a kind of an unknown point guard. His outfit kind of looks like the one MJ played in… maybe he’s a Bull.

optimism ftw

by Cablinasian on Aug 15, 2009 3:04 PM PDT up reply actions

I somehow

sense a lot of Bull here…

I know less than half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.

by haildablazer on Aug 15, 2009 3:19 PM PDT up reply actions

Great stuff

by bad karma on Aug 15, 2009 12:27 PM PDT reply actions

Great stuff.

I find a little mistake though. Claver isn´t recovering from a “knee” injury. He suffered an ankle injury and had to undergo surgery.

by amlmart1 on Aug 15, 2009 3:13 PM PDT reply actions

Great Read

M 80- So what does Portland give up? Big D- Nothing, Pritchard is such a genius that teams just give him players for free. (Comments from Blog a Bull on July 9, 2009)

by JWise on Aug 15, 2009 7:35 PM PDT reply actions

The writer conveniently left Webster out of his "preseason battle to watch" segment

He projects Batum to play 20-24 mpg (if healthy) Outlaw to play 25-27 (half at PF) and Rudy to play 16-18 mpg (alongside Roy) when mapping the SF minutes

There’s no room left for the “forgotten” man, Martell?

Ideally, Portland will be able to exchange Outlaw for a proven veteran before the trade deadline. This would open up more playing time for not only Fernandez and Batum, but the man below [Bayless] as well.

Maybe he meant to write a paragraph about Webster but it got “left out” of the article? Regardless, this essay just proves once again that if everyone’s healthy, there’s not enough minutes to go around at the SF position, somebody is going to get “squeezed” and a few folks probably aren’t going to be pleased with their roles

Depth is a good thing when players get hurt, and it’s a long season. But when everyone is chomping at the bit to play and their’s not enough minutes for Nate to give them all PT, that’s the time for KP to “thin the herd” (and hopefully before the player’s agents get restless)

When reached 39 years of following Portland basketball you have, be as passionate of the Trail Blazers you will not!

by two4larue on Aug 16, 2009 12:21 AM PDT reply actions

he also listed Webster only as the #3 SG on his depth chart, and not at SF

PG: Andre Miller / Steve Blake / Jerryd Bayless
SG: Brandon Roy / Rudy Fernandez / Martell Webster
SF: Nicolas Batum / Travis Outlaw
PF: LaMarcus Aldridge / Jeff Pendergraph / Dante Cunningham
C: Greg Oden / Joel Przybilla

somebody needs to send this article to Martell as a “motivational” reminder…

When reached 39 years of following Portland basketball you have, be as passionate of the Trail Blazers you will not!

by two4larue on Aug 16, 2009 12:28 AM PDT up reply actions

Thanks for reading

I’m glad most of you guys enjoyed reading my preview for the Blazers. That’s just 1 team preview out of 30, and the Team Previews are just 1/10th of what’s going to be in my Draft Guide for the upcoming season, so if you’re interested, please check out more…

I’ll admit to somewhat “forgetting about Webster” when I wrote the preview, but that’s because I’ve never been a big fan of his. I agree that Martell should be moved to SF on my depth charts (corrected), but I still think he’s at the end of the bench right now.

Ideally, he’ll be able to combine all of the strengths that Batum, Outlaw, and Rudy bring to the table, but realistically, how often is that going to happen? And do you guys really think that McMillan has that much faith in him after watching him all these years? He sees the guy every day in practice, and I’ve never really heard him rave about the kid.

I respect the opinions of most Portland fans, so I’m curious to hear how many of you really believe that Webster will earn consistent minutes this season.

Also, I fixed the Claver injury to read ankle instead of knee. I place the blame on DraftExpress.com for that one, because at the very top of his profile page it says “Claver was the definition of an opportunist before losing the vast majority of his season to a knee injury.”

Again, thanks for reading.

-Eric Wong AKA Evil E
www.RotoEvil.com

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www.RotoEvil.com

by Evil E on Aug 16, 2009 12:53 PM PDT reply actions

you’re very well researched.

On the subject of Webster, Nicolas Batum was everything that Martell was supposed to be and more next year… The majority of Blazer fans would agree that Batum should be the starter at the 3.

The reason that I believe Martell can still be a very decent role player for Portland is simple: he fits Nate’s system perfectly. The high-low zone offense is based around overloading one side of the court, having a three-point gunner stay in the weakside corner to space the floor. Martell is excellent at this task… he also gives effort on defense, though he doesn’t have very good lateral quickness. He wants to play defense and shoot. I would figure that 15 minutes per game at the backup 3 would be fair for him this season.

Travis was not an effective small forward last year. His numbers were very good at power forward, so I’d prefer they not play him at the 3 this year… Martell is an inferior player, but better at the small forward. Also, Nate has said that Travis will be playing a lot at the 4 this season, which seems to imply Martell getting some time as well.

Thanks for stopping by Bedge. Really good analysis from an “outsider.”

"If the Lakers are Hollywood, then we are South Central." - Clipper fan.

by Cablinasian on Aug 16, 2009 2:37 PM PDT up reply actions

Will Webster get minutes?

If his foot is 100% this kid can play. His confidence was lacking in prior seasons because he quickly learned that the NBA was light years from Prep Hoops in Seattle. But he regained that confidence at the start of last season. You could see it oozing from his pores. Then, the injury. If he has retained the confidence and has healed well, he is ready to explode.

by mlsinpdx on Aug 16, 2009 1:46 PM PDT reply actions