I was reading Truehoop this morning and saw a nice little article on San Antonio. The Spurs will be one of the more interesting teams to me this coming season because they represent what the Blazers could have been this year. A solid core (although the Blazers’ will have slightly improved with experience and the Spurs’ will have slightly regressed with age) that stayed intact but added enough quality pieces to be immediate title contenders.

"In a sense, Popovich is like a kid at Christmas brunch. His new toys have been unwrapped. He is eager to start playing with them. Training camp doesn't begin for another month, but the wheels have already begun to turn in Popovich's head -- the neat tricks he can try with his new athletic swingman, Richard Jefferson; the new offensive elements veteran forward Antonio McDyess can bring; the raw rebounding potential inside rookie forward DeJuan Blair, waiting to be unleashed."

There was no shortage of information a year ago that Richard Jefferson was very available for RLEC but the deal was not done (was any of the information concrete? No, but Milwaukee just let him go for “the-not-so-fabulous Oberto,” Kurt Thomas and the corpse of Bruce Bowen. You tell me if we couldn’t have made that deal). And even accounting for the increase in wins RJ would have produced which would have set our draft position back, we still would have had an opportunity to draft my favorite prospect, DeJuan Blair who did a free fall into the late second round. Now I have to admit Dante Cunningham looked solid in summer league and I am more than happy to have Andre Miller as a 2 year rental (Picking up RJ would have taken all our cap space) but San Antonio will be like bizarro Portland to me this season. It will be very interesting to see where that path could have taken us...

ESPN also has this up...Summer forecast: worst newcomer. 3 Blazer related names popped up, big surprise.

Randolph (12 votes)
Normally, when a 20-and-10 guy joins one of the worst teams in the league, it's a good thing. Not in this case, according to a dozen of our voters. Despite his talent, Z-Bo's questionable character would appear to be detrimental to a young Grizzlies squad. Not to mention that he is one of the biggest black holes in basketball and doesn't play defense.

To make matters worse, the Grizzlies took on the remaining two years and $33 million of his contract. Sure, he could earn the Griz a few more wins with his post play, but so could, uh, Pau Gasol (minus the headaches). Just sayin'.

Wallace (6 votes)
The C's need big things from Sheed to contend for a title; many of our voters don't expect him to deliver. His production has plateaued during the past three seasons, and he continues to make a negative impact with his technicals. Playing alongside KG might help Sheed stay interested, but will Wallace embrace his role off the bench for 82 games?

Turkoglu (3 votes)
Turkoglu had some big playoff moments in 2009 -- the Kobe block, double-doubles against Cleveland and Boston and daggers in Philly. But the Raptors gave $53 million to a guy who has never made an All-Star team and probably never will. He's a good piece, but remember, elite teams such as San Antonio and Orlando let him walk. There must be a reason, no?

I’ll never understand why Zach Randolph got that albatross of a contract just like I’ll never understand why my fellow Blazer fans still have love in their heart for Sheed just like I’ll never understand why KP would offer 50 million freaking dollars to Turkoglu. Meh, they’re someone else’s problem now.

Marc Stein also talks about a potential lockout from the NBA referees this year. “The proposed cuts to the referee budget are believed to include reductions in travel costs, pension payouts and health benefits in addition to salary cuts.”

If I was an NBA referee I wouldn’t be happy about that either. Of course, if I was an NBA referee I would also suck at my job (zing!). Seriously though, I know the “scabs” that would replace the current referees would suck for a while (at least thats what Dwight Jaynes implies they did in 1995, the last time this happened) but couldn’t the NBA use this as an opportunity/springboard to just clean house and start with a fresh set of (assumingly) young and unbiased officials? I mean, drop a nuclear bomb on the current referee regime, start fresh with a little transparency and really start holding these guys accountable. We all know refs are human and make mistakes, so lets talk about it. Make them accessible in post game conferences. The NBA disciplined a ref? Ok, what was the action? I’m not saying the NBA should just let everyone go and not change the way they do business; the league should probably change more than the refs should. But I wouldn’t be sad to see Joe Crawford, Dick Bavetta, or Steve Javie go. Hell, keep em around as consultants or trainers if you really want.