But the great thing about the NBA is if a team has the right leadership in the front office they can go from the outhouse to the penthouse in 1 season. Boston showed the league one way by bringing in aging stars who were hungry for a title and they got 1 but there window was only open for a few seasons and it looks like their team next year will be quite diffrent.

Now about our Blazers and their future: I am not talking about the draft pick from NJ yet because if they get in the top 3 they keep the pick.The big thing for the Blazers is to get Batum to sign so that they can get in on some of the restricted FA out there who would look good wearing a Blazer uniform next season. I think the Blazers made a big mistake by not signing Batum during the season and it's going to cost them more in my opinion. The Kings have not been shy about how they feel about Batum and you can bet that they will put a number out there of at least 10 million per season for about 5 years. In my opinion that's overpaying for him but that's what free agency is all about. Will the Blazers match any team's offer..................YEP they have no choice.

In my opinion our biggest holes remain at Center and more important at PG. While a lot of fans would love for Steve Nash to play in Portland ( and I use to be on that ban wagon myself ) next year and he would be a great pickup for this team. The problem is his age and his back problems and Nash is going to be very expensive and if you are lucky you might get 2 good seasons out of him........maybe. I think the Blazers should look at 76er's PG Lou Williams who is not a pure PG like a Rondo or Nash but this kid is young and can be lights out with his jumpers. Portland only low post option is LA so that forces the team to be a jump shooting based offense that can beat any team in the league when they are hitting BUT win the Blazers are off they lose to teams like the Wizards who was the worse team in the league this year and I would debate maybe ever and they beat us in the Rose Garden. There is also Jeremy Lin and D Williams who are probably long shots at best to sign with Portland.

The big men in FA are actually pretty good this off season with the likes of Roy Hibbert who Indiana would have to be crazy to let go. There is also Ersan Ilyasova who played for the Bucks last season...........I know some of you might be like who in the hell is this guy: Ilyasova is not a center but he is 6'10 and about 235 and could still put some weight on but this guy has some talent, he averaged about 13ppg and 9reb this season and can shoot with any bigman in the game. This season he shot over 45% from 3 and would be a perfect pick and pop player to pair with LA. There is also Javale McGee who has some mental lapses sometimes but has some talent. This kid is big, young and can run like a deer and jump out of this world. McGee is better than DeAndre Jordan who signed a contract last season that has him as one of the most overpaid pro players in any sport. Hibbert will be the prize in FA this year but if you compare Hibbert and McGee's numbers are almost identical. Hibbert was at 13ppg, 9reb and 2bpg while McGee avg 11pts, 8reb and also 2 bpg.

Blazer fans I can only hope that team mgmt brings in a quality GM who can pick his coach and return this team into a contender again because this team has some talent and could do special things. Every "expert" will tell you that OKC is the best team in the west and they might be but, the Blazers gave them everything they could handle this season. This off season will make or break the future of this team so we will have to wait and see how it unfolds.