Just a quick reminder: Today is the best day of basketball in Portland since the first round of the 2011 NBA playoffs ended.

At 4 PM, join The Basketball Jones, the NBA blogosphere's premier podcast, as they record a live show at On Deck Sports Bar in NW Portland. Dwight Jaynes and I will be there. The show will run for an hour and then segue into pre-game mingling. Full details on Facebook.

At 7:30 PM, Portland Trail Blazers forward LaMarcus Aldridge is hosting the Rip City Basketball Classic at the University of Portland's Chiles Center. The game is scheduled to feature Aldridge, Kevin Durant, Wesley Matthews, Brandon Roy, Jamal Crawford and a host of other NBA players. More details here.

Check back later tonight for full coverage of Aldridge's event.

Hope to see you at both!

About to talk Blazers, NBA playoffs and more while taking questions over on TrailBlazers.TV with Adam Bjaranson. Give it a watch and send in your questions. Show starts at 9 AM.

-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter

The following are updates from the press conference held by the Blazers this afternoon.  All quotes are courtesy of Blazersedge's Ben Golliver, covering the press conference live.  The speakers were Kevin Pritchard, General Manager, and Larry Miller, Team President.  Thanks to Seth Pollack from SBN and Bright Side of the Sun for posting these quotes and impressions as Ben delivered them.

1:50 PM 

[Editorial from Ben:] If I had to bank on a single phrase being repeated ad nauseam by Pritchard and Miller this afternoon it would be "The focus should be on the players"

1:53 PM

[Editorial from Ben:]  Interesting timing. Via RT @RocketsJCF: Congrats to Sam Hinkie, promoted today to Rockets Executive VP of Basketball Ops.

2:13 PM

[Observation from Ben:] 20+ media members are in attendance at Practice Facility for this presser. There was like 3 or 4 for Nate's postgame on Friday. 

For those asking, Jay Allen of 95.5FM says no live audio from this "informal" presser but will have clips on air ASAP.

Press Conference Begins

2:19 PM

Blazers GM Kevin Pritchard addressed the media for roughly 15 minutes. Photo: Ben Golliver | Blazersedge

Kevin Pritchard--dressed in a purple dress shirt, jeans, and no jacket--addresses assembled media.  Key quotes:

I want to be here, I love it here"

"I want to focus on the team...Do you think I want this focus? You're crazy"

On reaction to Penn firing "I was sad"

"I want to be here...Warren (LeGarie) has his own opinions."

"There's been some articles that say we're not connected [as an organization]... That is not correct."

"Losing Tom is not an easy thing"

2:22 PM 

Kevin Pritchard responds to the question, "Will you be fired?" saying,  "I don't know that"

Blazers President Larry Miller lurks behind the media swarm as Kevin Pritchard addresses questions.

Photo: Ben Golliver | Blazersedge

2:24 PM

After about 15 minutes, Kevin Pritchard is finished speaking.  Final money quote:  "Shame on us if we agree all the time."

Blazers President Larry Miller Addresses the Media. Photo: Ben Golliver | Blazersedge

2:27 PM

Larry Miller, wearing gray fleece and jeans, takes center stage.

"[Kevin Pritchard] has done a great job of getting the franchise where it is" but evaluation will come "at the end of the season". This evaluation will not just be of KP but all major decisions.

2:30 PM

Larry Miller's quotes continue:

"I was absolutely surprised to hear the comments from [Agent for Pritchard and Tom Penn Warren LeGarie]"

"There's never a good time" for the Penn firing.

"I'm as surprised as you guys are that all this stuff came out of [the Penn firing]."

2:32 PM

Miller continues:

"Lets put this behind us. Kevin wants to be here, he's made that clear."

On whether he's worried about this being a distraction: "Yeah, I am actually"

On the original story about Tom Penn morphing into a discussion of Kevin Pricthard: "WE didn't make it about Kevin."

On claims that there was a personal issue between Larry Miller and Tom Penn: "Absolutely positively untrue."

2:37 PM

Larry Miller concludes, having spoken for about 15 minutes.  Final money quote on speculation from Peter Vecsey that Miller would be Portland's future GM:  "I hope not."

Aftermath

Ben left us with a couple of clear impressions:

1.  Miller essentially refused to directly give KP a vote of confidence and pushed everything until after the season.

2.  Pritchard did not look confident at all that he would return.

Ben is preparing a full version of the story which will be up presently.  We'll have more reaction throughout the evening.

--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)

With a little over two weeks until the draft, speculation abounds regarding who is taking who. With no clear cut #1 pick (that phrase has probably been used around 1.4 million times the past month) the field is wide open. I can't decide who I think the Blazers should pick. I've softened my stance on Adam Morrison, become a little skeptical about Brandon Roy, am all but positive that we're not going to pick Tyrus Thomas, would love to get LaMarcus Aldridge if by some miracle he's still available, but I'm almost positive I'll change my mind about all of this before June 28th rolls around. To get some perspective, I've compiled a mini-list of mock drafts from various internet outlets. The go as such:

NBADraft.net

• Toronto -- Adam Morrison
• Chicago -- Tyrus Thomas
• Charlotte -- Rudy Gay
• Portland -- Andrea Bargnani
• 
  HoopsHype
• Toronto -- Andrea Bargnani
• Chicago -- LaMarcus Aldridge
• Charlotte -- Adam Morrison
• Portland -- Brandon Roy
• 
  Inside Hoops
• Toronto -- LaMarcus Aldridge
• Chicago -- Tyrus Thomas
• Charlotte -- Adam Morrison
• Portland -- Brandon Roy
• 
  Brendan McGovern, ProBasketball.About.com
• Toronto -- Andrea Bargnani
• Chicago -- LaMarcus Aldridge
• Charlotte -- Adam Morrison
• Portland -- Brandon Roy
• 
  Tony Mejia, CBS Sportline
• Toronto -- LaMarcus Aldridge
• Chicago -- Tyrus Thomas
• Charlotte -- Adam Morrison
• Portland -- Brandon Roy
• 
  Gregg Doyel, CBS Sportline
• Toronto -- LaMarcus Aldridge
• Chicago -- Tyrus Thomas
• Charlotte -- Adam Morrison
• Portland -- Brandon Roy
• 
  CollegeHoops.net
• Toronto -- Andrea Bargnani
• Chicago -- Tyrus Thomas
• Charlotte -- Adam Morrison
• Portland -- Brandon Roy
• 
  FoxSports/Dime Magazine
• Toronto -- Andrea Bargnani
• Chicago -- LaMarcus Aldridge
• Charlotte -- Adam Morrison
• Portland -- Brandon Roy
• 
  

Morrison and Roy going three, four certainly looks to be the consensus, at least from this small sample. Then again, many of these mocks are well over a week old, which might as well be 3 years ago the way the NBA off-season plays out.

Jason Quick, who, like it or not, probably knows more about the Blazers than anyone outside of the organization, has stated that he's almost positive move will be made on draft day. He also spent the last few days at the Orlando Pre-Draft camp, and came away impressed with both Morrison and Roy.

Any thoughts out there? My biggest concerns for next season are defense and rebounding, and I don't see either Morrison or Roy helping out on either of those fronts. Joel Przybilla's situation doesn't factor in much to the first pick the Blazer make, but I figure that the 30th and 31st picks have to get traded along with Darius or one of the point guards (eek!) to get someone with some size, because going into next season with, an oft broke-down Theo Ratliff, Brian Skinner, and Ha is going to make for some very ugly winter nights.

I've resigned myself to the fact that we're not going to have a shooting guard until Martell matures, but no center on top of that? Say it ain't so. There are two things that drive me nuts when watching the Blazers; losing because of turnovers, and losing because the opposing team is dominating the boards. With a young backcourt, little to no rebounding from the forward positions, and no center who would start on any other team in the NBA, it's going to be hard to stay sober for four consecutive quarters next season, unless some decent draft picks and a trade or ten can make a difference.

A lot of luck and maybe a little help from the gods has given me the opportunity to do something I never thought possible.  I don't want to ruin it, but rest assured that it will be the highlight of this site, and probably my life in general.