I found this from the Wages of Wins Journal site

http://dberri.wordpress.com/2008/04/29/monta-ellis-this-time-and-not-lemarcus-aldridge/

The media’s vote indicated that LaMarcus Aldridge was the third most improved player.  But if we look at the 25 most improved, Aldridge’s name is nowhere to be found.

We do find Aldridge’s name, though, in Table Two.

Table Two: The Unchanged in 2007-08

Table Two reports the players who changed the least from 2006-07 to 2007-08.  The 20th player on this list is Aldridge.  Yes, a player who members of the media think is the most improved really hasn’t changed much at all.

At least, not in the aggregate.  There were some changes in Aldridge’s performance if we look at the individual stats. 

Table Three: Evaluating LaMarcus Aldridge

As Table Three indicates, Aldridge did manage to take more shots this season.  And despite a lower level of shooting efficiency, he was able to score more points. Of course, if you score less efficiently, you are not helping as much as you could.

In addition to scoring, Aldridge also posted an increase in assists and personal fouls.  But he rebounded slightly less and committed a few more turnovers. The net effect was a very small change in Win Score per minute, and as noted, WP48.

Of course the media doesn’t look at Win Score or Wins Produced. In fact, they don’t appear to look at shooting efficiency or per-minute stats.  What they did see is that Aldridge increased his per-game scoring from 9.0 to 17.8.  And apparently, that was enough to get Aldridge some votes.

The Least Improved

At least, Aldridge did improve a bit.  A few players didn’t quite fare this well.  Table Four reports the least improved players - or the players who posted the biggest declines - in 2007-08.

 *EDIT* Sorry guys...after checking out the website, I've realized that it is a website for designers to upload their concepts hoping to get work.  I doubt that this will be used next year.  He has other concept pictures for other teams that have been dated years ago that have never came to fruition.

Hi there Blazer Fans.  I googled up "trail blazer uniforms" just right now and googled up some pictures of the city of Portland to get some photos to make some avatars/signatures and stuff.  I came across this picture that might interest you all.  I don't know if any of it is official or if this is just a concept picture.  It also looks like they have a new logo redesigned too.  The link can be found here...

http://www.coroflot.com/Wayne_Russell

via i30.tinypic.com

The design seems a like it would most likely be used for an alternate uniform, as I can't picture us wearing these on a regular basis.  What are everyones thoughts and opinions?

Over the years, I've only heard positive things describing Bobby Medina, the strength and conditioning coach.  I'm watching the pregame for the Clippers game yesterday on CSN and it had a segment on Bobby.  I remember earlier this year he got Greg to be a monster with all the pounds of solid muscle he added.  LMA has also transformed his body in the off season as well.  It led me to wonder if all the extra workouts Sergio has put in has effected his shot negatively.  I don't remember what Sergio's shot was like last year, but it's obvious that his shooting percentage has gone down significantly.  This year it's pretty plain to see that his shot is pretty flat.  Is the extra workouts slowing his progress in the shooting department?

We are living in a time where people want information on everything and everything.  We have gotten to know our athletes and celebrities on a more intimate basis than ever before.  Even at Blazer games we are learning things about players that we never would have wanted to know, and are still being entertained.

If you would have asked me who had the nastiest feet among the players, I wouldn't have cared, but since the Blazers went ahead and did it, I was amused.  

I don't know how many others are in the same boat, but I for one would love to hear Nate share his thoughts and opinions on his game time decisions and his observations during practices.  

It's also cool seeing how much interactivity there is between athletes and fans these days.  Channing has his personal website that he chats on, Greg has his yardbarker blogs, and most recently I joined livevideo.com where Steve Nash goes on a webcam during his drive home every home game and answers your questions.  It's pretty damn cool considering you can ask him anything you want.  People have asked him game relation questions, basketball related questions, politics, and even stuff about his personal life.  

Check it out if you want...some of the older interviews are in the archives section.

http://www.livevideo.com/liveshow/stevenash

I recently told the Blazers about this and I wonder if they are going over the idea of maybe doing something similar with one of our players.

What are your thoughts about interaction?

I can't really pinpoint the exact date, but to me the "white unit" hasn't been said in an interview or article in quite a while.  It's pretty obvious that it had a pretty short albeit successful stint when it was in effect.  We were running 10 man rotations and even Sergio who was getting the least amount of minutes was getting double digit minutes at that point.  

While bench play has still been fairy good it seems as if the white unit is no more.  We have not seen all 5 players on the court at the same time (in over 3 weeks?).  We also have seen Nate tighten up the rotation at times.  Tonight he rotated 9 but Channing hardly played despite playing an efficient game.  

Has Nate ever addressed demoting Sergio and Channing?  To me it seems weird that Raef came off the bench before Channing for a few games, yet Raef has disappeared again lately and Frye has not benefited from that absence.  We also saw how effective the Nilla Wafer was in his first stint where he got 30+ mins...but did not play tonight.  That is a huge drop off yet we have no explanation.

Any other questions or thoughts?

Looking at the ESPN recap of tonights game and noticed the top performers of the game.  We have Jarret Jack 21 pts 8 rebs 3 asts and Corey Maggette 32 pts 6 rebs 3 asts.  

The resemblance is uncanny if you ask me.  What do you think?

300 CHARACTER MINIMUM300 CHARACTER MINIMUM300 CHARACTER MINIMUM300 CHARACTER MINIMUM300 CHARACTER MINIMUM300 CHARACTER MINIMUM300 CHARACTER MINIMUM300 CHARACTER MINIMUM

I am looking at some stats for Bassy and noticed not only how much of a jump hes made this year...but how unbelievable his Ast/TO ratio is for Feb so far.

In the last 5 games hes put up 37 asts and 3 TOs.
His shooting still remains to be atrocious...yet I remember seeing his HS highlights and "movie" saying how good of a shooter/scorer he was.  

Bassy is a good example of what a few years of consistent minutes can do for a player.  Granted he's still got a long way to go.

Like Sebastian, Sergio also lacks a jump shot at this point, but he does have excellent court vision.    Sergio is still a youngster and I can picture him working hard until he gets where he wants to be, but after a few years of working hard and having little results I would imagine it begin to tear down a players confidence.

Do you think that Sergio will be a better player than Sebastian in 3 years?  Will Sergio ever be put into a role where he can have a meaningful role by the end of next season?  If traded what could we expect for return for him?

What determines if a player is a veteran?  Is it experience?  Leadership and poise under pressure?  Age?  Playoff experience?

What I'm getting at is we are calling guys like Steve Blake and James Jones as veterans.  Are these guys legit veterans?  Or are they only veterans to us because of our youth?  If Blake and Jones are considered vets why not Outlaw?  Outlaw was drafted the same year as Blake and Jones, yet no one refers to Outlaw as a vet.