First of all, I don't know how I missed this but thanks to PrezofDeath for highlighting it in the Fanpost section. Jason Quick had an extensive look into the Blazers' locker during their day in Indiana. If you haven't read it the link is here. Apologies to Jason for not getting such a comprehensive piece linked sooner. Great stuff.
Edit: Corvid gives us the link to the Cleveland edition.
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Second, we're approaching our 70th game of the season. To mark this milepost we're going to re-emphasize our philosophy around here on certain things, some of which have been slipping a little lately. This is the heart of the playoff run, to be followed by the team's first playoff series in five years. It's time to focus on that together. To that end...
1. The moratorium of trade talk will extend to the end of the season. Draft talk is fine, however, as the NCAA's bring up a lot of it. Just as long as it doesn't get too overwhelming. Make sure you check the sidebar for other draft threads before making your own. And let's not have a separate Fanpost for every single player who has a good game in the tournament. If you're going to write a draft Fanpost at this point make it more of an umbrella post.
2. We need to acknowledge that for this last stretch run the back-up point guard "controversy" is not the most significant issue on the table. Whoever you like, whoever you back, supposedly we're fans of the team. It's time to put the team first. When the Blazers make the playoffs, both Sergio and Jerryd will also. If they don't neither will.
After that Indiana recap thread I was seriously considering putting a moratorium on all backup point guard talk. Some sense has returned, I see, so I won't go that far at this point. Rather I will put a strong advisory up that any tension in conversation involving that issue is misplaced at this point in the season and needs to be defused through silence or letting go until the off-season. Escalation will be frowned upon. I would further suggest that unless one or the other of the principals in the issue has a significant outing (double digits in a stat, 15+ minutes, that kind of thing) we just let it be what it is and not bother. I didn't cover Jerryd Bayless' 5 minutes nor Sergio's 4 in the game recap last night and the world did not fall apart. I like both guys. Both have talent. It's not in the cards right now for either to make huge contributions. We'll talk about the seasons of both extensively after our run is over. That's pretty much it.
3. I want to re-emphasize that the use of the word "YOU" in comments is almost always unwelcome around here. Right now I have the accounts of half a dozen people open in separate windows in my browser. I am reluctant to ban folks at the most exciting part of the season but some of you are getting close. "You didn't watch this game" or "You are a [fill in blank]" or other such slights are not appropriate here. Talk about points, NOT other people. If you're a chronic "you" person, even when you get riled up take a moment to re-read your comment without the "you" sentence and see if it doesn't come across just as clearly...including and especially the parts that disagree. Everybody loves to read intelligent, passionate debate. Reasonable people are starting to roll their eyes at the back and forth sniping. It makes everybody look like fools and that's bad for the site as well as the people involved.
The idea is lots of discussion, lots of debate, tons of passion, but at the end of the day everybody's together. Thirteen games to go. It's time to buckle down and do this thing.
--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)