They don’t call Gerald Wallce “Crash” for nothin’. He is not photoshopped into this photo, that’s about where he landed on a play tonight going after a loose ball. Moments after this he jumped back on the court and had to be coralled and fouled by Phoenix in an attempt to slow him down.
Blazers won 109-71 tonight and it was one of the most dominating performances I have ever witnessed by a Blazer team. We won every single team statistical category, I can confidently say I have never witnessed something like that before.
Today the Portland Trail Blazers acquired Jamal Crawford and Craig Smith. A scorer and a bruiser. Far from Chris Paul and Dwight Howard, but along with the pickup of veteran journeyman big man, Kurt Thomas, I think the team has improved a little, if not significantly from last season.
The combination of the lockout and the shocking news of losing Brandon Roy (for ever) and Greg Oden (sounds like for the season at the least) has made this an off season to forget. But let’s face it, aside from one magical fourth quarter, because of injuries, those guys didn’t do much for us last season either.
So today— even though it doesn’t come with the national media attention of other off season moves around the league— the Trail Blazers went from a borderline playoff team to a team that might just challenge for home court advantage in the first round.
How Nate fits all of the pieces together will be interesting to watch and along with avoidance of injuries, maybe the biggest key of the season in my eyes. A few guys will need to take a step back in minutes this season from what they’ve been accustomed to and how Nate handles that, will be paramount.
Below I created a spreadsheet to illustrate how I would divvy up the minutes on this year’s team as well as some rough statistical projections for points, rebounds and assists.
As I stare at our lineup on paper, I can only hope that Coach McMillan lets these guys run! We’ve got the defensive rebounding (Camby, Aldridge, Thomas, Smith) to start a lot of fast breaks, the guards that like to push it (Felton, Crawford) and some greyhounds to get out on the wings and finish (Wallace, Batum, Matthews).
I’m impressed with what a team’s front office can accomplish without a general manager in place, should be a fun season… RIP CITY BABY!
