the urbane league

Just allow me to take this opportunity [as someone who dreams of one day "growing up" to become a GM (NBA or NFL)] to express my man love for Portland Trailblazers GM Kevin Prtichard. The team he has been putting together for the last few years is really shaping up into something of an All-Star U25 team. They put together another great draft last night. The Trailblazers were able to obtain Bayless, and move all their other picks of note for a bevy of future draft picks.

If Bayless can learn the NBA PG position, which I hope he does as he’s one of Lute’s kids, this Trailblazer team is really looking at being a contender in two to three years. The team they would put on the floor would be Bayless, Roy, Webster, Aldridge and the Norse God (I know it’s really Odin, but I’m invoking some poetic license here). I know Blake will still start right away, but I’m projecting. Bayless is 19, so he has time to learn the PG position. Brandon Roy is 23, and has already established himself as a more-than-capable scorer in the league. Martell Webster is 21, and started blossoming into the swingman they hoped he would be when they drafted him three years ago. LaMarcus Aldridge is 22 years old and all signs point to him just…well being an absolute man. Then let us not forget, Greg Oden is all of 20 years old (if you go by the birth certificate and not the face), and by all accounts will be a HORSE in the paint (and not like an Arabian thoroughbred, more like a Clydesdale). Not a bad looking core to try to keep together for a decade or so. And as a friend of mine aptly pointed out [not that I needed him to, but he did it first], “Paul Allen’s money is long, and he wipes his ass with the luxury tax.” Get that starting five playing together, plus Channing Frye, Travis Outlaw (whom I honestly believe can score 20+ on any given night), Steve Blake, and even Jim Jones [James Jones] coming off the bench, the Trailblazers are already a solid 9 deep. They picked up something like 4 additional draft picks in the 2009 draft, which could easily be packaged to move up to draft a talented to addition to this core, or traded away for cash which can be used bring in veteran free agents to fill needs that may arise.

The thing is, they’re not just a young team that could do some special things in the future, but counting Martell Webster (which I will, given there’s no good reason to expect him to regress), they’re 60% percent of the way to having that great, young starting rotation up and running. Now the issue with Oden, I think is more with his micro fracture surgery than it is with whether he will pan out. I know you can NEVER say guys are locks, especially in basketball, but given what I saw at Ohio State, combined with the fact that he is only twenty years old, his athleticism (see that vicious game saving block against Tennessee), and his “coachability,” I’m very, very hard-pressed to not go ahead and pencil Oden in as the best young (or maybe overall) center after D-Wight (by the way, how can Shaq be the “Man of Steel” and Howard be “Superman?” It’s the same nickname, for guys who played the same position for the same team; I just don’t think you can do that). Even if Oden turns into strictly a defensive presence (probably more monster, than presence), Aldridge has enough all around offensive game for that not to even be a problem, but at the very least, Oden will be able to turn and dunk on pretty much anyone guarding him.

All this, means that Bayless’ development is key. I know that you win championships with great bigs (Garnett, Duncan, O’Neal), but I still believe PG to be the most important position on the court. It’s kind of like how you cannot win a Super Bowl without a good (borderline great) defense, but QB is still the most important position. I like the fact that Bayless is a natural scorer (I hate the fact that his last name is Bayless), as that seems to be where it’s at these days; having a PG who could shit on you if he wanted, but just prefers to hand out between eighty cents and a dollar twenty a game. Bayless is not known for his defense, but they say that’s mostly attitude and tenacity. However, my thinking has always been that defense (or willingness to play defense, rather) is the one thing about a player that you cannot really ever change, because it has so much to do with your personality. For instance you have guys out there like AI and Chris Paul who I believe are just so quick and gifted, that (and this is going to sound stupid) getting 2 steals a night really is not that hard for them. You have guys like Kobe, “the proctologist” typically (and I guess Paul Pierce in the finals) who aren’t blessed with the natural quickness and agility of smaller players, like AI and Paul, but have that tenacity and they just “want your heart” as Iron Mike would say, so they work at it relentlessly. Then you have the Bruce Bowens, James Poseys and Ruben Pattersons (remember, the self-proclaimed “Kobe-stopper”) who know that they don’t really do shit on offense, and pride themselves on D, and are viewed as defensive specialists. The one thing that all three types have in common though, is that they want to be superb defenders. The issue with that “want to” however is that you either have it, or you don’t. Tracy McGrady is NEVER going to want to stop anyone, and you’re never going to be able to get him to want to. It’s similar to that scene from The Break Up where Jennifer Aniston tells Vince Vaughn that she doesn’t want him to do the dishes, she wants him to want to do the dishes; and Vaughn appropriately replies “why would I want to do the dishes?”

Regardless of how it works out in the future, right now, the Blazers have become my new favorite, young team (sorry Seattle, but you need to get your house in order). I just wish they didn’t play in the superior western conference (top to bottom, Boston and Detroit fans, top to bottom) because then even with a sub five hundred record, there would be chance they would make the playoffs. But with Oden making his slightly anticipated debut, and Roy poised to parlay that into a monster offensive campaign, there’s a good chance quite a few of their upcoming 82 get televised.