OK, hear me out. I don't know if there is a rule that I am not aware of that precludes my litte scheme, but it's so crazy, it just might work.

If Miles plays in 10 regular season games, we get his money put back on the cap. Miles has a non-guaranteed contract with Boston and they have too many players on the roster, we hope they will cut him but Machiavelli said that fortune is a lady who must be taken by force (it was the 1500's, violence was their version of eHarmony). Therefore I say we seize our destiny and trade for Darius Miles, then we don't play him and we never have to worry about someone else playing him. We pay him the vet minimum for two years and secure our capspace. We could trade Boston a project and a couple draft picks or something to entice them to do the deal.

BTW it's still a good thing we got Miles retired because you can't overlook the benifits we recieved last year from the medical retirement, we got below the luxury tax and got 80% of that 9 million paid in insurance.

Good idea? Bad Idea? Storyteller?

http://slamonline.com/online/2008/09/slamonline-top-50-brandon-roy-no-28/

Brandon’s most complex mystery is what he does best. He is not a jack of a single trade, but a prodigy who can do it all well. Therein lies Brandon’s difference again – he has no flaw to hide. In a world of specialists, Brandon is undeniably old school. Teams today have set roles for nearly every player on its roster. Brandon acts all roles equally well. Today’s manifesto highlights strengths and avoids weaknesses. Brandon Roy is the student who gets an ‘A-‘ in every subject instead of mostly ‘B’s’ and an ‘A+.’

Brandon is unlike anyone in the NBA. It’s clear he cannot be grouped with the rest of the stars in the NBA. Nor should he. Brandon clearly is setting new standards. I thought a unique player like Brandon should have his own group – his own category. After exploring the wildest stretches of my imagination and turning the corners of my most abstract mental affiliations, I came up with nothing suiting. I slept on it, and it was obvious all along.

The category in which Brandon Roy fits perfectly is ‘Trailblazer.’

Give the whole thing a read. It's worth it.

<!-- end player card --> "I guess it's safe to say I've played my last game in a Bulls uniform," Gordon said.

Gordon, who has led the Bulls in scoring the past three seasons, said his agent, Raymond Brothers, has been speaking with other teams about sign-and-trade possibilities.

"I'm pretty optimistic it'll happen," said Gordon, who averaged 18.6 points last season. "It's very likely."

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3537868

Cleveland is now Mo-town, do they still need Mo help? Will I lose all self respect as I make horrible pun after horrible pun? Should this be a poll?

Cleveland, Milwaukee and Oklahoma City have agreed in principle to a six-player trade that could add a much-needed second scorer to LeBron James' Cavaliers.

Mo Williams, the high-scoring point guard from Milwaukee, will go to Cleveland in the deal, which should be announced later Wednesday. The 6-foot-1 Williams averaged 17.2 points and a team-high 6.3 assists for the Bucks last season. Cleveland will send shooting guard Damon Jones to Milwaukee and forward Joe Smith to Oklahoma City. Milwaukee also will get point guard Luke Ridnour and forward Adrian Griffin from Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City, formerly known as the Seattle SuperSonics, also gets Desmond Mason, the athletic small forward, from the Bucks.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AtpHrLH_Gyui4gQbsOVvNbk5nYcB?slug=aw-childressgreece072108&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

JChill might jump to Olympikaos for 3 yrs and 20 million. A novel negotiation tactic eh? Anywho, it appears that JChill wants out of ATL in a S&T. I wonder if KP will jump on this one?

I bet they'd want Pryzbilla since they don't have a real center. They'd probably alsohave interest in Sergio and Webster, maybe even Diogu. Quick, Someone get a trade checker together!~Nathan

We all know about the "Camby to the Clippers for a bag of  chips and a big gulp "  trade, which was only possible because the Clips were under the cap and the Nugs wanted to avoid the luxury tax.

As we all know, the Blazers will be under the cap next off-season (barring a trade of RLEC). What teams might be near or over the luxury tax and might want to give us a player for free? More specifically, what players could be available for a trade exception and a few second rounders?

I thought it was interesting that KP has said before that when you have cap-space then sometimes you can get a player for free,  for instance, in facilitating a multi-party trade.

I think that a lot of people have looked at the '09 cap-space plan and looked at the '09 free agents list and said "Meh, there isn't anyone we want. The '09 cap-space plan is overrated." However, the '09 free agents list may have less importance to us than a '09 close to the luxury tax list.

Suns: Diaw, Barbosa

Celtics: Kendrick Perkins

Knicks: (lotsa people)

Maverics: Dampier, Stackhouse, Howard

Magic: Nelson

L*kers : Farmar , Walton, Vlad

Any other teams? Any other candidates?

P.S. I don't necessarily
mean that we WANT any of these players. Just that they MAY be available.

I left this post on Pickaxe and Roll. I know we all hate the Nuggets, probably more than most fan bases because they represent the parts of our team that we hated. However, we share a common burden with their fans. We know what it's like to have an incredibly talented and mentally unstable team that keeps breaking our heart and the asking for bail money. I say we go over there and show some support for the poor Nuggets.

Here is the comment I left:

I sympathize. We went through several years of this in the Damon, Rasheed, Bonzi, Darius, and Zach show. The Jail Blazers are finally dead, but rebirth has been painful. We went from the WCF in 2000 to a downward spiral where we missed the playoffs for the first time in over two decades and slogged through mediocrity and right into "turribleness". However, now we are on the upswing. I hope for ya'll's sake that your roster gets blown up this off season because you're going nowhere and the rebuilding needs to begin. Like the Red Hot Chili Peppers say in Californication "Destruction leads to a very rough road, but it also breeds creation."
~Nathan

I have decided to start a fan driven basketball scouting site. There are some excellent fan scouting reports here on BE and I thought that you guys might want to contribute. I'd like to eventually profile every player in the NBA and NCAA as well as all the major foreign leagues.

P.S. Dave, feel free to delete this if you feel it is inappropriate.

http://offensivefoul.blogspot.com/

~Nathan

http://dberri.wordpress.com/2008/01/02/why-the-blazers-have-improved/#more-689

Just an interesting stat breakdown. Wages of Wins is controversial, but it has it's uses.

~Nathan

Oh, I'm a 300 character word limit and I'm OK, I work all night and I sleep all day!

Man it's fun to read the post Oden surgery projections for this team and see so many stat geeks scrambling to explain how it happened.

So I was looking at some stats (namely pace and offensive efficiency) and thinking about Brandon Roy's statements about pace in his TNT interview about how it's just not his way to rush or go super fast.
So here is what I think our team identity will be:
I think that we'll be a mostly half-court team that moves the ball a lot. I think we're built to run opportunity fast breaks and provide transition defense. I see us as a jump shooting team with a post presence (Greg Oden) who, unlike Ben Wallace, can score. I see us taking high-percentage jump shots (sounds like a oxymoron but basically moving the ball till we get a man open). I see us using the  pick-n-roll a bunch and also some back and forth plays between Oden and LMA.

I see people forced to cover our jump shooters leaving the lane open for Roy and the post single covered for Oden. I see responding to double-teams by passing the ball to an open jump shooter.

What I don't see is a running team or even an "up tempo" team. I see a "moving team." I bet we stay in the bottom 10 teams as far as pace, but rise toward the top in points per 100 possessions.  

 Comments?
~Nathan