Q&A With The Enemy: Blazers Edge
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As the Lakers prepare to face up against the Portland Trailblazers tonight, I figured some of you might be interested in finding out what’s going on with that franchise. They also have a rising star center in Greg Oden and plenty of talented youth.
I sent over a few questions to one of their top followers. Ben of Blazers Edge has been following the team for years and has plenty of experience. His answers are very good and I thank him for his time.
After answering a few of my questions, Ben sent me a few of his questions regarding the Lakers. You can take a look at my answers to him on his at Q and A with LA Ball Talk.
For now, here are his responses to my questions:
1) The question all Lakers fans are wondering about simply because of the hype before the season started. How is Greg Oden coming along and will he ever be that Shaq, Hakeem, or even Mourning type of center?
Greg is developing but continues to have consistency issues mostly brought on by his knack for picking up cheap fouls. He can look good, bad and ugly all within a 5 minute span of time, which is to be expected given his recovery timeline from last year’s microfracture surgery. My biggest concern this season has been Greg’s mental state of mind as he seemed to be dragging and didn’t appear to be having much fun for weeks at a time. In the last week or so, Greg put together his two best performances of his NBA career against Toronto and Boston. His game looked more polished than we’ve seen it and I dare say he dominated for short stretches, which is something that I didn’t think I’d see this year (especially after his opening night struggles in LA. After the victory against Boston here in overtime, I wrote that in the locker room, “Greg was smiling ear to ear and looking directly into people’s eyes, holding the connection. The moment was his. It was the happiest I ever have seen him. Period. Any situation. Ever.” I think Greg is starting to get his mind right. His game will follow.
As for whether Greg will be the next Shaq, Dream or Zo? Well, you’ll have to ask someone else. I’ve never made those comparisons.
2) Is Brandon Roy playing to his max ability right now or does he still have more growth? He is clearly a beast already and it’s scary that he’s still so young in the league. By the way, aren’t you glad you gave up Randy Foye for him on draft night?
Before yesterday’s game, I mentioned to Jason Quick of the Oregonian that I thought Brandon surprised himself with his 50+ point night against Phoenix (game highlights here). Quick made a comment along the lines of, “he’s turning into a superstar.” It made me remember back to training camp when Brandon was absolutely killing Travis Outlaw during full court scrimmages. At the time I thought, “Travis didn’t come to camp ready.” In retrospect, the conclusion should have been, “Brandon just took his game to another level.” There’s no doubt in my mind there are more levels to come. Brandon has his head on straight, is determined to be a star, was born to play basketball in the sense that he knows the nuances of the game and the games within the game, and is paired with a Coach that understands his talent and shares his vision. Plus he’s got tons of young talent growing up around him. He’s in an ideal superstar incubator right now.
Just like D Wade, the only thing that can slow his roll is injuries.
Who’s Randy Foye?
3) What is the realistic goal of this Blazers team this season? How far do fans truly believe this team can go?
I think reaching the playoffs is realistic but Brandon needs to be on the court to make sure that happens. With Brandon, the Blazers are the 5-8th best team in the West. Without him, they are the 9th.
With a favorable remaining schedule (lots of home games and lots of bottom-dwellers), missing the playoffs would be a huge disappointment. Having not reached the playoffs in a number of years, I don’t think most true fans have allowed themselves to dream of anything past that. That said, overall expectations are through the roof in this city. Every loss brings tons of hand-wringing; sadly, I’m sure anything short of a title will have a certain contingent calling for Nate’s head. But I guess that’s the NBA in 2009.
4) There is lots of talk about Brandon Roy and Greg Oden while Lamarcus Aldridge has really been quiet recently. I read an article on ESPN talking about how Aldridge was actually the most important piece of this team and singlehandedly would determine how far this team goes. What are your feelings on this?
All due respect to Bucher and ESPN The Mag but Aldridge is not the most important piece. That’s Brandon and it’s not close. Aldridge Aldridge is the kind of guy that can put the Blazers over the top in a lot of games and could make the difference in a playoff series; the playoffs aren’t even in the discussion if we don’t have Brandon. Everything runs through B. Roy.
I do think the pitch of that ESPN story is illuminating. I think Aldridge probably got painted that way because otherwise, frankly, he’s a pretty boring guy. He is a consummate professional, he doesn’t say anything off-the-wall, he works incredibly hard on his game, he is very private and he’s still young enough to not carry himself like you would expect someone with his talents to carry themselves (no cockiness to his swag at all). I’ve spent hours around LaMarcus, listening to him, watching him, etc. and frankly storylines don’t just jump out at you. Other than writing about his potential to dominate down the road, there’s not a lot of other directions you can go if you’re doing a big feature on him. I thank my lucky stars for that every day — it’s awesome to come across NBA players like that.
5) I’ve got to ask this question. Darius Miles is back in the picture, but not with the Blazers. If he plays 10 games this season, he comes back onto the Blazers books and the team will be a hit with the luxury tax. How big of an issue is this for the team?
Well the team pretty much flatly refuses to discuss the situation but the financial hit is what it is. I think the team believes that if Darius plays 10 games and the money gets put back on their cap, then they will appeal that decision, win the appeal and have the money removed again because they followed the letter of the law when it comes to the injury retirement process and because there is no real precedent for this situation. They probably have a good case. That said, an appeal is definitely not a headache they want to deal with by any means.
Also, this team has plenty of bigger, more immediate issues: keeping Brandon healthy, integrating Rudy Fernandez into the rotation and American society, managing Martell Webster’s return (they just plunked down 20 million dollars and he hasn’t played more than 5 minutes all season), finding some burn for Jerryd Bayless, getting something valuable for Raef LaFrentz’s Expiring Contract… really, the list goes on and on. There is a whole basket full of fish that needs frying. Darius is a small blip on the very outside edge of Kevin Pritchard’s radar right now.
