tlongII
01-17-2010, 02:29 PM
http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2010/01/trail_blazers_midyear_report_i.html
http://media.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/photo/injuriesjpg-ef4efc93cd0f78e4_large.jpg
At times this season, the Trail Blazers have had almost as many players in street clothes as in Blazer uniforms.
As the Trail Blazers head into the second half of their NBA schedule on Monday, they do so with a chuckle.
They are, after all, still alive and kicking, proudly defying the odds to not only remain in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race but contend for the Northwest Division title.
By now, after eight surgeries and nearly 200 games missed because of injury, the Blazers have come to laugh at themselves – in part to deal with the inordinate rash of injuries, and in part to marvel at the story they have become.
This was a team that expected to make a run at the Western Conference championship, one primed to make a statement with its young, deep and talented roster. But by Christmas, the only statements the Blazers were making were of the fashion variety, as injured players in street clothes were more notable than the healthy players in uniform.
Instead of being a favorite, they had become an underdog - a young, undersized team that relies on grit and hustle.
It's why team star Brandon Roy, who has played the best basketball of his career this season, shook his head in disbelief earlier this month in Los Angeles.
He was surveying the Blazers locker room before their game with the Clippers, and it hit him: Steve Blake was in a hospital in Portland with pneumonia. LaMarcus Aldridge was in Portland having a sprained ankle treated. Nicolas Batum was in Los Angeles for a doctor's appointment. Greg Oden, Joel Przybilla, Rudy Fernandez ... all were in Portland injured.
In front of him were rookies Dante Cunningham, Jeff Pendergraph, and Patty Mills, along with Andre Miller and Jerryd Bayless, both newcomers to the rotation this season.
"It was the weirdest moment of the season for me," Roy said. "I'm looking around and it's a bunch of guys I've played with for the first time. But that's our team now."
Indeed, for the past month, and for the foreseeable future, the Blazers have featured 36-year-old Juwan Howard starting at center, rookies Pendergraph and Cunningham playing crunch time minutes, and Bayless acting as the spark plug off the bench.
It's hardly the team McMillan envisioned earlier this season when he found even himself getting caught up in the hype of expectations.
"I remember I put real high expectations on this season, much higher than probably should have been," McMillan said. "I mean, really, I was talking and mentioning the word 'Championship.' "
Now, McMillan uses words like scrappy, hustle and effort. They have become the mantra of the suddenly undersized and undermanned Blazers.
"It's a different team now," McMillan said.
But remarkably, it is still working.
Different path, same result
Despite the injuries, and the influx of new players – both imported and drafted – the Blazers finished the first half of the season on Friday at 25-16, the same record they had at the halfway mark each of the past two seasons.
They are gritty enough to win back-to-back games at Dallas and San Antonio, despite losing Przybilla in Dallas and Roy in San Antonio, but they are imperfect enough to be dominated at home by Philadelphia and squander a big lead late to Memphis.
Still, their first half resume is impressive, with an 8-3 record against the teams currently in playoff position in the West. Nobody can put a finger on exactly how they are doing it, other than to say the team has heart, will and resiliency.
If anything, it has been trying emotionally. The team has had tears well up as players watched Oden and Przybilla go down with gruesome knee injuries. It watched in stunned amazement when McMillan was carted off the practice floor. And it hushed when Andre Miller and McMillan engaged in a 30-minute argument at practice.
Nobody has shouldered the emotions more than McMillan, who has struggled with his own injury, forcing him to change his coaching style. Nothing it seems, has come easy this season.
But McMillan says he intends to keep plodding ahead. There is no other choice.
"As they say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger," McMillan said with a smile. "That's where I'm at with all of this."
The question heading into the second half of the season is whether the Blazers have enough manpower and talent to reach the playoffs.
While McMillan has conceded his ultimate goal of winning the West, and instead shifted the prize to making the playoffs, general manager Kevin Pritchard said he thinks the team can still overtake Denver and beat out Utah and Oklahoma City for the Northwest Division title.
To do that, Pritchard admits he will probably have to make a move before the Feb. 18 trading deadline, most likely netting the Blazers a center or power forward.
"We're going to be active," Pritchard said. "We are going to look for deals to help the team and to help Nate."
Pritchard said he is having trouble finding a suitable deal, primarily because teams are hoping to catch the Blazers in a desperate state, thereby allowing teams to poach prime young talent like Bayless or Batum.
"I'm not opposed to being aggressive, but I'm not going to hit the panic button and try to do something to salvage today and leverage our whole future," Pritchard said. "We've gone through too much to do that."
Young and old step up
If there has been a bright spot in all the injuries, it has been the development and emergence of players who at season's start weren't in the rotation.
Howard, the 16-year veteran who was signed late in the summer to a 1-year deal, has been so good and so reliable that McMillan at one point called him the team's Most Valuable Player. In 11 games since moving in as the starting center, Howard is averaging 9.6 points and 7.0 rebounds.
"It's probably immeasurable what he has done for us," Pritchard said. "To do what he is doing on the court is pretty special. Every time I see him, I'm like 'How you doing old man?' And he says, 'Pretty good. But I'm a young man.' And you know what? His spirit is young. I love watching him. He's a crafty veteran and he knows how to play, and it is rubbing off on some of the other players. That is invaluable to me."
Other surprises have been Pendergraph, a tough and physical power forward who grabbed 14 rebounds in his fifth NBA game, and Cunningham, a buff yet athletic small forward with a smooth jumper. Both are rookies who were second round picks.
"I'm definitely surprised," Pritchard said. "When we set out in the draft, we wanted to add toughness and guys willing to mix it up, and we have found those two guys are willing to do that."
Through it all, Roy has once again put the team on his shoulders and carried them to excellence. Roy scored 23 or more points in 15 consecutive games, breaking the franchise mark set by Geoff Petrie in 1970-1971, the franchise's first year. He joins LeBron James and Dwyane Wade as the only NBA players averaging at least 23 points, 4.5 rebounds and 5.0 assists.
"It's been a frustrating year," Roy said, pausing more than a moment to reflect "But I think guys are doing a good job staying positive with it."
http://media.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/photo/injuriesjpg-ef4efc93cd0f78e4_large.jpg
At times this season, the Trail Blazers have had almost as many players in street clothes as in Blazer uniforms.
As the Trail Blazers head into the second half of their NBA schedule on Monday, they do so with a chuckle.
They are, after all, still alive and kicking, proudly defying the odds to not only remain in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race but contend for the Northwest Division title.
By now, after eight surgeries and nearly 200 games missed because of injury, the Blazers have come to laugh at themselves – in part to deal with the inordinate rash of injuries, and in part to marvel at the story they have become.
This was a team that expected to make a run at the Western Conference championship, one primed to make a statement with its young, deep and talented roster. But by Christmas, the only statements the Blazers were making were of the fashion variety, as injured players in street clothes were more notable than the healthy players in uniform.
Instead of being a favorite, they had become an underdog - a young, undersized team that relies on grit and hustle.
It's why team star Brandon Roy, who has played the best basketball of his career this season, shook his head in disbelief earlier this month in Los Angeles.
He was surveying the Blazers locker room before their game with the Clippers, and it hit him: Steve Blake was in a hospital in Portland with pneumonia. LaMarcus Aldridge was in Portland having a sprained ankle treated. Nicolas Batum was in Los Angeles for a doctor's appointment. Greg Oden, Joel Przybilla, Rudy Fernandez ... all were in Portland injured.
In front of him were rookies Dante Cunningham, Jeff Pendergraph, and Patty Mills, along with Andre Miller and Jerryd Bayless, both newcomers to the rotation this season.
"It was the weirdest moment of the season for me," Roy said. "I'm looking around and it's a bunch of guys I've played with for the first time. But that's our team now."
Indeed, for the past month, and for the foreseeable future, the Blazers have featured 36-year-old Juwan Howard starting at center, rookies Pendergraph and Cunningham playing crunch time minutes, and Bayless acting as the spark plug off the bench.
It's hardly the team McMillan envisioned earlier this season when he found even himself getting caught up in the hype of expectations.
"I remember I put real high expectations on this season, much higher than probably should have been," McMillan said. "I mean, really, I was talking and mentioning the word 'Championship.' "
Now, McMillan uses words like scrappy, hustle and effort. They have become the mantra of the suddenly undersized and undermanned Blazers.
"It's a different team now," McMillan said.
But remarkably, it is still working.
Different path, same result
Despite the injuries, and the influx of new players – both imported and drafted – the Blazers finished the first half of the season on Friday at 25-16, the same record they had at the halfway mark each of the past two seasons.
They are gritty enough to win back-to-back games at Dallas and San Antonio, despite losing Przybilla in Dallas and Roy in San Antonio, but they are imperfect enough to be dominated at home by Philadelphia and squander a big lead late to Memphis.
Still, their first half resume is impressive, with an 8-3 record against the teams currently in playoff position in the West. Nobody can put a finger on exactly how they are doing it, other than to say the team has heart, will and resiliency.
If anything, it has been trying emotionally. The team has had tears well up as players watched Oden and Przybilla go down with gruesome knee injuries. It watched in stunned amazement when McMillan was carted off the practice floor. And it hushed when Andre Miller and McMillan engaged in a 30-minute argument at practice.
Nobody has shouldered the emotions more than McMillan, who has struggled with his own injury, forcing him to change his coaching style. Nothing it seems, has come easy this season.
But McMillan says he intends to keep plodding ahead. There is no other choice.
"As they say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger," McMillan said with a smile. "That's where I'm at with all of this."
The question heading into the second half of the season is whether the Blazers have enough manpower and talent to reach the playoffs.
While McMillan has conceded his ultimate goal of winning the West, and instead shifted the prize to making the playoffs, general manager Kevin Pritchard said he thinks the team can still overtake Denver and beat out Utah and Oklahoma City for the Northwest Division title.
To do that, Pritchard admits he will probably have to make a move before the Feb. 18 trading deadline, most likely netting the Blazers a center or power forward.
"We're going to be active," Pritchard said. "We are going to look for deals to help the team and to help Nate."
Pritchard said he is having trouble finding a suitable deal, primarily because teams are hoping to catch the Blazers in a desperate state, thereby allowing teams to poach prime young talent like Bayless or Batum.
"I'm not opposed to being aggressive, but I'm not going to hit the panic button and try to do something to salvage today and leverage our whole future," Pritchard said. "We've gone through too much to do that."
Young and old step up
If there has been a bright spot in all the injuries, it has been the development and emergence of players who at season's start weren't in the rotation.
Howard, the 16-year veteran who was signed late in the summer to a 1-year deal, has been so good and so reliable that McMillan at one point called him the team's Most Valuable Player. In 11 games since moving in as the starting center, Howard is averaging 9.6 points and 7.0 rebounds.
"It's probably immeasurable what he has done for us," Pritchard said. "To do what he is doing on the court is pretty special. Every time I see him, I'm like 'How you doing old man?' And he says, 'Pretty good. But I'm a young man.' And you know what? His spirit is young. I love watching him. He's a crafty veteran and he knows how to play, and it is rubbing off on some of the other players. That is invaluable to me."
Other surprises have been Pendergraph, a tough and physical power forward who grabbed 14 rebounds in his fifth NBA game, and Cunningham, a buff yet athletic small forward with a smooth jumper. Both are rookies who were second round picks.
"I'm definitely surprised," Pritchard said. "When we set out in the draft, we wanted to add toughness and guys willing to mix it up, and we have found those two guys are willing to do that."
Through it all, Roy has once again put the team on his shoulders and carried them to excellence. Roy scored 23 or more points in 15 consecutive games, breaking the franchise mark set by Geoff Petrie in 1970-1971, the franchise's first year. He joins LeBron James and Dwyane Wade as the only NBA players averaging at least 23 points, 4.5 rebounds and 5.0 assists.
"It's been a frustrating year," Roy said, pausing more than a moment to reflect "But I think guys are doing a good job staying positive with it."