where is tlong?

[Donkeybong]

:lol

[lil_penny]

Odennnnnnn!!

[DPG21920]

All B.S aside, this is a sad day for POR. They were a fun team to watch and were really exciting but injuries screwed them over and now they are blowing it up.

[William Hung]

The failblazers are gonna go back to the ol drawing board i saaaaaaaaaaaid

[pass1st]

So is Oden retiring or will he have a hand at free agency?

[lil_penny]

Im thinking he will probably try to play, Hes got the potential if he could ever stay healthy.. Im sure a team or two would take the risk on him.. Im just glad it wont be us.

[Mal]

Im thinking he will probably try to play, Hes got the potential if he could ever stay healthy.. Im sure a team or two would take the risk on him.. Im just glad it wont be us.

If his potential was based on athletism then...

[JamStone]

drinking to a slumber

[tlongII]

It's a GREAT day to be a Blazer! The team was sucking ass so we HAD to blow it up. Now we'll have 2 lottery picks in a deep draft and we can build around LaMarcus and Batum. It won't take long.

[tlongII]

http://www.portlandroundballsociety.com/home/2012/3/15/tankin-on-a-million-deconstructing-the-blazers-trade-deadlin.html

Raymond Felton has been the fans’ and media’s whipping boy for the free-falling Blazers this year, and not without reason. He’s been atrocious on the court, even worse off it (“Hey, I’m only horribly out of shape because of the lockout! Don’t blame me!”), and had such little trade value by Thursday’s deadline that Portland apparently struck out with all 29 teams despite offering to essentially give him away for free. But the trade that sent Andre Miller to Denver for Felton last summer may turn out to be a blessing in disguise, because his otherworldly awfulness turned out to be the thing that finally pushed the Blazers organization to commit to a full-on rebuild.

What Chad Buchanan and/or the Vulcans (you can never tell for sure who’s running this team) did today was a master class in the art of tanking. The only two players on the team besides the untouchables (LaMarcus Aldridge and Nicolas Batum) who had any value were sold for parts. The Blazers sent Gerald Wallace to the Nets for Shawne Williams, $10 million of expiring and injured Mehmet Okur, and a first-round pick that’s protected only for the top three slots, and flipped Marcus Camby to the Rockets for a second-round pick and the expiring contracts of the two biggest busts of the 2009 draft class, Hasheem Thabeet and Jonny Flynn.

These moves served two different purposes. The Wallace deal was made for the future, while the Camby trade will go a long way to assist with the actual tanking process for the remainder of this year. Camby has shown some signs of slowing down due to age and various injuries, but if you really want to lose spectacularly for a third of a season, having Flynn and Thabeet as everyday rotation players probably isn’t a bad place to start. The Wallace trade was a desperation move for New Jersey, as they frantically try to surround Deron Williams with talent now that Dwight Howard is apparently off the table. Shawne Williams has a $3.1 million player option for next year, a price the Blazers can live with paying for a second likely lottery pick in the most stacked draft since 2003.

The Nets are currently on target for the sixth pick, and as they attempt to make a playoff push to convince Deron not to leave, it’s hard to picture them finishing with worse a record than any combination of Charlotte, Washington, New Orleans, Sacramento, or Toronto, meaning the probability of them reaching the top three and having those protections kick in is low. They may make a run at the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference, but it’s still very likely that the pick ends up in the lottery, and maybe even the top 10, depending on injuries and ping-pong balls.

Assuming Williams picks up his option and Jamal Crawford doesn’t, the Blazers will have around $29 million on the books for next season. This means they’ll be able to not only match any offer Nicolas Batum gets as a restricted free agent, but also have a significant amount of cap space left over to sign players or make an unbalanced trade to bring in talent. Add to that Aldridge, Wesley Matthews (who can’t possibly be worse going forward than he’s been this season), and the two lottery picks, and the rebuild is in pretty good shape.

As for the rest of this season, with two starters and one head coach gone (Nate McMillan will get his own post in the near future, but all I’ll say here is that firing him was inevitable and ultimately the right move for the franchise), it’s going to be ugly, but not uninteresting to watch. Now that the Blazers aren’t attempting to con anyone into trading for Felton, there’s absolutely no reason to keep playing him at all. Interim head coach Kaleb Canales would be better served giving his minutes to Nolan Smith to see if he can play with a consistent role. Expect to also see Luke Babbitt, Craig Smith, and Luck_The_Fakers_Luck_The_Fakers_Luck_The_Fakers_Lu ck_The_Fakers_Luck_The_Fakers_Luck_The_Fakers_ Williams (once he recovers from his dislocated shoulder) playing increased minutes from here on out as the team attempts to figure out who has a future in Portland and who doesn’t.

The Blazers have set themselves up about as well as can be expected to wash their hands of the Brandon Roy/Greg Oden era and start from scratch. Now, they have to follow through on the effort. Aldridge is under contract for three more seasons, which is more than enough time to build another playoff contender with Portland’s assets. But if they don’t, he’ll likely want out, and it’ll be hard to blame him. They can’t whiff on either of these draft picks, because their first-rounder next year belongs to the Bobcats. They can’t sign any dumb contracts (just because JaVale McGee says he wants $14 million a year doesn’t mean anyone should give it to him). Hiring a GM and letting him handle the basketball moves might not be a terrible idea, even if it’s a foreign concept to Paul Allen. It’s no sure thing that they’ll pull this off. But trying is the right move, and they’re off to a great start.

[pass1st]

tlong is back in business

:lolcontenders
:lol"i <3 Oden"
:lolfuture hopes

[Mal]

It's a GREAT day to be a Blazer! The team was sucking ass so we HAD to blow it up. Now we'll have 2 lottery picks in a deep draft and we can build around LaMarcus and Batum. It won't take long.

Too bad. Nets will have #1. Portland always get ass kicked.

[Indazone]

Dude needs to take a bunch of calcium, and bone density and ligament growing supplements, go get stem cell surgery in Germany aka Kobe and come back in two years and give it a go after he heals from microfracture surgery.

[SenorSpur]

So much for the grand plan of 2008

[tomtom]

I'm sorry but you're retarded if you think the Blazers didn't make good moves this trade deadline. You're either in it to win it or you rebuild on the fly. You don't stay in no mans land and thats where we were headed. Now we have two 1st round picks and a ton of capspace to work with next season, the future looks good for us.

As much as luck has fucked us, our FO is doing a helluva job.

[rayjayjohnson]

It's a GREAT day to be a Blazer! The team was sucking ass so we HAD to blow it up. Now we'll have 2 lottery picks in a deep draft and we can build around LaMarcus and Batum. It won't take long.

...except batum is going to walk