Pick and Scroll
Nathan Begley | Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at 9:48AM Your daily (Mon-Fri) roundup of links from around the blogosphere, typically Trail Blazers related.
• Wendell Maxey plays a game of “What if?“ As in, “What if Portland had drafted Adam Morrison like Nate McMillan wanted?” Go ahead and grab some Scope, ‘cause I know you just threw up in your mouth a little bit. Wendell then takes the game even further and extends it to Chris Paul and Kevin Durant.
• Looks like Rudy Fernandez wants to play for Spain in the World Championships in Turkey. I can just imagine Nate McMillan (assistant coach for Team USA) yelling “Let him put it on the ground! Give him that spinning-free-throw-line-fade-away shot all day!”
• Of course, Rudy isn’t the only Trail Blazer shooting guard who might play for their national team. In addition to Roy’s Olympic dreams, Bayless, Aldridge, and Oden are all members of Team USA at one level or another. It will be interesting to see if any of them make the World Championship or Olympic teams. Also, Team Australia might be interested in one Patty Mills as well.
• Matt Scheelar over at Bust a Bucket has no faith in Portland’s forwards, but thinks the Blazers will still pull out a win against the Kings.
• I myself have a bit more faith in Nicolas Batum and Martell Webster, especially since, according to TrueHoop Network sister blog Cowbell Kingdom, Israeli sensation Omri Casspi may not play tonight.
• Geoffrey C. Arnold of The Oregonian takes a look at the Kings Rookie of the Year candidate Tyreke Evans.
• For more on Evans, who is putting up a Brandon Roy-esque 20.3 points 5.4 assists and 4.8 boards a game, check this great “Rookie Retrospective” by DraftExpress.
• Ben from BlazersEdge was at Dorkapalooza the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. If you have half an hour, I highly recommend reading his piece on an event that just might change the way that teams work with statistical analysis
• Sebastian Pruiti over at TrueHoop Network sister blog NBA Playbook takes a look at the fantastic almost-game-winning play that Popovich drew up last night, which was basically the same play that almost beat the Blazers the last time the two teams met. (Hat tip to commenter Justin Dif for the second video link).
• Okay, Wendell Maxey played “what if?,” so now it’s my turn. What if Joel Przybilla is out for next season and Kevin Pritchard isn’t interested in overpaying an aging Marcus Camby in free agency? Might I suggest a Przybilla and Martell Webster for Emeka Okafor swap (along with picks, cash, and filler players as needed to please both sides)? Joel’s short term insured contract gives New Orleans some salary relief (which they need) and Webster gives them a young wing that can shoot. Portland gets a good young PF/C who can adequately back up both Oden and Aldridge, giving Portland a championship level PF/C rotation. As a caveat, Portland really seems to value the ability to hit the midrange jumper from power forwards. If shooting from the 4 is a priority, then Portland may want to look elsewhere.
• I wouldn’t mind picking up Julian Wright in the aforementioned scenario as well, since I think that Wright could really use a change of scenery and that Monty Williams could do wonders with him. Additionally, such a trade would cement Batum as the starting small forward and Wright would be the clear backup.
• Do you have a better idea? Hop aboard the ESPN Trade Machine and let us know what you cobble together.
Reader Comments (4)
Okafor has been miserable this season. David Lee's contract is up, why not go for him?
Lee is nice, but how would Portland get him?
I would hope that if Rudy's still a Blazer (plz) that Nate won't tell the entire US team how to defend him since that won't help come next season! Besides, they've all played against Rudy for 2 years now so he shouldn't necessarily have to tell them too much that they don't already know. Although, the Spanish National Team is very different than the Blazers and Rudy's role is vastly different so we'll see!
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