In another great management move the Portland Trailblazers have scheduled the preseason matchup on Oct. 26th vs Allen Iverson and the Denver Nuggets right here at the Deschutes County Fairgrounds in the Expo Center! Admittedly my view is prejudice considering that I live here but this will give the rest of the state an oppertunity to come and watch this young and tallented team. For those of you who don't know where redmond is take a map of oregon, grab a pencil, and poke it in the middle of the state. You'll be really dad gommed close.

Now would be a good time to go out on a limb and give my prediction for the starting 5. I'm sure alot of people won't agree with me , but what's the fun in predicitons if they are sure things? (ok, a few positions are pretty much that, but not all of them)

Center: Greg Oden

Power Forward: Lamarcus Aldridge

Small forward: Travis Outlaw

Shooting Gaurd/Team Captain: Brandon Roy

Point Gaurd: Steve Blake

There you go. The biggest stretch for me in this guess is Travis Outlaw and that is just because i'm not familiar with newly acquired James Jones. I think Blake will beat out Jarret Jack not because of superior abilities as jack seems to have those, but simply because from what I have seen Blake is a better Point Gaurd. If you ask me how that can be the only example i can give is that skinny guy you work with who is smaller, weaker, maybee even less experienced than those who works around him yet for some reason he just seams to get more done. And don't quote stats too me, because thats not what i see. It's an aura, a feel, a personality that is different on the floor when the team has a point that knows what his job is and does it well. I'm not dogging Jack at all, and i'm sure he'll be the primary backup for both Blake AND Roy in a basic three gaurd rotation. Thats my guess and take it for what its worth (nothing but one fans opinion lol).

  With Portland's number one pick they couln't screw up (or could they?). With two obvious winning choices we have as fans been well trained to asume they could pick someone other than Durrant or Oden. They didn't. With neither of these options showing an edge in quality I was hoping from the start for Oden because of rarity. When portland landed the number one selection all I could think was "Portland got Oden". In the end it would seem that Portlands new and now proving consistantly intelligent management team chose Oden leaving me, as portland's play by play anouncer would say, stunned, stammered and stupified!

 The cascade mountain range just got a little bigger. Welcome to the pacific northwest Mt. Oden!

The Portland Trail Blazers landed the number one selections in next months NBA draft! While other teams are complaining how its just not fair i'm gigglin my butt off as when last year portland had the best chance to land at 1 and fell all the way to number 4 just like Memphis did this year. What did portland have to say about it? We would have liked to have the number one but there are 5,6 or 7 really good players that we can get at number four. They didn't throw a pity party and say like a crying child that it's not 'faaaaiiiiiirrrrr'. The lottery gave Portland and egg and Portland worked its tail end off to land a Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Sergio Rodreguez omlett. Last year they played reaaallly bad and us fans were thinking they were tanking trying to get ping pong balls. So maybee last year they got what they deserved. This year Nate said he doesn't care about ping pong balls and they can take care of themselves. This year they played baskettball and tried to win every game. It wasn't luck, it wasn't rigged, and it wasn't 'unfair'. It was Karma. Portland is walking what it has been talking putting quality people on their team and making a ballclub the fans can be proud of. They didn't tank this year and in my not so humble opinion got exactly what they deserved.