NorthWest Sports Blog brings you daily features on Oregon, Washington State, and BC amateur and pro sports teams.
NWSB Insider and Portland Trailblazers writers Blair Thomas has an opinion on what the 2012 NBA off-season should hold for Raymond Felton in Rip City. Portland’s fans had a legitimate gripe. ESPN.com’s John Hollinger had Felton ranked #43 for point guards in his Player Efficiency Rating, which assesses a player’s per-minute productivity. Not good to say the least.
NWSB insider Steve Lee brings us an NBA draft preview piece today. Where will Gonzaga’s Rob Sacre land in this year’s 2012 NBA Draft? Steve lists 5 possible destinations, including the team closest to where he grew up and went to college, the Portland Trail Blazers. It seems like a bit of a stretch to see Sacre in a Detroit Pistons uniform for some reason and yet at the same time it makes a lot of sense.
NWSB Insider Blair Thomas asks five very important questions regarding the Portland TrailBlazers. With the off-season off and running for the Blazers, Blair poses some good questions to the franchise. What are the teams areas of concern and who will take over both the Coach and GM positions? The team has two players that other teams have strong interest in: Nicolas Batum and LaMarcus Aldridge.
NWSB Insider Rick Stella brings a story out of Portland surrounding the Blazers and Jamal Crawford. In a game at Phoenix, Crawford expressed his interest in joining the Suns next season…during the game. Blazers fans have every right to feel like they’ve been slapped across the face the same way they felt during most of the season.
Another North West Coach in the spotlight today. Current Portland Trailblazers interim head coach Kaleb Canales. Blair Thomas one of our Portland sports area bloggers points out the rise of Caneles to NBA head coach has been propelled and complimented with testimonies from former Blazers personnel that support both of Canales’ best qualities: Brandon Roy, and Dante Cunningham for starters.
State of the Portland Trail Blazers. Steve Lee our man with his pulse on the Trailblazers NBA Hoops beat is back with another edition of the Notebook. The March 21st, 2012 edition. With 23 games left at the time of the trade day implosion, it didn’t make a lot of sense for a team in search of an identity to get rid of two of the three pieces that fans have been attached to Gerald Wallace & Marcus Camby…did it?
NWSB Insider and Portland Trailblazers blogger Rick Stella examines the week that was in Rip City. After a weekend spent drowning away my sorrows for the loss of Gerald Wallace and Marcus Camby, its time to try to figure out what the new guys actually bring to the team. Jonny Flynn, Hasheem Thabeet, and Mehmet Okur (Sort of), and Shawne Williams (Sort of) welcome to the Northwest.
NWSB Insider and Portland Trail Blazers blogger Rick Stella weighs in with his Trailblazers weekly three all stars post. Here are the few noteworthy performers through March 19th of the Portland Trailblazers 2011-12 campaign. LaMarcus Aldridge was a beast this week. A mainstay at the First Star position in this column, Aldridge put up 21 points, on 9-18 from the field and a perfect 3-3 from the charity stripe vs. the Bulls.
NWSB Insider and Portland Trailblazers blogger Rick Stella tells us the Trail Blazers have made the decision to part ways with Nate McMillan, it was announced today by Team President Larry Miller. McMillan will no longer serve as Portland’s head coach. Assistant Coach Kaleb Canales has been named interim head coach. Also Gerald Wallace and Marcus Camby were moved to New Jersey and Houston.
NWSB insider Steve Lee brings us news of deadline day trade between the Portland Trail Blazers and the New Jersey Nets. The Blazers receive Mehmet Okur, Shawne Williams and the Nets first round pick. The Blazers gave up Gerald Wallace for that, uh, haul. The first rounder is projected to be a lottery pick, does that count for anything?
NWSB Insider and Portland Trailblazers blogger Blair Thomas tells us keeping Jamal Crawford and Raymond Felton indicates that the team will go point guard shopping in the off-season after their contracts come off the books. Marcus Camby was already looking ahead to a Caribbean vacation at this point in the season. He was traded for Hasheem Thabeet and Jonny Flynn the Houston Rockets.
NWSB managing editor Q brings us his Love Em & Hate Em recap from Wednesday night’s game between the Portland Trail Blazers and the Minnesota Timberwolves. Kevin Love went for 29 points and 16 rebounds as host Minnesota beat Portland for the second time in three games. Raymond Felton collected 23 points and nine assists for Portland, which shot 39.5 percent in the second half.
