With the news that Portland's center, Greg Oden, will be out for the entire 2007-08 season, the Portland Trail Blazers clearly lose one of their most important pieces.
However, the Blazers still have a great deal of young talent. Jarrett Jack, Steve Blake, Sergio Rodriguez, and Taurean Green will play point guard; Brandon Roy and Rudy Fernandez will be the primary shooting guards; Martell Webster, Darius Miles, and James Jones will play the small forward spot; Channing Frye, Travis Outlaw, and Josh McRoberts will play power forward; and LaMarcus Aldridge, Raef Lafrentz, and Joel Pryzbilla will share time at the center position.
With Zach Randolph being traded in the offseason and Oden not playing this season, Portland will need someone to really step up and fill in the missing production. Randolph joined Kevin Garnett, Chris Bosh, Carlos Boozer, and Tim Duncan as the only players last season to average more than 20 points per game, 10 rebounds per game, and 2 assists per game.
By my estimation, Darius Miles and Travis Outlaw will be the major factors to determine if Portland will be able to improve on last year's 32-win season. Outlaw will need to improve upon on his numbers from last season, his most productive year in the NBA. Outlaw, who signed a three year extension with Portland on July 18, is a terrific athlete who has shown great potential. He has made great strides in his free throw shooting accuracy and his ability to score from mid-range. Outlaw needs to continue to polish his skills on both ends of the floor, however. He is not a good ballhandler and needs to gain more strength. Defensively, Outlaw needs to concentrate more on stopping his man and provide the team with more help on the defensive boards. It will also be important for Outlaw to develop go-to post moves in order to expand his scoring abilities.
For Miles, providing scoring and versatility off the bench will be very important towards Portland's success. Miles is returning from microfracture surgery on his knee and by all indications, he has worked hard this summer in order to have a strong upcoming season.
Both Miles and Outlaw have more versatility and athleticism than any other player on the Portland roster. With Randolph being traded and Oden out for the season, this versatility will be important for Portland to continue to make strides. With most of the players on their roster, head coach Nate McMillan knows what kind of production he is going to get. However, with Miles coming off injury and Outlaw having another summer to develop, the Blazers do not know exactly what type of seasons they will have.
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Good defense by the Portland Trail Blazers drama boys, if only we could patch up the difference, this will be a Portland good season. They are running, switching in defense, rebounding see those efforts. We don't have yet the Trail Blazers team down.
I which I could see some Trail Blazers games live. I was looking for tickets all the good seats on ticketmaster were taken I had to check broker. And man you don’t want to do that especially for the Portland Trail Blazers. Thanks god there sites like Ticketwood which work as comparators here is the site
Trail Blazers Tickets
http://www.ticketwood.com/nba/Portland-TrailBlazers-Tickets/index.php
I like slam dunks that take me to the hoop my favorite play is the ally-hoop,
I like the pic n roll,i like the given goal its basketball yo, yo lets go!
Go Trail Blazers Go!!!
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