The Future in Rip City is Bright

Troubling times in Rip City. Not many people under 40 can remember the last championship. Sam Bowie. The Lakers. The Bulls. Drexler goes to Houston, Jail Blazers, Greg Oden, Brandon Roy, and now 4 of 5 starters on a bulldozer starting lineup playoff homecourt team are gone. Stop crying, there are a lot of reasons to be happy.

Batum was half man, half amazing, but only half the time. He also made more than half of a max contract.

Wesley Matthews tore his achilles. Then he signed a max contract with sometimes rival Dallas. Be happy for them, jealousy doesn't wear you well. They can never have what you had. What you had was special.

Robin Lopez was a favorite and was welcomed to Portland like a native. He was severely underrated for everything he does on the court. Rolo will always have a place in our hearts, but can you blame him for taking a job at Madison Square Garden for more than DOUBLE what he was making before?

Lamarcus Aldridge. This is the one that hurts the most right? Okay, he was easily the best player on the team. He played for Portland for his entire career until now, but he's from Texas and going to play for one of the greatest coaches with some of the greatest teammates OF ALL TIME. EVER. Can you really blame him?

Look. I realize that instead of making you feel better, I probably just made you more mad, but it could be so much worse.

First of all, the Blazers are wayyyyyy under the minimum salary.

They just signed Damian Lillard to a max contract which keeps him in Portland through the next six seasons. With the Salary Cap expected to rise substantially after a new national TV deal, and ASSUMING Damian Continues to play at an All-Star level, this could look like a good deal soon. Don't forget that his closest NBA clone, Steph Curry was just the best player on a Championship team after suffering on a lottery team.

Noah Vonleh is a talented young big who is under his rookie contract for the next few years. (He's 19)

We just signed an offer sheet with Enes Kanter, another talented young big. If NW Division rival OKC matches, they lose a lot of flexibility moving forward keeping Durant, Ibaka, and Westbrook together. If they don't match, we have a good young big guy (can't teach size) for 4 years.

Plumlee is GOOD. VERY GOOD. He's 25. He's a very good pick and roll big who makes great cuts to the basket. He plays hard and keeps getting better.

Meyers Leonard is one of the most promising young centers in the league. He shot VERY well from 3 last year, and showed MAJOR development! Did I mention he's only 23?

Aminu is a long, tall, capable wing defender. He's not Batum but he costs a lot less.

CJ McCollum looks like one of the better up and coming 6th men in the league right now, despite the fact he'll probably start.

Kaman is a capable big man who will push all of the young bigs in practice and is a reliable bench scorer who is not costing us much.

Ed Davis is a very good offensive rebounding big man coming off the best season of his young career.

I won't get into every player on the roster. The Blazers probably will not win more games than last year, but they now have the flexibility and long term cap space to go above and beyond the 1st round playoff team of years past.

So cheer up Rip City, the future is bright.

Who is Thomas Robinson?

These days NBA fans in Portland and around the country are increasingly wondering "Who is Thomas Robinson?".

If you know anything about Damian Lillard, who always plays with a chip on his shoulder, then you might be able to relate this to Thomas Robinson. In 2012, T-Rob led Kansas all the way to the National Championship game, where despite scoring 18 points and grabbing 17 rebounds, they were unable to defeat the stacked Kentucky team which included Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilcrist

Thomas Robinson wasn't happy to lose that game. He was even less happy at the 2012 NBA draft just a few months later. He saw Anthony "The Brow" Davis and MKG picked before him in the draft, as well as Bradley Beal and Dion Waiters, before he was finally picked just one spot ahead of Portland (Damian Lillard). As a guy who was touted as the most NBA ready power forward available, a big man in the mold of Dwight Howard with a motor that would make Larry Legend proud, he was not pleased when MJ didn't pick him, or when the Wizards and Cavs passed too. The chip on his shoulder became a block and when the Kings finally added him to their logjam of big men to sit and stew on the bench behind Boogie Cousins, he only got more angry.

He was finally sent to Houston, where he saw even less minutes before he was traded to Portland.

With Robinson stuck on the bench behind All-Star LaMarcus Aldridge, yet again he sees more pine than parquet. Only with LA, Joel Freeland, and Meyers all out with injury has he now seen extended minutes, and so the fans are saying "Who is Thomas Robinson?". Is he another lottery pick playing with a chip on his shoulder? Can he carve out a meaningful role before the playoffs? That kind of wildcard is one I'd want on my team. One thing is for sure, people are beginning to figure out just who Thomas Robinson really is.

*Portland ended up with 3 lottery picks from the 2012 Draft (Lillard, Robinson, and Leonard).

Drummond or Lillard is Oden or Durant 2.0

I remember the Oregon newspaper headlines in the middle of June, 2007. "Oden or Durant?" "Durant or Oden?". The conventional wisdom has always been "You can't teach size", and Portland went with the pick that nearly every other GM, analyst, and otherwise person who isn't utilizing their 20/20 hindsight picked; Greg Oden.

The big man had game, and was developing well. He had question marks about injury history, but Portland rolled the dice, just as it did with Sam Bowie in 1984 when Michael Jordan was on the board.

Neither decision ended well. Kevin Durant, who was at the time the John Wooden Award winner and Naismith College Player of the Year, also went on to become the Rookie of the Year, 3x consecutive scoring champion, 3x all-star, 3x All-NBA First Team, 2010 Fiba Gold Medalist with Team USA, who has led his team further into the postseason every year. He is the player's player, a true professional. Humble, unafraid, and clutch. Michael Jordan needs no introduction, suffice it to say that Portland still managed to make it to the NBA Finals, only to get "MJ'd" like so many other teams did. A legendary player with the intangible, immeasurable, oh so difficult to grasp will to win. Jordan brought back-to-back-to-back championships to Chicago not once, but TWICE. He also won a gold medal with the '92 USA Olympic team (The Dream Team), and a whole other list of things that cemented his name under G.O.A.T.

If the 3rd time is the charm, then we may finally have a great team in Portland again. In yet another draft lottery, with yet another high pick, and yet another choice between a big man and a talented player who isn't a "7 foot Center" Portland has a chance to finally make the right choice.

I hear the outcries already coming from here and there: "It's different this time! Drummond has talent!" "He's a physical specimen!" "We can't pass on him!" "We have to roll the dice!".

The main knocks on Andre Drummond are clearly not his body, athletic ability, or his talent. He's a raw, gifted, towering hulk of NBA sized goodness that scream Dwight Howard, who is arguably the best big man in the NBA since Shaq. The problem is that there is also a faint whisper that says "I was born to underachieve". What did old Albert Einstein say about insanity?

The other choice Portland has is Damian Lillard. A point guard from Oakland, California, Lillard is not the intimidating tower of brawn that is Drummond. A point guard of prototypical point-guard size, Lillard is as fast and athletic as any other top point guard in the NBA. He didn't go to a huge basketball school like Kentucky, Duke, or even a relatively large school like UCLA. He went to a school many have never heard of out in Ogden, Utah, called Weber State.

Lillard is nothing to scoff at. He is talented, fast, athletic, and he can shoot the ball well from anywhere on the floor. The 2nd in the nation in scoring last year, he is drawing comparisons to scoring point guards Russell Westbrook and Derrick Rose (Which I find to be a little off, because he is a better shooter than both). He may not have been known as a floor general in college, but his coaches insist that he was just too good not to take over the game. He wasn't surrounded by Michael Kidd-Gilchrist or Anthony Davis type players who he could pass the ball to. He was the #1, #2, and #3 option on his own team.

The thing that many people aren't considering are the intangibles. Lillard seems to have that drive and motivation that winners like MJ, Kevin Durant, and few others in the world, let alone the NBA possess. He has the will to go hard every day, the love of the game that keeps him away from clubbing, drinking, partying and other distractions, and the work ethic to always stay humble and try to improve himself.

His college coach said that he was the in gym early every morning and late every night. Other students would go out and do college kid stuff on Friday and Saturday night, while he was in the gym. Damian says that he's not someone who you need to worry about being in the news for getting into trouble. Remember the Jail Blazers era?

Drummond on the other hand has been criticized for his "motor" or lack of drive. Does he play hard for the entire game? Does he bring his all every day? Perhaps in the future Drummond will become the next great big man. He has all of the tools at his disposal. I hope he does become the next great big man. Nobody wants anyone to fail. Except guys like Hitler. The question is do you pick the guy who you know what you are getting, or do you go with the BIG (pun intended) question mark?

Portland in June of 2012 is yet again faced with a draft day choice. Let's just hope that they make the right one this time.