This was just posted over on the Blazers Blog from Oregon Live. Enjoy.
| Trail Blazers first practice |
Archive for September, 2008
A new article just came hot off the ESPN presses only about 10 minutes ago. It comes from Chris Sheridan and it adds yet another chapter to the Darius Miles saga. Here’s a quote: 
NEWPORT, Rhode Island — Darius Miles says he has no clue what made him fail a drug test that will cause him to serve a 10-game suspension if he makes it through training camp with the Boston Celtics.
Speaking at length Tuesday for the first time since his suspension was announced by the NBA over the summer, Miles said he never took diet pills — the over-the-counter medication in which the banned stimulant he tested positive for, phentarmine, is most commonly found — and had never taken any medication other than what was prescribed by Portland’s doctors and trainers.
“I wish I knew. I really do wish I knew, but [Celtics president] Danny Ainge told me ‘leave it alone,’ so I left it alone,” Miles said.
At this point, I’m nearly convinced that Darius Miles will indeed play 10 NBA games this upcoming season even after his 10 game suspension IF he does get signed to a contract after training camp. That’s a pretty big IF, so don’t label me as someone who’s already convinced that Miles will get a contract with the Celtics. The article states that only he and Sam Cassell are the two players with non-guaranteed contracts on the Celtics’ 16 player training camp roster.
The thing is this, even after the suspension, Darius still has 72 left to play 10 games somewhere in those 72 games to get his salary put back on the Blazers. For anyone who doesn’t know exactly how badly it will hurt the Blazers’ salary cap, Miles’ contract, if put back on us, will take up 2/3 of the cap. That’s a lot of money.
However, scenario two is that the Celtics sign Sam Cassell (which I think is much more likely to be honest) and Miles bounces around the league looking for a team to sign him to some short-term contracts. However, with that 10-game suspension looming over his head, I’d find it hard to imagine a team signing him to a 10 day contract, having him sit out, then sign him again after his suspension has been served.
I’m sure you’re sick of all these quick, non-substanced updates but hey you know what, that’s what we do. The Blazers Blog just updated with two more videos from the Blazers Media Day featuring Ike Diogu and Martell Webster. Both videos can be seen below:
| Raw video: Ike Diogu at media day |
| Raw video: Martell Webster at media day |
The Behind the Blazers Beat blog just posted a new article which gives updates on Brandon Roy, Channing Frye, Joel Pryzbilla and even Shavlik Randolph. It’s a really good read if you want to be even more unindated with Blazers news. If nothing else, it’s fun to read about Joel’s 9-foot shark catch in the Bahamas. Thus the photo.
Channing Frye just updated his blog today with an article from the Portland Tribune. It’s a good read for fans of Frye and it gives some insight on what he wants to accomplish this season and what fans should expect from him. He also throws in some more love for Steve Blake at the end of the article. Here’s a excerpt:
He says he’s 80 percent recovered from the surgery but hasn’t started running. He wants to be as close to 100 percent as he can before he plays and admits that his 10 days before the season timetable is a “best-case scenario” that might not sit well with team trainer Jay Jensen.
So that sounds like Channing may not be available for the first few games of the season. With me that’s ok, I like Frye and if you read my Roy post earlier today I’m a cautious, cautious man.
30
Sep
More Media Day Photos
These come from the Blazers Center Court blog. You can get the photos in two flavors; either professional studio or slightly less professional photos taken by Mike Barrett. I personally prefer the more guerilla tactics by MB but they’re all good.
This news comes from columbian.com via TrueHoop.
Here’s a quote:
Blazers coach Nate McMillan said last week that he doubted Roy would see any action to allow the All-Star guard time to recover from surgery to repair torn meniscus cartilage in his left knee. But on Monday, Roy gave a very different account, saying he and McMillan had discussed the situation and that he expected to play in some of the exhibitions.
I understand Roy’s wanting to play in the pre-season just to get back into the shape of things, but I would ilke to heir on the side of caution personally. I know he wants to get back into the groove of things and get ready for the onslaught the Blazers have to face in their first 20 or so games but a few minutes in the pre-season won’t be enough regardless.
Injuries nagged Roy last season, forcing him to miss a few games. He’s had issues with his ankle, heel, groin, and now his knee. I personally think it’s just a tad bit risky to have our star player play these rather meaningless games. I’d rather see Rudy and Bayless see a lot of playing time and really show us how they fare against NBA talent than to give Roy 15 or so minutes and have him come out. If Nate McMillan and the rest of the staff and Roy believe its ok to play, then sure.
However, as an Oregon Duck fan, I know all too well what happens when you try to tempt fate regarding players with injury. I just don’t want the same fate to occur to my Blazers. I know there’s a very small likelihood that Roy would get injured or re-aggravate any of his past injuries, I’d just rather play it safe.
30
Sep
Oden Tweaked Ankle?
Ben, from BlazersEdge, is reporting that Greg Oden has tweaked his ankle and was riding a stationary bike during today’s practice (or at least the portion open to the media).
I’m sure this is nothing serious, but it is not a good sign for Greg Oden’s career. Let me explain. In the last two years, he has only played basketball for one of those years, he has had ankle, wrist and major knee issues. I hate to say it, but I think Oden will have injury issues his whole career. That doesn’t mean he wont be a great player, it just means he will likely have to play through a lot of pain during his career.
I’m not too worried about this report. If this were a serious issue, he would have been rushed to get x-rays or what not, I think its basically just a sore ankle… Still, the issue no one really wants to talk about is that injuries seam to be plaguing the Blazers as of late.
