So much good stuff...

Well, it seems the Greeks are the latest to start buying the USA one piece at a time. By now, all of you know that Josh Childress has signed with Team Grease to play the part of "Danny Zuko" oh wait no... wrong Grease. I doubt his move will have that much effect on the economics of the NBA, unless the Dollar continues to fall against the Euro.

I actually was pulling for the Blazers to draft this kid the year he came out (he even fell to the second round!) but now that I look back, he would have been heavily influenced by Puddin' and Hyde (Zach and Miles). I'm not saying he's a bad kid, but from what I heard leading up to the draft, he was more a follower than a leader.

Speaking of which, I was thinking about the 06-07 season, specifically about what I condsider to be the TRUE moment when the Blazers ceased being the Jail Blazers. Remember this game versus the Lakers? April, 07:

"There was much chatter in the locker room, the loudest coming from star forward Zach Randolph, who was harping about the team's turnovers, particularly the ones in which Lakers' guard Smush Parker was able to steal the ball from the Blazers' guards. Around the corner, in the bathroom, Roy heard Randolph ranting."I remember thinking I have to say something," Roy said Monday.As he turned the corner, he confronted Randolph, telling him that he shouldn't be pointing out individuals, that his criticism should be kept to the team as a whole."I was yelling," Roy said. "And he was yelling back at me. He said, 'I didn't say you guys were the only ones turning the ball over.' But we were both shouting."

That was the moment everything changed. That was the day the Blazers got their real leader. Sure, I think there were another couple of "incidents" on the PDX Police blotter, but the Blazers became Roy's right then and there.

For some reason, I keep hearing and reading from a lot of people that Webster is expendable, and that's just st-st-stupid. You never get rid of the 6' 7" guard who can snipe from Three Land. All the modern-era championship teams had one (Brent Barry, Spurs; Steve Kerr, Bulls; Jason Koppono, Heat; even Derek Fisher to some extent)

Great mix of Bayless' summer league here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2MuqQe505g I know these are just highlights, but from the looks of it. I can see why he didn't average more than 1.3 assists. Every time he did drive, none of the opposing bigs rolled over to help off on him, so yeah, take the open shot first. Passing is great, but any coach will tell you they'd like nothing more than a game where every basket is shot from within 5 feet. At least, if they win. Otherwise, then... that plan sucks. Don't you love sports?

By the way, 1.3 assist is exactly as many as DJ Augestine netted. The one thing Augestine did better, WAY better, was shooting a higher percentage. That's interesting, if only because With such relatively few shots, and such good production, he should have averaged more assists.

-----G---M---PTs----Sh/Att-----Pct----Reb-Ast--Stl--Blk
DJ:--3--29.7--19.7--6.0/11.--0.563--4.0--1.3--1.0--.0
JB:--4--34.0--29.8--8.2/17.--0.485--4.8--1.3--1.2--.2