NBA Season Preview

Intermittently over the next week or so I will preview all 30 teams in the NBA. Posts will be in random order and infrequent because I have better things to do.

First up: Portland Trail Blazers (because they suck ass and are Josh's favorite team)

Where to begin... well I suppose any discussion of the Blazers (he he) has to begin with the dynamic duo of Darius Miles and Zach Randolph. Both carry the baggage of 10 year veterans despite being just 25 years old, that's impressive. Unfortuantely that has been about their only accomplishment in the NBA. Over the past couple years the Blazers have tried desperately to rid their roster of bad character guys and malcontents, i.e. Rasheed Wallace, Damon Stoudamire, Bonzi Wells, Ruben Patterson etc. etc. Miles and Randolph are the last two standing, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid holed up in the house with the entire Bolivian Army outside if you will. The Blazers inability to rid themselves of Darius and Zach (pretty Abercrombie names for two wanna-be thugs if you ask me) has created an interesting dynamic on their roster. The Blazers, thanks to their god-awful play the past couple years, do have a roster stacked with young first-round draft picks. But that talent will never develop with Miles dominating the rock and Randolph punching the young'n's lights out at practice. So they're fucked, basically, unless they can get rid of Miles and Randolph, which isn't likely since they are both in the middle of ridiculous contracts; Miles is in the third year of a 6-year $48 million dollar deal and Randolph is laughing at the Blazers all the way to the bank as he is in just the third year of a 10-year $90 million dollar deal. Wow, it is shocking just to write that last one out. Good work by the Blazers personnel department.

Prediction: Proper fucked; early front-runners for the #1 pick in the 2007 draft. Adding Greg Oden to that roster will definitely help, NOT. The Blazers are going to be fucked for a long time with those contracts.