The Boston-Trailblazer Watch

No team has shaken up and improved their roster to the same degree as the Portland Trailblazers and the Boston Celtics. Both of these teams have made savvy draft picks and transaction that should allow them to be competitive for the forseeable future(Boston less so, they are gunna get old FAST)...


Anyway, Watch this Spot, as i will periodically chronical the progress of these two sculpted teams, with specific attention being paid the the offseason additions and how they have/are improving/destroying the team..


This means the main focus of this blog is;
-Greg oden- The question is not Will he dominate? the question is now, How long til he dominates. G-Od(you like?) will someday be a force in the league, but how far he can take portland in his rookie season remains to be seen.


-LaMarcus Aldridge- I know he isn't a rookie or "off-season addition" but this guy was ballin' in the summer league, and many experts have tipped him to have a breakout year. here's hoping.


- The bigGER three- New jersey and washington both have their own 'big three' (jefferson-carter-kidd and jamison-butler-arenas respectively) but i think its fair to say that no-one will dare call them that this season expecially since they are now in the same conference as the most lethal current 3-man combination in the NBA.. However, with the amount of money being spent on these guys, the celts are not going to be able to afford much in the way of help, so its going to see who they try and put around the stars to help them win. For this squad, anything less than a Finals appearance(im not convinced they could beat the spurs/suns/mavericks in a 7-game series, because despite their enormous skill, there is a distinct lack of finals experience) will be considered a wasted season.


- I will also try and give these guys a look-in; Brandon Roy, Doc Rivers(its gunna be interesting how he runs this squad), rajon rondo(one of the best PG's in last years draft, will be an fringe-allstar in his career), and anyone else who decides its their time to shine.



I feel like Danny Ainge has given Doc the pieces necessary to be a very competitive team in the eastern conference but i just feel like the west is to good. By taking on the mammoth contracts of ray allen and KG(along with P-doubles existing one) he is spending about $60 mil a year on 3 aging players. His window of opportunity is very small, but, if they come out with even one championship, then it is all worth it.


Portland will be good, not great this year. but dont get me wrong, THE TRAILBLAZERS WILL BE AN NBA POWERHOUSE within a decade. thats right. you read it here first(unless you didnt). Portlands frontoffice has done an outstanding job in each of the past two drafts.. They are stacked with youth and potential at every position. Their frontcourt(oden-aldridge with josh mcroberts and channing frye off the bench) is set for the next decade while Brandon Roy is more than capable of being a superstar PG or SG. And thats not even mentioning the talent on the bench; steve blake, rudy fernandez, Jarret Jack, Travis Outlaw and Sergio Rodriguez are all young, hungry and willing to compete. The only hole in their current lineup is a lack of a true starting SF, although if i know kevin pritchard(which i dont, by the way) they will have someone who matches that criteria by the time the first NBA ball of the season is thrown up...

Donaghy the crooked refereeee

My friends, let us all pause and reflect. A few days ago the basketball world shook with the news that one of the NBA's own referee's was being investigated by the FBI on suspicion of betting on NBA games... including ones he ref'd himself.





i present to you, the face of evil...


This is the man that has put the integrity of the NBA to question. He has just justified every person who has ever suspected the NBA of cheating to create more lucrative storylines. By doing this he has thrown the reputation of the NBA down the drain.. Unfortunately, this isn't even the worst of it.

This may be hard for most to understand, but if you have ever refereed a basketball game, whether at a high level or just for fun during sports class, you will appreciate that in terms of pressure, expectation and abuse the job of referee(basketball or otherwise) is an unthanking one that is bound to induce a large amount of stress.


First, i shall start of by 'mythbusting' a few common misconceptions about referees;


1. Usually, the referee actually DOES know more than you about the rules of the game. There are many aspects to different calls that you neither know or understand.. The casual observer/players grasp on the rules is shaky at best, especially with respect to difficult calls such as charges/blocks etc..



2. I can't speak for every referee. But i can honestly say i'v NEVER tried to screw a team over. despit being accused of it several times. Some calls go your way, and some dont. get over it.



Which brings me nicely to 3. Whilst you have the luxury of a courtside seat/lounge to watch(and rewatch) certain plays to determine wether a referees call was correct or not, you must consider that EVERY CALL IS SPLIT-SECOND. Refereeing becomes second nature and you call what you see. alas, the problem with humanity is our inherent tendency to fail, or at least to not get 100%. Not every shot you put up scores, just like not every call i make is correct, however, i bet my percentage is better than yours :)



4. If you are constantly complaining to refs, pulling faces or whinging in general after calls and then you get a tech, dont complain. dont say, "but i did nothing wrong", because you did- your a jerk and i dont want to listen to your voice any more, and since im referee i can make it happen. shut up and play the game.



5. Lastly, a referee will NEVER EVER EVER change their call because a player whinges about it. If a call ever gets changed it is because a player has politely asked a referee why they made the said call, and the referee realises that they were in fact incorrect. However, i would advice against even doing this, as it not only pisses the referee off in the sense that you are telling them they are wrong, but you open yourself to getting a technical for "crying like a bitch"(see point 4).




Now that we have that out of the way let us deal with the issue at hand. Tim "the snake" Donaghy.

I have found some clips that may be of interest to you, particularly clip 1, as it is concerning a playoff series that has already received so much scrutiny this year...



Clip 1- did he do it? i dont know. there is certainly some questionable calls highlighted by this clip, but to assume it was the byproduct of matchfixing is going too far. at best this is a poorly
refereed game, at worst... i dont want to think about it...


Here is some others; Clip 2, Clip 3 I would also like to direct you to some excellent commentary on this situation by yahoo! sports.



As you can see my style of writting is somewhat different. This is because i feel as though many of you will have already read plenty about all the issues/situations that i plan to blog about, so in order to keep your(and my own) interest i have adopted a style of writting that allows my to go off on a tangent and rant about any particular NBA-related issue i feel deserves the attention..

cheers

Hey!

As i have only just started this blog and therefore have no readers, this is a greeting pretty much written to myself... whats up?

Now, to business. I assume if you are reading this now then you, like me, are an avid NBA fan who is more than a little critical of some of the current NBA beatwriters. This Blog is aimed to convey to you, MY opinion of select goings-on about the NBA, NBADL, NCAA and sometimes international hoops.

Perhaps a little about myself? I am currently studying Law at University here in Western Australia, i play/coach/referee basketball and religiously scan basketball websites for the latest news, rumors and transactions... Some of the sites i whole-heartedly recommend include;
- www.dimemag.com
- www.draftexpress.com
- www.hoopshype.com
- www.sports.yahoo.com/nba
- www.realgm.com
- www.topsportstalk.net
-... oh, and of course; www.nba.com

Hopefully, i can provide you with a little bit of a different perspective with regards to basketball, and possibly a little entertainment aswell.

All feedback is appreciated...

Finally; This blog is solely the opinion of me, the author, and therefore any comments that seem to insult or defame any person or organisation has been written because i feel that they deserve your hate and disdain, don't hate on me for it. Occasionally i will have a blog that is not NBA related, these will have the prefix of "Rant:" before the title...

happy reading