NBA: Many Options for Portland Trail Blazers' New Era

The Portland Trail Blazers' Golden age had the great Bill Walton that lead them to the 1977 NBA Championships. 15 years later they had the Silver age with Clyde "the Glide" Drexeler along with a young Cliff Robinson and the steady Terry Porter. Unfortunately, the lack of International Superstar, Arvydas Sabonis, was arguably the missing link to another championship. Nonetheless, it was still Rip City. About eight years later, the Bronze age Blazers took Portland again to the brink of another championship had it not been for the poor reffing of games against the Lakers. Damon Stoudamire, Steve Smith, Scottie Pippin, Rasheed Wallace, and Arvydas Sabonis were nearly destined to bring home another NBA championship, only to get stopped by the likes of the men with the whistle. Then, by losing Coach Mike Dunleavy, Smith and Pippin--the heart, soul, and glue of the team, the Dark ages of the Jail Blazers set in.

Now, after six long years, with the new barage of athletic team players being added to the young core lineup of the Portland Trail Blazers, it's hard to imagine that it took just one year to completely shed Portland of the Jail Blazers nickname when the lineup was still Damon Stoudamire, Bonzi Wells, Darius Miles, Zach Randolph, and Rasheed Wallace--albeit Stoudamire and Wallace were part of the Bronze age. Now only Darius Miles sticks out like a canker sore in the lineup of fresh faces.

The first problem that Portland has to figure out is who will be the one to lead the team at point. Would it be the incumbent Jarrett Jack who seemed to be the most well-balanced point guard Portland has? Or will it be the returning former point guard that Jack took over last season, Steve Blake? It's pretty safe to assume that neither Sergio Rodriguez nor Taurean Green will be the starting point guards, but will both of them stay? My guess is that Portland will start Blake and depending on the situation of the game, sub in Sergio for the offensive surge or Jack to provide a slower defensive game. Green will probably get the rookie point guard treatment and play clean-up minutes. One positive factor for Portland now though is that they won't have to worry about injury problems at the point as any one of them can step it up in the starting position.

Shooting guard position is a no-brainer--Brandon Roy has the position pretty much locked down. The only thing that can stop him from starting would be injuries, which he's prone to have. If Roy does go down with an injury, Webster will step in without a problem. Though with so many point guards that are capable of playing the 2 position, McMillan just might go with a two-point guard lineup in which he can mix and match any way he wants. And if in desperation for someone else, James Jones is a possiblity to play the 2-guard position.

The small forward position is where Portland has its largest gap. Travis Outlaw and Ime Udoka are both free agents, though it's been rumored that Outlaw is almost certain of returning to Portland. Udoka on the other hand is less likely to be sought after by Portland. Instead, the Spurs are apparently trying to woo Udoka over--which would be a sad, sad day. I personally think that if Udoka and Outlaw stays, then Udoka should keep the starting small forward position and be the defensive workhorse specialist that every good team needs to have. Outlaw will provide a more balanced game, but Udoka's more consistent. Outlaw's energy will be needed to come off the game to keep the game pace the same, if not up a notch. James Jones will be able to provide the outside 3-point threat, though Udoka's still more consistent. The only thing Jones can bring is a faster pace of the game. And if need be, Webster can also play the small forward position as well as LaMarcus Aldridge. As for Darius Miles, I hope Portland buys out his contract or trade him away--he just doesn't belong. However, if by a slim chance that Portland decides to keep him and he turns his act around for new coach McMillan, then he can be a viable offensive threat.

The one thing Portland doesn't have is a pure power forward, but that's okay. Most likely LaMarcus Aldridge will start the power forward position with Channing Frye coming off the bench behind him followed by Raef LaFrentz and Josh McRoberts. There really isn't any way Portland can lose at the power forward position as Frye and LaFrentz were also starters sometime in their careers, so this position is also injury ready. And if all else fails, Portland can go with the dual center lineup of Greg Oden at power and Joel Przybilla at center.

The center position will be manned down by Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla with the former starting. However, both are fairly injury-prone, so this is where Channing Frye will step in as well as Raef LaFrentz. The only problem with this is that there won't be much of a defensive stopper at the center position if both Oden and Przybilla go down with injuries. Hopefully that won't happen.

Now with the most likely starting lineups figured out, McMillan will have a lot of options for various style of play--run and gun, half court, defensive stoppers, big man, small ball, outside shooting, free throw shooting, energy boost, etc. Just imagine, after getting by the outside defenses of Roy and Udoka, and avoiding Aldridge's initial block attempt, you still have to get the ball by Oden and Przybilla.

If everything works out the way it's planned for the Blazers, they could make it back into the playoffs this year--maybe even get by the first round. Realistically, they probably won't win the NBA Championships in their first year with this lineup, but given maybe two or three years, it will be within reach. Maybe Portland will go down in the record books of being the youngest team to win the NBA Championships, who knows. The team chemistry seems to be great not only amongst the players, but with Coach McMillan as well. The front office is also being led well by Kevin Pritchard and everything seems to be falling together inside and out of the franchise. Portland is finally beginning to live up to it's long lost motto: One team, one dream.