Young Blazer Upstarts Look for Winning Trails in Portland

The Portland Trail Blazers of the 2008-2009 NBA season don't appear to have any holes. Anywhere. All the spots are deep with talent, but youth and inexperience are still the toss-up factors for a team looking to make a big splash against foes.

Greg Oden, of course, is seen to some degree as a messiah for the franchise, giving the team its first (potential) winning big man in five years, since Rasheed Wallace and Arvydas Sabonis were guiding the black and red to Western Conference Finals showdowns.

Brandon Roy, now an All-Star, is going to spearhead the change into winning games more consistently with his heady style of play and guile on the court, but one of the most interesting questions that continues to linger is whether he should be the team's de facto starting point guard, or continue to play the multitude of positions that he takes on the floor, a la Scottie Pippen.

Speaking of point guards, with the depth of the guard position in full effect, Steve Blake and Sergio Rodriguez may truely be battling for the starter's spot. Blake's steady game makes him a great compliment to everyone on the team, and Rodriguez electrifies with his flashy passes and bandhandling, but the Spaniard may be at disadvantage to some degree, as he still needs seasoning; the prospect of his minutes going up, though, remain hopeful because his fellow Spanish teammate Rudy Fernandez has a chemistry with him from playing international ball for many past seasons (who is a star in his own right). While the point guard situation seems to be a levelheaded issue in its eventual solution, the forward spots seem to bring about an air of even less certainty. Former Arizona star and rookie combo guard Jerryd Bayless draws the discussion even further considering his merit as a younger version of Gilbert "Agent Zero" Arenas.

Martell Webster should be the guy that starts at the small forward position, but while he's made some considerable gains, he still hasn't put up the type of numbers or game that seem make that scenario seem incredibly likely, largely because of Travis Outlaw. The former first-round high school selection (like Webster) has come on to the degree that he may be more deserving as the starting 3-man, but his energy as a scorer and rebounder do wonders off of the bench.

LaMarcus Aldridge is also growing into being the future All-Star that he continually shows himself to be, with the skills of a small forward and center making his entrenchment as the power forward a non-debate; it's only when one considers the talent behind him in Channing Frye (who could be starting for any other team in the league) and Ike Diogu (a very talented post player) that the debate really begins for who wins the minutes game.

If the Trail Blazers can figure out how to make the most of their talent, make good with each other and the plan of winning ball games and play hard and efficiently, Portland may be looking at the foundation of a very near championship team in the present.