The New Enthusiast Blazers Preview

The purpose of this entry is to kill three birds.  I’m not entirely sure how many stones it will take, but after this post you, dear reader of The New Enthusiast, should be able to:

1. Come to the realization that The New Enthusiast weblog is not an archive.

The contributors to the blog are not dead.  They are however busy with prestigious lawyering school, contributing to prestigious baseball nerdbone internet sites and recovering from prestigious airborne illnesses/jacking prestigious (no not prodigious) dongers in Wiffleball Home Run Derby.

2. Discern these electronic pages from others that occasionally address your Portland Trail Blazers.

It seems as though some of the proprietors and many of the commentors on Trail Blazers’ blogs have turned into the Chicago Cubs fans of the NBA. Due to a lackluster preseason performance by the Blazers, much of which has included a frigid Brandon Roy, sloppy ball handling resulting in high turnover numbers and something referred to as “too much talent” many of the blogerati have noticed the sky falling in and around the Rose Quarter area of North Portland after eight freaking practice games!.

Pile the preseason drama onto to the fever pitch of bat shit panic associated with the Roy and Aldridge extensions and the hand wringing over the Blazers’ strange off season and you’d think the Blazers were playing at the corner of Clark and Addison this season.

3. Be ready to enjoy, not only Rudy Fernandez, but other Blazers in their appropriate glory.

Let’s face it y’all this roster is stacked, like a Desperado-era Salma Hayek. Although seemingly a little banged up at the moment, holy crap there is some good young talent on this team and some cool grizzly vets with enough wily charm to make a drag queen blush. Onto the preview.

Juwan Howard

Betcha didn’t think I was going to start this way did you?  Having cut my basketball following teeth on Big 10 basketball while living in Chicago, I can’t help but fondly remembering Juwan, not only because I hated University of Illinois basketball, but because Juwan, a former Michigan Wolverine was the first basketball player I remember being from the city that doesn’t not eat sausage.

Not only am I hopeful that Howard see significant minutes backing up LaMarcus Aldridge because of his Fab Five heritage and his roots in the Chi, Juwan Howard’s minutes which should include his preternatural passing skills and along with the return of Martell Webster from a broken foot, could spell the end of extended cringe inducing minutes of Travis Outlaw.

Andre Miller

Joining Juwan Howard in the “close to the ground” (pronounced, can’t jump) club this season is a man nicknamed Dre from South Central Los Angeles.  While not the most famous Dre from the area, Miller brings real point guard bona fides with him that the Blazers have been looking for since Damon Stoudamire wrapped ganja in metal to put it through a detector of metal (cue cry for help).  While the reviews have been mixed concerning his melding with the current crop of Zers especially Brandon Roy, regardless of whether he starts or comes off the bench, the Miller option sure beats the pants off of seeing Sergio Rodriguez out there every night.

What really is exciting about Dre’s arrival is going to be watching a Blazer who is older than I excel because of his experience and age and not in spite of it.  There is also the possibility of competent fast breaking with Miller that was seemingly impossible last year.  When the 08-09 Blazers ran it often looked disjointed at best and bloody awful at its worst.

Defense wins Championships

The reader can pretty safely assume that when a contributor to the New Enthusiast makes a bold, commonly believed statement in bold print one can expect questions such as Is that true? or How do we know that? to follow.  New Enthusiasts, believers in the Socratic method, do their muthafuckin’ homework, mofos.

Since the opening of training camp Coach Nate McMillan has constantly stressed the need for improvement on defense.  On the strength of their pretty awesome defensive rebounding rates the 08-09 Blazers finished the season 13th in defensive efficiency.

Beginning with the inception of the zone defense during the 99-00 season there has been only one team (2000-01 Lakers) that has won the NBA championship with a lower ranked defense. 7 out of the last 10 champs have had a top 3 defense in terms of efficiency while only 4 of the 10 ten champs were in the top 5 in offensive efficiency.  Offensive efficiency being an area of strength for last year’s team which was best among NBA squads at 113.9 points/100 possessions.

The point? Well, it seems as though the conventional wisdom is right about this one, but having a really efficient offense doesn’t hurt either.  Luckily for the Blazers, teams tend to get better on the defensive end when they become more experienced. With improved defense they could be a contender with that offense that seems to have been constructed by German engineers.

Prediction Time

French national, small forward Nicolas Batum will have 13 French Princes this season, leading the NBA over Tayshaun Prince and Dwayne Wade.

Joel Pryzbilla will lead the Western Conference in “near scuffles” exhibiting his tough guy credentials he has earned amongst Blazers fans.

Pryz will also win the Nietzsche award the NBA gives annually to the player with the highest consonant to vowel ratio in their last name. This award is commonly referred to as the “ubermensch”.

Finally the most important prediction is concerning how many dollar beers I will drink at the Red Flag this season during Blazer games.  The answer is 14 thousand.  And it’s gonna be way fun.  Can’t wait until opening night Tuesday.