After Portland announced former top Mavericks assistant Terry Stotts as its head coach on Wednesday, Stotts talked about freeing up the Trail Blazers’ game plan. More threes, more running, more room for players to make instinctual plays based on their abilities to read and react. Stotts was the offensive mind behind Dallas’ NBA title run in 2011, and he’ll have his own 6-10 centerpiece who can shoot in Portland, too, in LaMarcus Aldridge. He’s not Dirk Nowitzki, but the Dallas native is an All-Star worth building around. Aldridge also is the guy who campaigned for the job to go to video intern turned interim head coach Kaleb Canales. Then Stotts threw a curveball that will surely keep Aldridge pleased: Canales will stay on as assistant. Well this could be awkward. Read More »

Portland and Minnesota have representatives in Las Vegas this week, carrying on a mini-feud that started with one team unwittingly a part of it, sucked in by people now long gone. Portland’s Neil Olshey and Minnesota’s David Kahn are GMs spending their time in Las Vegas trying not to look at one another when they’re not running around the city trying to deliver offer sheets. It’s a bizarre feud that has culminated (I think) with one of the more interesting free agency stories of this summer, Nicolas Batum, through a winding series of missteps by players, front-office types and even co-workers of those involved. For a feud dealing with teams that are at best mid-level squads in the Western Conference, it has surprisingly stuck. Here’s how it got this way. Read More »

As many pointed out on Twitter yesterday, if the Lakers got both Dwight Howard and Chris Paul, they might as well start the next lockout immediately. We aren’t trying to rain on anyone’s “end of the lockout” parade. Quite frankly, we don’t believe it’ll happen either. But it’s a thought, a thought that a few people in the business have. What if it just so happened that the Lakers didn’t just get Dwight Howard (a very real possibility), but they also nabbed CP3 as well? Howard has this weird fascination with following whatever Shaq did. He also wants to play with Kobe more than anyone else. He also loves warm weather. The Lakers also have assets up the a–. The Magic are also extremely worried – getting more nervous by the day – that Superman 2.0 will leave them just like the original did. Read More »

As more details become available as to what’s included in the NBA’s new labor deal, one of the more interesting additions to the CBA is the so-called “amnesty clause,” where every team can waive one player and remove their salary from counting against the cap. While the player still gets paid, jettisoning a player in this fashion would help franchises create cap space or simply save on potential luxury tax expenditures. While the early names to surface have been Gilbert Arenas (3 years, $62.4 million), Rashard Lewis (2 years, $46 million) and Baron Davis (2 years, $28.8 million) owing to their onerous remaining contracts, one name that may have you surprised is that of three-time All-Star Brandon Roy. Read More »

Coach K is a pretty cool dude. Always smooth. Always chill. But at about the 12.9 second mark of the second half last night – after he had seen Michigan State chip into Duke’s lead and Mason Plumlee get called for a five-second violation – he had to be feeling that sweat on his brow just a little bit. But after a Spartan miss, the biggest drama of the night was over, the Dukies had won 74-69 and Mike Krzyzewski had the record. He’s now the winningest coach in Division I men’s basketball history with 903 wins, passing one of the men calling the game, Bob Knight. Seriously though, this joint couldn’t have been scripted any better: in MSG, against another great coach in Tom Izzo, playing against a gritty and tough team, and with his mentor looking on, Coach K got what he came for. Read More »

Well… we’re getting there. A source who was briefed by the owners and players told CBSSports.com that significant movement has been made toward finalizing a new CBA. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports tweeted that two sources – one on the ownership side and one on the union side – both with direct knowledge of the proposals, were encouraged by the latest movement. One reason for the rumored progress could be that the owners have dropped their insistence on the 50/50 split on the BRI (Basketball Related Income). The BRI has been blamed for talks breaking apart week after week. Is it just us or is this sounding like an NBC sitcom more and more each week? Better yet, the modern Odd Couple with David Stern and Billy Hunter … Read More »

How will this lockout affect the game? A lot… if you ask Brandon Jennings. He’s a basketball junkie – you could literally find him anywhere this summer – but he can recognize that taking the time off might throw off teams’ timing. For example, what if anyone in Milwaukee comes back next year with a new game? “It’s been so long,” Jennings told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. “We haven’t been around each other. For me as a point guard, it’s something I’m worried about right now.” Could a lockout really affect the way a team plays? It’s possible, especially a young team still coming into its own. Jennings might have much to work on as a player, but he knows ball and he’s right in this instance … Read More »

Does everyone still want to completely blame the players for this mess? If the last two days haven’t convinced you that the owners are even more greedy, even more egotistical, even more obsessed with coming out ahead in these discussions – like little kids fighting over every Easter egg – then I don’t know what will. They deserve much of the blame as well for failing in the negotiations this week. Just when things appeared ready to turn around with numerous small breakthroughs on system topics, owners like Peter Holt (who told the players “You haven’t felt enough pain yet.”), Paul Allen and Dan Gilbert came through like John Marston and started shooting s— up. Derek Fisher spoke with NBA TV’s David Aldridge yesterday, explaining why everything involving the lockout talks have shut down. Read More »

Warning: This article contains harsh information regarding the Portland Trail Blazers. May touch on sensitive and/or emotional topics. If angered easily, please look away.

“With the first pick in the 2007 NBA Draft, the Portland Trail Blazers select Greg Oden, from Ohio State University.”

What a wonderful time to be a Blazer fan. Read More »

Over the weekend, rumors surfaced suggesting Trail Blazers GM Kevin Pritchard‘s days with the team are numbered. This would have seemed crazy not too long ago, when Pritchard was treated like a rock star in Portland and credited with building one of the League’s hottest up-and-coming young contenders. So what’s the problem now? Two Dime writers debate just how important (or expendable) Pritchard is to the Blazers: Read More »