The Portland Trail Blazers shed the “Jail Blazers” label that haunted them for far too long with a pair of brilliant franchise-altering moves during the 2006 NBA Draft. Kevin Pritchard, who, as an interim head coach in 2005, tried to persuade the team’s ownership to draft point guard Chris Paul with their third overall selection in the 2005 NBA Draft, but to no avail, was promoted to assistant General Manager prior to the infamous 2006 edition. He was considered Steve Patterson’s understudy, but that didn’t last long.

At the time, I had a bad feeling that Pritchard, once handed the keys to a car full of dysfunctional, ill-mannered miscreants, would only take it in to a car wash for a wash, wax, and vacuum when it really needed to be traded in. Instead, he decided to keep the car but just tinker with the parts, take a good look at the interior, and slap on a fresh coat of red and black paint. It took a while to do this, remove the dents, and make the scratches as faint as possible, but, within the first hour, the car was showing significant signs of improvement. Pritchard, with the help of Patterson, of course, conjured up two trades on draft night that made the Blazers once sputtering engine rev, as Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge, selected by Minnesota and Chicago respectively, headed west to Portland.

These two replaced the transmission by themselves, as Roy won Rookie of the Year and Aldridge soon became a dependable Robin to his Batman. But plenty of parts still needed to be fixed. The air-conditioning was still faulty, and without a change, the car would remain stuffy. Pritchard rectified that, getting rid of the existing system, in this case double-double machine and power forward Zach Randolph, and replaced it with a state-of-the-art new one by inserting Aldridge in as the full-time starter.

Now, the car was up and ready, but all it needed was some gas. Roy and Aldridge couldn’t change the Blazers fortunes by themselves, so Pritchard pumped in gallon after gallon, with each giving the car more and more life. He brought in point guard Steve Blake, kept his faith in extremely young shooting guard Martell Webster and fellow high-schooler Travis Outlaw, continued to trust Joel Przybilla, their always dependable center, and, in the span of two years, added forwards Nicolas Batum, Dante Cunningham, Jeff Pendergraph, Ime Udoka, and Juwan Howard, guards Rudy Fernandez, Jerryd Bayless, and Andre Miller, and center Greg Oden to the roster either through trade or the draft. What was once an old beater that the previous general manager John Nash had trouble keeping on the road transformed into a sporty, flex-fuel ten-seated roadster that, unfortunately, is currently holding fifteen.

All fifteen can attend training camp. But only twelve can make their active roster and, usually, a maximum of ten actually see playing time over the course of a season. So, what do the Blazers do with the extra five players, all of whom talented and capable of playing a significant role?

Pritchard and, to a larger degree, head coach Nate McMillan have to answer that problem and soon. This offseason, Portland has subtracted only point guard Sergio Rodriguez while adding five quality players: Webster, who missed a majority of the last season with a foot injury, Pendergraph and Cunningham through the draft, Udoka, who was a member of the team in 2006, and Miller, who signed a two-year contract during the summer.

This 5-for-1 deal leaves them with this depth chart:

Point Guard: Miller, Blake, and Bayless

Shooting Guard: Roy, Fernandez, and Webster

Small Forward: Batum, Outlaw (in some offensive sets) Udoka (if he makes the team), and Cunningham

Power Forward: Aldridge, Howard, Outlaw (in some offensive sets), and Pendergraph

Center: Przybilla, Oden, and Jarron Collins

They are three-deep at every position, which is a great luxury to have in case of injury. Here is the problem: That means, after concluding that neither of these three will see limited playing time, how do the Blazers slim their rotation down further? Blake was their starting point guard last year, and instead of trading him to make room for Miller, who has started throughout his eleven-year career, they sent Rodriguez to the Sacramento Kings as a minimalistic move of sorts.

McMillan recently expressed his desire to run more plays through Fernandez this season. In an article by the Oregonian’s Jason Quick, Quick said that the Blazers want Fernandez to run pick-and-rolls–using him, in McMillan’s words, “as a point guard”–handle the ball more in halfcourt sets, and be encouraged to push the tempo in transition instead of giving it up to a traditional point guard.

It will be intriguing to see how this develops heading into the season, as his increased role could both positively and negatively affect the team.

Though the Blazers have a few wrinkles to iron out, they have the enviable problem of having too much depth, something few teams can attest to. Outlaw, as a small forward, has Batum and Cunningham sitting behind him, and as a power forward and backup to Aldridge, he has Howard and Pendergraph breathing down his neck. There is also a battle at the center position. Przybilla heads into camp as their starter, but Oden feels he is ready to take the reigns: “Starting is important to me. I love Joel to death but I want that starting spot.”

Outlaw’s minutes may be slashed, and so may Przybilla’s. They, as well as others that will be asked to sacrifice and adjust, could demand a seat change in Pritchard’s roadster or ask to be dropped off. But the chances of this are slim. Why? Because this isn’t the Jail Blazers of old. Instead, it is an unselfish mixture of youth and veterans–a team rich with the right talent–that will do anything in order to help steer Portland in the right direction and accomplish their goal, an NBA Championship.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 8th, 2009 at 11:20 pm and is filed under News Headlines, Right Column, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.