Just checkin' in

Long time, no read.

I've been pretty busy of late. Lots on my plate at work, just as much on my plate away from work.

First, of course, is the impending kid. Much nesting has ensued.

Second is my ongoing attempt to see all of Hollywood's recent renderings. I've hit a snag, as my new car has swallowed my movie-watching capital. However, I can report that Batman is great, Mr. and Mrs. Smith is fabulous (JLowe, you still have to come see it with me and The Missus, so don't tell your wife...) and The Longest Yard was a disappointment, mostly because I knew how good the first one was.

Finally, it's softball season again. Not only has Hit & Run re-emerged (although our first game last night was rained out), but I'm also on another team that actually plays well, for the most part. Of course, we got our asses handed to us tonight, but that's beside the point.

Anyway, enough with the pleasantries. I want to talk about the NBA draft, and more specifically, the Blazers.

First, let me say that I like Martell Webster as a first round draft pick. The Blazers have been looking for a new shooting guard for some time, and have been zeroing in on Martell and Gerald Green for the last month, at least. In recent days, it has become clear that Gerald Green, though an athletic dynamo with tremendous upside, is a headcase who doesn't pass The Pieman's character test, simply because he's too dumb to do so. We have enough physical specimens on the team. Zach is a specimen (more or less). Darius is absolutely a specimen. Neither is ideal.

Though I've never seen Martell play, I have to give credence to those draft "experts" who say that he's a solid character guy, a good shooter, and though not as great in terms of potential, is more ready to contribute immediately than Green.

The only disappointment is that we didn't find a way to make Utah swallow Ruben's contract in the trade. Although Ruben has played his way into my list of reasons to watch the Blazers, he made it pretty clear at the end of last season that he wanted out, and the primary difficulty in dishing him has been the "trade kicker" in his contract, which entitles him to some serious $$$ if, and when, he gets traded. Utah was obviously hungry to move up in the draft, and Portland, it appears, was the only willing party to a trade to get them as high as #3. All that said, we really should've forced them to sweeten the deal a bit. A bit meaning taking Ruben off of our hands, thus making it easy to figure out who to waive (Derek) when the new CBA goes into effect.

Not like we won't waive Derek anyway. That guy's absolutely worthless, and Trader Bob should be shot on sight for ever giving him that much money for no apparent reason. Although it's clear to me that Martell won't be our starter at the 2 when the season starts, it's also clear to me that he's going to get fast-tracked, the same way Sebastian was, into starting by the end of the season. The only question is who we will fill the starting 2 spot with for the first 4 months.

Regarding our taking a PG as our second pick (via trades)... I've heard great things about Jarrett Jacks. Despite that, many people have questioned the wisdom of taking another point guard with such a glaring need at power forward. Imagine, the Blazers, who used to have a logjam at PF, are now in need of a good back-up as we're letting Shareef walk and waiting to see when (er, if) Zach recovers from the microfracture surgery.

Myself, I like the pick. It was clear, as the season wound down last year, that Bassy was developing a bit of an attitude as he got comfortable with being the only option to start at the point guard position. Many media outlets indicated he was starting to let his success go to his head.

I like Bassy. But I also like competition, and its good to see the team throwing some at him so that it's clear that he has to earn, and fight to keep, his job.

Besides, having a big PG to throw in at times will be good, considering that Sebastian is in the midget mold so nicely created by 6 years of Damon.

My questions for you:

1. Where does Damon go from here?
2. Where does 'Reef go from here?
3. What more needs to happen for you to buy some tickets?

Me, I'm almost ready to buy in. I want Darius gone. I want Zach challenged at the 4, so that he has to develop a passing game and some defense. I want Derek waived and a viable option at the 2 brought in. If these conditions are met, I will buy my first Blazer ticket since the year they choked against the Lakers. I might even buy a pair, so The Missus can join in.

That's enough checking in. Sorry I've been such a lay-about. No reason to expect that I won't disappear for another few days. However, keep checking back, as I may surprise you.

Catch ya later.

Typical

So, I woke up this morning with not-so-grand illusions that I'd get some work done.

Not house work. Office work.

I don't often work on weekends currently. Along with flex-time (having a somewhat-fluid schedule to accomodate for the various lunchtime and night-time meetings that my current assignment calls for), a benefit of being in a position like the one I currently have is that I rarely have to take anything home over the weekend (though, admittedly, I have as projects have come and gone).

Another project has come. And it required some extra time. Which is good, because eventually I'll move into a position which will, no doubt, require some weekend time on my part, and so the occasional weekend work is good to remind me of what is coming.

Anyhoo, I digress. I woke up this morning with plans to go into the office, after the bi-monthly bloodletting at the Red Cross and some coffee with my wife and the JLowe's at City Coffee.

On my way to the Red Cross, the sky was cloudy and attempting to rain. Which was good, as I saw it, because it reinforced my feeling that if I had to be at work, at least I wouldn't be missing any nice weather.

It was even still looking iffy as I drove out to my office. When I got to work, the temperature was warm, but the clouds still bode not-so-well for outdoorsy-ness, so I was fine.

Then, after about four hours in my office, as I prepared to leave, I saw this:



What is it? It's a view at Gresham Police Department that's always captivated me, since shortly after I started working there. This spot is in my assistant's old cubicle (before her office got moved) and is what I used to stare at as I pondered fine legal points to answer her questions. For quite awhile, I've wanted to grab a picture of it. I took my camera with me today solely for that purpose.

Anyway, the more important thing to notice in this picture is the bright blue sky. Normally I'm looking through this window on weekdays, and the sky looks much the same. But I've always known weekends to be rainy, as if God was trying to teach us all a lesson about the silver linings of clouds.

This view was not right.

I grabbed my stuff, and bolted out the back door (minor exaggeration, of course) to find bright sun, blue sky, hot weather. All that I assumed I wouldn't be missing by working this weekend.

Curses!

Anyway, I wasn't done with work yet. I had to drop some items off at the main courthouse before I could call it quits, so I rolled down the windows and hit the road. A pleasant drive on a beautiful day.

At the courthouse, I saw that not-too-many people had so foolishly relied on the weatherman, and the office was fairly quiet. I dropped off my materials and headed for the elevator, when I saw this view.



Now, really, this was my second trip to the courthouse of the day. After the Red Cross, I stopped in to get some materials to assist in my project for the day. I did this despite hearing that we'd had an earthquake in the earlier hours of the day, and despite an accute awareness that if the earth had a relapse, I might get crushed. I went in the second time figuring that, as the building was still standing 5 hours after my first visit, I'd probably be alright popping in for 5 minutes.

Anyway, this is the donut hole of the courthouse. I'm not a courthouse historian, so don't put too much stock in what I'm about to say. But, our courthouse was originally built in two "L"'s. After the first L was built, work commenced in it while work commenced on the second L. When all was finished, we had a courthouse that is essentially a square donut, with a courtyard in the middle.

According to a courthouse guard I was talking to on a different Saturday morning in the courthouse, the courtyard used to be used for hanging people. Again, I'm no historian, and I don't know if this is true. But it is interesting to think about, especially if your alone in the office at night, thinking of the poor souls who met their demise a few floors down.

Now, the courtyard is filled (for the most part) with a building-within-the-building that rises about 3 floors, and which houses much-needed space for various court-related functions. But, from the 8th floor of the courthouse, that doesn't pop into your view of the inside of the donut.

By the way, if you look carefully toward the top of the picture, you can see bars on the windows. That's the courthouse jail, used to house inmates with court hearings on weekdays, and used as a place to put naughty people who the court essentially grounds for the weekend (go to jail at 8 on Saturday and leave at 5, then come back Sunday to rinse and repeat).

Don't know why I snapped the picture, other than I liked the venetian blind aspect with the brickwork behind it.

After leaving the courthouse, I decided to take a few pictures of downtown stuff. You can view those over at the Metblog.

Now I'm home, realizing (as I type) that I should be outside doing something, but being stuck at home because my wife has our car. So I'll be washing the dog and taking for a walk to dry her off, and then we'll see what the rest of the weekend has in store.

Now that I'm free, it'll probably be rain. Curses!

Catch ya later.

Schwing!

Check out JLowe and I rockin' the driving range.





The good golfers in the crowd will see I look like I've just hit a softball. Oh, well, as long as it flies semi-straight, I'm happy!

Bach-ing it

As happens from time to time, my wife is out of town on assignment for a few days, which leaves me to live the bachelor life. How do I celebrate?

1) See movies.
Actually, before she left, we went and saw Batman Begins. I loved that movie, more even than the newest Star Wars flick, and highly recommend it.

Last night, I went and saw The Longest Yard with JLowe and Mr. Schnacky. As a die-hard Adam Sandler fan, I went in despite reading reviews that should have left me wondering. I paid my coin, I sat down, and spent the next two hours sorta enjoying myself while silently dinging the film for each moment it didn't hold its weight in comparison to the original. Schnack, who hadn't seen the original (he's a youngster at 24) and JLowe, who hates most sports, enjoyed it more for having no understanding of just how it underperformed.

It was entertaining to see a who's-who of washed up wrestlers and ESPN TV personalities doing their thing.

I went home and put in Elektra, which arrived from Netflix in the mail. Of course, it had been a long day, I was sipping a cold one, my dog was laying on me chewing a dead cow's hoof, and between these things and the boring-ness of the film, I opted to fall asleep instead of trying to watch it all.

Tonight, it's the rest of Elektra and The Terminal with Tom Hanks, some left-overs, and more petting the dog.

2) Taking pictures
With my new Father's Day present, I'm always looking for a shot to take. And, thanks to a suggestion from my friend Mak, I've got a SD card coming that will hold all I want to point and shoot. On the topic of taking pictures, the Metafilter today pointed me to this site. Who wants to join in putting Portland on the map?

3) Swinging the clubs
Back in college, before I realized I'd be going to law school, I decided to take golf classes, first because my friends were and it was easy college credit, and second because I figured I'd want, some day, to know how to hit a golf ball. Now that I'm a lawyer, some people assume that I must golf all the time. In actuality, I haven't golfed in two years, and two years ago I only golfed twice.

I have a wedding coming up that I'm in. It's in Pocatello, Idaho, which is somewhere near Nowhereville. I have to be there for three days (wedding rehearsal is Thursday night and wedding itself is on Saturday), which means that there's a day in the middle during which the groom is demanding his party go golfing. Of course, having not swung the sticks in two years, I'm not even confident in my ability to make contact with the ball, let alone drive it any sort of distance in any sort of straight line. So, tonight I'll be at the driving range. Look for the bald guy cussing and throwing clubs. Look for the shocked and dismayed guy next to him. I'll be the bald guy. The dismayed guy will be JLowe, upset that I just destroyed his driver.

4) Housework
No bachelor time can go by without paying for it with some sweat equity. Before The Missus gets back, I expect to clean the kitchen, mow the lawn, wash the dishes, do some laundry, and bathe the dog. Oh, joy!

Anyway, back to work. Just thought I'd check in. If anyone has any thoughts on Mr. and Mrs. Smith, let me know because The Missus wants to see it when she gets back.

Catch ya later.

Travel-Blog Day 7 is up

Picture of the day

The Missus at Blue Lake

Aah, Father's Day Weekend...

Beer, X-Box, Family Guy on TV. What more could you want? (Hint: I'm not mowing the lawn this weekend...)

To see how I've spent my Saturday, go check out the Metblog.

Random picture of the day

At last, an old feature comes back.

Thanks to my Father's Day present. The Missus bought me a kick-butt digital camera.

So, you can expect more random photos, which have always been one of my favorite things to post; I just have gotten tired of searching them out. Now I can manufacture my own.

So, here's today's pic...

Ollie's bright eyes.

Catch ya later.

Things you don't want to come home to

A kitchen and living room (fortunately not carpeted) spackled in canine incontinence and yellow liquid.

A serious lack of paper towels to remedy the situation (until, happily, an old, lost roll is found).

A torrential downpour starting just as you have to take the refuse bag out, and soaking you in the ten seconds you're outside.

Seriously, folks, weekend can only get better from here...

Baby update

It's (most likely) a GIRL!

Most likely, because she's a little shy, and wouldn't position herself properly for the ultrasound technician to get a really good look.

But, I figure if she truly couldn't tell, she wouldn't have given us a "I'm pretty sure, but I can't say I'm positive"-type statement.

Needless to say, all gifts will need to come with gift receipts, just in case...

By the way...

Watched in stunned disbelief as Jacko got off on all of his charges (no pun intended). I figured he'd be acquitted on the felonies, but popped for at least one count of giving alcohol to kids.

I didn't follow the case closely enough to have an opinion. I definitely think Mikey's an odd guy, and I don't think I'd ever let him baby-sit. That said, I didn't follow this brou-ha-ha nearly enough to have an informed opinion on whether the case against him was good or not.

So, if you want to share your thoughts or feelings, please do. Perhaps I'll try to pass them off as my own in some subsequent discussion with friends...

P.S. Updated my links to the right. Following my recent inundation regarding my latest Blazers post, and the fact that Blazers-related readers are still finding there way here, and also given that I enjoy following this team I love to hate and wish to love again, I figured having some Blazers links on the right would be good for everyone involved. Despite general opinion from several of my detractors involving my Blazers thoughts, I really do keep up with the current events, if for no other reason than I'm waiting for an excuse to enjoy the team again...

Nesting

It's official.

My wife is pregnant.

Now, I know that I announced this joyous event months ago. But, last week, the official pregnancy began.

First, my wife is finally starting to show. And not in the way where she says "am I showing?" and you scratch your head and wonder if a "yes" answer will be construed as you thinking she's fat because she doesn't really think she's showing. It's the "I am showing now, aren't I?" where you know acquiescence is safe.

Second, nesting has begun.

We've been talking about projects that we'd like to tackle to get the house ready for baby for the past couple of months. Moving some furniture around, organizing some parts of the house, little things here and there.

When The Missus lobbied for the purchase of a lawnmower and some garden supplies, I mistook it for enthusiasm for the season. It turns out it was a precursor, a look at what was to come.

In the past couple of weeks, we've acquired several articles of furniture, we've started organizing our long-neglected laundry room, we've started re-configuring the rooms in the house, and it has become abundantly clear to me that The Missus is starting to develop full-on maternal urges. The nesting has begun.

It's nice, actually. The other day, for no apparent reason, The Missus made chocolate chip cookies. Last night, in a long break from the usual tradition, she opted to go grocery shopping while I was off dealing with another commitment. Tomorrow, just because, we're having friends over to eat dinner at our place.

It may not sound like much. But the changes are obvious.

Thursday we find out what gender our baby is. That night, we host a family barbecue to let the grand- and great-grandparents to be know what's coming.

And then Father's Day will be here, and I have it on good authority that I have a whopper of a gift coming.

Nesting, and preparing for what's coming, is fun. I think I'm going to enjoy this waiting-for-baby thing. At least, that is until my wife stops enjoying pregnancy, at which point I suspect that I, too, will just want it to be over...

Catch ya later.

Introducing, Day 6

The ongoing re-hashing of my recent roadie...

Travel-Blog, Day 5 is up!

Denise, where are you?

Recently, Denise over at And So It Goes announced her blogging retirement. Mere days later, she announced her return to the blogosphere, which she followed with a few more posts to demonstrate her earnest dedication to entertaining me, if not others.

Opening myself up here to a slippery slope, or sticky wicket, or whatever, I contacted Denise about her brief disappearing act, and encouraged her to keep up the good work. I discussed a blog I know of that's hardly ever updated and told Denise that as long as she was going to be more interesting than JLowe, she shouldn't throw in the towel.

She agreed, and said that there was a major facelift coming to her blog, and that she was very excited, and so on.

And now, when I check her out on a daily basis to see what all that hub-bub was about, I see the same thing. At the top, her entry from May 20th, with my lonely, unanswered comment.

Denise, where are you? We know that you got hitched and have devoted at least some time to home improvements, but does that mean you don't care about us little people anymore?

I think I speak for several people when I say the world's more entertaining with you than without. Drop us a line, or better, a post, and let us know what gives.

Catch ya later.

P.S. Mak, don't think you've escaped my notice, either. But for your sudden flurry, I'd be giving you a similar keyboard-lashing...

Best. Steak. Ever.

So, this weekend I had to go to Seattle to celebrate the impending nuptials of my friend Biscuit.

Biscuit's wedding isn't actually until August. However, he's currently residing in D.C., where he works on some congressional committee as a pee-on for The Man, so chances to go out to dinner with college friends living in the northwest are few and far between for him.

It just so happened he got flown to Seattle for a "fact-finding mission" (aka "boondoggle" by a local business concern that needed to display facts for congress to find, or something. As such, he was conveniently close in order to provide an excuse to go out and spend (way) too much money on drinks, cigars, and food.

Biscuit's requests were simple. He wanted to go somewhere with steak. He wanted to smoke a stogie before the night ended. And he wanted to get, and keep, a buzz going all night.

I arrived in Seattle around 2:30 on Saturday afternoon to find Biscuit at his hotel's bar with a chick we knew in college. She was drinking an Emerald Drop (think a lemon drop with Midori instead). He was nursing a 7 & 7. I quickly joined in with a G&T.

We sat there for the next 3 hours, catching up, drinking drinks (a total of 2 G&T's for me, three 7 & 7's for Biscuit, and Ms. T switched from the Emerald to the Rose Drop, thereby having every fruity chick drink you can have with "drop" in the title that had no lemon).

We (Biscuit and I) were really just killing time until the real fun began. And once our friend Chachi showed up, we left the hotel so that the real fun would know it was time to start.

We hopped into a cab and headed north, to Belltown, to try what many of us had heard was the best steakshop in the region. When the cabby dropped us off, we stared at our destination, El Gaucho.

Now, I've heard great things about El Gaucho. I've heard that they put my (previous) favorite steak place, Ruth's Chris, to shame. I've heard they are wicked expensive. I've heard the experience (beyond just the food) is heavenly.

Knowing before-hand that I was going to this place, and that I was on a fixed budget (indeed, looking at my account today, I over-did it despite mostly sticking to my planned budget), I pulled the menu up on-line and started planning my meal.

I was pleasantly surprised to find some not-so-spendy options on the menu, although the most appealing options were going to set me back a bit. So, I planned to have a New York Strip and some spinach and call it good at that. Oh, and a couple of beers, too.

While talking to Ms. T at the bar, she highly recommended the baseball cut, and also said that the Wicked Shrimp was a must-eat. I talked Chachi into going in halfsies on some Wicked Shrimp, thereby allowing myself that, a Caesar, and a baseball cut (and still fitting into the budget), and was pretty pleased with myself. Two $5 beers, and I figured to come out relatively unscathed.

I didn't count on two things. First, we had a struggling law student with us, and having been through that, there was no way that I (or any of the others, at the table, for that matter) could really let him suffer too much when the bill came. Second, my friend Kain ordered some wine, then he and Mr. M ordered some dessert port, and then we got the bill, and somehow we decided to split it evenly. My budget got sh*t-canned right quick. But I didn't flinch. It was all for a good cause.

Afterwards, we went to the cigar bar to smoke stogies and hang loose. I'd brought two cigars, both pre-embargo Cuban leaves, with me from Portland (where I purchased said tobbacco at Rich's), for Biscuit and myself, and Kain ordered himself one as well. Chachi, it turns out, had recently converted to Mormonism after getting hitched, so he abstained from all of our debauchery as we assaulted our innards.

Figuring budgeting was a lost cause, I ordered a Jack and Coke and puffed away.

After about an hour, we all got bored and decided to head out. A pleasant surprise occurred when Mr. M covered my drink, as I'd run out of cash at the dinner table. I'm grateful for generous friends.

We went back to the bar at Biscuit's hotel, where I drank coffee (had to drive to Kain's house in Woodinville when all was said and done, and didn't want to be unsafe) and water and we sat for about an hour, getting gradually more quiet and more tired, until finally it was time to throw in the towel.

And away I went, to spend the night at Kain's, where I was woken up at 9am by his cute 4-year old daughter, who was looking around for her mom and came to bother me as she didn't feel right waking her dad up. Which is fine, my alarm went off 5 minutes later, so between her visit and my waking up, I just sat there silently giggling at the funny conversation we'd just had.

A thorough scrub-down in the shower, and exchange of text message good-mornings with The Missus, and downstairs to partake of Kain's home-made Huckleberry Pancakes, with berries right off of his bush. Very good.

A good end, in fact, to a great culinary weekend.

What can I say for El Gaucho, having now experienced it? Simple. Best steak ever. Even the cheap cut left me both gorged and yet wanting.

I've heard the Portland El Gaucho is less consistent. I don't care. I have to go back, sooner rather than later, to enjoy the fine goodness that is El Gaucho. Ruth's Chris, I hardly knew ye.

Catch ya later.

Holy Crap!

My last post certainly struck a chord!

Of course, I was helped by the random pick-up of my opinions by both the Blazer Blog (link at right) and TrueHoop, which both have a much more developed readership than I do.

Thanks to these great outlets, 499 people (by 5:05 pm today) had taken the time to read the opinions of this little Blazer-fan-wanna-be-again (previous peak was 91 hits on 5/24/05), and several took the time to comment as well.

My eyes almost popped out of my head when I looked at my stats this morning and saw the mounting mass of numbers. It's refreshing when your opinion resonates. For a moment, I feel like what I say matters. Then I remind myself that I'm one person, and not really the best informed or most qualified at that.

That said, my opinion matters (at least to me), so I don't mind sharing it.

Interesting article in the Trib (link at right) today about "Chaos in the Courts". As a county prosecutor, I thought the article was a bit one-sided and unfair, but it does portray the disarray in the system accurately to a certain extent, and is a worthy read.

I don't really feel like this is the forum for voicing my opinions on the issues raised there, however, because there's too much of a chance for people to read me wrong, and that would be bad for me. If you want my opinion, feel free to e-mail and I may give it to you, assuming that I trust you.

All that said, I'm behind on the Travel-blog, with no certain date for additions in sight. This weekend I'm off to Seattle to celebrate a friend's impending nuptials, so not much will come forth from my keyboard until Sunday-ish. But the Travel-blog will be completed to its end. Have no fear!

Catch ya later.

Blazers Haters, Unite!

So, the past season is just barely over, and I'm already getting frustrated with the direction of our franchise for next season.

As a recap, last year Portland committed major dollars to Zach Randolph (aka the Black Hole, because no ball passed to him ever leaves his hands) Theo "I've fallen and I can't get up" Ratliff, and Darius "I bump my head until there's no sense left in me" Miles, despite the fact that the Blazers were only bidding against themselves and both players only had one decent season a piece to show for themselves. They brought in Nick Van Exel, a proven pot-stirrer. The continued to stick by Derek Anderson, the most useless player in the NBA. They did everything they could to disenfranchise Ruben Patterson, who, despite some prior off-court problems that cannot be ignored, was the most consistent member of the team. And they completely destroyed any hopes of drawing a good coach by how they treated Maurice Cheeks, who may not have been the X's and O's guy we needed, but who was the face of the positive face of the franchise when Whitsitt and Rasheed were trying to bring it down.

On the short list of positives, they got a surprise performance out of Joel Pryzbilijflkasdjf, Travis Outlaw showed himself to be our next Jermaine O'Neal, and Sebastian Telfair showed that our first round pick wasn't entirely wasted.

Today, Steve Patterson, the Blazer's team president, popped up on NBA.com long enough to answer some questions in a chat session. Among the bombs he dropped were his insights that we need better shooting and that our number 3 pick in this year's draft could produce a good player, or could be traded for something as well. (For additional deep, deep thoughts, see John Nash's well-maintained and frequently-updated blog at NBA.com).

Wow, Steve. Thanks for the news.

In looking at next year, there are a few things that, as a fan who just voted in the Blazer Blog poll as believing Blazer Mania is dead, I think the franchise needs to do to re-energize its fan base while also reinvigorating the team. Not being a master with money (my bank account reflects an extremely un-savvy financial mind at work), I throw these out despite them being perhaps-undoable in the real world.

1. Get Rick Adelman back. The Blazers dumped him despite his being one of the most successful coaches in team history, and then he took his success to Sacramento (I refuse to acknowledge the Golden State fiasco, much as he does). Whatever Paul Allen thinks of the guy, fans loved him, players played for him, and he brought consistent success year after year.
2. Get rid of Zach and Darius. Although Zach has shown great potential, he's also had a micro-fracture knee surgery that will probably keep him from being the player that we've paid him to be. Darius just doesn't get it, as was evidenced by his frequent moping and foolish theatrics with coaches. Neither is who we want to build this team around. I say trade them both for whatever you can get for them, re-sign Shareef (the most solid character guy on the team, and a solid player to boot), lean on Patterson as we develop Outlaw, and coach a team-first over me-first (which is Zach and Darius' approach) philosophy to playing. Trading away Nick Van Exel's non-guaranteed contract would also be a smart thing to do, both to get the quitter off our roster, and to get some value in return.
3. Waive Derek Anderson. Just bite the financial bullet. This guy will never be what we (foolishly) hoped he would be, and we need to cut bait now.
4. Paul Allen picked the wrong time to become a miser. Open up the wallet. How come Paul was so willing to throw ludicrous money at teams that wouldn't get us there, but now is shying away from investing money in a solid, disciplined, character-filled team? He's still pulling the trigger on bad deals, and yet won't pull it on good ones. In Patterson's chat today, he talked about the budget issues that preclude the team from making a run at a real money player. That didn't stop them from picking up Shawn Kemp. Get rid of our team's dead (or dying) weight and throw some dough at players who'll get it done.
5. Don't count on fans to wait through a slow re-build. Last season showed what we already knew: fans won't go to games if we're going to be consistent losers. When Allen's only source of income off this team is ticket sales (since he let the Garden go in bankruptcy) and advertising, he needs to put a team on the floor that will win games. Otherwise, noone's going to pay to watch, and noone will advertise to an empty arena. In the past, Blazer Mania survived through tough years because we had likeable players, involved ownership, and we were obviously always trying to make a run every single year. Two years out of the playoffs, with a motley cast of characters (except for the solid Ratliff and Rahim, and the likeable-but-now-gone Damon and Cheeks), a growing feeling in fans of malignant disinterest on the part of the team's management group, and the feeling that noone is willing to do what it takes to field a winner, will tarnish this brand beyond repair if nothing is done.
6. Get Ray Allen, or similar. We need a lights-out two guard. We need to spend what it takes to get a young stud in that spot and tie him up for a few years. Find the next Reggie Miller, and pay him what it takes to keep him here for 5 years.
7. Paul, show us you care. For an example of clearly engaged ownership, see your nemesis, Mark Cuban.

That's my prescription for the Blazers. And thanks, Steve, for not answering my question about why this team continues to throw away money on questionable character, despite promises to the otherwise. I didn't figure you'd get to it, and strangely I was right (even though you did answer to fake Andrew Bogut questions).

Your thoughts?

Catch ya later.