Another Holiday Gift Idea

I like helping people. That's why, in my real life, I just walk around dispensing valuable advice to people less fortunate than me. I dispense such wisdom as "Hey, cheer up. Man," or, "I love it when you call me Big Poppa." Nuggets like these come easily to me, so I have to share the wealth.

It's for that reason, that I present to you a most excellent poster that you can give to friends and loved ones this holiday season:

Clicking on that picture will take you to a link where you can print out individual sheets that you can then assemble in to your very own James Jones/Skee-Lo inspirational poster. This is a great gift idea for anyone who likes James Jones, 90s one-hit wonder rappers, or laughing at jokes. Or, if that person is me, all three.

Plus, it's free. What can beat that?

Kevin Pritchard, meet Jon Gruden

The Portland TrailBlazers have been arguably the most active team during this NBA offseason. Through a myriad of draft picks, trades, buyouts, and free agent signings the look of the Blazers' roster has changed drastically. The big change of course was the addition of Greg Oden and the subtraction of Zach Randolph. Blazers' GM Kevin Pritchard has not stopped there however, as he has made a number of other less high-profile moves.

There was the trade with the 76ers for the draft rights of PG Petteri Kopponen. Pritchard also drafted PG Taurean Green in the second round. Then today he signed free agent PG Steve Blake. See a pattern? With the Blake signing the Blazers now have the following PGs on their roster:

Jarrett Jack
Sergio Rodriguez
Steve Blake
Taurean Green
Petteri Kopponen

Kopponen will likely spend next season overseas, but that still leaves the Blazers with four PGs (as well as Brandon Roy who sometimes runs the point) on a roster that has the following SFs:

James Jones
Darius Miles

Miles likely won't play at all next season, leaving the Blazers with Jones and a number of unproven young players (Travis Outlaw, Martell Webster, Channing Frye) that would be playing somewhat out of position at the 3 spot.

The question would seem to be, what kind of trade Pritchard will make with his PGs? The Blazers have depth everywhere on the roster except for SF, so the logical answer would be that they would ship one of them (Jack most likely) in a package to get a SF to challenge James Jones for the starting spot. Otherwise, if Pritchard goes into to season paying five PGs (six if you count the Francis buyout) and only one true SF the Blazers could be in quite a bind. The smart money is on the Blazers still having a few trades left in them before the season starts.