Another car-post

The post right under this makes me proud for several reasons:

1. I wrote that entire post while riding in the car on the way to Portland yesterday afternoon. (Actually, you might notice a few things missing, since I didn’t have access to the internet when I wrote it to check a few names and facts about which I was a little unsure. I’ll fix those when I have real access again.)


2. I wrote it in pages, and then I posted it while sitting at a gas station filling up our car on the way to a family reunion. Yeah, I found a wireless connection, got online, and posted in about five minutes.


3. Because I wrote it in pages and then transferred it over, all the html codes I used--not that there were too many, but still--were correct and worked well. This is most evident in my use of lists. Yeah, I’m pretty proud of myself.

Since I wrote that post I read an article in the Oregonian by Jason Quick confirming that Blake has in fact signed with Portland. The deal is for three years, with a team option to terminate the contract after the second year. It is reportedly for about $12 million over the course of the contract. If this is true, and if it gets higher as the deal goes on, that means we have a little over $2 million of the mid-level exception still to re-sign Ime Udoka if he wants to be back. I’m still holding out hope, but we’ll see.

Since reading that article this morning I’ve been thinking more about what Blake can do for this team and what types of things he’ll get to do on this team. In doing so, I couldn’t help but compare him to another point guard who has thrived playing in an up-tempo offense with a bunch of great athletes. I know that comparing Blake to Steve Nash is a stretch, but it’s what my delusional fan mind does. Blake is a better defender than Nash is now, and he is probably a worse free throw shooter than Nash has ever been. Other than that, though, when we look at what Nash did in his first four years and what Blake has done, I think the comparison might be okay. I still don’t think that Nash is one of the greatest point guards ever. I think he is a great floor general who was put in a perfect situation. When he came into the league most scouts thought that he wasn’t fast enough or athletic enough to be a solid NBA player, and that his shot wasn’t good enough. Blake is a better shooter than Nash was at this point in his career, and has already shown himself to do the other things well (as I mentioned in the earlier post). As much as I think Sergio Rodriguez could be a great PG in the future, Steve Blake is actually pretty young still and could turn out to be better than Rodriguez. I don’t expect that Steve Blake will be a two-time MVP. Then again, I don’t think Nash should have won it either of those two years. But I do think that he could end up leading a team the way Nash has led the Suns. Of course, I think that in the end Portland will show themselves to have a more balanced team with a better core of players. Also, San Antonio should eventually lose some of their dominance and Portland should be more like them in their ability to play several different styles instead of just the run-you-to-death Suns style.

I really do expect the Blazers to make another move in the next few days or weeks to move one of their point guards. The move I’d most like to see? Jarrett Jack to shooting guard. He showed last year that he’s a pretty good combo guard, and right now Portland is lacking a little depth at the two. I don’t think he would be really excited about this, but I wonder if he would rather stay part of this team and it’s huge promise by being a back-up for a year before becoming a free agent next summer. Otherwise he should be traded somewhere so he can be an important part of their point guard rotation. If they are unable to sign either of their free agent point guards I see Milwaukee as a good landing point for Jack. I think Atlanta would still be a decent spot for him. Otherwise I’m not too sure. I don’t know what I’d want Portland to get in either of those deals. I think they could do a non-simultaneous trade with Milwaukee that creates another trade exception, or they might be able to trade him to Atlanta for someone like Josh Childress Salim Stoudamire. I don’t remember what Stoudamire’s contract looks like, and can’t check since once again I’m writing this from a car. I don’t think Atlanta has the cap space to create the trade exception like we could with Milwaukee, but I could be wrong. If that’s true, that might make more sense because then it would clear the roster spot to re-sign both Outlaw and Udoka.

Alright, time to put my computer away and just enjoy the rest of my car ride. Writing posts for my blog is one of the best ways I’ve found to make rides go by faster, and that’s pretty fantastic.