In various articles, it has been expressed many different ways that there is profound trouble in the Blazer front office. The most important fact to emerge from all that is that many are now suggesting Portland general manager Kevin Pritchard may not be with the team for the long term.

When the team announced today that Pritchard and president Larry Miller would meet the media together on Monday afternoon, it seemed like a a golden opportunity to allay some fears, and to demonstrate that -- despite all those nasty articles -- everyone really was on the same page.

As you can see in video on Portland Roundball Society, and in quotes on BlazersEdge, neither Miller nor Pritchard could offer anything convincing in the way of a promise that Pritchard would be staying. Pritchard made clear he wants to stay, but couldn't promise he wouldn't be fired. Miller reiterated what he told TrueHoop on Friday, that Pritchard would be evaluated at the end of the season.

We're left with the same questions as before: What happened? Can someone please make sense of this?

One thing Portland fans love Pritchard for is his ability to lay a narrative over whatever happened to the Blazers. Whether the team got the first pick in the draft, lost Greg Oden to microfracture surgery or did some crazy series of trades on draft day ... Pritchard made it all make sense. Even if fans didn't agree with everything (although, it seems, they did) his version of events was always calming. Everything seemed to be well-strategized.

In this latest round of stressful events, however, the narrative is not his to control. Now it's Larry Miller's, or Paul Allen's. And their version of events is, essentially, to be corporate, and to wait and see. And that's a lot harder to fall in love with.