ESPN NBA

Perhaps the most intriguing thing about the various MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference panels is how frequently they give rise to, one would hope, a future paper or panel.

Earlier this week I wondered if quants had numbers to determine the merits of conceding blowouts as soon as a game is, statistically-speaking, over. And yesterday, my mind was all aflutter about whether team's should think of developing new head coaches in the same way they develop young players.

Towards the close of yesterday's basketball analytics panel, Mark Cuban and Kevin Pritchard showed their cards in terms of fast-tracking a franchise rebuilding project.

Cuban confessed that once Dirk Nowitzki retires he expects the Mavericks to lose, and, if he gets his way, they'll lose badly. Kevin Pritchard seemed to agree and introduced a new term into our lexicons: "the mediocrity treadmill."

There is no championship future for a middling team that is stuck in the embattled space between those who struggle to make the playoffs and those that struggle and miss. Cuban has no desire for the Mavericks to be such a team. Charlotte Bobcats owner Michael Jordan recently defended trading Gerald Wallace to the Portland Trailblazers by saying, "We don't want to be the seventh or eighth seed." The Bobcats have been, at best, mediocre, and so perhaps we can interpret his statement as one owner casting his philosophical lot with Cuban and Pritchard.

But before we go and make assumptions, the first question that deserves an answer is whether the mediocrity treadmill actually exists?

Once there is a definitive answer to this question, the conversation shifts to the relative merits of mediocrity and, if one so desires, how to best bypass mediocrity and move into an era of winning. If you're stuck on the mediocrity treadmill, how do you get off? What do the numbers suggest is an appropriate amount of cap clearing? What balance should one seek between acquiring veteran free agents and acquiring draft picks through a combination of losing and house cleaning?

We make all sorts of assumptions based on these questions, but what do the numbers say?

Earlier today Celtics co-owner Wyc Grousbeck suggested an in-house study that provides a baseline for team's who want to win championships. “We looked at the last 25 NBA champions. Twenty-four out of twenty-five were won with a big three concept - three all-stars." Grousbeck further defined his study by qualifying his big three as one player who is among the fifty greatest of all time and two all stars.

But it's not clear that all NBA owners mind walking the treadmill, year after year, season after season. Grousbeck is not Donald Sterling. Sterling, for example, seems entirely content to walk and walk and walk so long as the tread is lined with money. He's trying to turn a profit, and winning is a secondary concern. The Clippers are a team on the rise, but this is has little, if anything at all, to do with Sterling. The arrival of Blake Griffin has forced Sterling's hand.

But there are other teams -- the Bucks and 76ers come to mind -- that seem stuck in the middling tier. Is the opportunity of playoff revenue enough to offset the malaise of mediocrity?

Assuming teams have three, five and 10 year business plans in place -- plans that are designed to produce a team that is profitable at the box office and successful on the court -- should they pencil in a losing season or two as part of their plan? Some would describe this approach as a species of tanking, but that's not at all fair to Cuban and it misses the point, which is, after all, employing strategies that are more conducive to winning. If the data demonstrates that a strategy of temporarily embraced losing is actually a likelier fast-track to greater success, why would the sports public discourage stepping off the mediocrity treadmill as a smart long term strategy of team building. Losing, in this sense, is not only a path to success but, if viewed from above, a service to fans.

One of the strangest moments in sports public relations history took place on Monday in Portland.

After a weekend of reports that the front office was in dire straits, due to with infighting and intrigue that might cost GM Kevin Pritchard his job, the Blazers announced that their president and general manager would meet the media together.

From what I had heard, it seemed like the situation was untenable. The only convincing "cure" I could imagine was some kind of press conference where a collection of bigwigs (owner Paul Allen, president Larry Miller, Pritchard and the like) announced that Pritchard was sticking around, they'd resolve their differences, and maybe, for good measure, they were going to give Pritchard an extension beyond the remaining -- likely undermarket -- year plus a team option he has now.

But then they met the media, and really ... just ... didn't do that.

Instead there was just kind of a sad rehash of what we already knew, and vague talk about how things weren't as bad as they seemed, and Pritchard hoped to stay.

And to the long list of questions everybody already had, a new one appeared: How on earth could the president, Miller, attend this press conference alongside Pritchard, and yet offer zip, zero, zilch as a promise that Pritchard would be around beyond the end of the season? It's almost like a code that, in sports, executives talk about their coaches and GMs in the most glowing terms at all times (at least until they fire them and usually beyond).

If the intent of the meeting was to calm the fears of Blazer fans, the effect was the exactly the opposite.

Over the last few days, and based on a number of conversations, I've come to understand a new wrinkle in what happened there.

Yes, that press event was probably a mistake. Yes, things are tenuous, and the Blazers have done little to refute that impression.

But I no longer believe that Larry Miller's reticence to commit publicly to Pritchard was quite the slap that it appeared to be. Instead, consider the possibility that it was the truth.

Here's what he actually said:

The reality is the way this organization has worked is you kind of, you get to the end of the season and you evaluate what has gone on. We're going to take that same approach going in to this. And that's not just for Kevin. That's for me and all the major decisions that need to be made.

And here's what I have come to believe that means: No opinion here matters other than Paul Allen's.

There are accounts of these kinds of reviews -- executives getting hauled in for very tough questioning -- at many of Allen's businesses, including the Seahawks. The deep review is part of his game. (When the Seahawks fired coach Jim Mora recently, they did so after "an extensive internal audit.") It's something Allen has a track record of liking to do, and it's one of the ways he puts his imprint on the organization. And if ever there were a year for such a review in Portland, this would be it. So, expect a serious brand of questioning, after the season, from the owner. And expect that to play a big role in who runs the team in the future.

Now, put yourself in the shoes of Larry Miller or anybody else who works for Paul Allen. Blazer fans are irate and confused. Miller serves at the behest of Allen. He can't really be considered a good employee if he goes out there and says that "nobody knows what the owner is going to do!" That would be like building a neon sign, directing fans to send their ire directly to Allen. Meanwhile, it's his part of his job to insulate Allen from some of that. So he wisely didn't sell his owner down the river. Instead, he said what he could say: That there would be a review this summer.

Assuming Pritchard doesn't resign in the interim -- at this point, many think he could get a different job where he'd be happier -- that review will likely be the next important step in this process, because that's when the voice that matters most will enter the conversation.

A few days ago, the Portland Trail Blazers fired their assistant general manager, Tom Penn.

And one of the NBA's most robust fanbases is starting to freak out, to the point that there is literally talk, in Blazer fan blog comments, of riots.

Around the League Penn is seen as a guy who knows a thing or two about basketball, but he's mainly prized as the former criminal defense attorney who mastered the NBA's more arcane stuff like the collective bargaining agreement.

And nobody mourns lawyers. Right? (Even fans of that assistant GM, if such people exist, could hardly be too upset -- Penn will keep drawing paychecks for more than two years even if he doesn't land another job. But teams are interested, and Penn is a shoo-in for a good position. Just last summer he passed up an offer to run the Timberwolves' basketball operations.) It's the kind of story that just about does not matter to fans ... in most cities.

But in Portland, things are different, because the firing of Penn is the first serious crack in the facade of the new-era Blazers. And through that crack, fans can peer into the team's inner workings. The scene is ugly. It may even foretell the end of the happy Blazers story Portland fans celebrate as real-time folklore.

In this story, Penn serves as a kind of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. He's a bit player to onlookers. But when he went down, it was clear the big trouble was imminent.

Nothing like the real World War I is remotely close -- but for Portland fans, the worst thing imaginable may well be on the horizon.

The face of the franchise, and perhaps the most beloved general manager in the NBA, is Kevin Pritchard. The former Kansas and NBA player's drafting and trades have built a Blazer nucleus with players like Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge, Nicolas Batum, Marcus Camby, Andre Miller and Greg Oden, to go with an exceedingly bright future. Last year, with one of the youngest teams in NBA history, Portland finished tied for second in the West with 54 wins. This season, despite a historic series of injuries -- the team played without a center at all for a long stretch -- the Blazers may well win 50.

Until Pritchard took over, the city of Portland's only major sports franchise was a laughingstock, known as the Jail Blazers. The players were talented but underachieving. The fans, and at times the police, weren't happy with the players' off-court behavior. The business office was at odds with the basketball operations staff. In a city famous for rain, the Blazers were a multi-year thunderstorm.

The theory about discordant teams is that no matter how talented, they will crack under pressure. In giving up a 15-point fourth quarter lead to the Lakers in Game 7 of the 2000 Western conference finals, the Portland Trail Blazers proved that theory as well as any team ever has.

But in recent years, that has all been forgotten. In the summer of 2008, the Blazer executives went on a team-building retreat in the Arizona desert. The talk, coming out of the retreat, was of a basketball staff that had bridged old divides with the business staff. Through the magic of ranches, and Kevin Pritchard, everyone was on the same page. Naive though it may have seemed, it was portrayed again and again as one big, happy family.

Trail Blazers president Larry Miller insists that Penn's departure is no sign the Blazer stakeholders were faking team harmony all along. "What happened with Tom was unfortunate," Miller explains. "But the results that this organization was able to make happen I don't think could have happened if we weren't on the same page working together and pulling together."

And yet, for the last couple of days it has not only been hard to find Pritchard -- who is usually in heavy contact with the media -- but it has also been hard to find anyone who will predict that Pritchard will stick in Portland for the long haul, whether he departs of his own volition or at the instigation of the team.

"If they fire KP," said a comment from "iDea" on the Blazersedge blog, "after building the team back to being respectable and with a winning culture, it’ll be the last straw with most fans."

"Could you imagine the scene if KP left ... There might be an actual riot" writes "blazeraddict." Another commenter, "somanluna," quickly added: "I would be in it (the riot) It would absurd to let the man responsible for rebuilding the franchise to what it is today go at this point. He’s done so much and is very passionate about the team and doing what’s right for it so who would be better?"

"I think their fears are justified," says Warren LeGarie who represents both Pritchard and Penn, when asked if he could say anything to settle down Blazer fans. He offered no tonics. "We've been given no indication that this team sees Kevin as somebody who will be there on a long-term basis. All we've seen is them taking away people that Kevin feels are important to his ability to do his job successfully. ... I've been a Blazer fan from early on. I've been involved in some way with the team for many many years. I want them to be successful. They gave Kevin an unbelievably wonderful opportunity. But in order to make that opportunity work, he still needs to have people who believe in him around him, and people that he'd like to have, and that's certainly not the case anymore."

Perhaps the worst possible news for Blazer fans is that according to sources, last summer LeGarie became so convinced that the Blazers would not commit to Pritchard for the long haul that the agent has spent the season looking for another team to take on Pritchard and Penn. His concerns would seem to be validated, somewhat, by the firing of Penn.

Most observers have assumed that Pritchard is on a short list of untouchably promising young GMs, along with the Thunder's Sam Presti and the Rockets' Daryl Morey. But around the League, plenty now insist Pritchard is likely to seek a new home, either because he'll be fired or because he'll resign.

Asked to promise to fans that the team's star employee would stick around, team president Miller offered more platitudes than specifics.

"Kevin is the GM here," says Miller. "I can never commit to anybody being around long term. I don't know that I'll be here long term. That's just not the way it works. To me, Kevin is our GM, and my feeling is we should focus on finishing out the season, trying to win games, trying to have a successful run in the playoffs. That should be our focus right now. The situation with Tom was in isolated incident. It's unfortunate, but hopefully we can put it behind us."

Why was Tom Penn fired, anyway?
In extensive conversations with well-placed sources across the NBA, a variety of theories have been presented about what precipitated Penn's firing just a few months after he received a significant raise and promotion. Larry Miller dismissed them all.

One reported theory is that LeGarie and Penn exaggerated word of a Minnesota offer, to get Penn a raise. Miller says: "I have no idea where that ever came from. From my perspective, I've never heard any dispute internally that Tom had a valid offer." ESPN.com has obtained a copy of the Minnesota offer. Is there any chance Penn was fired for faking the Minnesota job? According to Miller: "No."

Similarly, there are stories that Penn may have been flirting with the Clippers, who recently fired Mike Dunleavy as general manager. Is that why Penn was ousted? "Absolutely not," says Miller. Likewise, sources insist Penn never sought that job.

Another report said that Penn was fired because of some unspecified "H.R. issue." Miller's response was that there's "nothing valid to that."

Still more sources suggest that in the lead-up to his firing, Penn had been involved in a personal confrontation of sorts with top Blazer brass. "I'd like to know who makes up this kind of stuff," says Miller. "That's absolutely, positively, untrue. ... That, I can tell you, is unequivocally untrue."

The final theory, and one that a half-dozen sources insist is real, whether or not it led directly to Penn's firing, is that there's an ongoing and long-term power struggle between the basketball operations staff and the owner's suite. As the theory goes, Pritchard and Penn had amalgamated too much power and autonomy in making basketball decisions, and the people who sign the checks resolved to clip Pritchard's wings. Firing Penn was a handy way to do so -- Pritchard is no contract expert, and without Penn, he'd have no choice but to bring others into the process whenever he had the kinds of legal or CBA issues that Penn once handled.

Miller says that could not be so, because owner Paul Allen has never had any curbs on his own influence throughout the organization. "Paul is the owner," says Miller, "and the owner has the ultimate say on every decision, because we're spending his money. So, if Paul wants to weigh in or have input, he absolutely has that. There's nothing to that story."

What's more, Miller says Pritchard will be the key figure in hiring a replacement assistant GM, although for unclear reasons that likely won't happen until the summer.

So, if it wasn't because of the Minnesota theory, the Clipper theory, the H.R. theory, the confrontation theory, or the corporate politics theory ... why is it again that Penn was fired?

"I'm not going to talk about that," says Miller.

Miller may not, but Blazer fans certainly will.

Leon Powe's outsized heart moves to Cleveland. Kurt Rambis brings his pedigree and eyewear to the Twin Cities. And Mike Miller stretches the boundaries of social media.

John Krolik of Cavs the Blog: "Leon Powe is about as good as an undersized, unathletic player with no range or ball skills to speak of can be. Yes, there's a definite ceiling in terms of how many ways he can impact a game. But as a pure banger, Leon Powe is just about as good as they come. Powe had the best offensive rebound rate of any power forward for the second consecutive year last season, and 9th in rebound rate overall. And offensively, Powe might not have any real jump shot whatsoever, but he knows his limitations and spends what time he has with the ball in the paint, shoving bodies around and trying to get the ball in the basket any way he can. 80% of Powe's shots came in the immediate basket area last year, and despite his dip in proficiency on layup-type shots from 07-08 to 08-09, his love of the dunk gave him a very respectable 60% mark on 'inside' shots ... For all Powe's strengths skill-wise, he still has major disadvantages athletically: He is much smaller than most centers and much slower than most power forwards. And he can't stretch the floor ... But overall, this is a great player and a great guy coming to the Cavaliers with very, very little financial risk involved, so my final position is that I congratulate the front office for getting yet another deal done, congratulate Mr. Powe for finding a team, and hope to see him on the floor reasonably soon." 

Patrick Hodgdon of Howlin' T-Wolf: "What I like about [Kurt] Rambis right off the bat is that he has always been surrounded by success in the NBA and owns seven championship rings, 4 as a player and 3 as a coach. He has played for Pat Riley alongside Magic and Kareem and has been an assistant under arguably the best coach in the NBA in Phil Jackson with whom he's coached Kobe and Shaq. The fact that success breeds success in the NBA is something I think that goes underrated. Sam Presti is doing a bang-up job in Oklahoma City because he learned it first in San Antonio. So is Kevin Pritchard in Portland. When you are around successful teams you learn how to emulate them and bring with you a blue-print for success. Rambis also brings actual coaching experience as an assistant for the Lakers for 10 years as well as experience from a short stint as head coach of the Lakers in 1999 during the lockout shortened season where he went 24-13 before being swept by the NBA champions Spurs in the second round that year.  Something I also really like on his resume: he's been a coach with Kobe and Shaq on the team where he has seen the best at their best but more importantly at their worst, which is invaluable experience in the league ... "

Kyle Weidie of Truth About It: "Mike Miller is for serious about his social networking. How serious? Damn serious enough to debut his new website with an inspirational Eminem 'song' that came out seven years ago. Miller also has a new blog entry, introduced by the 'frightening/sad/tough/crying on the inside/I'm from South Dakota/my fav rapper is Killer Mike/I'd eat a man's heart if it were legal and tasted like cheese wiz & beer' face you see above. Damn. That's serious enough to remove the 'r' from 'for' and make it a fo'. Mike Miller is fo' serious. Personally, I think Mike Miller is serious enough to drain more than 150 threes, drop more than 250 dimes, snag more than 350 boards, and shoot more than 42% from long distance this year. So if you're around, become a fan of Miller on FaceBook, follow his Twitter, or become a member at his website. Go give the guy they call 'White Mike' some support so that he and the Wizards can be working their hardest up to and through the 2009-10 season. After all, Brendan Haywood isn't the only guy playing for a contract this year."

THE FINAL WORD
Hoopinion: A comprehensive Rookie Guard Study from Bret LaGree.
Valley of the Suns: Dabbling in free agency counterfactuals from the Summer of '04.
Roundball Mining Company: The upside of losing Linas Kleiza.

(Photos by Steve Babineau, Lisa Blumenfeld, Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images)

Every NBA fan I can possibly imagine would, I believe, love to shoot the breeze with their GM (like those guys from 3 Shades of Blue).

Short of an extended visit over beer and wings, how about a chance encounter in the airport? How would you handle that? Would you take him to task for that wasted pick a few years ago? Grill him on the finer points of player development? Or, maybe, just kind of panic?

Coup of the Rip City Project recently found himself sharing an itinerary with Blazer GM Kevin Pritchard. Coup spent some time lurking outside one of those swanky airport lounges waiting for Pritchard to emerge:

The white and blue sweatsuit materializes in front of me. That silver-maned scoundrel had been sitting in a dark corner AT THE GATE with his laptop the whole time. I spent the last hour listening to a couple argue about which is more painful, spraining your ankle or straining your groin, when I could have spent that hour planning my attack.

Of course, as this was the way the day went, he sits down two rows ahead of me. As I'm walking by his seat, I almost make my move, but he whips out the Blackberry, throwing me off balance, and then I get bumped by the loud southern lady behind me so I stumble into my seat like the fat kid from Superbad. DAMN. Seeing as how I'm bloody exhausted, I pass out, comforted by the fact that KP isn't going anywhere.

Two hours later, we land in Salt Lake City. I start thinking of Mormon jokes I can tell KP, but then I reconsider, thinking there's at least a .097 percent chance he or his wife is Mormon -- a chance I was not willing to take. Naturally, he gets a turbo boost off the plane (he must have practiced hitting A just before the green light in Mario Kart 64) and I get bumped by that loud southern lady again. I almost stare a hole through her before doing my best Olympic power walking impression up the jetway.

Now I know there's no chance whatsoever he is coming to Boston with me, so this is my last chance. What luck, he stopped to tie his shoe, he stopped to tie his shoe! But I've been thinking about what to say to him so long now I do one of those stutter-step hesitations guys do at middle school dances when approaching the cutie-cliques. He's on the move again, so I strafe him on the right through traffic like a fox stalking a mouse through a field. Now he's moving too slow, I misjudged my pace, I'm going to pass him and look like an idiot, but he stops to look at the fast food menu, here's my chance, it's now or five years from now (ptttt ... please) I swing around, put my hand out and, "Hello, Mr. Pritchard..."

They ended up having a very simple little conversation, Pritchard looked Coup in the eye, and everyone came away happy.

Seems to work. Whatever it is, I'd like to know, that's for sure.

Kevin Pritchard knows. He used to work in that front office.

Jeffrey Ma of ProTrade is a consultant to Pritchard and the Trail Blazers, and emailed me this very interesting sentence:

I remember sitting with Kevin Pritchard before he was KP, the GM of the Trail Blazers, and he explained the Spurs' mantra to me: Get three superstars and then fill the roster with guys willing to go through a wall to win.

Pretty simple, right? I like it.

And if you're a Boston fan, you have to love it.

The first video is the party scene that quickly became one of the great moments in Blazer history. The second video is General Manager Kevin Pritchard, fresh off a red eye, addressing Blazer staffers, talking about hugging in the men's room, and adding, quite sincerely, "this is our time."

UPDATE: Also, TrueHoop reader Brett e-mails an interesting question that I don't know the answer to: "Does anyone know if Portland would have lost the coin flip with Minnesota if Minnesota would have gotten the ping pong balls associated with Portland and vice versa. If this is the case, then that coin flip a month ago could have been the difference between the new Blazer hope and a potential KG/Oden or KG/Durant combo."

UPDATE: TrueHoop reader Mike did some math:

It looked like from the ESPN telecast that there was a big board with all of the possibilities for teams (250 for MEM, 199 for BOS, etc.), and the 1,001 4 ball combinations (1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-5, etc.). I laid all of the 1,001 combos out on an Excel spreadsheet, from 1-2-3-4 to 11-12-13-14.

Reading from nba.com, it sounded like the Celtics guy needed a 1 or a 2 to come out. This told me that there was a direct order -- Memphis had 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-5, all the way down to 1-7-12-14. Boston had 1-7-13-14 plus the next 198 combos.

Now, if there were no tie for 6th and 7th (Portland and Minnesota), 6th would get 63 combos and 7th would get 43 combos. With a tie, each would get 53 combos. The 6th place combo starts with 5-6-10-14.

The 63rd combo is 5-12-13-14. (The first 7th place combo is 6-7-8-9.) But with a tie, the 6th place team's 53rd and last combo is 5-9-13-14. If that looks familiar, that is because that was the four ball combination drawn for the top pick.

So you could definitely say that the coinflip was the key -- Minnesota wins the flip, they get all the sixth place balls, they get the top pick.

• The Blazers' Jim Taylor on his Blazers Evangelist blog: "I squeezed my way through the throng to get up on stage where the broadcasters were and for a better look back at the crowd. I couldn't hear or understand anything that was going on, I could just tell people were really happy and I just kept snapping pics. I looked up and saw Brandon Roy had an envelope in his hand and I thought, 'hey number three ain't too shabby, but these fans sure are going crazy for the third pick.' And then they flashed the draft order and there it was, the mother of all miracles. Portland had the number one pick in the 2007 NBA Draft. Arguably the deepest draft in history. Then everything switched to slow motion for me. Mike Barrett was high-fiving his fellow broadcasters. Bill Schonley getting hugs from everywhere. Blazers Broadcasting executive producer Scott Zachry with his fists pumped and raised in the air. Ime Udoka with even a bigger smile than he usually has. Freddy Jones grinning from ear to ear. Fans holding up their Blazers shirts and signs and yelling their heads off and chanting ODEN-ODEN-ODEN. It was like something out of movie."
• Jack Brown of Deceptively Quick: "I was trying to remind myself that I cannot do backflips, so ignore the urge to attempt one. I high fived everyone in the place, whether they wanted to or not. I was drinking iced tea. I immediately paid my bill and fled the scene. Every crappy song that came on the radio was my favorite. I left a crazed screaming message on my girlfriend's voicemail (who by the way, isn't a huge fan). Friends called and couldn't stop talking about the surrealness of this. It was a struggle to keep the speedometer around a legal level. I will admit, I felt a little wetness in my eyes. Unbelievable. How good can things get?"
• The Oregonian's Jason Quick: "The team already has seen a resurgence of Rip City, a term coined by former announcer Bill Schonely to reflect Portland's love of its only major league professional sports team. On Tuesday night, the team's Web site received so many hits it crashed. Hours later, after the site was restored, another onslaught of hits rendered it frozen. As technical experts worked frantically at one end of the Blazers offices, the phone lines on the other end of the Rose Garden were jammed with fans wanting to buy season tickets."
• And more Quick, from his Behind the Blazers Beat blog: "On his way back to his New York hotel, Blazers general manager Kevin Pritchard was beside himself. There was some excited cussing, but also a calm professionalism. There is nothing Pritchard is more confident of than his ability to evaluate players. He boasts about his scouts (Chad Buchanan, Michael Born and Jason Filippi), and he religiously references his computer database, complete with quantitative analysis and simulators. 'I'm going to make a decision that is not easy,' Pritchard said. 'But it will be a good decision for this franchise.' One of the decisions has already been made. Pritchard said he will not trade the top pick. 'I can't see us trading this pick,' Pritchard said. 'This is a very top-heavy draft and we feel like there is an unbelievable difference maker. They don't come around. As we move our timeline with Brandon (Roy) and LaMarcus (Aldridge) and a young team, we feel like his player will really be a benefit to that.' I think a key factor that should not go unnoticed is that Seattle got the No. 2 pick, and how that might become a factor in the Blazers' chances at signing Sonics free agent Rashard Lewis. I think the Blazers are intent on luring Lewis from the Sonics come July. And wouldn't Lewis' view of the Sonics and his long-term future/role in Seattle change if the Sonics draft Durant -- a player who plays the same position? Could the Blazers drafting Oden force the issue?"
• E-mail from TrueHoop reader Brad: "Pritchard will have to earn his paycheck this summer, because, depending on the direction they decide to go, Portland could be in the center of a lot of action."
• NBA.com's Jeff Dengate, writing from the secret room where the ping pong balls are selected: "Of course, those of us in the room nearly had to take his pulse because Pritchard's reaction to the announcement was, well, nothing really. 'I was a little stunned and Rich (Cho, Seattle's Assistant GM) told me first, 'That's you,'' Pritchard said, assuring us he was aware Dershowitz called out Portland as the winner. 'It takes a while to sink in. Even now, I'm probably not expressing how I feel. We're excited. We know there are some franchise players in this draft and we're excited.' (There was no questioning his excitement after the picks were announced on air, however, as Pritchard rushed out of the conference room forgetting to reclaim his cell phone. Upon return, he said, 'My guess is this thing is full already.')"
• Adam Hoff of WhatIfSports: "... this has been building. The Roy/Aldridge draft last year dramatically altered the course of this franchise. They also saw Randolph come back from microfracture surgery and play well, experienced a great story in Ime Udoku, and then watched their young guys grow up down the stretch last year. Blazers fans were VERY excited for next season. And now this. Portland is back on the NBA scene in a big way and the excitement is palpable."
• Blazer fan launces a site calling for the team to draft Kevin Durant.
• Oregonlive's Casey Holdahl: "When you mention the Blazers in a bar, you're not going to get that look like you're crazy for following the exploits of a bunch of losers and social pariahs. They're going to want to tell you how they've always loved the team, how they stuck by even when it seemed like there was no chance for improvment and that they would have come to the Rose Garden even if the Blazers hadn't drafted Oden/Durant. And they'll be liars. But you know what, the anger that I use to feel toward fair-weather fans has melted away. I'm stoked people can be Blazer fans again. So while I'm happy for the hardcore fans, you longtime blog readers, the team and myself, I'm happiest for the wayward fans that can once again feel what I and many others feel when we root our butts off for the home team. So hop on the bandwagon you Johnny and Jane come-lateleys. It's going to be a wild ride. People who have never been to Oregon are going to be Blazer fans. "Rip City" signs are going to find their way back to windows around the state. The term 'Jail Blazers' will go the way of the Dodo. You won't be the only person on the bus wearing red and black. You'll actually see the Blazers on national television. You'll forget about Jermaine O'Neal and Sam Bowie and LaRue Martin and Bill Walton's foot. You'll have to buy tickets in advance and pay more for beers at the Rose Garden. You'll go to the Rose Garden."
• UPDATE: If you're an extremely serious Portland fan, listen to this somewhat torturous (dozens of interruptions) confer
  ence call with Kevin Pritchard and Brandon Roy.
• Nate McMillan tells the Portland Tribune he has a headache from screaming: "'Now all this says to me is we're doing things right ... the people of Portland deserved this ... I'm sitting here with a migraine from yelling so loud.' Seattle wound up with the second pick, and Atlanta got the third pick. Memphis, Boston and Milwaukee, which had the greatest odds of securing the No. 1 selection, instead will draft fourth, fifth and sixth. McMillan wanted to be by himself Tuesday. He watched the draft by himself in North Carolina, and prayed after Portland was assured of being in the top three."