Things are looking up for your Portland Trail Blazers and the 2010/11 team is hardly the team from five years ago that ended in a 21-61 campaign. This season, Head Coach Nate McMillian is expecting more from his team than just another 50-win campaign. "We want more. We want to get to the playoffs, and then we want to advance in them." With a starting lineup of Andre Miller at the Point, Brandon Roy at the Two, Nicolas Batum and LaMarcus Aldridge at the Forward and Marcus Camby filling the middle, there is reason for such optimism.
In the offseason, the Blazers selected Elliot Williams in the first round (22nd overall selection) and Armon Johnson in the 2nd round (34th overall selection), traded Martell Webster to Minnesota for the 16th Pick (used to select Luke Babbitt) and Ryan Gomes.
The team currently has three players on IR, Center Greg Oden is still rehabbing for his patellar tendinitis, Center Joel Prizybilla is nearly all the way back from off season knee surgery and should be ready for action by November. So make sure you get your tickets to the next Blazers game and help to cheer your team on the 2010 NBA Playoffs
This season marks the 40th Anniversary of the Portland Trailblazers in the NBA. In the offseason, the Blazers used their four draft picks (1-first round and 3-second round picks) to improve the team. With their first round draft (22nd overall) they selected Victor Claver (who plays with the Euro team Valencia). With their remaining picks, they selected Dante Cunningham, (3rd overall in the 2nd round), Jon Brockman and Patrick Mills. The franchise also acquired the services of Andre Miller (signed to a 3-year deal) and forward Juwan Howard to a one year contract.
Four years into his initial contract with the Blazers, Nate McMillan is back for another season and is making the best of his team which now features LaMarcus Aldridge, Juwan Howard, Andre Miller, Jeff Pendergraph, Joel Prizbylla and Brandon Roy. As of this writing, the Blazers are 25-17 and sitting in third place in the Northwest Division and are currently the 8th seed in the Western Conference.
The Portland Trail Blazers came into existence in the 1970 NBA expansion. The early teams featured two stars, Geoff Petrie, Sydney Wicks. The team went through four head coaches in their first six seasons; Rolland Todd (1970-72), Stu Inman (1972), Jack McCloskey (1972-74), Lenny Wilkins (1974-76). In that span, the team had two number one draft picks; 1972 used to draft LaRue Martin and 1974 used to pick Bill Walton.
With the merging of the ABA with the NBA, the remaining ABA players went through a dispersal draft and the Blazers selected Maurice Lucas. The franchise also hired on Jack Ramsay as its new head coach. These two moves, along with the emergence of center Bill Walton propelled the Blazers to a 49-33 record and their debut appearance in the NBA playoffs. In the Western Conference Finals, the Blazers ambushed Kareem Abdul Jabbar and the Los Angeles Lakers with a 4-game sweep and moved into the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history.
In the finals, the Blazers met up with Dr. J and the Philadelphia 76ers. The Blazers would lose the first two games 107-101 and 107-89. With the series back in Portland, the Blazers would stage an improbable comeback with the team erupting for 129 in game 3 (to LA’s 107) and 130 in game 4 against LA’s 98. With game 5 back in Philly, the Blazers took care of business upsetting the sixers 110-104 forcing game six in Portland. On June 6th, the Portland Trailblazers beat the Sixers 109-107 to with their first ever (and only) NBA title. The Walter A. Brown championship trophy was retired after this series and the newly designed trophy replaced it. It would become the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
The decade of the 80’s proved to be a frustrating one. While the team only failed to make the playoffs only one season (1982) they also failed to get past the conference semi-finals during the decade with the La Lakers and Houston Rockets dominating the Western Conference even though they had very talented players. Mychal Thompson, Darnell Valentine, Fat Lever, T.R. Dunn, Wayne Cooper, Jim Paxson and Calvin Natt all donned Blazer uniforms but failed to get the team back to its former glory.
In 1988, the team was sold to Paul Allen and the initial season was marred with controversy as the starting lineup was never solidified. When Steve Johnson and Kiki Vandeweghe both succumbed to injury, they were replaced with Kevin Duckworth and Jerome Kersey. By the time they were healthy there was no solid starting five and the coach felt undermined. As the turmoil continued, Coach Schuler was fired and replaced with assistant Rick Adleman.
By 1990, the team, which now sported a roster that included Buck Williams, Terry Porter, Drazen Petrovich and Jerome Kersey finished the season with a 59-23 record and stormed through the Western Conference to meet the a Detroit Pistons club that featured Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Dennis Rodman and Bill Laimbeer. In the 2-3-2 format, the Pistons took game one with a 105-99 score. In game 2, the Blazers would take the Pistons to task and enjoyed a small margin of victory heading into the 4th quarter until Center Bill Laimbeer took over the game. Laimbeer went on a 19-point scoring spree that would take the game into overtime. However, Laimbeer’s antics weren’t enough for the Pistons to overtake the Blazers and on final shot from James Edwards to win the game in the final seconds but rookie center Clifford Robinson ambled over and blocked the shot preserving the one point overtime victory. The Pistons then went on the road and took out the Blazers at home, 121-106, 112-109 and 92-90
to take the 1990 Larry O’Brian Trophy.
Two seasons later in 1992, the core of the team was back in the NBA Finals only this time facing Michael Jordan and his Champion Chicago Bulls, who were working on a repeat. They hype built up between Jordan and the Blazer’s Clyde Drexler (mostly from a Sports Illustrated article which listed Drexler and Jordan’s number one rival) never evolved. In game one, things looked great for the Bulls as they led by 15 at halftime. The Blazers tried to match intensity in the third but Jordan was unstoppable as he connected on three 3-pointers in the 2nd half (to add to his 3 in the first half) and the Bulls took a 21-point lead by the end of the third quarter. In the fourth, the Bulls would pull away for a 122-89 blowout. Jordan finished his amazing performance with 39 points and 11 assists.
In game two, the Blazers showed more moxie as they took a comfortable nine point lead into halftime. The Bulls would respond in the 3rd quarter as they outscored the Blazers and took a 7-point lead into the 4th quarter. Adding to the tension of the moment, guard Clyde Drexler fouled out with 4:36 left in the game leaving the Blazers down by 10. A technical foul by Michael Jordan would spark a 15-5 Blazer run that would tie the game at the end of regulation and send it into overtime. In the overtime period, SG Danny Ainge would come alive and tie an NBA record with 9 points in the overtime period (outscoring the Bulls by himself) to help the Blazers take 9-point victory over the Bulls and even the series at 1 game apiece. The two teams would trade off on games 3 and 4 and Chicago would end up winning on the road, taking out the Blazers 119-106 and 97-93 to win the Championship.
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