think the moves are all good - even getting rid of Viktor. He is tough and hustles but doesn't have a ton of skill. He will never be more than a bench player.

Wow... the blazers got Aldridge, Roy, that British dude, and ALEXANDER JOHNSON! Johnson was a known sleeper projected, possibly, in the top 20. They needed his mean rebounding skills... icing on the cake for a A- night for the Blazers.

Also...

At first I was sore about losing Victor and Bassy, but then I realized --- it didn't work.. why not blow it up and get the thrill of a completely new roster??--- I think, when it's all said and done, the Blazers will unload Miles, Dixon and possibly Zach by the season opener.

You know, there will be plenty of 'what ifs' in a couple of years, but as a fan you gotta love the trade action.

Bassy may never play in this league. Can't hit from 12 feet. Until he can do that he can be as fast as Superman and still get capped. It's like a 98 mph fast ball that doesn't move, it just leaves the yard faster.
gotta hit your 12 footers to get respect, or they just wait on you in the paint.
BTW, jack, love the new sports aspect around here.
Sometimes there is just wayyy tooo mucchh b#%$tching about P-town. I love it here and think with all our problems, we are still ahead of the game. i would rather be wrong here than right anywhere else.
Now if we can just get back in the playoffs........... i think this is a great night for the team. great draft
mazoc

Amen. Right now I'm feeling more love, less attitude.

BTW, the Blazers promptly traded Johnson.

I had the sense that V.K. wanted out anyhow. I'm sure that factored into the decision making process. Telfair seemed like a big stats guy to me...playing for himself and the next contract more than anything else.

The gun thing said it all. This is not a Portland player. And he's just not that good on the floor. The Celtics want Iverson -- Bassy's just insurance (sort of) in case Ainge doesn't get him.

Ratliff wanted out of here, I'm sure. Harder to read Viktor, but I liked what I saw.

Anyway, this draft looks like Nate's doing. It's about time somebody in the Blazer organization understood their job. And the Paul Allen "good things come only from Seattle" philosophy might actually work out o.k. with Roy. It will be interesting to see how he and Martell get along.

Sorry to see Kryapa go as he could develop into a player like Andres Nocioni, which isn't a bad thing.
Everything else is cool excep LaFrentz. Maybe Nate can get some productivity out of him--he wasn't that bad in Denver.

Can either Roy or Webster play a 3? Then you could have Jack, Roy and Webster on the court at the same time and no fighting over minutes (and, of course, no Darius). Doubt if this scenario will be seen much next season because that trio is too unseasoned, and so Dixon and Blake will get the minutes at least initially. And most likely, so will Darius if he is still here. This draft will start paying dividends in the fall of 2007.

Roy was the guy I wanted at 4. Alridge is just icing on the cake. The Blazers outdid themselves today. Free agency starts next week, so we could see some sign and trade deals. And Philly needs help getting rid of Iverson. Maybe Portland can play the third team in that with Darius or Zach? It's gonna be a fun next few weeks.

Raef might be an okay role player, but that's...iffy.

Anything's better than Theo not suiting up with some sort of mysterious foot injury.

I don't know anything about basketball (really, the names "Darius" and "Zach" are only vaugely familiar to me), but this USA Today article says "it's possible both will be moved this summer."

But maybe it's saying something everyone already knows or maybe it's just completely making stuff up, I wouldn't know.

Anything is possible. Don't know what you could get for Miles. Somebody might part with something decent for Randolph.

What happened did they lock Paul Allen in a closet (er, I mean his 800 ft yacht) for the draft?

I think they did fairly well, except for maybe Khryapa who wasn't going to get the PT here without changes. Ratliff was going to be out injured >50% of the time anyways and LaFrentz can spell someone.

I am just looking forward to Ricky Davis fightin Bassy for touches in Boston.

Blazers had their hands on the two best prospects in the draft(Tyron Thomas and Randy Foye) and quickly traded them away. Three years from now Aldrich/Roy will be watching Thomas/Foye at the All Star break.

Three years from now Aldrich/Roy will be watching Thomas/Foye at the All Star break.

I'd be willing to bet just the opposite happens. No one is going to out-hustle this team and they're gonna be winning within two seasons. It's 1987 all over again. I can't wait.

Jack-

Regarding Roy and Martell, they've actually known each other for several years and they're apparently good friends. I heard Martell lobbied the Blazers to get him, but they were already sold (especially Nate).

I'm disappointed they didn't actually hang on to Alexander Johnson, but they still managed to have a great draft day. When you're losing and you have no place to go but up, why not blow the roster up? Even the best players give up when losing becomes institutionalized, so getting a bunch of new blood is necessary to move on. Besides, Roy and Aldridge aren't your typical Blazer draft pics... they've played plenty of college ball and I think they'll contribute right away.

Most importantly, Roy and Aldridge WANT to be here. Reading their post-draft interviews, it sounds like they've already bought into Nate's system, not because it was the right thing to say. Aldridge doesn't even go out to clubs, just likes to play gym rat in his spare time. Catch me, I'm gonna faint...

Gordon,

I'm 50/50 on Aldridge and Thomas. But Roy is head and shoulders above Foye, the typical description of Foye is a poor man's Brandon Roy.

I'll bet in a few years the T-Wolves fans are gonna be really ticked that they swapped Roy just to get some $.

Get this: (reposted from the Behind the Blazers Beat blog on O-live... sorry for the long post)
__________________________________________
Are you ready for this? Nate McMillan has already named his starting point guard for the Blazers' first game: Brandon Roy.

"Roy will be the starting point guard," McMillan said.

Roy, you will remember, was picked by Minnesota, then traded to Portland for Randy Foye and cash in essentially a swap of the Nos. 6 and 7 picks.

Oh wait, there's more to McMillan's quote: " ... of the summer league, and he will get the opportunity to get some playing time there."

The answer was in response to a question about drafting Roy, whose primary position is shooting guard, the same as Martell Webster, whom Portland took at No. 6 last season. Some had said the Blazers might shy away from Roy because of that and the potential for upsetting Webster.

But far from having a problem with Blazers picking Roy, there might not have been anyone happier about the pick than Webster, who has known Roy since they started playing basketball together as youngsters in Seattle.

"I got word from my agent that we were looking to trade up, and I was overwhelmed," Webster said.

Webster said he has no question he and Roy can play on the same team, pointing out that they both can play two positions -- himself at shooting guard and small forward, Roy at shooting and point guards. "Neither of us is greedy, and we can both play together," Webster said.

Webster and Roy would have been teammates at the University of Washington this year, so Webster finds a delicious irony that they will instead be teammates in the NBA. Webster thinks so highly of Roy that he said there is no way he would victimize Roy with the typical rookie hazing -- making the new guy get water, carry bags, and so on, the stuff that Ruben Patteron inflicted upon Webster last season.

"Not to Brandon, not to Brandon," Webster said. "Because there's just so much between us ... he's just somebody who's that close to me."

Yeah, it would be kind of ironic fo rthe "veteran" 19 year old to be hazing the rookie, whi is a 22 year old college grad with 4 years at a Pac 10 school with 2 staright sweet 16 appearances under his belt. Especially since the "rookie" is almosta mentor to him and helped recruit him to the UW.

I think an eventual lineup of Jack, Roy, Webster, Aldridge and LaFrentz is not too shabby. And that assumes we get nothing for Randoloph, which doesn't seem realistic. We'll probably have to pay someone to take Miles, but Zach should still net something.

GOOD BEGINNING MOVES....AT LEAST NOW I CAN THINK ABOUT WEARING MY BLAZER GEAR AGAIN DOWN HERE IN SUN COUNTRY.....MAYBE I'LL EVEN TAKE IN A GAME WHEN THEY COME INTO THE VALLEY OF THE SUN....

NOW ALL THE BLAZERS NEED IS TO PICK UP A QUALITY OWNER IN THE UPCOMING " OWNERS DRAFT "..........I WISH....

You gotta give Paul Allen props for yesterday's whirlwind draft... he opened up his wallet on several occasions and from everything I read he seems excited and engaged again. Although it would be great to get some new ownership blood in there, we should be fully prepared for him to buy out Global Spectrum's stake in the Garden... that doesn't have to be a bad thing if the personnel mix on the court and in the front office is changed for the better. As a fan, there's few things more exciting than getting a brand new team when you weren't happy with the last...

Azpops, please lay off the Caps Lock key. You're shouting.

If Paul Allen wants to recover his losses on the Blazers He should

Open a Hummer Dealership
open a gun store
and open a rehab clinic

Why do my eyes cringe when I hear the term
"this will be a great oppotunity to build the team" it just means we are gonna suck for the next season

I really don't care about bashing Paul. I think he paid a lot of money for the team. he would be the best owner in the league if he let the guys running it right now run it.
He has tons of cash, loves the team and it gives him a break from the Seattle thing.
Listen, we can speculate all we want but he could be the best owner is sports. takes cash to get Kevin Garnett.
mazoc