I felt great melancholy tonight at the thought of Dre leaving. He was an intriguing person and a true artist. I especially like how quietly proud he is of his approach to the game.

I understand the desire to get younger, but Dre gave the Blazers' narrative something profound and heavy. He was playing deep jazz while some of the others were just blowing their own horns.

For me, Rudy was a before and after situation. The guy who came here was hilarious and great. Even brilliant. I never felt he recovered mentally or physically from the bad fall and back surgery. I hope he returns to the freewheeling brilliant player of old.

Professional sports pays well, but there's an aspect of it that is extremely cold.

When they're trading guys like Andre Miller as if they were used cars or cattle, it makes me admire Curt Flood even more than before.

With all the Blazer happy talk about a long-term solution at point guard, Felton's only under contract for another year so what if he takes off then? We would just lose having Dre here for another great year and still end up with nothing. I'm not 100% sure of the details but I heard several sports guys say, "If the Blazers offer him an extension he could be here for years." What if he doesn't want it?
That being said, we should welcome Felton a lot better than Dre was welcomed by Brandon Roy. That was truly a disgrace.

I just checked the Oregonian story by Joe Freeman. Does anybody detect a disconnect between these two paragraphs in the same article?
"But while the Blazers were touting his addition as a boon for the short-and long-term, Felton will enter the final year of the two-year deal he signed with New York last summer. Dutt said his client might be open to a longer stay in Portland."

That's pretty clear but the piece opens with this bold statement: "The Trail Blazers seemingly never-ending search for a long-term answer at point guard has finally come to an end."

Huh? We've got a starting point guard under contract for a year. We already had that. I don't see the search for a long-term answer coming to an end, do you?

Andre exposed a problem when he got to Portland. McMillan didn't like that.

Although Andre will be greatly missed, I'm happy for him. He's out of this dysfunctional organization and back to a team that understands his true value. Allen greatly improved one team today by passing on Faried and trading Miller. Unfortunately is wasn't the Blazers.

Not being a much of a passive professional sports fan, I am always amazed at the reasons for, and the terms related to the replacing and moving of players; sale, trade, draft, age, injury, etc, considering the racial backgrounds of most of the players these days.
I suppose there is so much money involved, and the players are paid real money and receive real benefits from their efforts, that no one cares that there might as well be an auction block in front of most of the professional sports areas.
I find it a bit disconcerting...or am I being too sensitive?

Native--I think one could argue for the case that professional sports has similar components to slavery (although in this case the auctioned item gets to keep a big chunk of the change). However, I don't think it's racial. The owners hire/buy anybody, from any part of the world, of any skin color, who they feel will help them achieve their objective--winning. If Martians end up being 8 feet tall and purple, you can bet somebody's going to try to draft one of them.

(It was pretty funny last night listening to the draft on the radio and hearing the commentators stumbling over names from Qatar, DR Congo, etc.)

Me, I can't believe Allen killed the deal of Rudy, Dre, and Nicolas Batum for Tony Parker because he values Batum. Incredible.

Based on observations, it was Nate or Andre, so guess who won?

Be happy we don't have Charlotte's mgmt (as mgrs not players). They give us Wallace and then cut Jackson loose and draft a kid from the Congo that no one heard of? How exactly did they expect to score points this season? Is MJ coming back as a player?

"Rudy, Dre, and Nicolas Batum for Tony Parker because he values Batum."

If Tony Parker ranked in the top 10 of PGs, it'd be different. He's about as bad at ball control as Jason Terry is, so be happy we kept Batum. He can be a starter at SG for a while.

Just remember: Greg Oden will be back next year and all the pieces for a championship run will finally be in place! (Or something like that.)

NGOMBO, BABY!!!

Can't lose now.

I loved Dre's calm leadership, and error free play, but I think this was a decent to good move. Felton is more athletic, can penetrate and finish and can run the pick and roll, and he's 27. He's a better athletic blend with Matthews, Wallace and Aldridge. And I like Nolan Smith, a 4 year guy from Mr. K's program as back up PG. Miller is a great guy, sure handed and has great court vision, but he didn't threaten defenses with an explosive first step or cross over, and good team defenses were able to exploit that by not having to help out on him. A PG like Felton, can attack the basket from the top of the key and score directly or collapse defenses to open other shot opportunities. That threat was not really that great with Dre, and I think it was somewhat responsible for those frustrating pauses in the Blazers offense. Felton adds a new point of attack on the rim in the starting lineup. What I don't know is whether all the little things Dre did that tend to go unnoticed add up to more than Felton or Smith provide in increased athleticism. Currently sounds like we have a long wait to find out.

What's Oden's projected return date?

October 12, 2010.

steve blake has 3 years and 12 million on his contract with the lakers. he ain't coming back ever.