As to the latter three I'd put good money on Ha being next in line to move into the Lovable Big Stiffs Retirement Village, right after Pavel Podkolzin's paperwork clears admissions. Skinner is a reliable journeyman, like that 1/2" wrench you have: its nice to have around but you'd rather just carry around you adjustable spanner instead. Blake is the latest local victim of adequate-player-has-decent-year-on-worst-team-in-the-L syndrome, in that his departure is strangely mourned by the local peoples. But hey, nobody mourned the loss of Erick Barkley, did they?
Speaking of the Erick Barkley* Era, Jamaal Magloire's going to be second coming of Kelvin Cato for the Blazers. 'Member when Mike Dunleavy won coach of the year during the '99 lockout season? That Blazer team rocked J.R. Rider and personal-fave Damon Stoudamire (Jimmy Jackson or Rasheed at the 3?, can't remember), but more pertinently ran Sabo at the 5 and Brian "History Greatest Monster" Grant at the 4, and deployed Cato & Rasheed Wallace as subs or put Wallace on the floor with Grant & Sabo at the same time. For the record Sabo's 7'3", Cato & Sheed are 6'11" and B.G.'s 6'9" but played bigger than that.
The Blazers freakin' Injury Manifesto last season hurt enough as it was, but the fact they were limited to one, count 'em, ONE power forward (Nate somehow said in training camp that Ruben Patterson and Darius Miles could play some 4, & in a true show of his devotion to the game, kept a straight face while saying it) in Zach. The tandem of Pryz and Theo looked nice on paper but Theo's a lifetime member of the Injurious Avengers.
Comparative History is inherently and categorically bunk, but basically what I'm trying to say is the Blazers have gone from a laughablely undermanned front court of Pryz & Zach supported by Theo to Pryz & Zach supported by Magloire & Aldridge, and despite the nifty new Streamlineresque rules that govern this League of ours, a solid, tall front court is still money in the motherfucking bank, far as I'm concerned.
-d.d.
*Erick Barkley played two seasons at Christ the King HS in New York with Lamar Odom and Speedy Claxton. His favorite band is the Red Hot Chili Peppers, according to his bio.
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I've been in the boonies outside of Buffalo the last week or so, and was off the 'nets and so now that I'm back have been doing the rounds, and found this awesome quote by Nate:
"Sebastian is a Ferrari and Zach is an 18-wheeler. And that Ferrari is running while the 18-wheeler is saying, 'Hold up.' Even though they were two young guys and the core of our group, it really wasn't working. We had to make a decision: build around Sebastian or build around Zach. And the decision was to build around Zach."
-from here.
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