The Portland Trailblazers have hired former head coach Bernie Bickerstaff as an assistant coach.
Bickerstaff has been a coach with the Seattle Supersonics, Denver Nuggets, Washington Wizards and Charlotte Bobcats.
He spent the past two seasons as an assistant with the Chicago Bulls and has served as GM with two organizations. (Read More…)
Tags: Trailblazers news, Trailblazers schedule, Trailblazers tickets
The Portland Trailblazers have traded point guard Steve Blake and forward Travis Outlaw to the Los Angeles Clippers for center Marcus Camby.
It’s an interesting deal that helps accomplish a couple of different things for the injury-riddled Blazers.
For one, the team finally finds a center to play solid defense and grab a bunch of rebounds. He was averaging 7.7 points and 12 rebounds per game with Los Angeles.
The deal also finally settles down the ever-crowded point guard situation with the Blazers.
Andre Miller will no longer be looking over his shoulder waiting for Blake to come take his spot, and Jeryd Bayless will get more playing time.
In desperate need of a big man for the upcoming Western Conference playoffs, the Trail Blazers jumped right into the trade deadline fun on Tuesday, shipping Travis Outlaw and Steve Blake (along with $3 million of cash considerations) to the Los Angeles Clippers in exchange for center Marcus Camby’s expiring contract.
Portland was looking good in the frontcourt coming into the season, with Greg Oden starting alongside LaMarcus Aldridge, and Joel Przybilla on the bench as big man relief. One shattered kneecap for Oden, one torn tendon for Przybilla, and the Blazers had resorted to starting 37-year-old Juwan Howard as their center each night.
Enter Camby, who is second in the NBA in rebounds/game (12.1). Camby’s contract expires after the season ends, freeing up cap space for the Blazers when Oden and Przybilla return.
“We are very excited to bring an experienced big man of Marcus’ caliber to the team and we feel he’ll help us a great deal down the stretch run,” Blazers general manager Kevin Pritchard said. “He’s a fierce competitor and has been one of the league’s best defensive players for quite some time.”
Camby is a former defensive player of the year, and a two-time member of the NBA all-defensive team.
Here’s how far apart the Los Angeles Lakers are from the rest of the Western Conference: With their best player sidelined by an ankle injury, they can go on the road and thrash a playoff hopefully by nearly 20 points.
Kobe Bryant snapped his streak of 235 consecutive games started after he exacerbated an ankle injury earlier this week, leaving Lamar Odom to start in his place. That was no matter, as the Lakers still rolled the Blazers, 99-82.
Odom filled Bryant’s rather large shoes extremely well, grabbing a career-high 22 rebounds to go along with 10 points. Odom believed that Bryant’s absence brought the rest of the team together to provide them extra focus.
“I think it made us a little more focused as a group, to come in here and do whatever we had to do to stay in the game,” said Odom.
LaMarcus Aldridge, who led the Blazers with 16 points, was asked whether or not the Blazers let their guard down once they found out Kobe would remain on the sideline.
“No, we came to play. The first quarter, we were right there. Second quarter, down eight or so, but we had good looks,” he said. “They just didn’t fall for us tonight. It was just one of those nights were we couldn’t find it.”
The Lakers ran away with the game in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Blazers by eight points to stretch their lead comfortably.
Portland’s only All-Star won’t be playing in the All-Star game this year.
Brandon Roy, who has been sidelined by a hamstring strain for the past few weeks, announced on Saturday that he will not play until after the All-Star break.
“I don’t feel like I’m at a level where I can help the guys out right now,” Roy said before the Blazers’ game against the Lakers.
Roy will not travel to Dallas for the All-Star game next weekend.
“This was not a decision that any of us wanted to make, but in the end we had to do what was best for Brandon,” Blazers general manager Kevin Pritchard said. “We’re hopeful that this extended rest will put Brandon in the best possible position to return to the lineup shortly after the All-Star break.”
“This will give him a chance to rest it, rehab it and not have to worry about coming back in the next day or two,” Blazers coach Nate McMillan said.
Roy is leading the Blazers with 23.1 points/game, and his impact had only been felt more since the season-ending injuries to Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla.
Portland Trailblazers center Joel Pryzbilla is out for the season after rupturing his right patella tendon.
The center has undergone surgery to repair the tendon and is expected to return in time for the start of next season. He was averaging more than 4 points and almost 8 rebounds per game.
Pryzbilla is just the latest in a ridiculous number of Blazers to get hurt this season. Fellow center Greg Oden is also out for the season, so that position is a big problem for the Blazers right now.
There are also five other players currently out right now, and Brandon Roy is continuing to play despite a couple of different injuries.
Maybe it’s something in the water up in that Pacific Northwest area. The Seattle Seahawks have also had to deal with a ton of injuries over the past two seasons that ruined their playoff chances.
