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Monday, December 1, 2008, 6-8pm
Hosts: Jay Allen and Michael Holton
Don’t forget to vote for Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge or Greg Oden on the all-star ballot at NBA.com.
Summary
- Dean Demopoulos interviews:
- Martell still a maybe on this road trip
- Roy is the best all around player he has ever coached in his 30 years as a coach.
- He still says “wow” ever so often with what these players do on the court
- The coaches are just scratching the surface in what they want these players to do.
- They spend about 65% on offense and 35% on defense.
- A good defense starts with a good offense.
- Your offense is either running and gunning or laying and praying. He prefers the Blazers be able to do both.
- Bobby Gross interview
- Bill Walton was like Roy, it was always team first. Walton enjoyed passing more than him scoring.
- Mike Barratt interview
- Martell will back-up Batum in about 12 MPG to start out with.
- Blazer coaches are very high on Nicolas Batum in all the things he does on the court..
- EPSN John Hollinger has the Blazers as #3 in the NBA
- ESPN Marc Stein has the Blazers as #4 in the NBA
- Marc Stein asks when Greg Oden went down in the opening game, how many of you predicted that the young kids would be 7-0 at home.
- (MH) – Power Rankings is a snap shot in time of the season and Blazer fans should be proud.
Dean Demopoulos – Blazer Lead Asst. Coach – interview
- Detroit win – it was a true test of how good a team is how they play on the road. Undefeated at home is great, but when you can go on an away court against a group of hostile environment and do the things we want to do is incredible.
- There is so much we want to do with this group and the glass isn’t even half full for this team in what Nate and the assistants want to do. It is going to take time though.
- ((MH) – how much preparation is offense vs. defense on the team) – Good question. John Wooden said it years ago that there is equal importance, but not equal emphases. You spend more time on offense by the nature of what it is. You feel you have more control of the game when you have control of the ball, normally start there. It’s a lot of coach speak on playing strong defense, but how you play is dictated on how you play with the ball. Throwing the ball away on your fast breaks; not having floor balance on offense; and not rotating back after the play can lead to poor defense, they are very much cause and affects.
- Our scouts do a very good job in scouting other team’s plays and we do have “our” rules in how we play defense.
- We probably spend about 65% on offense and 35% on defense prep for a game.
Brandon Roy
- ((MH) – you guys use Brandon with a mid pick n’ roll or top of the key pick n’ roll. Brandon sometimes will waive the screen off, not use the screen, sometimes the screens are split. Are those Brandon calls or those things scripted from the sidelines.) - It is all of the above, Brandon has most of the time the ability to call for a screen or call it off. Sometimes it is a set play where we will just split the defenders on purpose. Waiving a screen off is sometimes a scripted play for Brandon or a scripted play to split the defenders and have Brandon go 1:1 against the larger defender.
- This is Dean’s 30’s year coaching and 8th year in the NBA. Brandon is the best all-around person, player, leader, package of anybody he has known in his lifetime in coaching. He is a very special young man. He got unbelievable wisdom & leadership for someone his age. He is just a joy to be around.
- Dean has never seen anybody make Brandon go any faster in the pace that he wants to go. He dictates how things are going to go, the opposition doesn’t and that is a real talent.
Martell Webster
- ((JA) Today was Martell’s first full practice, how did he look?) We went full speed very little. We spent more time at ¾ speed and ½ speed. Martell looked fine, he is just going to have to assimilate back into the team slowly. We have a good rhythm right now and there is no reason to rush anyone who has had the kind of injury Martell had. Right now things are falling into some sort of order with when a player is going to be playing and who is going to be player. Structure is really important, especially for a group as young as the players are. It will have to come along as Martell gets better and we assimilate on where and how he plays a role on the team.
- The day after Martell got out of the hospital after the surgery he was out on the gym floor with his chair sitting down taking shots to the basket. That kid has got some motor in him.
- We haven’t talked about when Martell will be playing. We need him to get into game shape and come along slowly. Right now we are concentrating on the players we do have healthy. We know he is chomping at the bit, but that is a maturation process for him. He needs to be patient and get into game shape.
- ((JA) – Martell wants to play on his birthday against Boston) Maybe so, we will have to see.
Defense
- ((MH) Defense – you guys pressure the ball in the half court and you are doing a good job of walling up the ball. But you are not doing a good job rotating, seldom do you guys do a full rotation on the ball. Talk about how you do a type of pressure walling up, loading to the ball but not being in full rotation.) It all depends on how you play. All defenses have certain thing that have one thing inherit in them and that is ball pressure. You are never going to get everything done in a defense, but ball pressure is doesn’t give the player with the ball time to figure things out around him as he is being pressured.
- It starts with pressuring the ball with us and after that we have two guys loading up the side with the ball and always have an extra player loading up on the side with the ball.
- We would rather give up a two point shot then a 3pt shot. The NBA has gone to a lot of 3pt. shooting and that creates long rebounds. If we can get those rebounds we can get out and go on a fast break.
- It starts with a good offense. The cause is where you have a great offense to the approach to the game. You take care of the ball, run the play and get a good shot everytime; this allows you time to set up the defense on the other team. Dean is such a defensive minded coach that he says all good defenses start with a good offense when they have the ball.
Team
- He is always amazed with the group of young players they have now. He is has been coaching for a long time and even he is saying “wow” ever now and then when he sees the things they do on the court.
- The funny thing is that Nate and his assistants are just scratching the surface on what they want to do with these guys.
- These young players are years older than what they are now.
- In the Detroit game when the Pistons made their come back in the game. Their was this calmness on the bench, where the players sat intently listening, eyes wide open and calmly listening & absorbing all the information that the coaches were telling them and then they went out there and did the things the coaches told them and took over the game. There wasn’t a lot of fan fair or hoopla, they just went there and calmly executed on what needed to be done and that is how Dean thinks it should be done.
- This team has a chance and just needs to keep their nose to the grind stone and keep improving.
New York game
- ((JA) scouting reports show the Knicks in disarray) Dean doesn’t think it is that bad. They did just score 80 pts in a half recently. Nate has a high respect for Knicks coach. Dean likes Mike (NY coach) and knows that the Knicks want to score every 7 seconds. They don’t worry about Stephon Marbury, unless he is shooting a jumper or running the offense. Dean could care less what is happening with Stephon Marbury off the court. He needs to prepare the Blazers for the Knick players who will be on the floor.
- ((MH) the Knicks don’t play defense with their offense, how is the Blazers going to handle this) The best way of stopping the Knicks is play at their pace and not the Knicks pace. The time management of the game is to play your pace so you don’t fall into that speed.
- Don’t get Dean wrong, the Blazers like to play at a fast pace and like to shoot the ball on the run. The Blazers are one of the leaders in 3pt. shooting teams in the league. We are not going to walk the ball either, but we are not going to run and gun or lay and pray.
- You either run and gun or laying and praying and he likes the Blazers to do both.
Bobby Gross – in studio – interview
Retiring #30
- Blazers going to co-retire his #30 jersey on Dec. 18th along with Terry Porter.
- He has known for 3 months the Blazers were going to retire his jersey and he had to keep quiet.
- He was surprised and thought he was into some trouble when the Blazers first asked to meet with him.
Tracy Rosak, Blazer rep, asked him if he would be upset if they co-retired his jersey with Terry Porter. He had no problem at all and was proud to be sharing the jersey with Porter.
What’s he doing now?
- He is still involved with the Blazers in the community with the “Make it Better” campaign.
- He grew up in So. Cal by the beach and he was very fortunate that he met a Portland girl, married and settle down in Portland.
- Once the kids started school, he knew he wasn’t going to move down to So. Cal., he has no regrets.
- He has fully adjusted to the weather and in fact if it is hotter than 80 degrees on the golf course it is too hot.
- He is a “5” as a golfer.
- He has played on the same teams with Mike Rice and he has learned the terminology of “provisional mulligan”
- Bobby Gross is the first in studio guest on TV for courtside (trivial question)
Remember the old days
- He never played the game for individual honors, it was always about being part of the team and how he could help the team win.
- In the Championship year, it didn’t go all smoothly as at the beginning of the season we lost a lot of games. Coach Ramsey kept talking to us about accepting our roles and doing certain things. Once we started doing the things he wanted us to do we started to win games on the road and then consistently at home.
- ((MH) Roles seem to be lost in today’s NBA) Perception of team roles and efforts got lost when ESPN started to broadcast highlights of individuals.
- The incident with Darryl Dawkins in the championship finals was a key milestone for the Blazers turning around the games in the final. At the time prior to the incident Gross was down getting a rebound and was pushed under the basket by Dawkins, no foul was called. The next time he decided to hold his ground, was pushed by Dawkins underneath the basket and as Gross was going up for the rebound, he got flipped over Dawkins back for the rebound and was called for the foul. Gross said some things to Dawkins and Dawkins came after him and Maurice Lucas came after Dawkins.
Current Blazers
- The ultimate compliment he can pay to the current Blazers is to go to the games.
- The current Blazers are fun to watch. They are moving the ball and the style of play is reminiscent of the ’77 Championship team when everybody has accepted their role on the team and just go out and win.
- It is the other guys that compliment Roy and Aldridge that really make the team.
- Roy is a guy you can depend on at the end of a game and a guy you can depend on that will anything to get other players involved at the beginning of a game.
- Bill Walton was a lot like Roy in that Bill enjoyed more giving an assist and getting his teammates going then he enjoyed scoring.
Mike Barrett – interview[/u]
- (JA)(what happened you didn’t call me about the Duck win) If it wasn’t for Courtside you wouldn’t hear from him for another week. It was an incredible game for the Ducks.
- Martell worked out and the only concern is that Martell has some soreness after the workout after the Detroit game. Not sure if that is because he hasn’t used his foot in practice situations. So not sure if it is just his foot adapting to the court.
- Travis will go back to the PF position and Channing Frye will probably lose his playing time.
- Basically you are looking at Martell get about 12 minutes per game until he can show his game has improved.
- The team is on such an even keel. After the Detroit win the team got on the bus and there was this calmness that you couldn’t tell if the team won or lost. It is something Mike Rice picked up as a former coach how mature this team is at such a young age. Nate preaches steady mental frame of mind in not getting too high or too low.
- (MH) When you have a team that is steady and consistent in wins or losses, you have a special team.
- Nate’s strategy of having the guard pressure the guard with the ball.
- Nate wants to knock the other team off at the start with his on-ball defense.
- Even though the coaches drug their feet on Batum starting. They are very high on Batum
- You are seeing what Nate is talking about that offense dictates the defense. Players are finally starting to understand what Nate is saying and are now executing to Nate’s plans.
[b]Nicolas Batum - comments
- (MH) – It comes down to chemistry and the Blazers have good chemistry with Batum as a starter.
- (MH) – What Martell needs to do is come off the bench, play some games and
- (MH) – Let’s say that Martell is doing well after 5 games when Martell is playing. Martell moves into the starting position. The major benefit is that Batum will have starter experience and should be able to back up Martell now.
Brandon Roy - comments
- (JA) Roy is Western Conference player of the week
- (JA) Roy lead the Blazers to a 4-0 record last week, he averaged 20P, 6A & 5.3R during that stretch. 3rd time Brandon has won the award.
(MH) Brandon is taking over games. He is taking over games earlier. He even has talked about his maturation. In the past he would wait until the 4th quarter and pick his spots. Now he can determine during the game when he needs to step in and take over the ball. He is making everybody complimentary in knowing what Brandon is going to do.
(MH) Brandon Roy has something stuck to his locker room that speaks volumes of who he is. It says “Stay Humble” stuck to his locker. When your leader is a humble guy, everybody else wants to give more on the court for Roy. It is something Charles Barkley said about LeBron that Charles took a lot of heat for and that was his comments about what LeBron said were contrary to building a team. You look at a guy like Brandon Roy who is just the opposite and is humble and leading by example and making everyone better.
Martell Webster - comments
- (JA) – Martell wants to be able to play on his birthday this coming Friday against Boston.
- (MH) – We will see, Michael talked to Nate and Nate said he is in no hurry to bring Martell back if he is not ready. Nate doesn’t want Martell to re-injure himself if he is not 100%. Nate would like to see at minimum a player have two full practices before allowing them in a game. Monday’s practice was not a full practice. Next Thursday is the first full practice, so we will see if Nate thinks Martell is ready.
Team - comments
Team & Record
- (JA) 12-6, tied for the 2nd best record in the Western Conference
- (MH) Blazers have gotten out of the gate against a very tough schedule and very solidly. You got to like what the players are doing in executing the game plan. They are shutting down the other team’s top scorers in Chris Paul, Dwayne Wade, Allen Iverson are examples and that is a big deal as other teams try to do the same.
- (JA) The Blazers are playing at a very high level.
- (JA) Blazers are a complete 180 degrees from last year’s start of 6 wins 12 loses.
- (JA) Blazers off to their best start of 18 games since the 2001-2002 Blazers.
- (JA) A win against the Knicks will be the best start of 19 games since the 1999-00 team when that team started 15-4.
- (JA & MH) Projection wise, Michael is sticking with 50 wins and Jay Allen is staying with his 52 wins projection from the beginning of the season.
- (MH) The current Blazers are passing the ball, unselfish offensive and now unselfish defensive players. With Nicolas Batum playing such good defense he has rubbed off on Travis Outlaw and now Martell Webster more concerned about playing good defense then worrying about scoring. When that starts to happen then the skies the limit for the Blazers.
Blazers vs. Detroit
- (MH) It was the Blazers defense that held one of the top scoring backcourts in the NBA of Allen Iverson (9 pts) and Richard Hamilton (18 pts) well below their season averages.
- (MH) Aldridge is shaking off his slump and getting back to his normal self as he scores 27 pts. LaMarcus got touches with the ball, but all within the game plan of him shooting in the low post, mid post, even turn around face up in the post and even put it on the floor going to the hoop against Rasheed. When LaMarcus does those things as well as his pip & pop and face up jumpers, he is a difficult customer to guard.
- (MH) Brandon Roy was surgical in how he dissected Detroit. Michael likes how Nate uses Brandon and has him at the top of the floor at the elbow. After players were setting the screens he was waving them off and going to the basket at will. When he gets into that zone Brandon can’t be guarded.
- (MH) Greg Oden was 11pts, 13 rebounds and he likes how he flies under the radar. It was an after thought that Greg had an impact in the game, but some of that is the heavy expectations were dramatically high. Now Greg is starting to settle in and get comfortable with his role on the team in being a double double guy and also what Joel brings to the center position helps Greg.
What rookie will have the biggest impact?
- (MH) – they are all unique in their own way, but also shows you how well Batum, Fernandez and Oden have done so far if you have to stop and think about their impact to the Blazers wins.
- (MH) – each one have been an impact player – Batum with his energy, effort and hustle – Oden is impact full with his dominance and strength, he is a double double guy – Rudy has flair, he knocks down the 3-ball, he is a great passer, he catches the lobs. What a great group of rookies.
Who has been more important? Oden or Przybilla
- (MH) – they both have and he is not being politically correct.
- (MH) – if you look at what Joel does, the experience he brings to a young team is critically important. In the locker room or on the floor; Joel is no nonsense, scoring the ball better in catching and finishing; and spacing on the court have helped this team.
- (MH) – looking at Greg Oden, everybody is expecting him to take the team to a dominate level; people keep forgetting he was off for a year and with anybody it takes time for his body and mind to adjust to the pace of the NBA. People have to understand he is a rookie, there is a learning curve for big men, he needs to learn and execute on his role with this team and also how to play with these players.
- (JA) – Brandon is the MVP / leader of the Blazers, BUT if you had to press me. I would say Joel Przybilla has been second as a MVP of this team. The way he started at the beginning of the season and now accepting his role off of the bench. He continues to be professional and contributes off the bench. He comes in every night and gets you at least double rebounds. He cleans up the garbage around the glass. Plus he has been a great example for Greg Oden.
- (MH) – He doesn’t think the conversation needs to be either or, because nothing good will come out of that type of conversation. Joel Pryzbilla is the leader, the teacher, the voice of experience for Greg Oden. Greg Oden is the student and the rookie.
Miscellaneous questions
- (MH) – Joel is the leader of the block parties for the team. He is the doorman who decides to let you in or not.
- (MH) (email – why aren’t the Blazers working with Greg to help prevent the ball from being slapped from him when he goes up for a shot or rebound) – Greg is still collegiate around the basket. Which means when he receives a pass or gets a rebound he goes to gather himself with the ball away from his body. In the NBA the hands of the opponents are too strong and can easily strip the ball away. He needs to pull the ball close to his body and move his shoulders more sideways before he goes up. Once his shoulders give his opponents a few chicklets (i.e. missing teeth), those hand slapping attempts will go away when they know Greg’s elbows and shoulders will be coming.
- (MH) – it is a minor college to pro thing for Greg to learn when he is around the basket. In the NBA it is under the chin on top of the chest, not away from the body when he goes up for a shot.
- (MH) (email – should Martell come off the bench) Michael thinks it is pretty clear that Martell will come off the bench. It is going to be critical that Martell doesn’t disrupt the flow the team is in and Martell will need to integrated back into the team’s rotation.
- (MH) (email – Jerryd Bayless – will we see him this season or is he getting the rookie treatment) Bayless is the odd guy out. Barring a trade or a major injury, Bayless will be sitting on the bench for the rest of the season. You have Blake, Sergio and Roy all ahead of Bayless and all of them are playing pretty good basketball. Realistically with Blake and Roy playing the PG position there is really only 9-10 minutes left in that backup PG and Sergio is playing well ahead of Bayless. Unfortunately, if you get drafted on a bad team you get to play a lot and people see your stats and think how good of a player you are. If you get drafted on a good team and not playing people think you were a bust, a bad player / pick for that team. What it is is that Bayless got drafted on a very good young team and just needs to improve enough to beat out Blake or Sergio for playing time.
NW Division race
- (MH) – the Trail Blazers are playing the toughest part of the schedule now. The team is both deep in talent, but young. Add a dose of experience after the all-star break, add 40 games under Greg’s belt, you have a healthy Martell and Nicolas Batum only gets better. Anything is possible.
NY Knicks
- (JA) – The Knicks offered Stephon Marbury the starting PG and 30 minutes a night with the Knicks last week and Stephon turned the Knicks down. Marbury is still looking to be paid by the Knicks full price in the buy-out. Knicks are looking at fining Marbury for each game he is misses.
- (MH) – Stephon and the Knicks coach didn’t get along when Stephon was in Phoenix. The Knicks knew these two weren’t going to get along. The Knicks GM should of moved Marbury during the summer before training camp. Now, they have a mess and a very public war in the press that is distracting from the team playing ball. Now it is just irresponsible by the Knicks management. Now, Stephon is doesn’t want to play for the Knicks, but still wants to get paid in full with his buy-out.
- (MH) – The mess with Marbury is not a major distraction as the Knick players went through the media circus and fiasco of the Isiah Thomas last season. Now for short term the players are focused on playing basketball. You can probably get 4-6 games of focused play, but after that it becomes a distraction for the players with the media circling them.
Trade Rumors
- (JA) (rumored trade of Outlaw & Rodriguez for Conley & Warrick) – The current message back from Pritchard in regards to trades is that Kevin wants to see how this team gels and doesn’t want to upset the team chemistry. They like the team the way it is right now. That doesn’t mean that Kevin doesn’t make a trade before the trade deadline, but for right now he doesn’t see Kevin making any moves real soon. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
- (MH) Kevin has done a phenomenal job in building a team that has assets that other teams want. Which is a compliment to Kevin, one big thing this year is the emergence of Nicolas Batum which means you have another player that other teams are willing to trade for.
Civil War – Oregon vs. Oregon State
- 65 pts. The most scored by the Ducks on the Beavers ever.
- Jay Allen plans on giving Mike Barrett a bad time.
