FanHouse Preview: Trail Blazers

FanHouse previews all 30 NBA teams in advance of the 2009-10 season.

Kevin Pritchard has, amazingly, gone from "favorite NBA genius" to "evil, demented mastermind who garners shifty and angry eyes from people who root for other teams." I'm not sure when that happened -- I believe it was in his second consecutive year of draft-fleecing when people finally stood up and said, "ENOUGH!"

Of course, the Trailblazers are still beloved (again, I think) and are, without question, the pre-eminent NBA team on the rise -- even though that's probably a bit of a misnomer considering they won their division last year. Well, tied. I mean, they won, but I'm pretty sure everyone would take Denver > Portland in terms of performance coming down the stretch in 2009.

However, this past offseason was somewhat different, because it didn't feel like Pritchard was "building" anymore. Instead, he went out and signed Andre Miller from free agency. Miller, over the course of his career, has been one of the best-performing and most underrated point guard in the NBA. And he seemed to be the perfect piece in a potential championship puzzle.

Then the preseason happened, and things got awkward. Personally, I think that the Blazers will be fine; Nate McMillan's a veteran coach, so you know he's far too smart to allow Miller to come in and taint an otherwise spectacularly congenial locker room.

That general feeling of goodwill in Portland starts, naturally, with Brandon Roy, who, besides being one of the best players in the NBA, is also one of the nicest. But his quiet demeanor on and off the court is a stark contrast to his steadily improving, deadly All-Star-caliber game that carries this team.

Even though, somehow, it might not be Roy's [insert: leap/level/jump verb cliche here] that makes the difference in the 2009-10 Portland squad. I mean, yeah, he needs to be really good again, but that probably won't be a big issue. What might is the improvement of Greg Oden (you notice he's not mentioned below), the continued breakout of LaMarcus Aldridge (he really is quite good) and the further development of the various upside-riddled role players like Martell Webster and Travis Outlaw.

But this team is straight stacked and will be getting all the "sexy love" leading up to the season -- that is to say, because they seem like such a semi-sleeper in the Western Conference, you can expect a lot of people picking them to do things that might actually exceed their ability, even if the baseline for success is built based on last year and the talent level that populates this roster.

So, in summary, be careful: yeah, this is a team that's seemingly crafted in almost perfect (and more importantly, patient) fashion. And yeah, they're the defending division champs, but they're gonna get a lot of love, and every time I think of the West Coast and over-hyping I can't help but think of the 49ers and Cardinals from the NFL ... but maybe this year that won't be such a bad thing.

Last Season By the Numbers

Record: 54-28 under Nate McMillan. Finished 1st in the Northwest Division, 4th overall in the Western Conference. Eliminated by the Houston Rockets(4-2) in the first round.

Offense: 99.4 points per 100 possessions, 14th in the NBA. 15th in shooting, 7th in turnover rate, 1st in offensive rebounding, 17th in free throw rate.

Defense: 94.1 points per 100 possession, 4th in the NBA. 14th in shooting defense, 12th in opponent turnover rate, 6th in defensive rebounding, 12th in opponent free throw rate.

Top Performers: Brandon Roy led the team in scoring with 22.6 points per game. Breakout LaMarcus Aldridge was second with 18.1 points per. Joel Pryzbilla was the team's top rebounder at 8.7 boards per and Aldridge clocking in at second with 7.5. Roy (5.1 assists per game) barely edged out Steve Blake (5.0) for "top passer." Unsurprisingly, Roy also led the team with 1.1 steal per, while Aldridge managed 1.0 Oden, Pryzbilla (leading at 1.2) and Aldridge all averaged over a block per game.

All statistics via Basketball-Reference.com.

Player to Watch

FanHouse's Matt Moore and Tom Ziller preview one player to watch from each team. Here's a snippet of Moore's post on Joel Przybilla.

Przybilla is the polar opposite of his younger replacement (as in, the guy he's being replaced by). No hype. Not flashy. Not heralded and swooned over. But when we start throwing out the phrases "effective" and "workman," Przbilla is as prime a candidate as any. The Vanilla Gorilla has not only done the work, put in the time, and become a very solid NBA center, but he's got the numbers to back it up.

See Matt Moore's full post on Joel Pryzbilla.

Offseason Tracker

IN: Victor Claver (draft), Jeff Pendergraph (draft), Dante Cunningham (draft), Patrick Mills (draft), Andre Miller (free agency)

OUT: Sergio Rodriguez (trade), Channing Frye (free agency).