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The difference between us and Portland is potential.Our core players are young and the coach is young,too.They won 2 series by talent.If they can play better teamwork,it is more difficult to stop them.
Portland are well coached team and always play right basketball,but they never won a series.Their poor talent limits them.

@ DXL

We've said that since last year and they managed to acquire Gerald Wallace for essentially nothing and swapped Miller for Felton.

@ Mark!
Houston dont have star players after Yao and T-mac,and dont have talent players by draft.Adelman cannot save them.

Perkins, Nazr, Cole, Byron.

We have 5 true centers. Don't forget we extended Byron Mullens' helluva deal for pennies on the dollar...

.. sarcasm of course.

@justin
How does Portland get better? They're capped out for the forseeable future, especially if Oden signs a market-rate contract, and Roy's albatross of a deal is untradeable.

Their Eurostashes feel like they are being "held hostage," all their recent draft picks seem to have struck out, and their starting perimeter players (Felton, Matthews and Batum) are very average NBA players. And they have a dangerous situation at center with the ancient Marcus Camby as their only healthy center.

Portland 1 healthy center and 1 true power forward on the whole roster. What kind of front line is that??? OKC has 4 true centers, and 2 foward-centers.

I'll count out the Blazers as legit contenders as long as they are led by Aldridge and Wallace, who are fine players, but not superstars.

@ Mark!
What if they sign Nene to take Yao's place?

@ The Beard Knows
I see it as more of an age thing. He'll probably get more total in a contract now (29 at season start) than next year (30 at season start). It's easier to justify a long term contract prior to turning 30.

@ justin
They are a good team even without Oden or Roy. I think their defense will ultimately be their undoing in post-season contests.

@ justin

Fortunately, I think we can safely count out Houston now that they've let Adelman go.

I wouldn't count out Portland. Felton is better than Miller, they didn't really need Rudy, and money is no object for them.

I think he is going to be way too expensive. If he is leaving 12M guaranteed on the table heading into a lockout he must think either he is worth 14+ or that he is never going to have a career year like he did last year again. The $/ws would be the highest on our team by far.

If we had Nene at center and Harden in the starting lineup that would be one potent offense

Nene is opting out of his contract! He will be an unrestricted free agent this Summer. Wow!

Now I wish we hadn't spent $3.75M on Nazr, because that would've been money we could've used to lure Nene, in the event the cap goes up on the new CBA and we have more room.

Still, if Nene leaves Denver, that's great for us with the Nuggets being in our division and all. (Unless he goes to another West contender)

I wonder who has enough cap room to sign him. I guess the Nuggets would still be the frontrunner, but they'd have to shell out the big bucks to keep him.

http://www.denverpost.com/nuggets/ci_18380674

@ Daniel Hawaii
Hoopshype and Shamsports have differing salaries for Roy, Camby, Aldridge and Wallace, hence the difference in total salaries. Shamsports is considered more accurate usually (though slow, they haven't switched Felton in for Miller/Fernandez).

I'm filled with glee by Portland's expensive, aging, injury-riddled roster and by its chaotic ownership/management situation. I will count them out as a serious rival to the Thunder for the immediate future.

Wow! That lady is definitely certifiable, though I do sort of agree with her about Joey Crawford.

@ Bryson
Really?

shiki :@ Daniel Hawaii Who will offer him 5yr/$50M?Perk won a ring as a starter and can won another if he was healthy.But he got 4yr/$35M.

I guarantee some team would do it. $10M a year for a possibly dominant center is not a bad price to pay. It's just a matter of finding a team that has that much cap space available and is willing to take the gamble.

Heck, if we didn't extend Perkins, I would have wanted OKC to take that gamble. Durant AND Oden on the same team??? Uh, yes please.

Personally, I think if he had never had a serious injury, he would be the 2nd best center in the league.

@ Daniel Hawaii
Who will offer him 5yr/$50M?Perk won a ring as a starter and can won another if he was healthy.But he got 4yr/$35M.

Daniel Plainview :KD said he played ball with Jimmy H and Reggie J today. Any vids?

I got the impression it was just a workout, so probably no vids. They're all here in town.

DXL :@ Daniel Hawaii I believe Portland’s cap # is over $82 million.

Really? According to Hoopshype's salaries page, they are at $66,343,649 and that's not including Oden's QO.

Anyway, I think Portland is praying no one offers Oden like a 5yr/$50M offer sheet. Then they REALLY will have a tough decision to make.

And don't count teams out to do that. NBA centers are hard to find and I'm sure SOMEONE will be willing to take the risk and pay Oden $10M a year if they think he can get healthy.

@ Daniel Hawaii
I believe Portland's cap # is over $82 million.

The thing is Oden doesn't just have physicality issues but mentally he has been weak in the past. Several months with a sports psychiatrist etc. too much to risk. Like I've always said . giving Oden more than give mil a year represents all that is wrong with the way certain players get paid.

@ Keith

Maybe not, but remember Zydrunas Ilgauskas? He played 82 games in his first season, then five, then missed a whole season, then 23 games. And he was older than Oden.

I don't think it's out of the question that Oden can get (relatively) healthy. The risk is worth it to Portland.

I think there is a team mentality issue with Oden as well. You simply cannot rely on him for any sort of production. Yes, you know he's great when he plays, but can any team expect him to be around for a playoff run? Can any team expect him to show up for a late season push for a better seed? I think that doubt creeps into everything. If you can't count on him for anything specific, how much can he really be worth to the team as a whole?

I definitely think Portland is playing not to lose with Oden.

KD said he played ball with Jimmy H and Reggie J today. Any vids?

@ justin
I don't ever see him playing that many games year in and year out. He's played 1/4th of the total games possible in 4 years, only one of those years reaching your 2/3rds games played.

go thunder

@ bouzi4real

I don't think anyone in PDX gives a shit about OKC. It's more about the Timbers...

Oden is similar to a Volkswagen

@ justin

I agree. He's a stud when he isn't injured.

If Oden can play 2/3 of his games and be OK in the playoffs I'd pay him $9M a season. He's really good when he's on the court... top five center IMO.

I dont think Oden should earn more than Nazr

@ justin
Sounds like loss aversion. If it happens, it happens but how likely do we really think that is at this point. I'm not sure that Oden is going to be worth 8.8M any year in his career. Having legs of drastically different lengths is not a simple problem to fix...the injury prone thing isn't a fluke.

@ justin PDX is a mess right now. Looking at thier team they look like a playoff team...... in the east. Right now in the west PDX has some serious issues. Only one center who is supper injury prone and another who wont play untill 2012. not even enough time to get ready and in shape for the playoffs consider his loing break. So naturally you only draft a PG and a wing shooter.

NO GM. I would feel bad for them but they talk OKC down like its shit. So i kinda hope they suck for a while.

I think Portland had to do that. It sucks for them, but the worst possible case would have been withholding the QO and Oden succeeding somewhere else.

Portland offered Greg Oden his $8.8M qualifying offer. That means they won't sign him to a long-term extension this Summer unless another team gives him a multiple-year offer sheet and the Blazers match.

If not, he'll be in Portland one more year and become part of a loaded unrestricted free agency class next Summer. Of course, the Blazers could extend him during the season, but if I'm Oden, I probably want to test free agency unless they are offering the max.

By the way, Portland cap number is now at $75 million, including Oden's 1 year QO. That's pretty high.

I don't think we could find a better back-up for 3.75M. The one year duration is just icing on the cake.

Yeah despite Nazr not really playing well in the play offs he did great in the regular season and we do need him.

@ justin
A solid tradeoff, in my mind. Besides, if neither he nor Aldrich can get the job done, Presti will make a move. He's in win-now mode, I don't think you'll see him as wary of pulling the trigger if need be.

$3.75M may have been the tradeoff for no long term deal.

Josh :WojYahooNBA Adrian WojnarowskiNazr Mohammed’s one-year extension with Oklahoma City will pay him $3.75 million, league source tells Y!

$3.75M is fine. NBA centers (who aren't stiffs) aren't cheap and Nazr has proven he is a good backup. Even when he was forced to start with Perk out, he did an admirable job. I'm happy.

He gives us rebounding, toughness, experience and even a reliable jumper. And also depth. If Aldrich were to struggle again next year and we didn't have Nazr, we would've been in trouble.

Also, if Perk goes down again, which is always a possibility, at least we know Nazr is capable of starting in his place.

I fully expect Daequan to be back also, so it looks like our whole 10-man rotation is back + Reggie Jackson. This is great!

@ Josh
good way to send him off.

@ Josh
Sounds about right.

WojYahooNBA Adrian Wojnarowski
Nazr Mohammed's one-year extension with Oklahoma City will pay him $3.75 million, league source tells Y!

@ Mark!
That's surprising about the Bobcats. Toronto loves the Raps so that makes sense, and DC is a good basketball city starved for excitement. I imagine Memphis' numbers will see a considerable boost next year. No one took them seriously until the very end.

@ Sammy

Yes, Memphis fans sprouted from no where when they made the playoffs, but the team had an average attendance of 80.9% according to ESPN. Personally, I think all those numbers are wildly inflated (hence 5 teams w/ >100% attendance), but there were 10 non-playoff teams ahead of them in the % rankings. The Wizards, Bobcats and Raptors weren't exactly fun teams, but better attended.

@ The Beard Knows
Yeah, I live in LA and I'd never consider San Diego the same market. NYC and Philly are closer than LA/San Diego.

@ Sammy
I suppose the argument goes that San Diego is a part of the LA market, it is roughly the same distance as Tulsa and OKC after all. However, if you've lived there you know they might as well be different continents.

Dude, I am dedicated... but I could never do that. Props to her!