Hooped Up

Another van glorious season of NBA basketball is about to begin and Hooped Up does a quick and dirty preview of all 30 clubs.

The Blazers made tremendous strides last year, improving by 13 wins from their ‘07-08 campaign and with the help of newly acquired Andre Miller that shouldn’t change.

Brandon Roy is a stud and the combo of LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden (if healthy) forms one of the leagues better frontcourts.  The Blazers should have a top 4 finish in the west along with a deep playoff run. Happy days are here again in Portland. Read More »

After hitting some snag in the deal negotiations, the Portland Trailblazers signed forward LaMarcus Aldridge Thursday to a five-year contract extension with an estimated value of $65 million.

The 6-foot-11, 240-pound Texas product was originally seeking a similar deal that the Blazers struck with All-Star Brandon Roy, a five year $80 million dollar extension, according to reports. He eventually settled on a deal worth roughly $15 million less after months of negotiation.

Aldridge, acquired from Chicago in a draft day trade on June, 2006, played in 81 games last year for Portland.

AHN

I’m not crazy about the NASA math-lottery project that is the NBA All-Star roster selection process and I really think the NBA should just pick the entire All-Star squad themselves and spare us the confusing leftover numbers of the “vote”. In most cases, the typical fan needs to be saved from themselves and in the end the NBA picks the team anyway.

I have no problem with the starters selected because an idiot couldn’t have messed that up, but here are some of the leftover numbers that really bug me! Read More »