After 5 months of silence.... MIXUM RETURNS NOW

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH... IT IS GOOD TO BE BACK!!!! Man, it feels like its been 2 off seasons since I posted here. What day better for a MIXUM return then MEDIA DAY? The last time you heard from me was on April 29th. The night the blazers season ended. I kept my promise as I have not posted since. Today is September 27th, almost exactly 5 months to the day that you had last heard from me. With a new season on the horizon... Mixum is ready to go. God knows I need it. Following the Bills so far has been like following the Oden rehab... brutal. Anyhow it was a hot hot summer here in the north east. I spent much of my summer on the beaches of CT and Newport, RI while waiting for the Blazers to make the big trade and see where Lebron would grace his presence. I feel old today as I just turned 33 yesterday watching the Bills lose in Foxboro. Enough of that. Lets get to my recap of the summer that never was for the Blazers....


Lets start at the draft where we all knew Kpee was on the verge of being fired. Thank god it finally happened. I was in Newport RI (DJ-ing a friends wedding) around June 5th when I read the first Quick article saying KPEE was close to being let go and lets say it made my weekend much better. It was the worst kept secret in the NBA. The draft however was like the last few in years past... BORING. Basically same thing... we trade a solid player for a project. Personally I liked Martell and thought Babbit was a reach. My initial thoughts were we better pray Batum stays healthy.... and thats iffy since he has a bum shoulder. IMO... bad move. The guards we drafted seem ok but they are bench fodder. Hey at least KPEE is gone. That made me smile since I told you guys he sucked 2 years ago. I thought it was hilarious that Quick was reporting KPEE had 1 more move up his sleeve to land a star. Like that had any chance of going down.

Free agency was pretty much the same as the draft. Very quiet while you knew we would f##k the Jazz some how. That has become as predictable as Oden getting hurt. Wesley Mathews is a solid player. Will be a nice backup to Roy. Wont look lost like Rudy does on defense. Did we overpay? Obviously. But he's a nice player. I mean, I didn't expect much here. We really couldn't sign an elite player and we had no GM to pull off quality trades. Hell, we still dont but I will get to that. The Chris Paul fiasco/speculation was just that. If he gets traded... it wont be till February and likely wont be here. It was very upsetting we didn't make a play for Collison though. Great young PG who could have been a nice fit. We had the pieces to make that deal.

Summer league was interesting. Johnson stood out to me. Nice looking COMBO guard. Like we need another. Mills is a chucker.... thats pretty much it and wont waste another sentence on him. Penergraph took a step back. Looked like Oden did in his first summer league. FOULS x10. He really looked bad IMO. Duante was decent but I expected more. Babbit was up and down. best game was his last. Looks like an all or nothing type player. If his three is falling... hes good, if not he's useless. Him playing defense was painful. Again... did we really trade Martell for this guy? Really?

The Gm hiring of Cho. I guess the word boring or letdown comes to mind. Listening to him speak was as bad as watching Rudy play in the playoffs. The Cho hiring to me was kind a safe hiring. Maybe even a YES MAN hiring. My problem is, I dont see this guy pulling off one sided trades. Could he trade Rudy for a bad draft pick? Yep. He likely will. But why cant we get a GM with a little panache? Swagger? Someone who is a wheeler and dealer? Cho will say all the right things... or at least try to say them... but again will be very average as far getting us to another level. The other problem is... no quality GM's want this job after the KPEE fiasco. Can you blame them. Its a wait and see I guess. But this time next year I expect us to be searching for a PG or picking up Millers option.

This season will depend greatly on health and how some of our younger guys develop. I mean we still have no PG of the future, no backup PG, no backup PF who can bang and no backup SF. Thats kinda concerning. Did we take a step back or a step forward? I mean we signed Mathews but we signed him at a position we were stacked at. How does that work???? Then theres Oden... who nobody knows what really is going on with him. First he could return for the playoffs, then he would be ready by mid summer, then training camp... now we hope to see him by next years playoffs. I mean good god, what a joke that has become. Can they just come out and say.... "greg isnt where we had hoped" instead of this Mike Barrett sugar coating sh!t? Jeez. Its time to just accept Oden might not play till after xmas IF we are lucky. Anyone out there who hasn't come to terms with greg being a bust needs to do so. Otherwise you are gonna be really bummed out by next Spring. Its like I knew in July by the transcripts I read on Oden, this dude would be nowhere near ready for the season. I mean theres wishful thinking and just being Mike Barrett JR aka HCP-ing it. All sunshine and rainbows.

This team IMO is nowhere near the elite teams until we make some trades. Roster is a cluster of combo guards and fragile centers. It SHOULD be a playoff team but I wonder if we are more the Utah Jazz (jazz reached expectations) or Hornets (fell out of playoffs after being NBA darlings) of last year??? Im sorry but I wasn't very impressed with anything the blazers did all summer. Hopefully they will prove me wrong. With all that said.... I have returned. Its good to be back. I've missed posting here, Ive missed blazers basketball, and missed lots of you guys as well. Btw I checked out that Rudy Cee dude over the summer.... that boys good!!!


MIXUM HAS RETURNED FOR THE NEXT CAMPAIGN!

GO BLAZERS!!!

 

Oh shit - as if Media Day hadn't been sucky enough. Still, good to see the ignore function still works.

 

The season has started. Odens hurt and Rudy's complaining.

 

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

Welcome back, MIXUM!

 

good to be back my friend. i cant take this barrett homerism shit anymore.

 

Great post, I found it an entertaining read and can see where your coming from.

 

What kind of Barrett homerism coverage are getting out there in CT?

 

Thank god chicken little has returned...shouldn't you be a Celtics fan? Save the Blazers for us in their home market.

 

the same that you read from the oregonian or blazersedge or blazers.com.

shhh its 2010

and no WEAV i hate the celts BUT.... i have tickets i just got on my bday from my lovely GF for that game in boston. hopefully speed is going. hopefully hcp misses the plane.

 

I repped it. A very good read.

 

Welcome back MIXUM! I usually disagree with you, but at least you keep things interesting.

 

the guys who dont like it are the same guys who had visions of oden playing an 82 game season... in other words...


HCP-ING it

 

I'd rather be compared to HCP, a true homer fan, than you, a guy who claims a favorite team from 3000 miles away....pathetic

 

a homer fan is the worst kind of fan.

its like asking your mom.... mom do you think im good at basketball? she says "youre the best hun" as the ball just caused a 3 car accident from the kids wild shot.

 

A homer fan is the best kind of fan, because they actually support their local teams. Rooting for a team from across the country, to a place you've never lived, is rediculous. You have no sense of our community, so how can you claim to be part of it?

Root for your home team

 

I HATE LOCAL TEAMS.

 

And that's why you'll never have any integrity as a fan

 

exactly how is Johnson a combo guard?

He primarily ran the point (showing good ball handling and passing/decision making) and guarded the other team's PG (quite well). Dude didn't demonstrate much of an outside shot or shoot much. I don't think the question on him is if he's a pure point or combo but whether he's got enough talent to earn minutes.... a knock down jumper and he's ahead of Bayless.

STOMP