Hello! So, I'm thinking about getting into basketball. I've never had any interest in it since I've lived in America (six-odd years, give or take) but I'm going to give it a shot next season. A lot of the Blazer fans showed interest in the World Cup this summer so it's only fair if I give basketball the same chance. Since you guys all moved to S2, I've been reading the odd Blazer thread so that's the team I know most about. The Blazers are definitely "my team". All I am asking for is a little bit of help/advise. When does the season start? Who are the 'breakthrough players' I should be looking out for next season (I know all the 'big' players, ie: Roy, Oden)? What are the biggest games? What are some must-know facts about the Blazers? You get the idea. Also, what the fuck do all these stat abbreviations mean? How do I know what's good? Does anyone have a good link to an article for b-ball beginners? I want to know everything. Share some YouTube videos, articles, blah blah with me!
Welcome! The season starts in late October/Early November but there's always something going on. Even before the Preseason (October) and training-camp before that there's the off-season. Right now the consensus is we need an upgrade at Point-Guard. Everyone loves Roy (Shooting-Guard), Oden (Center) and Batum (Small-Forward). Aldridge (Power-Forward) is, IMO, not a much better player than Miller (the current Point-Guard) but he's at least much younger. We also have tons of talented bench players and if we send like two bench players and Miller for a superior (or at least younger) Point-Guard, we'll benefit twice - by having a better Point-Guard and by somewhat solving the minute-distribution-problem: help promising players like Dante Cunningham and/or Armon Johnson get some real-time action, give the rookies some kind of chance. In other words, have more quality and less quantity which is supposed to be a good thing. I read many threads here but lately I think all of them, from Rudy wanting a trade, to Chris Paul speculation, to Monte Eliis speculation, to Darren Collison speculation are about this thing. shorten the Guard rotation from 4 Players to 3.5, while improving at PG (instead of Miller, Roy, Rudy, Bayless something like, maybe: Collison, Roy, Bayless, Johnson) and maybe shorten the rotation inside (instead of Oden, Aldridge, Camby and Joel maybe Oden, Aldridge, Camby and Pendergraph?) in order to get us what we want in a trade. The Small Forward position, with Batum as starter and Dante as his primary backup is set, IMO. Hopefuly, we wouldn't have to mess with that position (I can imagine teams asking for Dante, if not Batum) in order to make the other moves.
Good choice... maybe. I'll give you a brief history of the team after this: Pre-season is set to begin at the beginning of October and last most of the month. The regular season begins sometime between the 27th and the 31st of October. The schedule hasn't been released yet. On the Blazers, we think Nicolas Batum will be better than ever. We have three rookies, Luke Babbitt, Elliot Williams, and Armon Johnson. Hopefully they will show some promise. In the NBA, the top rookies to look out for are Blake Griffin on the LA Clippers and John Wall on the Washington Wizards, though there's usually a surprise or two. Aside from the playoffs and the all-star game, I'm thinking any matches featuring the LA Lakers, Miami Heat, Boston Celtics, and Orlando Magic. Portland versus Utah and Phoenix will probably get more attention than the average game around here. The Portland Trail Blazers have been around for 40 years. They first made the playoffs in 1977 and went all they way to the NBA Finals and won it all. Since then, it's been a string of disappointments trying to win it again. The best rosters in this team's history featured: 1977 and 1978 teams with hall of famer Bill Walton at center, all-stars Maurice Lucas at forward and Lionel Hollins at guard, and the following players whose jersey numbers are retired: forward Bobby Gross, forward and guard Larry Steele, guard Dave Twardzik, and forward Lloyd Neal. They won the title in 1977, were the top team in the regular season in 1978 before losing Walton to injury, killing their season. After that there were contract disputes and what could have been a dynasty turned into a colossal failure and the team never recovered. The 1990 through 1992 teams were lead by hall of famer Clyde Drexler at guard, all-stars Terry Porter at guard, Buck Williams at forward, Kevin Duckworth at center, and Jerome Kersey (never an all-star) at forward. That was the consistant starting line up. Forward Clifford Robinson and guard Danny Ainge also played a lot of minutes for those teams. This group made it to the Finals in 1990 and 1992, losing both times. Their 1991 team had the best regular season record, but lost to the Lakers in the Conference Finals (league semi-final). These players stuck around the team longer than most other players in its history, and are probably the most well known. The 1999 and 2000 teams had a lot of good players, mostly older veterans, featuring all-stars Rasheed Wallace at forward, Scottie Pippen at forward, and regulars Arvydas Sabonis at center, Steve Smith at guard, Damon Stoudamire at guard, Bonzi Wells at guard, and Brian Grant at forward. Half of those players only played on one of those two teams due to trades. These teams couldn't get passed the Conference Finals in consecutive years, but they played the eventual NBA Champion both times and many consider those match ups to have been the best of the playoffs. The current team has been improving almost every season. In 2006 they won 21 games, in 2007 32 games, in 2008 41 games, in 2009 54 games, and last season only 50 games due to an unreasonable amount of injuries to almost every player on the roster. Despite the excuse of injury, the management has gotten a significant makeover. The roster may yet see some significant changes. If everyone is healthy and no one else is traded, the starting line up should feature Greg Oden at center, LaMarcus Aldridge and Nicolas Batum at forwards, and Brandon Roy and Andre Miller at guards. Marcus Camby could start in place of Oden at center if he's not up to snuff. Jerryd Bayless at guard and Wesley Matthews at guard or forward might be the only other players to get any significant minutes unless a rookie shows he's more ready than expected. Statistics: PTS - points PPG - average points scored per game (any xPG is pretty much [insert stat] per game) AST - assists REB - rebounds BLK - blocks STL - steals TO - turn overs PF - personal foul MIN - minutes played G - games played FG% - percentage of field goals made FGM - field goal make (any xxM is pretty much [insert shot type] make) FGA - field goal attempt (any xxA is pretty much [insert shot type] attempt) FT% - free throw percentage 3P% - 3-point percentage Positions: C - center (usually stays under the basket unless he's a Euro, then he can probably shoot longer shots) F - forward: PF - power forward (usually plays both near the basket and out at range) SF - small forward (typically makes drives to the basket or shoots long shots) G - guard: SG - shooting guard (should be one of the best long distance shooters on the floor, but may also be able to drive to the basket) PG - point guard (the player in charge of running the offense and moving the ball. Sometimes a star player not playing point guard can perform these duties) Positions can also be numbered: 1 - point guard 2 - shooting guard 3 - small forward 4 - power forward 5 - center Here is a basic run down I'll get back to you on youtube vids shortly.
So if the Blazers have that sort of quality all around the team, what is holding them back? Injuries? Confidence? Do basketball teams have youth academies like a lot of soccer clubs? What is the most promising youth player on the Blazers? Also, my knowledge is very basic, what do all the different positions mean and what is their job? (PG, C, etc) What is the rule for rotating players in a game? Does every player on the bench have to play?
The best moment in the history of the franchise, the 1977 NBA Title: [video=youtube;_IF_F5FzZRY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IF_F5FzZRY[/video] The worst moment in the history of the franchise (sorry fans, avert your eyes), the 2000 Western Conference Finals Game 7: [video=youtube;RY06eaFaplw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY06eaFaplw[/video] 2003 playoffs, unreasonable offense: [video=youtube;-C0iK_3FgAY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C0iK_3FgAY[/video] Team highlights from two seasons ago (for some reason, no one made a highlight video this year, probably from disappointment): [video=youtube;hUpbVK4CO1Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUpbVK4CO1Q[/video]
Significant injuries, and sometimes confidence as a result. Their roster of fifteen combined to miss 312 games. Out of 82 games that was roughly four injured at any given moment, as many as seven at its worst (half the roster), and their best player Brandon Roy was either out or playing injured when he shouldn't have during the playoffs. Two of their centers Greg Oden and Joel Pryzbilla missed 2/3rds to 3/4ths of the remainder of the season. Two rotation players, Nicolas Batum and Travis Outlaw (who was later traded) missed half the season. Roy and Rudy Fernandez missed a quarter of the season, and two of our three rookies missed 1/3rd of the season (not a big loss, but the team was short on players). This is considered unusually bad.
No. The NBA has a development league for players 19 and older, who neither play in college anymore nor can make the NBA outright. Usually it's difficult for these players to get into the NBA, but some do. The Blazers are currently affiliated with the Idaho Stampede. All players who are younger play for their local schools or colleges. Players are assigned to NBA teams in the NBA draft if they are coming into the league for the first time. If they apply and are not drafted, they can sign with any team. This goes for both US college players and foreign players. See my long post above. Any player can rotate in or out at any point in the game where the clock is stopped (timeouts, ball out of bounds, end of period, fouls, etc.). Eight players must be fit to play at the beginning of the game, but only five ever have to play. There are twelve players on an active roster at game time, and up to fifteen players under contract at any given moment. A player is disqualified from the game if they accumulate either six fouls or two technical fouls for unsportsmanlike conduct. Usually there are no suspensions for fouling out, but if a player collects 16 technical fouls over the course of the season (for every 16) they will receive a suspension, like yellow cards. Sometimes they are ejected outright if they do something particularly heinous. This is usually followed by some kind of suspension.
I've had a lot of sports-related torture thanks to Arsenal so I should be fine. How many pre-season games are usually played? Do the teams ever leave the country to play overseas? What's up with DC getting random worldclass/future star players? Ovechkin, Andy Najar (DC United), and now this guy... I assume rookies are given a different sort of contract than the 'senior' players? Cool. Are any rivalries based off of location or is mainly down to history? Sounds like quite a rich history. It seems as though the team has gradually gotten better in the past couple of seasons. Lets hope they can keep that momentum. How many games are in a season? What is considered average for PPG, FG%, FGM, FGA, FT%, 3P%? Thanks for this. The center is the guy who does the tip-off thing at the start, right? Is Shaq a 'high-profile' center? Was Iverson a small forward (just looking for examples). Is Roy the PG or SG? The PG is the guy that always starts the play (unless it's a break), right? Is Nash a PG? I'll give that a good read, thanks. Thanks for the response, Entity! Rep is deserved (and you, Blazer4ever).
Damn, Kobe worked it there. That one guy on the Blazers looks old as shit! I'll watch the other ones later.
Usually about seven. The NBA usually sends two to four teams over to Europe to play some of their best teams, and some Euro teams can pull off a win on occasion. Many of those matches are also between two NBA teams overseas. I believe London will host some games this year. Washington's basketball team hasn't been too relevant since the 1970's, so for this sport it's a bonus for them. The rookies fall under an automatic pay scale, usually close to the league minimum if they get drafted late, and up to a lower to mid-level sized contract if they get drafted high. The most significant rivalries usually develop from playing teams frequently in the playoffs. For instance, the LA Lakers and Boston Celtics have met in the NBA Finals 12 times including twice in the last three seasons, which is absolutely outrageous for any American sport. Theirs is considered the best rivalry. Boston and Philadelphia used to have a long deep hateful rivalry, but Philly hasn't been relevant in 25 years, so much of that has been lost. In the Western Conference, any team hates the Lakers. The Lakers have won the Western Conference half of all possible times, which is very unfair to the rest of us. Portland hates the Lakers, the Jazz, and the Suns for having played those teams the most in the playoffs. Portland used to have a rivalry with the Seattle SuperSonics just north of us, and that was based on location, but that franchise was moved to Oklahoma two years ago. Other notable rivalries in recent history are Chicago vs Detroit, New York vs Miami, Chicago vs Cleveland, San Antonio vs Phoenix, and Dallas vs San Antonio. There are 82 games in the regular season, and up to four playoffs series, first to win four games advances to the next round or wins it all. PPG, decent is about 10, good is considered about 20+ Assist PG, decent about 4-5, good about 7-10 Rebounds PG, decent about 4-5 for outside players, good about 5-7 for outside players and 10+ for inside players. Inside players really need to strive for this number. Blocked shots PG, decent over one, good over two Steals PG, decent over one, good over two FG%, decent is about 50%, good is about 55% or better. Long shooters have a more difficult time keeping this percentage up, and might hover around 45% and still be considered decent if they shoot enough 3-pointers. FT%, decent is 80%, good is 85-90% 3P%, decent is 35%, good is 40-50% Yes. He used to be. He will definitely be considered one of the best ones ever, but not the best. No, he is/was a guard. He can play both guard positions. Height also plays into what position a player plays. Most point guards are about 6'3" and shorter. shooting guards tend to be between 6'4" and 6'7". Small forwards 6'7" to 6'10". Power forwards 6'8" to 6'11". And Centers are usually 6'10" on up. Iverson is about 6'0", but he's more of a scorer than a passer. He typically plays SG, but he can play some PG, though he would have difficulty guarding the opponents' PG, and usually a better defender would take that duty in that instance. More often than not. Yes, one of the more prototypical ones.
I should mention that when a player is ejected or disqualified, the team is not penalized by losing a position on the court. They can still replace that player with another from the bench.
wow entity i'm amazed at how much time you put into this thread. Big props on explaining pretty much everything
Arvydas Sabonis is the greatest European basketball player of all time. [video=youtube;RY06eaFaplw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY06eaFaplw&feature=player_embedded[/video] Sabonis was about 36 years old in that game. He was drafted by the Blazers in '86, but didn't arrive to play for the team until 1995 at the age of 30. Blazers fans often wonder what could have been the Blazers fate if Sabonis had come to the team while ('89-94) Clyde Drexler, Terry Porter, Jerome Kersey, Buck Williams, and Kevin Duckworth were still with the team. This team made it to the finals anyway, but Sabonis was so good it's hard no to think about what might have been. [video=youtube;06usV6451ik]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06usV6451ik[/video]
More on amateur players: American college players are not considered professional. They do not make any wages or receive any kind of reward other than their scholarships for playing for that college. Once they do, that college is penalized, usually by forfeiture of previous games featuring that player and lost scholarships to give to players in the future, as well as post-season suspension of the team for at least a couple of years. Players are considered professional when they sign with an agent, which disqualifies them from ever playing college basketball again. College basketball is also very popular in the US, and is considered by many to have more purity due to the lack of monetary motivations for players. American colleges end up being very lucrative money-making factories, redistributing some of that revenue back into the sports program, and keeping the rest for academics, research, and scholarships. The youth play for their local high school, and competition at that level is considered watchable by many audiences throughout the country. In some places, typically more rural areas, it's the most interesting level to watch sports. For example, American football in much of Texas is considered more prestigious at the high school level than at college or professional levels, despite professional American football being the most popular sport in America.
The only event that rivals the NBA Finals is NBA All-Star Weekend, played once a year in one rotating city throughout the league not named Portland. This is a three day event. The first day is Friday, and consists of all the things nobody gives a shit about, like the Rookie Challenge, which pits the leagues first and second year players against each other. I believe there's also a celebrity game that features famous people who don't play basketball and embarrass themselves. Saturday is the contests. There are five events, in order of public interest from least to most: the Development League All-Star Game, which nobody ever watches because most of them have no chance of becoming stars in the NBA, the Shooting Stars Challenge which is the part of the night people start making their food. An NBA player, a WNBA player (woman), and a retired NBA player who play or played in the same local area team up to make baskets at different parts of the court as fast as they can in under two minutes. The third event is called the Skills Challenge, which is where four talented ball-handlers dribble through an obstacle course, attempt to make passes on target, and shoot shots from different parts of the court in the fastest time. Then comes the part of the night that people watch. The 3-point shootout, where six players compete to make as many 3-pointers from five different locations in 60 seconds as they can. And the slam dunk contest, with four players trying to do the most difficult dunks and are scored by a panel of judges in the opening round, and by the fans in the final round. Sunday is the All-Star game between the two conferences. All-Stars starters are voted in by fans. This often explains why old has-beens who don't deserve to be there are voted in, and why Yao Ming's teammates receive an unusually high amount of votes, thanks to China. The reserves are selected by coaches who are not allowed to vote for their own players. Any injuries are replaced by the league Commissioner.
Entity deserves some major reppage for the time & effort he's put into this thread! Nice work! I can't rep him no mo right now so hopefully others will.
Repped Entity. This is fantastic work, and well worth the read even if you everything about the game already.
Great job Entity...I have followed basketball along time and I think I learned some new stuff. At least about the Blazers...appreciate all your effort!
