All, Sly informs me that I epicfailed at trying to PM people without the ability to reply-all, so I'm putting this out into the open. Sorry if you've already been spammed with it. I'm writing to you tonight because you've expressed an interest in writing for the RipCityTwo team in a semi-official capacity. As we're trying to become more "legit" with the site as well as the Trail Blazers community at-large, Denny and Sly have asked me to take on a role as a de facto editor of "official" site content--game previews, interviews, features, press-row reports, etc. I am in no way an arbiter of normal day-to-day posting content outside of normal mod duties. That said, I'm here to ask if any of you still are interested in taking some responsibility for writing. As I see it, it's the goal of the site to become the go-to repository for Blazers to get not only their forum fix, but also some more content that you'd expect from more "professional"-type places. As such, I'd like to be able to have a coordinated package of items we provide to the RC2 community as well as Blazers (and basketball) fans at-large. The package I'm thinking of goes something like this (if it makes sense...I'm taking suggestions): (Each gameday) -Darkwebs' Game Thread Starter -a RC2 Game Preview (I'll post a draft of what I'm thinking of in the thread below) -Game thread (as usual) -Gramps and MM's game links -Forensic Fan -some other post-game? (Weekly) -Power rankings updates? Compilation of other sources, or maybe our own? Maybe a consensus of the Top 30 users' picks or something? -One original article about the Blazers--could be funny, could be an Open Question to the Blazers or Mgmt, could be someone writing an Onion-level article about Leonard's increasing range (he's working on half-courters in practice!) -podcasts as scheduled (Other stuff as it comes up periodically) -All-Star vote count reviews -Playoff chases -Schedules upcoming -Ask-a-Blazer, work at some of their charity stuff, etc. -more "technical" things like today's "what does Robinson's option mean" or dviss doing a post about how to call charges or something I also see this as a semi-qualification process for the press passes. If you're submitting content (and/or coming up with ideas) then you're in line for a pass. Denny and Sly have mentioned their idea that when guys go to the game, they write something special about what they saw - not necessarily a recap, but stuff like "player X was limping, player Y couldn't dunk to save his life in pregame warmups, the hot dogs on level 3 suck, don't buy them!" and so on. I'm droning now, but I wanted to say that I envision this as a forum writing team, not as a journalistic dictatorship. If there is enough interest here, we'll come up with a process for posting ideas, assignments, rough drafts, etc. The intention is to get the articles picked up by the Blazers and potentially others. I think it's a great opportunity to become even more well-known as a fanbase that knows their head from their keister, or else I wouldn't be wasting all of our time tonight. Please feel free to respond back in this chain, or PM me separately. I look forward to hearing from all of you and seeing what we come up with! Thanks, Brian
Here was an initial cut at an Opening Night Preview. I've been told it should probably have more one-on-ones or positions in the matchup area, as well as some more pics and gifs. I'll be doing Forensic Fans afterwards as well--would you guys get tired of seeing a pre- and post-game with pics all over them (not of the TimberTroll variety, sorry). Any feedback would be appreciated. This is for your consumption and what you think other fans would like. Blazers v. OKC Game Preview (10/29/14): Our Last game: Let’s not talk about that. If misery’s your game, here ya go. http://www.nba.com/video/channels/playoffs/2014/05/14/0021300225-por-sas-recap.nba/ Their Last game: It wasn’t lifting a trophy. Game 6 of Western Conference Finals. http://www.nba.com/playoffs/2014/westseries7/index.html Our last game vs. other team (season series) http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/preview?gameId=400489648 POR finished the year with a 98-95 loss to OKC, but were 2-2 against the Northwest Division champs and Western Conference Finalists. Things got a bit chippy, though, after the last contest. Durant had 36 points and 10 rebounds as the Thunder evened the series against the Blazers 2-2 in their final regular-season meeting. Jeremy Lamb had 19. For the good guys, Nicolas Batum had 18 points for Portland, in the midst of losing five-in-seven. Robin Lopez finished with 17 points and 14 rebounds for his 19th double-double. LaMarcus Aldridge, who missed a mid-range jumper in the final seconds that could have salvaged the win for Portland, was asked what he thought of Durant's comment. Other Last year’s team + Changes to their roster (Author's Note: this only for the first 10 games or so until opponents get a 2014-15 identity) Following up on their run to the WCF (where they lost to the eventual Champion Spurs in 6) they went into the offseason with the 21st and 29th picks in the NBA draft. They selected Mitch McGary from Michigan and Josh Huestis from Stanford. "He brings energy, passion, and great basketball IQ and toughness what we value" said Presti on drafting McGary. Oklahoma City also signed Semaj Christon in the draft and Sebastian Telfair in FA. But they lost a major piece in Thabo Sefolosha who agreed to a 3/$12M deal with the Atlanta Hawks. They then signed Anthony Morrow to a 3/$10M contract. Lance Thomas, a 6’8” defensive-minded wing whose work ethic and tenacity has impressed Mike Krzcyzewski @ Duke and Monty Williams in NOLA, worked his way onto the roster. Injury Updates: Kevin Durant (Jones Fracture) out about 6 weeks. Guard Anthony Morrow sprained his MCL in his left knee during Thursday's practice. He will miss the Thunder opener Wednesday. Kendrick Perkins day-to-day with a quad injury and generally just being Kendrick Perkins. McGary (fracture in his left second metatarsal) is expected to miss approximately six weeks. With injury announced Oct. 9, he’s probably about 3 weeks left from returning. Reggie Jackson and Jeremy Lamb have also missed a large portion of camp along with Nick Collison (only 11 minutes all preseason, but presumably healthy now) and Serge Ibaka. http://www.okcfox.com/story/26889027/thunder-lose-another-player Matchups: I think the entire league is going to watch Russell Westbrook v. Damian Lillard (regardless of if Wes Matthews or Nick-Oh-Lah is guarding RW). Consensus is that RW is going to look like 2004 K*be out there gunning for his in order to keep OKC relevant. My gut feel is: No Way, Jose. Not against us on Opening Night. He averaged a shot every 2 minutes in the preseason, even with trying to get the younger guys some run. He shot 37% while doing so. I don’t think he keeps that up all year (I think, personally, more shots at a better clip, but still) and I don’t see too many areas of weakness other than perhaps our backups against Reggie Jackson, in which case Stotts will go back to his Starters-In Blankie. I’m also interested in seeing a real-life bench rotation and what it means for 2014-15. I think Kaman and Blake have taken the bulk of the backup 4-5 and backup PG minutes, which leaves some time at the 2/3 for CJ, Wild Will and Barton to fight over and a few minutes at the 4 for whoever of Freeland or Leonard makes the best matchup. I don’t see Crabbe or Claver getting out of suits and I don’t know what Robinson did to get the Beautiful Central Oregon Treatment. (Get it? LaPine? French for “so deep on the bench that splinters…? Nevermind) Give-a-Rip (City) Factor—a.k.a. why you should watch: Uh, it's Opening Night. Legit Blazer basketball hasn't been played in 5 months. But if you need reasons: As stated already, RW v. Dame has the potential to be epic. OKC doesn’t have the horses right now to handle LMA, but even if they do, Kaman has the potential to go 14/8 in 20 bench minutes against their bench. I want to see how much the bench provides in support of the best starting 5 in the league – last year they were a league-worst 23 ppg. Between Kaman, Blake and the bench mob du jour, the Blazers should do much, much better and keep the starters much, much fresher for those 4-in-5 trips coming up starting in December. I think you’ll see starters matched with bench play rather than wholesale subs—specifically Blake in with LMA and Dame in with Kaman. No truth to the rumor that Coach McScribbles called up to suggest to Coach Stotts a “White Team” of Blake, Claver, Leonard (“I shoot 3s now!), Freeland and Kaman. Though if it does, HCP will be getting twittered (tweeted?) on the air about it. The other bench item to watch for is how much Blake can keep the main offense running, even with some subs in. “No! Mo” no longer is around to dribble the air out of the ball before freezing out wing players and doing his high-beta thing, so it could get very interesting. Current Power Rankings: NBA.com: ESPN: (5) The Thunder aren't known for fervent free-agent pitches, but they went hard after Pau Gasol. Have to confess we spent a fair bit of the summer imagining what Pau might have done for KD, Russ and Serge, even though they still sit on the short list of true title contenders if all three stay healthy. Fox: (4) The true reality of Kevin Durant’s foot fracture is that it won’t mean much come April. That’s the beauty (and often the bore) of the 82-game marathon. Prediction: Come NBA playoffs, the story will be about how Russell Westbrook and the rest of OKC grew without Durant and how “it’s helping them now." NBA.com (preseason): (2) Hand-wringing in OKC about not improving, but they needed to add a veteran shooter, and they did in Anthony Morrow. No big moves? Did a team that finished second in the league overall really need one? OKC's biggest problem now that the Heatles broke up is the team right above them. That's it. CBSSports (preseason): (2) If Adams plays more minutes than Kendrick Perkins (they were about even last season), the Thunder will have a higher ceiling offensively. On the other end of the floor, they'll need the younger guys -- Reggie Jackson, Jeremy Lamb and Perry Jones -- to make up for Thabo Sefolosha's departure on the perimeter. Covers: (9) The loss of Kevin Durant for the first 20 games or so drops the Thunder one spot from where I would have had them originally. Expect another division title to come with relative ease. Links to other team’s site(s): . Thunder Home Page: http://www.nba.com/thunder/ Thunder "#1 Fan Page". http://okcthunder.info/ Final Thoughts: First game of the season, at the Moda Center, featured game on ESPN, us at full strength and them, uh, not…I think it’s one we gotta come up with a W from to set the tone. Yeah, 9 of the first twelve are at home, but they’re against some of the powerhouses of the league (OKC, GSW, DAL, LAC, CLE). A good win against a depleted yet determined contender will keep the excitement going. I don’t know how much goodwill will carry over in ticket sales if the team gets off to some close losses, but something like 5-7 regardless. The time for moral victories passed as soon as SAS blew us out of the building last May. Season starts off right in an offensive explosion---Good Guys 115, Thunder 103. McWhatevers for everyone! And if this is your first time on RipCityTwo, welcome. Here's a microcosm of what's to come:
I'm not at all skilled enough to write for the website. But, and I love a good butt, I would like to keep starting a "post game analysis" thread. Encourage everyone to write one long post about what they saw from watching at least 3 quarters. Looking for things that perhaps the other writers missed. And it's way for me to have to wade through the whole game thread. If this is redundant, I'll be happy to cut it out! much love Brian for all the work you do.
I think a post game analysis thread works very well. You just do you, Eastoff, and we'll reap the benefits.
I think writing a preview could be fun, so would writing post game. I can submit an example of my writing to see if you like how it reads. Just go ahead and let me know. I'm also down to help out with organization or anything needed! I don't have league pass or the time required to do accurate weekly power rankings.
its an interesting idea to try and put a tidy little bow on us, but aside from a long winded "game preview" how is it different that what we already do? i mean, at a certain point with the game preview i was just reading things i already knew, and it got a little "tl;dr". i think the idea, if you wanted to make a big deal out of it, would be to do a BIG FONT X/XX/XX GAME PREVIEW/REVIEW STICKY for each game, or else it will just get buried generally there is so much minutia pertaining to each game that there will be 10 threads before and after that have a much more specific tilt such as "lillards socks" or "that third quarter run" or "holy shit MY-LE is dumber than 11 hammers in an inside-out crown royal bag" or "trob is sulking" or CJ needs more burn" etc, etc, etc for people to specifically relate to, and thats how it should be imo
An S2 power ranking would be great. I think a lot of people on the forum watch a lot of basketball and a short recap of the league is great for people who can't or don't have time to watch a ton of games. I think getting 10 or so people to vote weekly and averaging with someone writing a line or 2 about each team. Also I am down with writing some articles. I like more column pieces with more of a Blazer opinion or viewpoint as opposed to a post game recap, though I can/have done that.
Should there be a best looking dancer for the game thread for every home game? I would be interested in this job. Maybe even interview one dancer each and every game? Okay maybe two a game....
