Portland Trail Blazers

The Portland Trail Blazers are suddenly a playoff contender, and J.J. Hickson is suddenly a hot commodity. At present, Portland is one game over .500 and just a half-game outside the Western Conference playoff bubble. In the midst of a rebuild, few expected the Blazers to toil with a .500 record, let alone a playoff [...]

Amar’e Stoudemire has a long way to go, but that’s no reason for the New York Knicks to panic. The six-time All-Star returned to New York’s rotation on New Year’s Day, as the Knicks fell to the Portland Trail Blazers 105-100. He played just 17 minutes, was an unimpressive 3-of-8 from the field and finished [...]

The Denver Nuggets have a problem. Strike that, the Nuggets have a bounty of problems, none more pressing, however, than their overall start to the season. After having what many deemed one of the most fruitful offseasons in the NBA, Denver currently sits at 4-6. To put that record into a more significant context, let’s [...]

When the Portland Trail Blazers signed Nicolas Batum to a four year deal worth nearly $50 million, the hope was that he would develop into a superstar this season. But is he ready? It’s a fair question, because while the 23-year-old continues to improve on a season-by-season basis, his averages of 13.9 points, 4.6 rebounds [...]

September 11, 2012 – Dan Favale The Portland Trail Blazers are an enigma. Portland went from title contenders to clawing for a playoff spot to a bona fide lottery team in 66 games last season. And to make matters worse, it’s unclear whether the Blazers have enough pieces in place to turn it all around [...]

June 26, 2012 – Griffin Gotta When Brandon Roy retired after the 2011 season, it was a sad ending for what was a magnificent run of basketball — when he was right — with the Portland Trail Blazers. It was also woefully short, even as magnificent runs go. The belief that Roy, who had to [...]

May 30, 2012 – Griffin Gotta Tonight, a bunch of bouncing ping-pong balls will decide the drafting fates of the NBA teams who did not qualify for the postseason. The draft lottery process itself isn’t much to watch; we are introduced to the folks representing each franchise, explained the rules again, take a few hundred [...]

February 22, 2012 – Griffin Gotta TWith every team in the NBA playing around half of their scheduled 66 games for this lockout-shortened regular season, it is appropriate, given the turning of the page that is this weekend’s All-Star break, to look towards each conference’s respective postseason hierarchy. What we could be seeing in the [...]

February 10, 2012 – Griffin Gotta This week brought us one of the more perplexing questions of the NBA season thus far: Is it better to be an All-Star reserve or Jeremy Lin? Right now, you could make the argument that the mythology surrounding Lin is on another level than that of being named to [...]

February, 2012 – Dan Favale After acquiring Raymond Felton on draft night, the Portland Trail Blazers seemed poised to make a legitimate championship push this season, yet that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. The Blazers started hot, but have cooled off to the point of frigid over the past ten games, dropping to [...]