8-12-09 Mid-August Bust a Bucket

This NBA Summer breakdown by David Aldridge of NBA.com has the Blazers as one of "The Haves." Meaning, he likes what we did this summer and has Portland as a team that is trying to make a championship run.

Trail Blazers Center Court has the audio of Roy on courtside.

Ben from Blazer's Edge gets the details on Brandon Roy, good read.

Pritchard, Roy agree that having Martell back will be huge. KP compares it to picking up a nice free agent.

If you aren't already, follow Bust a Bucket on Twitter. It's important because people like Kim Kardashian and Heidi Montag use Twitter. Awesome.

Also, yesterday Hollinger breaks down the West's pecking order. He has the Lakers at 1A but put's Portland at 1B with the Spurs and Nuggets. If you don't have Insider, here's his take:

Portland Trail Blazers
Nobody talks about the Blazers as serious contenders in the West, but we should. Portland had the best scoring margin in basketball after the All-Star break last season, and as I keep repeating, scoring margin predicts future success better than winning percentage.

Yes, they went one-and-done in the playoffs, but this team should be better this time around. The Blazers added Andre Miller, vastly improving their backcourt depth, and returned Martell Webster from injury. The only departure was Channing Frye, who fell to the fringes of the rotation by the end of last season. Most importantly, one of the league's youngest nuclei gained a valuable year of experience and cut its playoff teeth. Watch out for these guys.