Blazers-Kings: Observations

The preseason can be a very mundane experience for a person whose last game was a playoff atmosphere, but tonight was full of interesting observations.

Tonight was my first look at the new and improved Oden, Andre Miller, Rudy, Martell, rotations, general offensive and defensive philosophy with different personnel (wasn't able to attend Fan Fest), and the referees, among other things.

I sat back tonight and was less of a fan and more of an observer. Here is what I saw.

Greg Oden has made some serious progression with his offensive game. Gone are the days of just trying to drop-step and power through the defender. Tonight I was a lot more impressed with his ability to stay on balance and in control when he was given the ball in the post.

Now, the Kings don't exactly have the players that will challenge Greg on the block and force him out of position, but he looks like he knows what he is doing. He looks like he's learned how to slow down.

In the first quarter, Oden was able to show me the baseline spin move that left his defender in the dust and the fans' jaws dropped in amazement.

The biggest roar of the night, however, came when he faced up his defender from 15 feet and drained the open jumper with ease.

Combine those two moves with his left and right-handed baby hooks and he will start to become a force offensively at his size. He's not Shaq by any means, but it is a great improvement that will help the Blazers tremendously.

The beginning of the game saw the same starting lineup that ended last year with Blake, Roy, Batum, Aldridge, and Oden (as expected).

Roy just looks like he is trying to get back into game shape as his game is pretty rusty. Tonight you could just tell his timing was off from the opening tip when he air-balled a wide open three-point shot.

This led the first unit to look pretty lackluster with one very bright spot in Lamarcus Aldridge, as he looks like he hasn't missed a beat. The thought of Oden, Aldridge, and Roy on the floor at the same time with two other shooters is very intriguing when the game is on the line.

Andre Miller started to pick up the pace a little bit tonight and seemed to get the best of the Blake vs. Miller battle.

I was obviously not too excited when we signed Andre, but tonight he really won me over with a couple simple qualities.

First, he is a great finisher—something we seriously lacked in the second unit last year with Sergio at the point. He has a very sneaky type of quickness very similar to what Brandon Roy does with the ball. He picks his spots very well.

The second thing that won me over was when he was off the ball and took up Blake's spot in the corner. His defender slacked off and Andre passed the ball, took one step inside the arc, and drained an effortless jumper. It showed me that you don't have to be behind the three-point line in order to expand the floor for Greg and Lamarcus.

Third, he is a surprisingly quality defender. He is very heady about body positioning, kind of the way that Rudy is.

He doesn't have the quickest feet and will get exposed by the quicker guards in the league, but tonight he was able to stay in front of his defender very well. Again, that is something that we seriously lacked last year out of any of our point guards.

The second half started with a different lineup than the first half, something Nate said he would play with during the preseason. The second half featured Miller, Roy, Martell, Lamarcus, and Oden.

I thought that this lineup was very effective, but I'm not sure what that leaves the second unit with. This a great lineup to possibly close the game out with, I don't think this is going to be a starting lineup this year.

Blake, Rudy, Batum, Outlaw, and Przybilla just lacks the offensive firepower to be effective in my opinion. If Batum has grown his offensive game as reported (didn't play much tonight because Nate wants to rest him), then that could work at some point in the season.

Ultimately, I think Blake, Roy, Batum, Aldridge, and Oden are going to be the starters—not because Blake is better, but because he works better with the first unit and Miller can pace the second unit so well.

He gives that unit a sense of unity that I did not see last year—a sense of unity that Roy and Blake gave the first unit last year and paced us to the No. 1 offensive efficiency rating. Why mess with it?

Rudy is definitely in an expanded role with the ball in his hands and my first impressions are very good. It is something that I wanted to see last year a little more, but I saw him actively try to get the ball into the post—posting and re-posting Oden on one possession that led to two points.

He drove the lane and kicked out to shooters very well and we all know he can drive and step back for a three with ease. Rudy with the ball in his hands is a very good thing and one I welcome into this offense.

I think it will be important to keep Miller or Blake on the court in case they try to press us, but once we are in half court offense, Rudy does some intriguing things.

Martell was pretty effective for the most part. His moment came when he came off a screen in the first half and showed that stroke that he is well known for, hitting nothing but net.

He also showed a good ability to defend and rebound. Nate said he wanted to get Martell more minutes this preseason just to get him back into the game flow. I think Martell will be a welcome addition to this year's team.

Outlaw is Outlaw. He will never get any better. He will never be able to do anything more than rebound at a marginal rate, make open threes, and make his patented two dribble pull-up jumper.

If you bring him off a screen and allow him to dribble more than four times in traffic and he will get stripped. I really don't see his role on this team anymore.

I would take a bag of sour cream and onion potato chips for him—I'll at least be picky about the flavor of the chips, that's it.

Lastly, I will comment on the referees. Tonight I saw a lot of calls that I would not have seen last year, particularly in reference to Greg Oden.

Greg could be pounded on last year and not get a call and tonight he drew a foul on anything he didn't convert. I'm not saying that he wasn't fouled tonight, but he was given a lot more respect from the men in stripes.

It was very nice to see and it will be interesting to see if it continues in the regular season and against more formidable opponents than the Kings.

Ultimately, these are just my general observations from the stands in the first game, but I do believe that the Blazers are much improved this season and could be looking at about 55-58 wins.

I don't think we get to the 60-win mark unless we really get a firm rotation with very defined roles. Even at that point, we will have some players that won't be happy—we just have too much talent.

For now, that is a very welcome problem for Blazer fans.