Quick Thoughts

1. Oden Ouch: The Blazers have recently gotten the tough news that Greg Oden, their number one pick and the ballyhooed number one overall pick, will miss the entire season with micro facture knee surgery.  The immediate reaction was to talk about how the Blazers are in serious trouble and that Oden may carry the curse of previous high picked Blazer centers Bill Walton and Sam Bowie, whose careers were both seriously curtailed by chronic problems.  The injury to Oden, while certainly … [Read more...] about Quick Thoughts

1.    Dream Team?: Well the FIBA Americas tourney has come and went and, as anticipated, the United States dominated the proceedings.  Of course, the margin of error is so slim in these international proceedings that you can't assume a win in the 2008 Olympics.  Still, the team did seem to have a nice balance to it.  As to whether this team could take the original 1992 squad, I'm agnostic on the subject.  What I am more interested in is how a coach sorts out these types of All-Star … [Read more...] about Quick Thoughts

1.    FIBA Things: So far the FIBA Americas really haven't gone down with much surprise but here are some things to note: -The US is obviously the best team again and its margins of victory have been ridiculous  Still, you can't take these three blow outs to mean that the US has extended the gap against Spain and the other medal contenders for the Olympics.  Before today's win over Brazil by 37, the US has played Canada, the Virgin Islands, and Venezuela.  None of these teams … [Read more...] about Quick Thoughts

1.    Donaghy Problems: The Tim Donaghy situation is clearly the NBA's biggest nightmare on many levels.  But what do we really know about this whole thing yet?  We know that Donaghy had a gambling problem, that he owed the wrong people money, and that there was a possibility that he was calling games in such a way to affect point spreads.  It is not clear how this will all play out.  David Stern has been very sensitive to any accusations of anything that implied that  his product … [Read more...] about Quick Thoughts

1.    What're Yi Doing?: The least shocking news of the day was the announcement of Yi Jianlian's Chinese team the Beijing Tigers that it would not permit him to sign with the Bucks.  According to Beijing's owner Chen Haitao: "This is not -- as media reports have said -- because Milwaukee, as a city with very few Chinese people, is not good for Yi's commercial development.  Rather we want to find a team suitable for Yi's growth. That's the root of the problem."  It's not quite … [Read more...] about Quick Thoughts