Hollinger

To celebrate opening day, ESPN held several NBA chats. A few highlights:

Sean (Vancouver): What's the over under for Blazer wins this year. Healthy or not.

John Hollinger: I'll go with 30 wins. They're an interesting team to watch with all those young guys, but it's going to take a while, and I'm not sure McMillan is the right guy for their situation.

Interesting prediction from Hollinger. My personal prediction is 33 wins for our boys. The funny thing is there are a million question marks for the Blazers this season but it seems to me that McMillan has proven himself to not be one of them.

Mike (Reno, NV): Is there anything for us Blazer fans to look forward to this year?

Chris Sheridan: Start keeping a tally of the number of times Zach Randolph shows up late for something. Zach and coach Nate are already at odds over Randolph's tardiness, and McMillan is probably scoring points with some of the other players by holding the tam's highest-paid player to the same standard as everyone else.

A smart, thoughtful journalist might say something like "watching the development of all of Portland's young guys" or "seeing Sebastian Telfair blossom", but ESPN.com's Chris Sheridan comes in with the easy route. Nice work.

Joe (New York, NY): Why do half the people at espn.com doubt the Lakers will make the playoffs? They have arguably the best player in the league, Lamar Odom playing a more natural three position, and arguably the greatest coach of all-time. If he can win with MJ, Scottie, and Bill Cartwright, he can win with this team.

John Hollinger: The absolute, only reason to think L.A. will make the playoffs is Jackson. L.A. has no point guard, a weak frontcourt and little depth. Plus, the Jordan-Pippen comparisons to Kobe-Odom are just a wee bit overdone -- the only thing Kobe does like Jordan is imitate him in interviews, and perhaps if and when Odom makes an All-Star team we can start comparing him to one of the league's 50 greatest players.

I put this question in here not because it was about the Blazers, but because it echoes what I've been saying all offseason: the Lakers are a garbage team and I don't understand how even half of the ESPN prognosticators could predict them to make the postseason.

Also a note about our opponents tomorrow night (you'll remember that McCants was rumored to be a possibility for Portland to draft for a couple of months):

Matt (Orlando): With the drafting of McCants, already having Wally and Trenton, what are the Wolves thinking? Are they done as a playoff contender already, or can Jaric and KG be enough to sneak in?

John Hollinger: McCants gives them a bench scorer and they need somebody like that, but they can't play Wally and McCants together because they'll get ripped on D. T'wolves only shot for the playoffs is if KG plays all 82, Jaric stays healthy and Kandi Man wakes up.