Can I Fire Jim?

Pre-season games usually don't give you much of an indication of anything, however last night's Blazer 99-89 loss at the hands of the Supersonics did actually show us a few things about our young team. Before we get into the enlightening details of the game, it should be mentioned that it's borderline criminal to run Zach Randolph out there for 36 minutes. He's not a mystery, he doesn't need the time, all you're doing is potentially wearing down that knee.

Now, a key thing we can take from this is that Jarret Jack played 31 minutes and Brandon Roy played 33. It's pretty clear that this is the starting backcourt, and the duo that is going to have to lead this team going forward. Jack had a very strong night, 15 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists to go along with a couple turnovers. He was 6 of 11 from the floor, very solid, he's your point guard. Roy did not have as stellar a debut, going 3 of 10 from the floor for 8 points, 2 boards, and 2 assists along with 4 turnovers.

It also appears that we might be ok at the reserve point spot. Dickau isn't totally worthless, and Rodriguez should be allowed to get his 6-10 minutes a night early in the season and gradually getting more and more as the season wears on. I'm genuinely excited about the point spot on this team.

Everyone else of note did basically what you'd expect, Joel and The All Star split 47 minutes with Joel starting, seems logical that this will continue. Outlaw stunk up the joint with 2 of 8 from the floor, a doughnut out of 3 from beyond the arc, although he did manage to grab 5 boards. Travis might be the most in favor of a Las Vegas franchise in the NBA, he'd have to get it written in his contract that he only plays in home games though. Webster also had a splendid evening, logging 19 minutes and grabbing 6 fouls along with his 7 points, no assists, no boards, and 2 turnovers. Anyone want to talk about the rookie small forward down in Charlotte? I didn't think so.

I was going to go off a diatribe about Subterfuge Stevie going on an extensive GM search where he interviewed...well...nobody, and hired himself as the GM. Fortunately, he'll hang himself in that spot and he doesn't need me to make fun of him today (don't worry, he'll get plenty of flogging in this space in the future). More importantly, they promoted, demoted, some kind of "moted" Pritchard to the Assistant to the Regional Manager position. He will now be known as Dwight Shrute going forward. Eventually I'm going to have to set up some kind of glossary on the side bar for all of my pet names for these clowns.