Derek Weber's blog

Philadelphia vs Chicago Most would think this is your standard 1 vs 8 seed match-up. However the Bulls are an intriguing team, they’ve played well with and without Derrick Rose all season. I can’t remember a team winning the #1 seed after having their star player out for so long.

Now none of that changes things and the Bulls should make quick work of the 76ers.

Bulls in 5.

New York vs Miami Players might have changed but a New York/Miami playoff series still draws me in. Talk about star power you have 3 of the top 10 players in the league and 5 of the top 30. This is what you expect to see in the playoffs, just not normally in round 1.

The Knicks can pull out some games in the series but they’ll have to get great shooting performances from J.R. Smith and Steve Novak. Melo will do his thing but Amar’e needs to step it up and put on a consistent show each and every game. Even then it’s tough to envision the Knicks winning a series against the Heat.

Heat in 6.

Orlando vs Indiana Hmm well, I don’t think there’s much to say here. The Pacers are the strange team that you don’t think can win in the playoffs since their best player is Danny Granger, but they got themselves the best possible match-up.

The Magic are a deep shooting team based off Dwight Howard’s play, of course Howard isn’t playing so…not sure what they're going to do.

Pacers in 5.

Boston vs Atlanta Do the old/experienced, depending on your preference, Celtics continue their late season surge and move past the first round? Or do the surprisingly consistent Hawks, even without Harford, beat the vets?

I can see this going either way, but I think Pierce, Allen and Mr. tough guy want to show everyone that they’re not done yet.

Celtics in 6.

Dallas vs Oklahoma City A rematch of last years Western Conference Finals in team name only. The Thunder all seem to be there assuming Harden’s brain isn’t broken. The Mavs on the other hand are year older not as good defensive team and not as good at knocking down threes. But then again they seem to know what their doing in the playoffs. But, yes there’s a lot of buts, can you rely on Vince Carter? No you can’t.

Thunder in 6.

Utah vs San Antonio Ooooo, this could be a good one. The Spurs surprised everyone, not that anyone should’ve been surprised, with taking the 1 seed. They had the 1 seed last year but lost to the front line heavy Grizz. The Jazz well…have a great front line too. I like the Jazz, they have 4 real front line players, that’s 4 more than some teams.

The Spurs on the other hand, aren’t dumb and don’t tend to make the same mistakes more than once. I think they’ll learn from last year and won’t want to lose in the first round as a 1 seed two years in a row.

Spurs in 7.

Denver vs Los Angeles Lakers The Lakers are too old and they complain too much and they have a crappy coach and have an impact player out for the next six games. Denver is young and plucky and can score and can defend. Sounds like a miss match to me. Buuuuuuuutttt then again this are the Lakers with a huge front line and one of the most clutch players in history who despite playing what seems like 48 mins a game everyday for the last 10 years is playing like he found the fountain of youth.

Lakers in 6.

Los Angeles Clippers vs Memphis What? The Clippers in the playoffs? Oh yeah sorry that was my thought process the last 30 years of my life. Sure they went out and got Chris Paul and it paid off. They made the playoffs, too bad their going to get clobbered in the first round.

Memphis surprised a lot of people last year in the playoffs, but they were built for a slowdown playoff series. The difference between now and then, they added Rudy Gay back into the mix, giving them flexibility to play big or small or fast or slow.

Oh yeah, who’s Blake Griffin going to guard and not foul out?

Grizzles in 5.

It seems strange to be talking about Game 4 of a playoff series, but the NBA lockout has caused the 2012 regular season to bleed into what would normally be the middle of the first round of best-of-seven series. But that doesn't matter, what matters is today April 23, 2012 is the one year anniversary of the last great Trail Blazer moment and what would turn out to be the last great performance of one of Portland's all-time greats.

After a January knee surgery, Brandon Roy was regulated to minimal minutes and a bench role. The one time savior of the of Game 4 showed us what we all missed.

Thanks to Pinwheel Empire for the video.

Roy’s moment.

I listened to excerpts of Brian Wheeler's call today and couldn't help but get chills. This happens sometimes to sports fans, whether it's a timely Kirk Gibson home run or a Miracle on Ice.

After that euphoric feeling I thought, "Wait, that was only a year ago?" That seemed strange to me. Think about what has happened since then. Roy only played in two more games for the Blazers then retired after another proposed pillar of the franchise, Greg Oden, had his umpteenth knee surgery and was cut from the team to find room for trade-away castoffs. And then Nate McMillan was fired mid-season.

Not only has the team changed dramatically in one year, more upheaval is on the way.

It may be a long time before Blazer fans have something like Brandon Roy and and his fourth quarter again. Thanks Brandon.

We’re coming up on 3 weeks out from the 5th annual RFA Cup. Now I’m sure everyone is aware of the RFA Cup but just in case here’s some background.

The RFA Cup is the middle event in the Roofball season. The simplest explanation of Roofball is: a sport where a player throws a football at a target located on a roof.

Now on to the preview. On August 14th 24 players will compete for the 5th annual RFA Cup. Defending Champion Derek Weber, that’s me, will try to defend his title against six time champ Dan O’Reilly and four time champs Adam Willis and Buddy Emmons. With a win Dan and Adam would become the second player ever to win all the major tournaments, the World Championship, RFA Cup and the US Open. Buddy in the mean time looks to win his third RFA Cup.

Other competitors include:

Steve Stupey – 2009 US Open Champ

Matt Azar – Two second place finishes

Rob Saliski – Three third place finishes

Amy Determan – Two time woman champion

Bethy Rossos – Host of Adrenaline Hunter, first time competitor

If you’re interested in learning more check out www.roofball.org where you can find out more about the rules, players and records. Interested in showing up watching or possibly playing? Email president@roofball.org.

Here is a video preview of the tournament with Adam and myself. 

“You know, I looked at these three trophies yesterday and I said, you know, I'd really like to win one. Just win one, just get up there,” Willis said, “and the opportunity to win the big one, that's pretty exciting.” Adam Willis talking about his 2009 World Championship win.

Tonight I was able to attend the Nike Clash of the Champions tennis exhibition event held at the new Matthew Knight Arena. This including watching Victoria Azarenka vs Maria Sharapova in Woman's singles and Rafael Nadal vs Roger Federer in Men's singles. The men and women also joined forces to play a lively game of mixed doubles.

Of course you could tell this was an exhibition as sometimes the players took points off, but this also led to the players going for certain shots you'd rarely see in an actual match. Federer must have tried 4 of the 6 between the leg shots during the course of the evening.

A pair of former UO quarterbacks also made their debuts as line judges in Joey Harrington and Dennis Dixon. Phil Knight seemed to be the toast of the event, which makes sense, since he built the arena and was obviously the force that drew these Nike athletes to Eugene.

The players played to the crowd often talking to court side viewers and even turning down multiple marriage proposals and kegger invites. But the crowd favorite had to be John McEnroe, who not played up his image as a rebel but also jumped in the judges chair for the mixed doubles match before taking Federer's spot for two points.

It was a fantastically fun time and I can only hope more events like this come to Oregon in the future.

Results
Azarenka over Sharapova 4-4 tie breaker 5-0
Nadal over Federer 7-5
Federer/Sharapova over Nadal/Azarenka 6-3

"I'd like to come back and watch them play in this arena." Roger Federer when asked if he'd come back and watch the Duck football team. Whoops.

I've been planning on writing Blazers trade blog for the last couple of days, but I figured I'd go something like this.

Blazers fail, again, to use their "assets" to pull off a meaningful trade.

Honestly after the Wallace trade seemed to fall through yesterday I was PO'd. But I've got a big Blazer smile on my face today. Now will this trade bump the Blazers into title contender status? No, but it is a step in the right direction. The Blazers were able to acquire the best player off a team for their own spare parts. Let's break it down.

Blazers get:
Gerald Wallace. A starting small forward and an upgrade at the position. Yes I know most Blazer fans think Batum is the next Jesus Shuttlesworth but will never be much more than a third option on a team and he's not there yet. Wallace has proved he can score rebound and defend in this league. He was even on the All NBA defensive team last year along with averaging a double double.

Wallace's style of play should have a great positive affect on the stale Portland offense. The team is constructed of jump shooters and Wallace is a take it to the rack kinda player. Couple this with the now constant double teams LaMarcus is facing and he should have plenty of assists to the new guy.

Blazers lose:
Joel Przybilla. At this stage of Joel's career he's a back up and looking at him play recently he's a hurt back up. Sure the guy brought toughness and a take no crap attitude. But when all is said and done he was on the last year of a contract that was paying him $7.4 million a year and that's a trade chip that cannot go unused.

Dante Cunningham. A cheap role player. Sure good teams have players like Cunningham on their roster, but you can find these guys everywhere. Dante was also on his last year of a second round draft contract which means he was due for a raise if the Blazers wanted to keep him after this year they'd need to go deeper into the luxury tax and this is not the type of player teams do that for. Sure he brought a toughness and go get'em attitude but Portland got that back in Wallace.

Sean Marks. I was surprised a found a player profile on Marks on NBA.com. Some say he might be the worst player in the league but he's got a big body and that can be enough to keep a job in the NBA. Reports indicate the Bobcats will waive him.

New Orleans #1 pick in 2011. This is the pick Portland acquired in the Bayless trade at the beginning of the year. So Cho was right when he said he was accumulating assets. This pick should be in the early 20's this year much like the Blazers own pick.

Portland's 2013 first round pick. This is a couple of years off so the Blazer obviously feel they won't be a lottery team then and I'm inclined to agree. If the Blazers think they need a mid to late fist rounder in 2013 they have time to complete a trade or just flat our buy one, which they've done twice in the past 3 years.

Rich Cho "No." When asked if it was hard to trade Sean Marks.

A friend and I were talking the other day about fantasy football and we got on the subject of what would your all time line up be. We hashed this out with out looking into stats we also went with players since the merger. We wanted to make sure these players were bonified stars and not one year wonders so we wanted to average the numbers over the players best three year period.

Scoring

Offense

TD - 6

50 Passing yd - 1

10 Rushing yd - 1

15 Receiving yd - 1

INT - -1

Lost fumble - -1

FG made - 3

FG missed - -1

2 point conversion - 2

Defense

TD - 6

Sack - 1

INT - 2

Fumble rec - 2

Safety - 2

Points allowed 0 - 10

Points allowed 1-6 - 7

Points allowed 7-13 - 4

Points allowed 14-20 - 1

Points allowed 21-27 - 0

Points allowed 28-34 - -1

Points allowed 35+ - -4

Our all time team

QB - Dan Marino 375

WR - Jerry Rice 374

WR - Randy Moss 311

WR -Chris Carter 298

RB - Marshall Faulk 443

RB - Preist Holmes 404

TE - Antonio Gates 244

K - Jason Elam 117

DEF - Chicago Bears 190

Total - 2756

What do you think? Are we leaving anyone off?

“To me it was never about what I accomplished on the football field, ... it was about the way I played the game.” Jerry Rice

Every few years in college football a new innovative offense comes around and to a certain extent dominates the competition. Currently that offense is the spread offense. Now these offenses don’t seem to last long but parts of them seem to stay, heck even today you see some versions of the wishbone.

Basically play calling goes something like this: Offenses create new plays/formation that defenses haven’t seen before. Defenses develop ways to defend. That’s all there is when you boil it down.

Now, the spread offense has been around for a few years and the defenses are starting to catch up. My belief, and this is just my thoughts, is that the spread was created so undersized teams could get their faster players in space, these teams couldn’t match up with the bigger boys of the college football world. Now we see teams with bigger and better athletes using the spread and that’s why it seems so hard to stop.

I’m by no means a defensive coordinator and have absolutely no experience, but here’s what I’ve seen work against the spread. Please note these are very generalized. 

1. Controlling the ball. If your offense can control the time of position you can limit the amount of opportunities the opposing teams offense has.
2. Man to man. Since the spread option is used to get their guys in space, take it away. That might be easier said than done, but if you play man to man and yes that means you have someone spying the QB you should limit the space the ball carrier has. Basically stay with your assignments.
3. Play up on the line. If you have DB’s who can play up on the receiver you’re a step ahead of most teams. This will take away one of the most used plays in the spread offense, the wide receiver or bubble screen. This should also help elevate the pressure of the QB option since your defense is already strung our along the line.
4. Take acting lessons. The most effective way I’ve seen of stopping the spread is to get hurt or fake an injury. The spread offense is a momentum offense. If you can break the momentum you can take the offense out of rhythm and give your own team some time to regroup. 

“We have an attack mindset from the get-go. We're going to try to pressure you in as many ways as we can, from the tempo we play at to the formations we run.” Chip Kelly

A couple weeks ago the pod cast group was arguing about NBA realignment. This was brought on while talking about the Blazers and their “divisional rival” Minnesota Timberwolves. Why the heck is Minnesota in the Northwest division? Why’s there a Northwest division in the first place, since only Portland seems to fit into that description? Anyway here’s my attempt at realignment, with a slight tweak from what I presented on the 10.4.10 Podcast. I’ve tried to simplify things. Each division winner would receive an auto big to the playoffs then the next best 6 teams in each conference would go.

East Conference

Atlantic

New York

New Jersey

Boston

Charlotte

Orlando

Atlanta

Washington

Miami

Mid West

Toronto

Indiana

Milwaukee

Detroit

Cleveland

Chicago

Philadelphia

Western Conference

Central

Minnesota

Denver

Oklahoma City

Houston

Dallas

San Antonio

Memphis

New Orleans

Pacific

Portland

Utah

Sacramento

LA Clippers

LA Lakers

Phoenix

Golden State

I know that the NFL season has started and football is truly America’s sport, but here in Oregon we’re passionate about our Blazers and since we’re less than a week away from the start of NBA training camps I thought now would be a good time to talk Blazers.

I’m not going to go into predictions right now, you’ll read plenty of that in the coming weeks on this site and about 185,429 others by my calculation. No, I’d rather talk about goals. I know there’s only a subtle difference between the two but I think it’s important to set goals at the beginning of the season.

Win the Northwest division – Lets look at the reality here, four out of the five teams have a chance to win this division. Utah replaced Boozer with Jefferson and still has one of the top three point guards in the league in Williams. Denver has a solid and experienced team, although it’s looking like Carmelo might be headed out of town. OKC is a team on the rise and has one of the top five players in the league. That being said Portland has finished with over 50 wins the last two years despite injury problems, this is a reasonable and achievable goal.

Big trade – Paul Allen seems to be getting close to the win now mentality, if he feels the opportunity for the Blazers to make a deep run in the playoffs he’ll instruct his minions, err I mean front office to do go after it. Personally I’m thinking PG but you never know. Perhaps a big trade is not the goal but improving the team for the short term in a big way should be. The team as constructed is not good enough to win a championship.

Second round or bust – Enough of the first round failures. This team needs to make a run in the playoffs. A first round appearance is good for a team that is building but multiple first round exits are not good for anyone, and the back to back Blazer first round exits the past two years only served as a reminder that the Blazers are not a championship team.

Go big stay big – We need to play to our size advantage, we have a front line that can keep up with the Lakers and we need to play that way. That’s going big, staying big means staying healthy. I know that accidents happen but the goal here is to stay healthy. I’m talking about 70+ regular season games from Greg and Marcus. Once Joel gets back he needs to stay healthy as well. Sure I could keep going on about Greg since I think we all agree or at least want him to be the missing piece so badly, but it’s really a combination of all three players.

So there you go four goals for the 2010-11 Portland Trail Blazers. Would you be happy with achieving these goals?

“It’s a great day to be a Blazer.” Brian Wheeler

Cupcakes, everybody loves them, right? Not me, some people say their sweet and savory, I say they’re boring and a waste of time. Wait, you thought I was talking about the little pieces of cake covered in paper, no I’m talking about football, more specifically the “smaller” teams and programs the big boys schedule. So I guess I don’t really hate the cupcakes I just hate that “big time” programs of the world schedule them. I want to watch GOOD football, people!

The top college football teams build their season on weaker opponents. The system basically encourages them to do so. Why should a team poised for a National Championship run threaten that by scheduling an out of conference game against an opponent that has a chance of winning?

That being said, I started looking at it this year and realized that hey some of these teams are scheduling some decent, and in some cases good opponents. Let’s take a look at the top ten teams and their schedules thus far.

Alabama – San Jose State, Penn State

Ohio State – Marshall, Miami

Boise State – Virginia Tech

TCU – Oregon State, Tennessee Tech

Oregon – New Mexico, Tennessee

Texas – Rice, Wyoming

Oklahoma – Utah State, Florida State

Nebraska – Western Kentucky, Idaho

Iowa – Eastern Illinois, Iowa State

Florida – Miami (OH), South Florida

As you can see Alabama, Ohio State, Boise State and even Oklahoma are playing some good teams. Nobody on the list has played more than one and Nebraska, Iowa and Florida could step it up a bit.

I have to say I’m surprised to see teams scheduling some competitive games. Now if we could eliminate the FBS vs. FCS games or make sure they don’t count on the record we’d have something.

“I’m tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money. I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.” Shaquille O’Neal