NBA 2006-2007 Preview: Trailing the Competition

Portland Trail Blazers
Coach: Nate McMillian, 2nd Season (21-61)
General Manager: John Nash
’05-’06 Record: 21-61, Last Northwest Division


Projected Starting Lineup (’05-’06 Stats)

PG – Jarrett Jack (6.7 ppg., 2.0 rpg., 2.8 apg.)
SG – Brandon Roy (Rookie)
SF – Darius Miles (14.0 ppg., 4.6 rpg., 1.8 apg.)
PF – Zack Randolph (18.0 ppg., 8.0 rpg., 1.9 apg.)
C – Joel Pryzbilla (6.1 ppg., 7.0 rpg., 0.8 apg.)


Key Additions: SG Dan Dickau (trade – BOS); C Raef LaFrentz (trade – BOS); C Jamaal Magloire (trade – MIL)

Key Subtractions: PG Sebastian Telfair (trade – BOS); C Theo Ratliff (trade – BOS); PG Steve Blake (trade – MIL); C Brian Skinner (trade – MIL)


2006 NBA Draft
Round 1 – C LaMarcus Aldridge (2nd overall; from CHI), University of Texas; PF Joel Freeland (30th overall), International – Spain
Round 2 – N/A


Positional Breakdowns

Guards
With Sebastian Telfair now across the country wearing the green and white of the Celtics, Jarrett Jack has inherited the job as the point guard for the Blazers, also known as the team with the worst record in the NBA last season. Jack needs to come in and immediately take charge, something that Telfair was never given the ability to do so in his two seasons in Portland. Jack does some things better than Telfair, so maybe this is a good change. He is more mature when it comes to decision-making, so he won’t have some of the bad mistakes that plagued Telfair in the past two seasons. Jack can make good decisions and will help his teammates to get better looks at the basket and get some more open shots, something that will be vastly important with the youth on this team. Jack is going to give them some scoring, but he’ll have to get more aggressive to take the pressure off other players. Guys like Randolph or Miles might see more space if Jack can be assertive and make the concentrated effort to score.