FIO Preview: Portland Trail Blazers

2008-2009 Portland Trail Blazers season preview and fantasy impact, courtesy of Fantasy Insider Online. Read the team preview here in the Yard, and then visit the FIO link for the rest. - Zach Harper Last Season Recap: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly Last year for the Portland Trailblazers never actually happened. At least, that's how I look at it. Their season of high hopes and youthful exuberance were grounded before the preseason even started when we found out that Greg Oden went in for minor exploratory knee surgery and woke up with a micro-fracture procedure and nine months of rehab. The Blazers made the best of it by surprising most of their opponents as they posted a 41-41 season, which was their best record in four frustrating seasons. They missed the playoffs by nine games, but considered the season a great success. Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge and Travis Outlaw all had breakout seasons as they made up for the loss of Greg Oden and the lack of experience at almost every position. Brandon Roy emerged as an All-Star in just his second year, and LaMarcus Aldridge finished third in the vote for the Most Improved Player Award. Travis Outlaw posted career-highs in points, assists, rebounds, offensive rebounds, minutes and games played. This was a very young team (average player under 24-years-old) that couldn't translate its success at home to games played on the road. They were just 13-28 on the road last year, with 23 of those road losses coming by nine points or more. They simply were not competitive outside of the Rose Garden. Jarrett Jack also took a huge step back after his promising sophomore year in the NBA as he lost a lot of his minutes to Steve Blake. Couple those things with the loss of their new franchise player, and it was amazing that this team played as well as it did. 2008 Draft Impact (High) Every year, two things happen during June: someone reminds me that the WNBA still exists and the Portland Trailblazers dominate draft night through savvy moves and smart management. This year was no different. On draft night, the Blazers ended up with Jerryd Bayless at No. 13 after trading with the Pacers (selected him at No. 11), and with Nicolas Batum (No. 25 pick from the Rockets), a smooth offensive player from France who is a couple of years away from contributing in this league. Bayless won't be the starting point guard at all this year, but he will be a key contributor off the bench. He's a terrific scorer who gets to the line frequently and is impossible to guard one-on-one. He was rumored to go as high as No. 2 to Miami and ended up being gift-wrapped to Kevin Pritchard and the rest of the Blazers' front office. Bayless has the chance to be a player in the Bobby Jackson role from back when the Sacramento Kings were title contenders. He will be a scoring backup point guard who changes the pace of the game in a positive way. And two years from now, he will be the star point guard in the best young backcourt in the NBA. Off-Season Impact Moves The offseason saw some simple but pertinent moves that bring this young Blazers team one step closer to being a perennial playoff contender. They traded away Jarrett Jack and Brandon Rush on draft night to secure Jerryd Bayless and acquire 2005 lottery pick Ike Diogu. This freed up something of a logjam at the point guard position, secured Steve Blake as the starter, and will allow Sergio Rodriguez and Jerryd Bayless to fight for the backup spot. It also gives the frontcourt THAT much more depth by bringing Diogu into the mix with Joel Pryzbilla, Greg Oden, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Channing Frye. But most importantly, they signed one of their first round picks from the 2007 draft, Rudy Fernandez, away from Europe. Anybody who watched the Beijing Olympic basketball games knows exactly how special Rudy Fernandez can be. He has a very quick first step and explosive moves in getting to the rim. He's going to be the perfect complement to Martell Webster and Brandon Roy in the backcourt. He can stretch the defense with a solid outside shot and can attack the rim at will. Fernandez will more than make up for the loss of sharpshooter James Jones. However, the most important event of this offseason was Greg Oden's getting healthy and being cleared to play basketball again. Oden is one of those rare Shaquille O'Neal/Tim Duncan-type of big man who comes around once or twice per generation. He's going to be healthy this year and relatively healthy for a very long time. He is the type of basket protector and rebounding force that controls a game without having a play called for him. The Blazers will bring Oden along slowly this year, but by March he'll be the most talked-about player in the NBA. Preview for the 2008-2009 Season Team MVP: Brandon Roy, SG - Roy emerged as the best player from the 2007 draft in just his second year as he made his first All-Star team. He's the tablesetter and the go-to guy for this team, and as long as he's successful, the Trailblazers will be as well. Nobody means more to this team. Breakout Player: Martell Webster, SG - Webster was the best outside shooter for Portland last year. This year, he'll have the most open looks of his short career. With Oden and Aldridge packing defenders into the paint, and with the playmaking ability of Brandon Roy, Webster will be left alone thanks to collapsing defense and poor rotations. He should emerge as a Top 10 three-point shooter in the league this year. Bust Player: Sergio Rodriguez, PG - I like Rodriguez's play, but I just don't think he's the right type of player to be the main backup point guard on a playoff team. He takes too many chances when he should be making the simple and smart play. Rodriguez is best used as a quick change-of-pace point guard who is third on the depth chart. He'll lose his backup chance to Jerryd Bayless pretty quickly and the Blazers won't look back. Playoff Contender or Pretender? The sexy pick that you'll see in most NBA previews will be Portland as the sleeper team. Portland has a lot of young talent, and with Greg Oden and Brandon Roy leading the way, they have two of the Top 10 players five years from now. However, they cannot win now with the stars that they'll have someday. This is an extremely deep team from one through twelve. The have arguably the deepest frontcourt in the league, anchored by the most underrated defensive center in Joel Pryzbilla. They also have some great young athletes at the wing positions and will wait for Jerryd Bayless to become an All-Star point guard. Nevertheless, even with their youth and their depth, the Trailblazers aren't serious contenders this year. They will be in the playoff hunt and could even grab the eighth seed in the last week of the season. But they are far too young and far too inexperienced to offer up a legitimate stake to the claim of being one of the NBA's elite teams. The legitimacy of their elite standing will be on the broad shoulders of Greg Oden. When he becomes the best center in this league (and he will soon enough), they will challenge for the Larry O'Brien trophy. But until then, Portland is just going to have to be everybody's sleeper team.