Watch this short video of Nate McMillan discussing the team yesterday, then we'll discuss:
Blazers practice: Lineup changes may be on the horizon
The hints are oblique, but you can understand why, as the Blazers come back home for a date with the semi-resurgent Kings, the buzz in P-Town is revolving around a change at starting PG and giving sophomore Jerryd Bayless more run. We'll have to wait until tonight for sure, but according to one Blazers Edge poster, Jason Quick also predicted a change yesterday while speaking on 95.5 The Game.
Is it a rational thing to do, move Miller into Blake's spot with the first unit? If you've watched the Blazers play this year, it's hard not to see the merits--Blake has been a poor distributor and his shot has been just abysmal so far. With Roy on the court by him, the first part hasn't been as much of an issue because Roy tends to handle the ball a lot himself (and in three-guard alignments there's even less pressure on Blake to make the big pass). But the absolutely crucial part of Blake's game is to hit some treys and stretch the defense. In effect, his long game IS his distributive skill; when he makes his shots the floor opens wide for the true scorers on the team (if they can hit theirs!)
Miller is not the shooter that Blake is--although for lack of another option he's been taking and draining some downtowners lately--but he is a much better and much more active passer. He doesn't drive to the hole like Brandon does necessarily, but considering Blake doesn't drive at all, Miller's an improvement. And that added activity, while not necessarily pulling defenders out from under the basket, does tend to keep them guessing and looking peripherally a lot for cutters and trailers.
The other part of Blake's game that is leading to some questions about effectiveness, is his typically extended dribble in the halfcourt. All Blazer fans understand the frustration, hearing Mike Barrett call a missed opponent shot with "...and the Blazers can run," only to see Blake stop past halfcourt and begin the SleepDribble of Death.
Once again turning to BEdge, editor Ben published an interesting piece showing that "late-clock" shots are in fact a relatively significant proportion of Blazer attempts, the team currently sitting at #1 in that category. Comparing the start of 09-10 to last year's #6 ranking (and nearly equal percentage of shots taken that way), the phenomenon didn't seem to trip them up too badly last year...but the difference is in shots made. According to Ben's research, last year the team made 36% of their short-clock shots; this year it's 20%. That's enough of a drop to take them from 6th in short-makes, to 26th. And that will hurt you.
Miller is definitely somewhat faster, but the King Hell Speedboy on the Blazers is Bayless, who plays his position like he's got something on the stove at home he needs to get back to. Get it across, get it started, get it in, get back--that's JayBay's game. And of course, that certainly doesn't involve wearing out spots on the parquet with a stationary dribble.
So along with the rumors and hints, it seems pretty clear that the numbers are also calling out for a change. We'll see what happens, if it happens--and if it does, it should be a pretty interesting game to watch. As noted, the Kings are--relative to their past anyway--having a fine season so far, and they will take advantage of any Blazer hesitancy and indecision when it comes to understanding roles and playing together. What do the other players do? Does LMA abandon the block and start slicing to the hole or his favorite baseline jumper spots? Do Joel/Dante/Juwan become bigger parts of the scoring offense, being likeliest to be stationed near the bucket when Miller or Bayless run out of tricks in midair and need a relief valve? Is it the death knell for the surfeit of Brandon Roy 10-second iso dramas? Tune in and see!
An amusing diversion for the mid-morning: saw this for the first time last night, and a Facebook friend shared it today to remind me of it. As an added Oregon-specific bonus, the clip was produced by hotshot ad agency Weiden + Kennedy. Working stiffs--human and otherwise--should be able to relate...
OK, I'm not 100% sure what to make of this video, just released by the Merkley folks, and featuring the Senator himself on camera, arguing the merits of solving the health care crisis. It's fewer than two minutes long, so give it a scan and then I'll comment:
I have to say that as it began, it seemed like a clever idea to tie the complex health care mess to the convoluted and seemingly intractable problem of a scrambled Rubik's Cube. Wow, I thought--Jeff's going to sit there and play with the cube while talking about how to fix health care! Amusing, breezy and informative!
...and then he set about working to solve it. No, not health care, the cube--he started to turn the sides around and attempt to put the colors together. OK, I thought, maybe the joke is that he'll try to solve it for a few seconds, then throw up his hands and say, "See how hard it is?" But he kept going, and it became clear that he really was trying to solve it--and of course that meant he was going to succeed, and do so in less than 2 minutes, apparently, since they wouldn't film him giving an extended try but failing.
...except then they started speeding up the videomotion, meaning that he CAN solve it, just not in two minutes. And while doing so, the three espoused tenets of fixing health care--extending access, strengthening coverage and lowering costs--are bullet-pointed on a sidebar.
...but that's pretty much all the explication there is: if you want to solve health care, just do these three things! I kept waiting for him to go into some kind of detail, but it doesn't happen. And it's not like there was no time; for several seconds after the voiceover stops, Merkley's still leaning on his desk, flipping those cube-sides at Chaplinesque speed.
And when he finishes, it's a mildly triumphant moment, but I was left with the sarcastic sense of "oh, it's just THAT easy, huh?" After watching, I'm no closer to understanding how he suggests we break the health care Rubik's Cube, or for that matter how he solved the cube itself.
I get the sense that Merkley's staffers took a cue from the truly clever (and much rarer) ability of Senator Franken to draw the United States freehand while simultaneously talking politics. Now that had wow factor! Merkley's clip is cute, and it's interesting to know he can solve a Cube. The message that we actually CAN do this if we have the requisite resolve is right on. And there's no doubt that he's carried a ton of water for serious health care reform, particularly a robust public option. So I'm not trying to be critical either of Merkley's committment to the issue, or the unconventional, lighthearted way to get his message across. I'm just not sure it's very effective, informative or value-adding. At least reference other sources where you can get some details--or offer viewers an action item, to call their representatives or to step up discussions about health care and the PO with friends and family.
Maybe next time he can describe how our daily activities are interconnected to the global environment, while completing an entire Jenga stack, as a way to advocate for the climate bill. Perhaps Merkley keeps a bunch of brain games in his office, to distract lobbyists while he gets actual work done?
In what very well may be the first time Greg Walden has appeared in video on Loaded Orygun--as well as the first time for a Greta van Sustern clip--we bring you an issue which really should transcend partisan boundaries: adequate time to read pending bills before voting.
I have a bit of a different take than where I think most of the heat for this is coming, however; at the disrupted town halls this summer the chant of "Read the Bill!" was designed to intimidate Congresspeople and shame them into admitting they hadn't, in fact, gone through the whole text. It would be nice if the Members read them beforehand, sure--but the reality is that staffers and advisors exist to assist with helping their bosses understand legislation, and frankly most Members (like the rest of us) aren't necessarily adept at reading legislative language, which is crafted in boilerplate legal-ish language that often reads like an Old English schoolbook.
I'm never going to be optimistic that giving more lead time will actually force more Members to read the bills. What it WILL do, however, is give the rest of US time to read them--and in the age of the internet, that can be a valuable tool. Ordinary citizens and subject experts on the topic in the bill have already proven highly useful in this regard, pointing out odd snippets and codiciles and getting them into the public discussion.
So despite the fact that I don't necessarily find Walden's motives pure, I can't much argue with the concept. Here's what he had to say last night:
Beautifully constructed and edited, although while Hood gets her own little featurette, they show Mt. St. Helens--in Washington, let's recall--about four times as much. It's a quibble; the rest is ample explication about the best city in America:
The rubber is beginning to really hit the road when it comes to health care in Congress; recess is over and the Baucus Caucus finally came out with a bill to mark up. It appears the rest of the Finance Committee--including our own Senator Wyden--either want to mark it with a bunch of changes (Democrats) or with a big red F (Republicans, even Olympia Snowe).
Both of our Senators have elucidated serious issues with the Finance bill, not quite as directly as Senator Rockefeller from West Virginia--who essentially declared it a dead letter and ripped the "co-op" compromise to shreds in a letter to the Gang of Six--but by attacking what the Baucus Suckus plan lacks. And for each Senator the complaint is different.
Jeff Merkley, for his part, continues to be one of the more repetitively vocal members of the chamber when it comes to support for a robust public option. His insistence has not wavered throughout a long summer of angst-ridden tea-leaf reading over whether the PO would survive the deliberative process. His refusal to sit quietly on the back bench and let the seasoned pros handle things is enormously welcome, and a big poke in the ribs to doubters (like me) who thought the key word for Merkley's first term would be "languid" rather than "loud and liberal."
Yesterday he took his advocacy to the airwaves, hitting not only The Ed Show, but also CNBC. Here's the latter clip, first:
And now, chatting with Ed Schulz:
If you like, you may consider my relegation of Senator Wyden's media efforts below the fold as some kind of "punishment" or commentary on his behavior on the health care issue. That doesn't mean it would be true (but it doesn't mean it would be false, either). What it definitely means in part, at least, is that with two vid clips, the top of the fold is already pretty big....
h/t to political consultant Stacey Dycus for catching this on TV during an insomniac episode a couple nights ago--it's a cheerful yet desperate plea for positive attention from the state Republican Party!
What a cute little moppet, who starts off the video thanking the GOP for "public beaches"! The beach bill is certainly one of the most popular enduring legacies of Tom McCall, Republican--although it should be telling that they put a 40 year old accomplishment as their best example in the ad, voiced over by someone whose parents may not have been born at the time, much less her. But that's not the silliest part; the silliest part is that while McCall championed the bill that settled the question once and for all, it was DEMOCRAT Oswald West who first declared Oregon's beaches public--and when the bill to expand public areas was initially proposed, guess who railed against it, called it an attack on private property, and very nearly killed it? Conservative Republicans.
A new deal focusing on just the acquistion and siting of the Portland MLS franchise has been hammered out between City Council and Merritt Paulson, the potential franchisee who was staring down a league-imposed deadline for a deal to keep his bid. The accelerated pace that only recently Mayor Adams had apparently admitted would not meet the league's timeline, combined with the simpler and leaner needs sans Beavers and a put-up-or-shut-up attitude from 3/5 of Council, may have driven Paulson to accept a much higher level of personal risk: roughly 2/3 of the total cost--with a stable funding stream to repay the City for the other third. More on my understanding of the details below the fold, but right now here's KATU's decent piece on passage:
Oregon does have one Senator who's willing to come out and stake his claim for a full and robust public option (FRPO)--junior Senator Jeff Merkley. In this video recorded today at Pioneer Square outside KGW's new studios there, Merkley affirms his support for a public option, one that competes directly with private insurance and cuts costs using Medicare-style bargaining rules with providers. He also takes time to parry some of the built-in skepticism of his interviewer, who seems awfully concerned for the health of private insurers (as opposed to say, the insured or those who would like to be). Watch the video, below:
Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the advocacy group that is pretty much the biggest hammer (such as it is) that Americans have for pushing the public option into any version of health care reform, is targeting states that have Senators who are opposed or weak/vague in their support for a robust public health exchange.
One of the ways begins now and will continue for the next 10 days in Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, New Mexico, North Carolina, Washington...and Oregon. Any guesses why?
Here's something that happened on Friday that maybe got lost in the Pelosi Shuffle the media was so invested in this week, and which started out that very same way, with Andrea Mitchell asking Sen. Ron Wyden about what Pelosi knew, or actually in a rare case asking what it said about the CIA's credibility instead--but still talking he said/she said. Check the video:
Note how easily and dismissively Wyden moves away from the Pelosi question, for whatever reason, and zeroes in on what for him is a more central question: why aren't we talking about the way in which the Bush administration consistently failed to inform properly? He claims he was "kept in the dark" until 2006, linking the Bush administration's failures to the 1947 National Security Act, which he refers to a couple of times. That's a nice summary link which is then applied to an analysis of the NSA wiretapping scandal--another prime example of the administration totally holding out on Congress. But it has this key section:
Under current statute, the President is to ensure that the congressional intelligence committees are kept “fully and currently informed” of U.S. intelligence activities, including any “significant anticipated intelligence activity.” According to legislative history, the term “fully and currently informed,” is intended to mean that complete and timely notice of actions and policies is provided, and that the committees will be informed of intelligence activities in such detail as the committees may require.
Further, the Senate in report language said it expected the executive branch not to limit itself to providing full and complete information upon request from the committees, but to affirmatively keep the committees fully and currently informed.
It's on this basis which Wyden is making his complaint. Mitchell waves a copy of the CIA's briefing schedule and claims it shows a series of proper briefings on torture procedures, but Wyden says they were still not properly informed. For an administration which was already torturing before they had whipped up a legal "justification" for it, and were using it to extract false confessions to once again "justify" a new war against Iraq, I'm afraid it's all beside the point compared to that.
But it's good to see Wyden shifting the focus back to the Bush administration...and that is in fact where the discussion lies, not the CIA or intel units themselves. The way Congress was briefed was led from the top, principally Dick Cheney. Heck, if he was telling them how to torture to get info the intel agencies already told him didn't exist, why wouldn't he tell the CIA to lie about what they were doing to Congress?
Wyden also gets some digs in on Cheney himself, saying he (Wyden) is pretty confused about why the former VP wants all those documents released, because Wyden seemed confident there wasn't going to be anything to exonerate him. So he joined Cheney in challenging to have all of the material declassified, including a letter of complaint regarding intel darkness along with two other Senators.
Wyden goes on to say he really thinks a special commission of some kind is necessary to look into all this, and I think as a result of the Pelosi nonsense there is a definite Briar Patch Syndrome working here--Wyden was almost smirking when talking about declassifying the documents and calling for more investigation.
Note how Wyden didn't defend Pelosi in the least, except by way of saying the CIA lied to them all the time, or at least omitted and delayed. If she has to go, politically speaking, with the reward being some kind of toothful investigation, is it worth it? Or--gasp--would it simply be the right thing to do?
What? Me pimping Jeff Merkley's efforts to gain financial regulatory reform in a number of areas, TWICE in one week? Unbelievable. Must be because the guy's one of the very few in the whole Senate who is continuing to press populist themes amongst the various financial-sector issues crying out for re-address. Here's a turn Merkley took on Fox Business News, the slightly less blatantly nutty of the Fox stable. Note how the talking head repeatedly presses Merkley on the idea of "telling companies how to run their business:"
Nice job, although I only wish Merkley had responded to the baiting with something to the effect of, "Yes, we'd like to tell the credit card companies how to run their business--because without our help, their inclination, apparently like all financial institutions, is otherwise to take as much as they can, as fast as they can. And, Ms. Talking Head, I wonder if you'd be sitting there if the US government hadn't 'told TV networks how to run their business,' when they declared that discriminating against women in the workplace was illegal."
"President Obama is absolutely correct to end the tax subsidies for companies that ship jobs overseas," said Merkley's spokeswoman, Julie Edwards. "It is simply wrong that multinational corporations can avoid paying their fair share of U.S. taxes by shifting profits from one foreign operation to another. For too long, these companies have been allowed to shirk their tax responsibilities by keeping their funds offshore, while at the same time claiming huge income tax deductions on those overseas operations."
I was right during the 08 campaign, that the general timidity of the body was calling out for a bit of a bomb thrower, someone to keep sticking the rational desires of regular Americans into the craws of the elite-protectorate that currently dominates the Senate. What I was apparently wrong about, was Jeff Merkley's ability to be that thrower. For a freshman, he's doing a fine job rousing the rabble. I look forward to repetition and continuation!
Stuck at work/school? Nowhere near Portland this semi-sunny afternoon? (Like the weather would matter for this!) Can't get to the big "Thank You and Good Luck" rally for the Trail Blazers?
Perhaps you watched 60 Minutes last week and saw LeBron James casually throw up a 3/4 court shot while giving an interview to Steve Kroft. The guy's the king, no doubt--it looked effortless, whereas I'd need one of those t-shirt guns just to get it that far--but it's not like he's the only person who can drain a long ball.
I don't think it was meant to compete with LeBron necessarily, but at a kids' camp day featuring Blazer big man and rookie Greg Oden, he decided he'd try one while the promo cameras were rolling. Check it out:
At the end Oden confirms there were no video tricks, and warns us "I better see a commercial out of that." They played it multiple times during the broadcast of the Jazz asswhuppin, so mission accomplished. My favorite parts are the kids, one of whom you can hear saying, "Holy CRAP!" So great to see that goofy Oden grin--along with, let's be honest, the look of pure shock that he'd drained it. Good times!
Hat tipping Sirota, (himself becoming a go-to progressive guest on the talk shows and places like Bill Moyer's Journal), yet another great video clip from Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show featuring Peter DeFazio. And like last time, DeFazio is there to extoll the virtues of infrastructure spending in the new stimulus bill, as we were discussing yesterday with efforts like the restoration of $3b in transit funding.
The video starts off with a rant by Maddow about doing what's right policywise in the stimulus--and to her, what's right is infrastructure spending instead of tax cuts. She's not thrilled with the way that Obama's handled it, and she looks to Pete to back her up. DeFazio's a little more diplomatic as he must be, but he does the job. Check it, here. (Grrrr. MSNBC uses an 'iframe' tag for their video embeds, which Soapblox can't handle until the new code is delivered next month. Sorry, you have to click over there instead of watching it here.)
The upshot is that DeFazio's appeared a touch miffed that Obama spent a whole bunch of time attempting to address GOP concerns with the bill, while not finding much of any time to hear the complaints from his own party about not being bold enough. He's hopeful, however, that in the wake of the House stimulus passing without a single Republican vote, that the President will either newly see the folly of attempting to compromise with this group of jerkbags--or plans to use the experience to prove he tried, but now it's time to go ahead and do what needs to be done, and let Rush moan into his bottle of Oxy until the cows come home (or until he hallucinates a couple from the Oxy).
Of course DeFazio's repeated appearances in such a short time are reflective of Maddow's editorial beef--that the bill is not only weak on good things and long on seemingly useless things, but that it runs counter to Obama's own philosophical pronouncements during the campaign. As a champion of infrastructure spending and particularly transit, he's the perfect choice of guest.
But he's also engaging, gives good quote, and frankly represents a fresh national face among a group of talking heads that desperately needed recycling after this last election. Now that the public has delcared the likes of Kristol, Will and Krauthammer to be utterly full of shit when it comes to their ideas for the country, the nation's media outlets are long past due to follow suit. You go, Petey! Represent!
The House just approved Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY)'s amendment to add $3 billion in transit capital funding to the stimulus. They approved it on a voice vote instead of a roll call.
According to Nadler's floor speech, 1.5 billion will go to the transit capital formula program, which goes to all states, and 1.5 billion to the new starts program. The AFL-CIO and environmental organizations will "score" this amendment, he said, meaning they'll factor members' votes on this issue into their scorecard ratings for each Representative. Since it was a voice vote, though, we don't know who opposed the amendment, making that impossible.
John Mica (R-FL), ranking member of the Tranportation Committee and the House's leading pro-transit Republican, called this "an amendment we have to support." The Appropriations committee, he said, "took one of the most important parts out: that's the rail and transit." Transit infrastructure creates jobs, he said. "Support the Nadler amendment!"
There wasn't a roll call, as the article notes, so it can't be said definitively that the Oregon delegation (minus Walden of course) was unanimous in actively pressing for this amendment. But there's little doubt that Blumenauer and especially Peter DeFazio were instrumental in leading the fight in the House to restore some of the money. We noted DeFazio's push on Rachel Maddow last week, and thanks again to our friendly Kossack above, we've got more video from DeFazio on the floor today in support of the amendment:
And if you want more information on WHY transit got shafted, this piece from Talking Points Memo gets an explanation from Transpo Sec'y LaHood: to pay for the tax cuts. Ugh. Even ugh-ier would have been if Rep. Flake's amendment to completely eliminate Amtrak funding had passed, on the basis of it "not turning a profit." Thankfully someone pointed out all of the non-profit Americans reap from the building highways and bridges, same as transit. Why do Republicans think government somehow can become a net revenue center? Absurd. Anyhow, no one wanted the Wrath of Biden quite this early, so the amendment failed. I think many of us would like to see it DOUBLED, but perhaps next time.
Nonetheless, $12b is better than $9b, and it also speaks well of our delegation to not only be on the right side of the issue, but to actually lead others in Congress to the right side as well. Kudos.
Well, he's decided, over the weekend: Sam Adams will maintain his position as Mayor of Portland and show up tomorrow for work as "normal." The length of time it takes for the quotations to be removed from "normal" I predict will be inversely related to the strength of any recall effort beginning in July.
Sam produced a video (or commissioned it to be produced, I suppose--using City TV Services?, or a home job?), and I'd love to embed it--and in a just and sensible universe, I'd be able to do just that. That's not how PortlandOnline(TM) rolls, however. I'll fight the urge and the gag reflext to comment further. So you can download it this way, either low res or high res. They're Quicktime files, natch. It's Portland...
...edit--a helpful reader induced me to look again for the secret to unlocking the embed code, so here's the vid now with his written declaration, and my commentary, below the fold:
I added a couple of thoughts to the summary, extending the idea that maybe this was the team the Blazers send out when they want to rest up for the really big game Sunday--the Evil Twin Team.
I really hadn't intended to miss most of the game against the Hornets tonight--in fact for a fair bit of time I expected I might scrounge a couple of craigslisters and take lil Joe to this one, since it seemed like a good matchup. (We actually opted for a sweet deal on the Lexus Club for the Pistons Bucks.)
I did see pretty much all of the fourth quarter and followed the game in some fashion for nearly the whole game, but if it looked as shaky as it sounded I don't want to see the replay--other than Tyson Chandler giving Joel the Chicken Wing Shiver after Pryz objected to Chandler hacking on his own bum wing. That was pretty great, once again, to see other teams get frustrated by the Blazers fighing back. It was definitely the high point of the game, both by the peak and the noticeable valleys on either side--particularly afterwards, when you'd think the team would respond and attack the new weakness. Nope.
I can sum up the game pretty quickly:
The Blazers shot like crap, almost everyone. Rudy led the team with 19 and was probably steadiest, but next at 16 was Outlaw and they all came in Outlaw style, unpredictably and with not much else good in the production hopper. They shot less than 40% for the game, less than 25% from distance. Bleccch.
The Blazers, other than Joel, rebounded like crap. This was the Blazer Evil Twin night, when LaMarcus can't hit the jumper and disappears inside, and Oden starts Foul Hunting and bagging big game quickly. Get outrebounded like they did, and this Blazers team almost surely loses.
On nights where Oden goes foul crazy, Ike needs to concentrate on putbacks and boards, good fouls and outlet passes. NOT dribbling, not shooting from further than 5 feet. Baby steps for baby GO, OK?
Blake was Evil Twin Blake. His shot did not fall and thus he couild not steady the team's shakiness on offense, but more importantly he did not distribute well, unable mostly to find his big men down low as he had against Boston. And if he's not passing down low, he's not driving down low either--and if the 3 isn't falling, who cares about Steve Blake, defensively? No one.
Jerryd Bayless is not yet, not quite, as good as Brandon.
Nobody else at guard, or frankly any other position, is as good as Brandon.
Thirteen turnovers for a good turnover team is too many turnovers.
Channing Frye is the lanky princess locked in the tower, where some handsome GM somewhere will someday rescue her and buy out her contract.
Sergio had no assists--and no turnovers--in limited minutes.
If Blake is not in distributor mode, not moving the ball around well enough to (say) pry Travis Outlaw from the corner, then it absolutely HAS to fall on Sergio to get things going. When he's not committing any turnovers, funny to say, that tells me he wasn't even trying to create out there. I think he's not used to having different players besides Rudy, but that's no excuse in the long run.
Did I mention no Brandon Roy?
The guys at Blazer's Edge will give you the educated recap and report from the media hovel; I prefer happier memories. As Mike Barnett apparently said tonight, would you rather beat NO and lose to the Celtics? I think not.
It was truly a night (this is Tuesday in Boston now, not tonight) where all the best faces were on and everyone came to play and execute. They didn't turn the ball over, they controlled second shots--it was beautiful. And set to music, below, it's a work of sports art. So let's put this ugly but probably divinely oriented defeat into the permanent sleep of the past, and focus on the happy state of Tuesday prior. Opportunity wise, it's at least theoretically achievable Sunday in LA, probably without Roy again).
The guys at Blazer's Edge have done a supremo job in putting this mashup together. The comments Roy made at practice the night after draining 52 points on the Suns were pretty bold and illuminating, and they make a good audio counterpart to the video of Brandon dominating from wherever, over the hand of whomever.
After the fold, I'm going to reprint a couple sections of the writeup of Roy's Tualatin interview last Friday. And don't forget the game in Denver tonight!
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