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10.06.09 TRAIL BLAZERS VS. KINGS
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The words familiarity and similarity might come to mind when the Portland Trail Blazers begin their 2009 exhibition season Tuesday night against the Sacramento Kings at the Rose Garden. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 pm.
First, the familiarity. Tuesday night’s game will be Sergio Rodriguez’s first return to the Rose Garden since being traded to Sacramento, along with the draft rights to Jon Brockman, in exchange for the draft rights to Jeff Pendergraph on July 25. Rodriguez played his first three NBA seasons in Portland, averaging 3.6 points, 2.9 assists and 12.4 minutes in 219 games. While his statistics might have been pedestrian, his penchant for daring passes, often of the alley-oop variety, made him a favorite amongst the Rose Garden faithful.
Rodriguez won’t be the only player who’ll recognize a former teammate on the Trail Blazers. Brockman, a rookie forward out of the University of Washington, played alongside Brandon Roy during Roy’s senior season at UW in 2005-06.
The familiar faces in this series also go beyond the court. Sacramento Kings President of Basketball Operations Geoff Petrie played for Portland from 1970-76, averaging 21.8 points per game, including a team-best 24.8 points during the Trail Blazers’ inaugural campaign. Kings assistant coaches Shareef Abdur-Rahim (player, 2003-05), Mario Elie (player, 1992-93) and Jim Eyen (assistant coach, 997-2001) all have ties to the Trail Blazers.
As for similarity, the 2009-10 Kings, in many ways, remind one of the 2005-06 Trail Blazers. After finishing with the worst record in the league under first-year coach Nate McMillan, acquired Brandon Roy, a rookie guard who could run the point a little. The Kings, ending the 2008-09 campaign with the worst record in the NBA, brought in a new coach, Paul Westphal, and drafted Tyreke Evans, an athletic combo guard out of Memphis, hoping he could do the same things for Sacramento that Roy did for Portland.
The Kings also feature a lanky power forward in Spencer Hawes who some might consider a version, albeit less talented, of Portland’s own LaMarcus Aldridge.
Portland holds a 16-11 edge all-time in preseason games contested between the teams. The Trail Blazers won both preseason match-ups against the Kings a season ago, including the opener, 110-81, on Oct. 7, 2008, in Portland. The Trail Blazers swept Sacramento, 3-0, in last year’s series for the first time since posting a 4-0 win over the Kings in 1999-2000.
Along with Roy and Aldridge, Trail Blazers head coach Nate McMillan is expected to start Steve Blake, Nicolas Batum and Joel Przybilla, the same line he started in most of Portland’s 54 wins last season. The competition for minutes is expected to be fierce this season, as free agent acquisitions Andre Miller and Juwan Howard, second-year players Greg Oden and Rudy Fernandez and stalwart forwards Martell Webster and Travis Outlaw are all expected to make strong cases for playing time. Performances, good or bad, in preseason are likely to be determining factors in who ends up with the most court time when the regular season rolls around.
Brian Wheeler and Antonio Harvey will have the radio call on 95.5 The Game and on all the stations of the Trail Blazers Radio Network. There is no television coverage of preseason games.
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