So It Shall Be Written, So It Shall Be Done

Anytime we throw Yul Brynner some love, it's a good night.

Anyway, there NEEDS to be a Oklahoma City/Portland rivalry. It occurred to me in the first half of their game tonight when Steve Blake and Westbrook were going at it and Westbrook leaned in on a jumper with his elbow out and caught Blake on the chin sending him to the locker room for stitches.

Think about it, both teams are the young and upcoming teams in the West. We have the Westbrook and Blake bad blood brewing. We have the the two Allstars going at each other with Durant and Roy. (The difference is Durant is a legitimate superstar, a future MVP candidate. He simply has a higher ceiling than Roy.) How about budding backup guards Harden and Bayless going at each other? For those of you not in the know, Harden went to Arizona State and Bayless went to Arizona so we have the PAC-10 rivalry there.

Side note: There is a lot of PAC-10 between these two teams for what has been recently a weaker conference, especially this year. Roy went to Washington and Westbrook went to UCLA.

All we need now is a couple good playoff series between the two teams, maybe some T's and ejections, and we got a real rivalry. Again for those of you not in the know, rivalries are made in the playoffs, not in the regular season.

Notes on the Blazers.

Blake is a tough dude. He is sticking his nose in there even after getting 5 stitches on his chin from catching a bow. He is hounding the ball handler full court. That means Oklahoma City has less time to run their offense, and they are catching the ball a few steps farther away from the basket than they normally would. That makes a hell of a difference and gets under guys skin (see Westbrook elbow to Blake.)

Also the Blazers have too much young talent. It hurts a team when there are too many people in the rotation. Most players need consistent minutes and defined roles. Teams as a whole need to have time on the court together as a consistent unit to gel and sync up. Also teams wants to have their best players on the floor for longer, that's why benches shorten in the playoffs. The Blazers right now have 4 point guards with Blake, Miller, Bayless, and Mills. They are also 3 deep at small forward when healthy with Outlaw, Webster and Batum. On top of that if Rudy Fernandez is gonna get more minutes he is going to have to play alongside Roy who starts ahead of him, which means a 3 guard lineup with Rudy at the 3, taking more time away from the other 3 smalll forwards.

Portland could move some of their young talent for a couple vets who could help them compete at a higher level now.

And now I leave you with this...