We've seen a lot of lists and rankings over the last few weeks, I know, but here's一个有趣的场景laid out byDavid AldridgeatNBA.com. Aldridge imagines a dispersal draft in which a new team is created and given its pick of any NBA player. After that selection, each NBA team is allowed to protect one player before the new team is allowed to select again (any team that gives up a player is no longer subject to getting poached and is rewarded with a draft pick as compensation). This process continues round by round until the new team has selected 10 players from around the league. This is an entirely hypothetical exercise, but it's interesting to see the order in which Aldridge values the various members of the Portland Trail Blazers roster. No Portland players were selected in Aldridge's dispersal draft, but here's the list of nine Blazers, in order, that Aldridge protected in each round. ---------------------------- 1. F LaMarcus Aldridge 2. F Nicolas Batum 3. G Raymond Felton 4. G Wesley Matthews 5. C Marcus Camby 6. F Gerald Wallace 7. G Brandon Roy 8. C Greg Oden 9. F Luke Babbitt ---------------------------- This isn't simply a "top players" list because with each subsequent player protection you must account for salary and roster balance (position and age) in addition to pure talent. With that in mind, let's see your top nine. -- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com |Twitter

Henry Abbotthasa typically excellent essay在TrueHooptoday, examining what the future holds for the Los Angeles Lakers and guard Kobe Bryant. At the essay's conclusion, Abbott wonders whether the Lakers might be better off under a new Collective Bargaining Agreement without the massive financial commitment due to their face of the franchise All-Star. --------------------------- Then there's the final, unthinkable option: It has been discussed that the new CBA may have an amnesty clause, that lets teams buy out players and send them on their way. Depending how it's negotiated, this could include salary cap relief. And if so, would the Lakers use it on Bryant? They'd be laughed out of the gym for letting one of the best players in the league go, and future free agents may punish the Lakers for abandoning a good soldier. There are plenty of reasons not to. But the reason to consider it seriously is that keeping Bryant, at this age and those prices, virtually guarantees the team's decline -- unless Bryant can manage the magic trick of playing the best ball of his life after turning 33. --------------------------- -- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com |Twitter

Dime Mag showing some overseas coverage

This postbyM. Haubs在的Painted Area是伟大的。霍伯手表前阿宝的游戏rtland Trail Blazers center Arvydas Sabonis in 1986 as the basis for a scouting report, weaving in links, stories and quotes about the newly-minted Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer as he goes. -------------------------------- I had a mild Eureka moment on Friday, when I remembered that, for reasons of basketball insanity, I own a VHS tape of the 1986 FIBA World Championship gold-medal game, which matched up Sabonis and the Soviet Union against David Robinson and the United States. Since I have a dual DVD-VCR player, I decided to pop in the tape this weekend for a bit of a retro Sabonis scouting report. It's a good matchup against a guy I consider a top 20 player in Robinson, and a fair one given that both players are nearly the same age. Sabonis was about 21 1/2 years old when the game was played in July, 1986, while Robinson was just about to turn 21. -------------------------------- Tremendous. -- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com |Twitter

worth a look.

Remember Ol' Catfish

Portland Trail Blazers fanMike Kellmeruploaded this picture of his "Blazer Keg"to Twitter. Pretty inspired.Via Urban Raccoons.-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com |Twitter

Update:On Twitter, Aldridge responds to his ranking: "That's just motivation to keep working!"Zach Lowe的SI.com ranksPortland Trail Blazers power forward LaMarcus Aldridge as the No. 11 player in his Top 100 list. ---------------------------- This ranking may seem high until you start looking at the big men below him and realize that Aldridge really is the finest two-way player among them — and that he’s bound to get even better given his age. Last season, Aldridge took on a larger burden on offense and managed to increase his efficiency — a rare double, especially when you consider just how much more efficient he became. He redistributed his shot attempts, averaging 10 shots per game from within 10 feet, up from just 6.5 such shots the previous season, according to Hoopdata. He earned more foul shots and drew more double teams as a result. He morphed from a jump-shooting, outside-in big man into an inside-out post-up force, capable of scoring one-on-one and serving as the kind of player around which a team can build an above-average offense. You can’t say that about Garnett anymore, which is why KG ranks a few spots lower here, despite playing a brand of defense Aldridge can’t yet match. But Aldridge is getting there defensively. He’s solid in the post and in one-on-one situations, and he has emerged as one of the league’s better big men at tracking guards on pick-and-roll plays. He’s not on the level of Garnett, Tyson Chandler or Andrew Bogut yet — he doesn’t protect the rim or rebound as well as those guys — but he has become a well-rounded defender, on the level of a guy like Al Horford. ---------------------------- Aldridge ranks above Memphis Grizzlies power forward Zach Randolph (No. 13), Los Angeles Clippers power forward Blake Griffin (No. 14), Boston Celtics power forward Kevin Garnett (No. 17), New York Knicks power forward Amar'e Stoudemire (No. 19), Minnesota Timberwolves power forward Kevin Love (No. 21), Miami Heat power forward Chris Bosh (No. 22) and San Antonio Spurs power forward Tim Duncan (No. 23). Dallas Mavericks power forward Dirk Nowitzki and Los Angeles Lakers power forward Pau Gasol both appear to be members of the yet-to-be-revealed Top 10. Also, somehow I missed this: Blazers forward Gerald Wallace wasranked No. 39 last week. ---------------------------- Crash’s numbers declined across the board last season. Now that he’s 29, with a history of diving around the court and continually flashing his athleticism, it’s fair to wonder if that slippage is the first small step in a larger drop-off. Let’s hope not, because Wallace is the kind "B+" player on both ends — and "A" to "A-" on defense when at his best — who can really help a team. The Blazers and Bobcats were better on both sides when Wallace was on the court, and his ability to swing between both forward positions is helpful for lineup building. ---------------------------- -- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com |Twitter

Tom Ziller的SBNation.comhas compiled a document he calls the95 Theses On The NBA Lockout-- modeled after Martin Luther's -- in an "attempt to comprehensively determine the problems, the root causes and the potential fixes for the NBA as the lockout drags on." The very definition of must-read. -- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com |Twitter