"Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!... Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days...And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth...And he that was dead came forth...Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go."
(John 11:35-44, KJV)
Lazarii
Brandon Roy
I don't know what the hell is going on over there in Germany with the crazy surgeries, because the career of Brandon Roy is supposed to have died. After getting amnestied, Roy sat out the '11-'12 lockout season, which surely would've killed him for good, given the season's condensed schedule that saw teams playing on back-to-back nights frequently. Now, he's signed a multi-year deal with Minnesota, played all through preseason and will be in the Timberwolves' starting lineup on opening night. In preseason he's looked...okay. His game had been slowing down so much in Portland, and then again, he always had a slower style of game, so it's hard to tell exactly where he's at physically. Given that Roy was simply incapable of making it through a full season during his last years in Portland, were his knees to hold up throughout this upcoming season, it would be nothing short of a miracle, a testament to the magical progression of sports medicine. I'm not worried about his regular season game. He may not put great numbers, or even play more than a thirty minutes a game, but he will help Minnesota win. The bigger question will be, how will he play in the playoffs? I have to imagine the T'Wolves will make the playoffs, given their additions of Roy and Andrei Kirilenko to their existing core of Kevin Love. Will the wear of the regular season water Brandon Roy down for the playoffs? Should he be on the Peter Forsberg plan, where he sits out the whole year until the playoffs? Here's something I never thought I'd say: I'm a Timberwolves fan.
Adam Morrison
Throughout the preseason, the thing I was most afraid of was Adam Morrison getting cut by the Trailblazers. And, of course, they cut him. I know, I know, it's Adam Morrison. He's never done well on the NBA level, and there's no reason for us to think he'll ever amount to anything other than a good college player. It's just a hard one for me to let go. If Morrison had come out of Gonzaga and exploded onto the NBA the same way he exploded on the NCAA in 2005, I would not be nearly as interested in him, which is the interesting thing about Adam Morrison to those who find him interesting—he's interesting despite his inability to be interesting. You follow? Go re-watch the end of the famous 2006 Gonzaga collapse versus UCLA in the NCAA tournament. Does Morrison's innocence not blow your mind, or are you dead inside? After a couple years overseas, Morrison resurfaced in summer league, mustache-less. And he was knocking down shots. He made the Trailblazers' training camp roster, and he was knocking down some shots. The Blazers already have the similarly-tooled Luke Babbitt and Sasha Pavlovic under contract, which I'm guessing is why they didn't sign Morrison, though he outperformed the both of them in preaseason. My hope is that another team will sign Morrison during the season, because for the first time in a long time, he's been knocking down some shots. Of course, we all know Jeremy Lin got cut numerous times before he rose to prominence, which has proven that sometimes a lot of people can be wrong about a player. During preseason, Morrison was being auditioned by the Blazers as a three-point specialist, which I think is wrong. As a three-point shooter, Morrison is good, but not great. But in the mid-range, Morrison is a genius. If he can put a clear shot up from anywhere between the paint and the three-point line, regardless of angle, my money says its going in. It's a shame that more teams aren't looking for a mid-range specialist. My hope is that Morrison goes to a team in desperate need of offense—which, apparently, Portland is not—because if this kid can knock down some shots, who knows.
