From: edrury@3cpu.rain.com (Ed Drury)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.pro
Subject: Blazer Report
Date: 1 Oct 92 04:24:20 GMT
Reply-To: edrury@3cpu.rain.com (Ed Drury)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Garden Lane Software


                Mon Sep 28 13:49:27 PDT 1992
        
 The Blazers  began  a series of informal workouts and  scrimmages 
last  Friday. Most impressive was the shooting of Kevin  Duckworth 
who hit five consecutive three pointers at one point.

 In  today's workout, Duckworth continued to shoot the lights  out  
from all over the court and applied  himself to schooling   rookie   
Reggie Smith, who was  attempting to  guard him.  Duck went  over, 
around and through the rookie with his most impressive move  being 
a  spin around reverse slam dunk. Smith was too slow to receive  a 
facial however because he was left looking for his jock.

 Mike Rice  gave some impressions of today's workout which  was  a  
full  court  game.  Strickland,  Kersey,  Duckworth,   Porter  and   
Elie on one  team  and the rookies  were on the other.  Mike  said   
that  Kevin played  in six games  and was outstanding  along  with   
Rod Strickland. Cliff Robinson is 3/4 of an inch taller! The story
is that it was  discovered he had one  leg which  was considerably
shorter than the other. I'm am not sure if he is wearing a lift in
one shoe,  or if he  had chiropractic  adjustments which corrected 
the leg  length problem.  Whatever the case, he measured in 3/4 of
an inch taller this fall.

 Mike  said that Reggie Smith  has  had a  very productive  summer  
in terms  of strength  training.  He  also was impressed with  Rod  
Strickland's  leadership  abilities.  The intra-squad game will be  
two  weeks  from  today at the Memorial  Coliseum. Mike was  asked  
about Kevin's low post game. Mike said that he thought if Portland  
put in some offensive  sets against certain teams, they would have  
to  double  team  Kevin.  He  also  said   that  he  thought  that 
Strickland   and   Elie's   passing  would  create  a   lot   more 
opportunities for low  post scoring.

 I  am not  sure that  Duck  actually  weighs less. He looks a lot 
better - faster and MUCH stronger than I 've  ever seen  him.  His
personal trainer said on a local radio show recently that Duck can
now jump higher off one foot than he could previously off  both. I
tend to believe that. The rigorous strength training seems to have
paid off in confidence and assertiveness more than anything.  Duck
looks "better", I don't know how else to describe it. In the  span
of just a couple of hours, I saw him smile more times than I  have
in the last four years. As far as weight goes, he looks a lot more
solid. Arm muscles are well defined,  legs  look  like  trees.  He 
might not be lean, but he looks mean.

	Tue Sep 29 14:58:45 PDT 1992

 Although  over shadowed  by Magic's press conference at 1 pm  PST 
today, the  Blazers  announced Eddie  Doucette  will be the  radio 
voice of the Portland Trailblazers this season. Doucette will work 
with  Mike  Rice  for the second time. Rice  and  Doucette  worked 
together during an NCAA playoffs a couple of years ago,  according 
to the Oregonian. Doucette has called NBA games for the  Milwaukee 
Bucks,  Denver  Nuggets,  Indiana  Pacers  and  the  Los   Angeles 
Clippers.

 Visiting  this  morning's  scrimmage, I was again  impressed with 
the  abilities of Rod Strickland.  He seems to be showing a  great 
deal of floor leadership even in scrimmages. Furthermore, Porter's 
game  seems to flourish being in the back court with him. We  also 
got to see Porter play point against Strickland in some full court 
scrimmages.  It  will  be  interesting  to see an entire preseason 
without Clyde in the rotation. I'm hoping we  see  a  lot of  that
combination  of  Strickland  and Porter in the line up at the same
time.

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