Labor deal propels Blazers into summer

Preparations for draft speed along, even as coach search dallies

By Kerry Eggers

The Portland Tribune, Jun 24, 2005, Updated Oct 30, 2009

It’s full speed ahead for the Trail Blazers as they prepare for the draft, summer league and 2005-06 NBA season.

The search for a head coach? That’s another matter.

News of the league’s labor agreement couldn’t have been more fortuitous for the Blazers, who would have suffered more than most teams from a lockout wiping away summer activity.

If there’s an early favorite to win the Las Vegas Summer League July 6-July 15, it’s Portland, which was perhaps the youngest team in the NBA at the end of last season. The Blazers expect to have eight players with their summer league team who will be on their ’05-06 roster, including starting point guard Sebastian Telfair, forwards Viktor Khryapa and Travis Outlaw, and center Ha Seung Jin.

Others are Sergei Monya, the Russian forward taken in last year’s draft; Nedzak Sinanovic, a 7-2 Bosnian who was a second-round choice in 2003; and the two players Portland are positioned to take in Tuesday’s draft.

The labor deal “will really help us this summer with the development of our kids,” General Manager John Nash says. “The youth movement we focused on late last season would have been minimized had we lost the summer, because these kids would have come back without playing basketball for a number of months.”

It’s looking more likely that Kevin Pritchard, who finished the season as Portland’s interim coach after the firing of Maurice Cheeks, will coach the summer league team.

“We haven’t decided that for sure,” Nash says, “but it’s going to be hard to have a coaching staff in place by July 1. Our draft research is too demanding to spend much time on the coaching situation.

“I would have thought six weeks ago we would have had a coach by now. That’s still our goal, but I can see us going through summer league without a coach and getting it done in mid- to late July.”

Nash has acknowledged that NBA assistants Marc Iavaroni and Lionel Hollins are candidates, and he hasn’t denied the Blazers will seek out Seattle head coach Nate McMillan once his contract expires July 1. Terry Porter’s dismissal as Milwaukee’s coach on Wednesday fueled rumors he’s being considered by Portland, but Nash says the Blazers “probably won’t even address that possibility until after the draft.”

Portland continues to speak with other teams about trading the No. 3 pick in Tuesday’s draft.

“We called several teams picking behind us, saying we would trade the pick if they would do X-Y-Z,” Nash says. “I’m not certain they will respond. What people have come to realize is, picks 3 through 7 are all pretty good. It’s a matter of where you think the individual will fit with what you’re trying to do.

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