Blazer news: The pre-season schedule

If you are already itching for some Blazers basketball, fear not.  The preseason is getting closer every day.  Not too long ago, the Blazers announced their preseason schedule.

The first game will be away in Salt Lake City against the Jazz on October 7th.  The Jazz then head out West to play the Blazers in the Moda Center October 9th, on their way down to play the Clippers and the Lakers alternately for a week—a nice sunny Californian vacation for them, which will hopefully make Gordon Hayward a little more tan by the time the regular season rolls around.

The Clippers meanwhile fly up to Portland for a game on October 12.  The Blazers then head east (well, east for the West) to Denver, presumably for a game on the 21st—that is, if the Nuggets don’t fly west (which is west for the West), since the location of the game hasn’t been announced yet.  The Blazers will then swing down to Los Angeles to meet the Lakers and the Clippers again on the 22nd and 24th.

The team also announced that another home game will be added at some point to the schedule.  Intelligent guesses determine it will fall in the lengthy period between the Clippers game and the Nuggets game.

What can we expect in these games?  Much more use of the bench guys to give them confidence and growth coming into what will be unquestionably their most important year.  If they do not show any promise or potential, the team will most likely package them up with the other big deals they will be doing next summer.  It will also be an opportunity for Portland to see its newest talent at work.  Against real competition, we'll get a glimpse of how  Kaman and Blake will fit into the Blazers' offense and defense.

That is, if they play.  It is always a question who will play in these games and how much it they will end up doing it.  The more experience the bench players get, however, the better—there is no downside to playing them—so expect to see plenty of McCollum and Barton.

Nevertheless, the games are certainly something to look forward to in the middle of the offseason here.  Unless you have been swept up in all the MLS fun—then you can distract yourself from the lamentable condition of being temporarily Blazerless.