Goodbye Juan Dixon

Last nights game against the Lakers was another awesome performance by the Trail Blazers. I am still in shock after these last 2 games, the Blazers look like a totally different team. They are moving the ball to the right spots, shooting good shots… it’s just good basketball.

The Playoff Race
It’s funny… the Blazers win two games in a row, and now everyone’s talking about the playoffs again. Well, we might have a chance if the Blazers continue to play the way they played the last 2 games, but they still have their work cut out for them. According to the standings, it may look like we’re just 2 games back from a playoff spot, but in the end I still think we’re going to have to have a .500 record to even get a chance.

So, since the halfway point I’ve been taking it 5 games at a time. We need to win 3 out of every 5 games and we’ve just finished the 3rd round. The records have been: 3-2, 2-3, and 3-2. This means we are down only 1 game… but it also means that we need to get at least one five game record of 4-1. The point is that hope is still alive for my playoff prophecy to come true!

Goodbye Juan
As I’m sure you all know, Juan Dixon has been traded to Toronto. Blazers, in return, got the 6-2 Portland native, Fred Jones. I’ll talk more about Fred Jones later. Now I’d just like to reminisce about Juan Dixon.

I must say that I will miss Juan. Last year when the Blazers were struggling, Juan emerged as one of our best players. He could actually put the ball in the basket! I started calling him “Big Shot Juan” because he wasn’t afraid to take (and make) big shot’s at the end of games.

But as the team around him got better, Juan had to realize that he wasn’t the best player anymore. But many nights this year, Juan Dixon was the bright spot when the rest of our team was forgettable. He got a bad rap for being inconsistent, but Sergio helped show us that Juan is actually pretty consistent if you deliver the ball to him in rhythm. And being an undersized shooting guard, Juan always had to work harder, and play smarter than most which is very respectable. I’m sure this rubbed off onto our young guys and they are better players and better people for it.

I never blogged much about Juan Dixon, but I’ve always liked him and I liked his game. So on behalf of myself, and all the BlazersTruth readers, I’d just like to say:
--Thank You Juan, we'll miss you!