This from the Honolulu Advertiser:

Portland Trail Blazers Steve Blake and Channing Frye will be featured athletes at the Punahou Summer Basketball Camp for boys and girls June 9 to 11 at Punahou gym.

Coaches running the camp include Punahou girls coach Mike Taylor, Alan Lum, Dennis Agena, Alan Ching and Byron Mello.

Blake, a 6-foot-3 guard from Maryland, was the starting point guard for the Blazers, who made the playoffs for the first time since 2003. He logged the most minutes behind Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge while averaging 9.8 points and 6.2 assists per game. Frye, a 6-foot-11 forward who played at Arizona, played a reserve role.

Taylor said a contact in Portland contacted him about the possibility of holding a camp in Hawai’i featuring pro players.

Tough duty, those clinics in Hawaii.

The paper also included this classic Steve Blake mug shot that appears to have been taken as he was running away from The Terminator:

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Tags: Channing Frye, Dwight Jaynes, Honolulu Advertiser, Portland Trail Blazers, Steve Blake

That’s what it says here. It lists Raef LaFrentz as the third-most-likely player in the league to be dealt prior to the mid-February deadline.

3. Raef LaFrentz, Trail Blazers: One thing is certain — the Blazers will make a trade before the deadline, especially now that they’re motivated by the financial implications of the Darius Miles debacle. And if the Blazers are dealing, LaFrentz will somehow be involved. His $12.7 million expiring contract is insured, making it even more appealing.

In addition to LaFrentz, the Blazers could package Travis Outlaw, Sergio Rodriguez, Jerryd Bayless and/or Channing Frye in a big deal.

I’m not so sure about all that. Certainly Portland isn’t going to give up Outlaw AND Bayless. Not going to happen unless we’re talking about a premier player — which I doubt. Kevin Pritchard is pretty serious about not messing around with this team until he’s absolutely certain that he can get the player he wants. I’m not sure that player is going to be out there prior to the deadline and Portland isn’t one of those teams that will trade just to be making a deal.

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Tags: Channing Frye, Dwight Jaynes, Jerryd Bayless, NBA, Raef LaFrentz. Portland Trail Blazers, Sergio Rodriguez, trade, Travis Outlaw

This time it’s the New York Daily News talking about a three-team trade that would bring Lee to Portland and send Channing Frye and Marcus Camby back to the Knicks. Frank Isola characterizes Portland’s desire for Lee as “dogged pursuit.”

However, Wendell Maxey has been all over this story for days at Hoopsworld and doesn’t sound so optimistic about a deal getting done.

At a certain point, after weeks of rumors, you have to figure there must be something to the idea that Portland likes David Lee a lot. He’s a 14-point, 10-rebound a game guy who plays hard every night. What’s not to like?

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Tags: Channing Frye, David Lee, Dwight Jaynes, New York Knicks, Portland Trail Blazers

I wrote yesterday that I like back-to-back games against the same team and now we’re going to see it play out.

We’re going to get a great look at how well the coaching staff and the players can make adjustments in a rapid manner. There are several things Portland must do to give itself a better chance of winning against the Nuggets tonight in the Rose Garden:

• Rebound the ball better. My goodness, the Nuggets are not nearly as good on the boards as the Blazers made them look last night. A lot of this is just effort.
• Keep Oden and Roy on the floor longer. Roy will be fine. Foul trouble isn’t normal for him and he won’t be bothered with it again tonight. Referees don’t call those fouls on him in the Rose Garden. They just don’t. Oden is another story. He’s got a tendency to lose concentration as a defender when players come right at him. He’s got to give the quicker guys a little more room, then close on them when the shot’s going up. In other words, trust his instincts a little more and understand that by getting right up in a driver’s face just plays into the other guy’s hands.
• Move the ball and move bodies. I know, I’m a broken record, but this team isn’t very good when it’s just standing around watching someone play one-on-one — even if it’s Brandon Roy. And in the long run, good teams will simply not allow Roy to do that — they’ll take it away the way the Nuggets did last night. They loaded up on him the whole game and Portland had NO answer.
• Double-teaming the ball at the top of the key is not really sound defensive philosophy — but it’s working against Portland. At some point, the Blazers are going to learn to eat that up for easy baskets. But they haven’t learned it yet.
• The Portland defense has to improve. Duh. You can’t survive giving up so many dunks and easy layups. It was incredible the game Monday night stayed as close as it did for as long as it did.
• The bench players have to regain their confidence. When you play a few minutes in the first half but then get passed over in the second half because your first-half minutes were ineffective, confidence begins to drift away. Soon, you become wary of shots or of even just playing freely. Confident players quickly become shaky ones. That’s Channing Frye. I hope Sergio Rodriguez isn’t on that path, too. And I really don’t know what’s up with Rudy Fernandez but he’s not been the same player lately.

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Tags: Brandon Roy, Channing Frye, Denver Nuggets, Dwight Jaynes, Greg Oden, Portland Trail Blazers, Rudy Fernandez

The only thing worse than a dull exhibition basketball game is a long, dull exhibition basketball game.

I won’t linger over this one, other than to say it was very ugly. The Blazers chose to televise the game locally and it certainly may have been enough to cool off an entire city. Portland shot 36.9 percent from the field and had 26 turnovers against 22 assists. Defended poorly, too. The point guards combined for 11 turnovers and Travis Outlaw went 1 for 12 from the field.

And then the injuries. Martell Webster is out with a stress fracture of the fifth metatarsal on his right foot. That may not keep him out too long — or maybe it will. Remember, that injury has some history with this franchise — it was the famous Bill Walton fracture, only on the other foot. Rudy Fernandez went down during Wednesday’s game with a sprained ankle, too.

And I’m just wondering about something else . . . Who were the hardest-working Blazers last summer? Who put in all that serious time playing ball, getting into shape and really getting ready for this season?

Channing Frye. He’s out with an injury.

Martell Webster. Ditto.

Steve Blake. Ditto.

Rudy Fernandez (played hard for Spain in the Olympics). Ditto.

Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn’t just be better for guys to take it easy during the summer. Sure, stay fit. Stay at your playing weight. But stay away from basketball for a while. It wouldn’t hurt a bit to take a couple of months off. With all these personal trainers and offseason conditioning programs and summer leagues and national teams — man, it’s a tough game to play 12 or even 11 months out of the year.

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Tags: Channing Frye, Dwight Jaynes, Martell Webster, Portland Trail Blazers, Rudy Fernandez, Steve Blake, Travis Outlaw

This time it’s Channing Frye going under the knife. You’re just not one of the cool kids on the Trail Blazer roster until you’ve had a surgery, I guess. This one was interesting because the team didn’t release any news at all about the injury until after the player underwent the procedure, which was done in California. The cone of silence seems to suddenly surround any Blazer injuries.

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Tags: Channing Frye, Dwight Jaynes, injuries, Trail Blazers