[Thanks to bullshooter for tonight's game preview, even though he still believes in this Ben Gordon benching thing, and hates Tyrus Thomas. -Matt]

A Tale of Two Franchises

or Two Draft Picks, or Two Forwards... Tonight brings the Portland Trailblazers to town.  If the Bulls are copying Detriot's blueprint for building a champion out of many good players, but no dominant ones, then the Trailblazers are copying the Bulls blueprint for drafting winners from strong college programs, at least according to GM Kevin Pritchard.  The Bulls' and Trailblazers' fate was also intertwined by a 2006 draft day trade.  In that trade, the Bulls swapped the rights to LaMarcus Aldridge taken with the second pick and a conditional second round pick for the rights to Tyrus Thomas taken with the fourth pick and young forward and Blogabull favorite Viktor Khyrapa.  Aldridge and fellow 2006 draftee Brandon Roy form the nucleus of a young Trailblazers team that has finally suceeded in putting the Jailblazers teams of the recent past behind them.

On draft day in 2006 scouts were questioning whether or not Aldridge could fill out or have enough toughness, while Thomas was seen as having the most upside.  However, Aldridge has emerged to start and average 18.1 points and 7.3 rebounds per game this year, while Thomas's future remains cloudy.  Thomas started 11 games at the beginning of this year, but has logged only 16 minutes in three games since the Bulls fired head coach Scott Skiles five games ago.  The reasons for this benching are a continuous and inflamatory source of debate here on blogabull.  Thomas's inconsistent minutes beg the question: could the Bulls have gotten Aldridge and Roy instead of Thomas and Sefolosha, another young Bull seeing very limited minutes so far this year?  Also, you have to feel kind of sorry for Khryapa who's played about 10 minutes since that trade after starting for most of the previous year for Portland.

Aside from that idle speculation, the Trailblazers come into the UC on a hot streak having won 14 of their last 15 games, even without injured number one overall pick Greg Oden.  The Bulls have won 3 of 4 under new coach Jim Boylan and scored over 100 points in each game, making the move to bring Ben Gordon off of the bench look like the greatest idea since sliced cheese.  Interestingly, Accuscore gives a decided edge to the Bulls tonight.  The game is on TNT at 8pm EST, so need to hunt down bootleg LP feeds.

Blogging with the Enemy:

Blazers Edge