Saturday is Halloween, but don't expect many NBA owners and general managers in this shaky economy to dress up as Bill Gates and throw money around.
Oct. 31 is the annual deadline for one-time first-round picks entering their fourth seasons to be eligible to sign extensions that would kick in for their fifth seasons. For stars, it's a chance to land their first really big contract.
But much is silent as the deadline approaches, meaning the overwhelming number of eligible players from the 2006 first round will become restricted free agents next summer. Three players from that draft -- Andrea Bargnani of Toronto and LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy of Portland -- have inked extensions, but not a lot more activity is expected.
Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.
The Portland Trail Blazers are one of the most exciting teams in the NBA. They are more than ready to make a splash this upcoming season. In this FanHouse exclusive, we talk to Greg Oden, Rudy Fernandez, Nicolas Batum and Jarron Collins to see how training camp is going.
With Aldridge, it's understandable. Quick reports the team wanted to give LMA a $10 million annual salary. Toronto extending Andrea Bargnani at that rate fudged those plans. But Roy ... what on Earth does Portland need to negotiate with Roy about? He's a maximum salary player, no doubt, and Pritchard should sign up for whatever contract length Roy requests -- three years a la LeBron, or the full five. There should be nothing to stall things because Pritchard should be nodding his head during the entire negotiation period.
You can't keep a good seven-foot Chinese guy with incredible footwork, length, and a solid supporting cast built of metric-positive role players down forever.
The Houston Rockets advanced to the second round for the first time in Yao Ming's seven-year career on Thursday night with a 92-76 win at home over the Portland Trailblazers. And while Yao was his usual productive self with 17 points, 10 rebounds and 2 blocks, it was Ron Artest shaking off his offensive doldrums to explode for 27 points that helped Houston to overcome their demons. And possibly give Tracy McGrady a few more.
The Trail Blazers can't win against the Rockets without big games from Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge -- and sometimes even that's not enough. So when you consider the fact that Roy entered Game 5 on Tuesday completely flu-stricken and Aldridge hadn't even attempted a shot in practice for two days because of a swollen elbow, it'd be understandable if you predicted the game wouldn't even be close.
As it turns out, it wasn't -- but instead of Houston closing the door, it was the Blazers who pulled away in the final quarter, winning 88-77. How did they do it? Roy and Aldridge, of course; the duo each scored 25 points, defying their respective ailments to help the Blazers stave off elimination for at least one more night.
The Blazers and the Rockets are both playoff teams that have their share of obvious flaws. In fact, neither one of them have any business getting out of the first round this season. But thanks to the way the seedings shook out, one of them will advance by default.
Unfortunately for Portland fans, that team is going to be the Rockets, and the reason is rather simple: This Blazers team is just not built for the playoffs.
The big question for the Houston Rockets as the playoffs began was if they would have a scorer that could take over a game the same way Portland has Brandon Roy.
It turns out you don't really need that if you hold the other team's pair of stars (Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge) to 12 of 33 shooting and your team takes advantages of the opportunities provided by a shady defense.
The result was an 86-83 victory for the Rockets that gave them a 2-1 advantage in their series. This one was kind of a chessmatch. Try and keep up.
Playoff basketball is many things, including one massive blame game. All heralding creates equal (and opposite) finger-pointing. The Bulls don't just lose because of the brilliance of Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo -- they also lose because of Brad Miller and Tyrus Thomas, as far as fans and analysts are concerned.
That is fine -- you cannot be an honest broker of credit without delivering equivalent blame. As such, Yao Ming's success gave way to LaMarcus Aldridge's failure. This is true: Aldridge played poorly, and that hurt his team. But such obvious failure masks the other failure around a player. It's easy to blame Aldridge, so he soaks up nearly all the lashings. This isn't quite fair to LMA, because ... well, Brandon Roy had a pretty bad Game 1 too.
Exposed is a nasty little word in basketball and no one likes to be it or get called it.
Exposed is an especially harsh word in the NBA because pro players have spent most of their lives doing the exposing. But once we get into the playoffs, everyone is fair game – even the stars.
That's always one of the best parts of the postseason: Finding out which players rise, which players fall and which players are what they are.
Sometimes in the playoffs you find out your favorite player isn't quite as good as you thought he was or that guy you really liked in mid-January can't quite it get it done when the games turn meaningful.
In front of a raucous crowd the Portland Trail Blazers took the court tonight for their first playoff game in six years, and the first of the modern incarnation. They were young, they were excited, and the entire city of Portland was behind them.
Ming scored 24 points, all in the first half, all in only 24 minutes, on 9-9 shooting to put the Blazers down for the count from the very beginning. After the rubble had cleared? Rockets 108, Blazers 81.
Saturday is Halloween, but don't expect many NBA owners and general managers in this shaky economy to dress up as Bill Gates and throw money around.
The Portland 
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The Trail Blazers can't win against the Rockets without big games from 
The big question for the Houston Rockets as the playoffs began was if they would have a scorer that could take over a game the same way Portland has 
Playoff basketball is many things, including one massive blame game. All heralding creates equal (and opposite) finger-pointing. The Bulls don't just lose because of the brilliance of Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo -- they also lose because of Brad Miller and Tyrus Thomas, as far as fans and analysts are concerned.
Exposed is a nasty little word in basketball and no one likes to be it or get called it.
In front of a raucous crowd the Portland Trail Blazers took the court tonight for their first playoff game in six years, and the first of the modern incarnation. They were young, they were excited, and the entire city of Portland was behind them. 
