Roy expects to play in preseason

Contrary to what Blazers coach Nate McMillan said last week, All-Star Brandon Roy said he expects to play in some preseason games this fall to prepare for the season as he recovers from offseason knee surgery.

Last week, McMillan said he doubted Roy would play in the preseason for several reasons: It would give his knee, which had torn meniscus cartilage repaired in August, to more completely recover; and it would give Rudy Fernandez more minutes and increase his familiarity with the team and NBA game.

"My thing is, I'm not planning on him doing that right now," McMillan said of Roy at the time. "The main thing is to get them ready for regular season."

But Roy said he thinks that stance has changed during the last week. Roy participated in full-court, five-on-five pick-up games on three different days last week and did not feel any soreness in his knee. He estimated that his knee was 90 to 95 percent healthy, so he expects to be handled rather delicately during training camp, likely participating in only one of the two daily practice sessions.

But when it comes to the preseason games, Roy doesn't want to be be inactive.

"My goal is to play preseason," said Roy, who missed most of the preseason last year when a heel injury flared up. "I'll play more than last season. I don't know how many minutes I'll play in the games, but I want to play preseason because if you look at our schedule, the start of the season is tough and I don't want to use those games to get in shape. I kind of want to be there. So it's important that I get a lot of games in, lot of reps."

When told that McMillan had given a different story last week, Roy said he and McMillan had talked it over and he felt they had a different understanding of the situation.

"He's fine," Roy said. "He just wants to listen to me, just make sure I'm not pushing it too hard in the preseason. But I definitely want to play. That's the only way you can get game reps is in those preseason games."