te to back up that argument.

That's something Ben has tried to correct through his formula:

In attempting to create a simple, usable "formula," (my formula only uses addition so just bear with me when I refer to it as a formula) it’s important to note a clear difference between retiring a jersey and voting for a player to enter the Hall of Fame. Retiring a player’s jersey is, first and foremost, an organizational honor rather than an individual honor.  A retired jersey celebrates the player’s achievements but also those of the teams he played on. And, importantly, it celebrates the success of the franchise as a whole.  

With that thought in mind, my formula includes what I believe to be the top 5 most important criteria.  It balances team factors (2 of the five criteria), individual factors (2 of the five criteria) and a wild card factor (all of the rest of the resume-padding stuff that gets brought up during bar room debates on this subject).

Ben's criteria include: Connection with the franchise; success with the franchise; statistical body of work; individual awards and intangibles. The scoring process is still subjective and I can see where debates would quickly fire up (determining a value for "success" will always fuel arguments), but it's an interesting approach toward streamlining a process that is highly subjective.

And, of course, it shows Porter's jersey belongs in the rafters, as we all know it should be.

h to get an accurate feel for the free agency market before that time. Jones has until late June to make his decision.

But Jones acknowledged that the potential playing-time crunch at small forward next season will factor in to the decision. He stressed that it will not be a make-or-break factor, but it will be a strong consideration. The situation boils down to this: A healthy Greg Oden and improving Channing Frye could push Travis Outlaw back to small forward next season, creating a bottleneck at that position. And if Rudy Fernandez chooses to join the Blazers, where he would likely be Brandon Roy's backup as a rookie, that bottleneck will grow even tighter. Should Jones activate his option (worth $3.2 million), he, Martell Webster and Outlaw would all be battling for playing time at the same spot, and the contract situations for each player could create an intensely competitive environment. Both Jones and Webster would be in the final years of their contracts and looking to improve their free-agency stock, while Outlaw will be playing to entice the Blazers to activate the team option on the third year of his contract (which appears almost certain at this point, but a rough year and a situation where any of those three could be pushed out of the regular rotation could change any certainties).

Jones is not concerned about the competition, though, having already carved out a solid career by being productive in limited amounts of time. He averaged a respectable 8.0 points and buried 91 3-pointers last season despite playing in only 58 games and averaging 22.0 minutes off the bench.

"I can be efficient in any amount of time that I'm given," Jones said. "I'm not worried about that."

The part that Jones will consider, though, is his free-agency stock. After battling knee trouble throughout last season and having his numbers plummet thanks to a horrid shooting slump late in the season, Jones' stock this summer may not be super-hot. But should Jones activate his option and return to the Blazers next year, he will be gambling that he will be able to raise his stock for the following summer in that highly competitive situation. Should Jones get pushed out of the regular rotation and wind up being the 11th or 12th man off the bench -- a realistic possibility considering how deep the Blazers appear to be next season -- his free-agency stock could take a hit next summer.

And that gives Jones something to consider over the next month: Should he test the market this summer while he's coming off a solid season? Or believe that he can continue to be effective next season and improve his standing on the market next summer?

"That will definitely be a part of my decision," Jones said. "It will be a factor, but not the factor."

rkoglu.

Still, finishing third is not a bad place for Aldridge to be in, and the other interesting point to note is that Travis Outlaw got a first-place vote and Brandon Roy received two third-place votes. That makes the Blazers one of only two teams to have three of its players receive votes, joining New Orleans, who had Chris Paul, David West and Tyson Chandler on the list.

Here's a look at the voting by 125 members of the NBA media:

Top five
Player	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
Hedo Turkoglu	Orlando	61	22	9	380
Rudy Gay	Memphis	23	14	10	167
LaMarcus Aldridge	Portland	9	22	17	128
Al Jefferson	Minnesota	6	16	22	100
Rajon Rondo	Boston	6	10	17	77

Other Blazers receiving votes
Player	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
Travis Outlaw	1	--	--	5
Brandon Roy	--	--	2	2

e tallied by giving eleven points for each first-place vote, nine points for each second-place vote, seven points for third, five points for fourth, three points for fifth and one point for each sixth place vote received.  Each team nominates one of its  players, and former NBA players Mike Bantom, Eddie Johnson, Tom Sanders, Kenny Smith and Steve Smith selected the six divisional winners.

Here are the final vote totals.

Player	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	Points
Grant Hill, Phoenix	90	100	60	39	34	21	2,628
Shane Battier, Houston	78	80	59	29	42	56	2,318
Brandon Roy, Portland	59	51	60	67	47	60	2,064
Antonio McDyess, Detroit	44	47	55	65	69	64	1,888
Antawn Jamison, Washington	37	34	59	87	66	61	1,820
Chris Bosh, Toronto	36	32	51	57	86	82	1,666

the Los Angeles Clippers? Well, that type of change is common, only they don't usually announce it. So it's up to me to hunt down the two-point attempt that was changed to a 3-pointer. But now it's done and yours to peruse over the summer.

One interesting thing to note is the "approximate value" and "projected value" stats that I have sited repeatedly in this blog all season. "Approximate value," if you haven't read about it here before, is a sabremetric-type stat that analyzes a player's overall value to his team. It's hard to utilize during a season because it accumulates as the year progresses, and for the same reason it can also be hard to use as an equal measurement for comparison because if a player misses any games, his value will be permanently lowered. The only way to max out is to play all 82 games. So I created a secondary algorithm, "projected value," that simply figures out what the player's "approximate value" would be if he played in all 82 games. You can read more about the "approximate value" stat at powerbasketball.com.

Here are the descriptions the author of "approximate value," Dean Oliver, gives to describe each value.

• A score of about twenty indicates an exceptional MVP season.
• A score of seventeen or eighteen indicates a strong MVP candidate or an ordinary MVP season.
• A score of sixteen indicates an MVP candidate.
• A score of fifteen indicates a definite All-Star who is a marginal MVP candidate.
• A score of fourteen indicates a probable All-Star.
• A score of thirteen indicates a marginal All-Star.
• A score of twelve indicates a very fine season; an All-Star candidate.
• A score of eleven indicates an above average regular; an excellent player playing about 1800 minutes.
• A score of ten indicates an average regular or a very good sixth man.
• A score of nine indicates an average regular or a good sixth man.
• A score of eight indicates a fair regular or an average sixth man.
• A score of six or seven indicates an average bench player or a good player playing under 1500 minutes.
• A score of four or five indicates a player who plays about 1000 minutes and who doesn't deserve many more.
• Scores of three or less usually indicate players who are unimpressive in limited playing time.

This was my first year keeping the stat, and to be honest I wasn't sure what to expect. But I have to say that I am pleased with the final outcome. Brandon Roy's 11.9 is indicative of his All-Star selection -- particularly since he was one of the last players to get in -- while LaMarcus Aldridge's 11.5 is indicative of a very good regular (and is probably an excellent score for a guy in his second year). And on down the list the ratings were a fairly accurate description of how each player performed. So you can expect to see that stat again when I do my expanded stats next season.

In addition, I'm planning to add a couple other stats next year, including the number of times a player has a shot blocked from each distance that I break out. I'm trying to keep this feature focused on the stats that aren't readily available anywhere else, so if there is a stat you can think of that you would like to see added, let me know and I'll explore whether it's feasible to compile it next season. Just keep in mind, it takes me about an hour to update each game, so please don't ask me to make my life too much more complicated. Figuring out how often Joel Przybilla misses the first of two free throws might be a bit much. But with the detailed stats packages and play-by-play the NBA produces, there are a lot of stats that aren't difficult to compile.

coach Nate McMillan is definitely looking at Channing to be LaMarcus Aldridge's backup next season, which pushes Outlaw back to small forward.

"We'll get into training camp, and I think that's where he starts," McMillan said. "With Greg (Oden) coming back and Frye, Joel LaMarcus,  it does push him to the three. We'll look at that. But we know we can take advantage of his ability at the four, too. It gives us options."

But it also raises questions, starting with how well Outlaw will succeed at small forward after playing power forward most of last season. His confidence and aggressiveness along with a much more versatile skill set developed enough last year that you have to figure he'll do well at either position, but Outlaw will not have the matchup advantages to exploit at small forward that he had at power forward last season, and it will be interesting to see if that affects his performances.

It also could make the Blazers' small forward situation fairly complicated. If James Jones activates his player option and returns next season, the Blazers will have a log jam at small forward, with Martell Webster, Outlaw and Jones battling for playing time. That is ironic, because that was one of the biggest questions going into last fall's training camp, and it wound up being a non-issue largely because Oden's injury opened up the room for Outlaw to back up Aldridge. If that plays out as described, though, there could be a very interesting situation brewing.

LOOKING FOR A TEACHER
One of the first moves that will be made this offseason is to hire an assistant coach to replace the departed Bill Bayno, who was an extremely valuable figure behind the scenes because of his high-energy personality, willingness to work out with players on the court and engage them with his charisma. Bayno had his fingerprints on the development of quite a few Blazers. But McMillan said he also respected Bayno's basketball intellect and found his input to be valuable during team meetings.

That wide-ranging set of skills obviously made Bayno a natural target of schools looking to lure him into becoming a head coach again. And its a set McMillan is hopeful he can find once again.

"We still want that," McMillan said. "We still want energy. We want high energy. But we want knowledge, too. The thing about Billy was, even though he was a development (coach), I wanted his mind, too. I wanted him in our meetings and being a coach, and all of our guys, all of our coaches are required to develop. That's what we all must do."

McMillan said he planned to discuss the move with General Manager Kevin Pritchard and owner Paul Allen after the season, and added that it is an important position for the Blazers to fill.

DUNCAN HEARD PRZYBILLA'S HAND BREAK
Want to know how serious Joel Przybilla's broken hand was? Well, just know that San Antonio Spurs forward Tim Duncan heard the bone break over the roar of the Rose Garden crowd.

That's what Duncan told Przybilla moments after it happened during the second quarter of the April 6 game -- a point when McMillan was still leaving Przybilla in the game and the 7-foot-1 center didn't think the injury was serious. Przybilla's right hand struck the basket as he went up to block Ime Udoka's floater, but nobody seemed to think he'd done anything more serious than suffer a bruise or jammed finger.

Nobody, that is, except Duncan.

"Tim Duncan was like, 'Man, you broke your hand!" Przybilla said. "I was like, 'No, don't say that!' And he was like, 'Yeah, you broke your hand, man. You better go get it checked out.' And I tried to grab a rebound, or something, and I couldn't even make a fist, so I knew something wasn't right."

As everyone now knows, it certainly wasn't right. Doctors discovered the break at halftime, ending Przybilla's season with five games remaining. Przybilla said the break formed a diagonal line through the second metacarpal (the bone leading up to the index finger).

"It was pretty nasty," Przybilla said.