But if Pritchard's brief history is any lesson, the Blazers are finished making any substantial moves.

That's the way it was going into the 2007-08 season, essentially the same as 2006-07, Pritchard's rookie year. He makes a plan going into the draft, sticks to it with a little elbow room for flexibility, and lets it ride.

In the process he has masterminded what appears to be a magnificent transition from a potentially disastrous divorce between Portland and the Blazers at the end of the 2005-06 NBA season into a brand new love affair with great expectations. Once general manager John Nash was sent packing -- and less than a year later president Steve Patterson was nudged out the door as well -- Pritchard began spinning owner Paul Allen's wheel of fortune, and the franchise has reaped the benefits ever since.

Beginning with a five-player swap just before the 2006 draft, Pritchard has made 16 deals in his three drafts -- five each over the past two -- and the results have put the Blazers back on the map. Now, coach Nate McMillan and his team strike fear in the hearts of every team in the Western Conference, while new president Larry Miller and his staff mend the wounds with the fan base.

Granted, these Blazers haven't been to the playoffs either. But the sellout crowds are back in the Rose Garden, and going into this season, their projected starting lineup of center Greg Oden, power forward LaMarcus Aldridge, small forward Travis Outlaw, shooting guard Brandon Roy and point guard Steve Blake have postseason aspirations yet boast an average age of less than 24 years old. Blake, the old man at 28, is the next guy due to get beaten out by a youngster.

This team has already bonded with the fans that were stung by the hollow promises of the previous regime.

Along the way, there has been some good luck, only to be followed by bad luck. That involved winning the 2007 NBA lottery and the rights to draft Oden, the sensational teenage 7-foot All-American from Ohio State, who promptly injured his knee and required microfracture surgery last summer to end his season before training camp ever began. So he's a rookie again, buffed up to more than 270 pounds and presumed to be 100 percent recovered for training camp 2008. McMillan will also have a second 2007 first-round pick at his disposal, 23-year-old Spanish guard Rudy Fernandez, perceived as the top shooter in Europe this past season.

And that's not to mention Jerryd Bayless, the hot-shot rookie point guard from Arizona, who was the byproduct of Pritchard's five deals at this year's draft. It's hard to fathom any general manager could draft five players on a given day and trade all of them, but that's what Pritchard accomplished two weeks ago, adding Bayless and 19-year-old French swingman Nicolas Batum, who they expect to develop in France over the next couple of seasons. Obviously, with such a young roster there are only so many players they need, or even want.