We went into the Portland Trail Blazers locker room. Or the Twilight Zone.

	The Blazers need to keep Rasheed Wallace on the court.

"Very professional," guard Derek Anderson said of the setting. "Guys aren't complaining, guys aren't coming late, everybody's showing up. That's professional. You don't have to worry about the media and everybody talking bad because we don't give them anything to talk bad about."

"What's their reputation?" new coach Maurice Cheeks said. "Because I don't know."

One of Cheeks' assistants, veteran coach Jim Lynam, calls them hard-working and feisty, and means that only in a good way.

Steve Kerr, another newcomer for the backcourt, said he hasn't seen anything resembling the negative energy that branded the Trail Blazers a team out of control -- that reputation, Maurice -- and helped drive their 2000-01 into the ground after owning the best record in the league through 60 games.

Cheeks has talked about Rasheed Wallace as a leader. In something other than technicals.

Group hug!

Turns out your favorite dysfunctional NBA family is going for the Brady Bunch family look. They're making nice. They're hoping to find internal stability to match the potential that still exists. They're showing a new starting shooting guard (Anderson as Bonzi Wells gets a late start on camp while recovering from knee surgery), a new center (Dale Davis in place of Arvydas Sabonis, though others will probably help by committee), a new coach, and a new attitude. It's like Kerr, acquired from San Antonio along with Anderson for Steve Smith, said of the recent history of locker room problems in Portland: "I don't see any of that. But of course, we haven't lost a (regular season) game yet either."

In other words, check back during a rough stretch and see if they're back to savaging each other. But this is definitely a different look for now, in many ways. For one thing, the Trail Blazers are not even the biggest threat to the Lakers in the division, after years of either keeping Los Angeles pinned against the ropes in the playoffs or, as in last season, being picked by many to win the Pacific. The Sacramento Kings are clearly the closest challengers on the Left Coast and rate serious consideration for No. 2 anywhere.

Portland will benefit from the addition of Anderson and the departure of free agents Rod Strickland and Detlef Schrempf, but Shawn Kemp is still overweight, Greg Anthony is gone so depth at point guard is down to Damon Stoudamire and Erick Barkley, Wells is a question mark, and Scottie Pippen is 36. And if Wells does regain his pre-injury form and again show to have a very bright future, that could create a conflict, or force a trade, because he didn't wait this long to play a reserve role some more and Anderson didn't do the sign-and-trade in hopes of winning Sixth Man of the Year.

That doesn't even get into the most realistic of all concerns, that Wallace is still Wallace -- talented and tempestuous and needing only to find a new target to throw a towel at since Sabonis opted to stay home in Lithuania rather than make millions and live in scenic Oregon. That's where Cheeks comes in.

	“	You feel more relaxed when your coach is relaxed. So I'm hoping that his personality, which is one of professionalism and quiet confidence, carries over to the team, and that's obviously the plan. ”
		— Steve Kerr, on coach Maurice Cheeks

"He's very quiet," Kerr said. "As a player, he was like that. Very stoic, unemotional, which I think is a pretty good quality as a coach. I think it's difficult as a player when you've got a coach jumping up and down on the sidelines all the time. You feel more relaxed when your coach is relaxed. So I'm hoping that his personality, which is one of professionalism and quiet confidence, carries over to the team, and that's obviously the plan."

Cheeks was all that during a career as one of the best guards of his era and one of the best defensive guards of any NBA lifetime. Then he got additional preparation with seven seasons as an assistant in Philadelphia.

Except that he's all this now:

A rookie coach taking over a roster known for bad chemistry.

"I understand the nature of your question," Lynam said when asked whether it's too big of a step. "But I can only go by what I've seen. You hear this or hear that from last year. I think what happened -- this team was, what, less than a quarter away from going to the NBA Finals (in 2000)? So there were huge expectations. It blew up on them at the end of last year, so all of what you're referring to starts. But I can only go by what I've seen this far from the beginning of training camp, that this is a feisty, hard-working, aggressive group of guys."

One with something to prove.

"In kind of a casual sense," Lynam said. "But, yes, I've heard it from them."

We wait to see what statements they make to the league as a whole.

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