Something to Shoot For

Protect our Home Court.

This is the first step to a winning Team. I would love to see a winning record at home this season. This is where us fans can make a difference and our rewards are the greatest. If we could turn around last years record, that would be something special.

I don't know, maybe I'm crazy.  Even if I forget Greg Oden existed, this is still one of the best young teams in the league.  For crying out loud, the Blazers have the two best players from last year's rookie class...

Dave, thanks for this post. I think along with what Krang said, I feel somewhat the same. I don't care about silver lining anymore, this team is still good! We lucked out getting Oden, and that's freaking awesome. But even without Zach and with Oden injured, we're still going to be a good team that will make solid improvements over last year. Let's all get excited about that, this is going to be a fun team to watch, fun to root for, and they just might surprise us and the basketball community this year with a few more wins than expected. I can almost guarantee that we are not in the 20 wins category like some have predicted.

   I think my diary yesterday turned out sounding a little more negative than I intended. I really started out wanting to focus on the specific idea that it is no better that Oden is out, because this upcoming season wasn't about the playoffs anyway, and it spiraled a bit into a rant about just facing the negativity of the situation realisticly and head on. I really do beleive that there are psychological steps that Blazer fans need to go through, and all of us are at different stages. At some point, we do just have to all collectively admit, Oden getting hurt and missing this season--stinks. However, re-reading my post, I don't mean to sound like I'm against optimism concerning the upcoming season. As we adjust to the unfortunate reality that we won't see Oden this season, there is plenty of reason to still be very positive about this team. Returning R.O.Y. in Brandon Roy, LA emerging as a player, and it sounds like this team is galvanizing and creating a great chemistry. Plus without Oden, I think people will tend to overlook us, and I think this team will be better than many expect. So that's my backpeddling, I'm still  thin skinned about being told how Oden being lost for the season is "really" a positive, but I realize that the change in situation opens up new opportunties. As a fan, the hard part for this season, might become just staying focused on this season and not looking ahead all year. Oden returning, Rudy, and whatever happens for us with the draft? Hard not to want to jump ahead. A lot of good things on the horizon, but we all have to keep moving towards them, the choice for us is do we move towards them with a positive attitude about the future and the present, or a negative attitude about the past? Well, I think I can move on to the next stage of "The Season Without Oden" the stage where I start feeling good about The Blazers and our future.  

I'm reposting this because Tim's point is good but the original post went beyond site guidelines.  

I think a lot of Blazer fans are spoiled.
Dave repeats a line of thought I've seen several times here - that Portland has been down a long time, that we've had enough of restocking and rebuilding, that it's about time we start winning again.

Folks, you don't know squat about losing.  You should really take a look at the Blazer's record.  In the 30 years since winning the title, they've had just 6 losing years and one of those (85 - 86) I believe they still made the playoffs.  There have been only two seasons where the team hasn't won at least 30 games.  The fact that they have both come in within the past three years contributes to this sense of the Blazer's being losers for too long, I'm sure, but it just ain't so.

We've had two bad years.  Last season, while not a winning season, was one of promise, with the team on the up swing.  Even without Oden, they should improve on last year's record.  The question is, by how much?  For me, another 5 wins is good progress and, I believe, within the team's probabilities.

Let's not become similar to Red Sox's fans, who whine and moan every year, just because their team finishes second to the Yankees.  You want to see a fan, go to Detroit, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, or (unfortunately) Baltimore.  Talk to an Atlanta Hawks fan.  They haven't had a winning team in nearly a decade, after having one of the best teams in the East for about a dozen year stretch.

I was pumped for this season before we ever knew our draft position.  Even sans-Oden I feel we have an exciting young team, whose future, this season and beyond, is bright.

Although it's worth noting that saying, "It's time to stop thinking about restocking and start winning" does not neccessarily run counter to the rest of what Tim is saying.  It's more an assessment of the team's position and talent than a referendum on our faithfulness as fans.  If we had the same talent base that we did two years ago it wouldn't be time for winning.  Or, put another way, losing this year with this team won't make us better fans.

--Dave

What I love about the Blazers' current situation is the low expectations the league has for this team.  That's great, because the league is wrong.  Even before GO went down, everything I read (especially emanating from the self-annointed "cradle of basketball" back East) said that the Blazers were in for a bad season because they'd lost their best player, Zach Randolph.  Of course, those supposed "experts" had hardly ever seen the the Blazers PLAY.  If they had, they might have realized that, at least by last year's mid-season, Zach was hurting the young Blazers more than he was helping them.

Now, with Oden lost for the season, the league REALLY expects the Blazers to stink.  But they're dead wrong, and it will be fun to watch team after team come in to the Rose Garden full of overconfidence and either get beat or get a serious scare put into them.  In my opinion, the only way this team fails to win at least 30 games is if they suffer other serious injuries.  Barring that eventuality, I expect them to win 32 to 40.

As Roy pointed out in an interview the day of GO's surgery, a key is that the team lost GO prior to training camp.  If they had built their offensive and defensive schemes for the upcoming season based on Oden's presense and THEN lost him, that would have been tough, because there's so little practice time once the season begins.  But the Blazers will enter training camp focused on the players they have, and those players are plenty good enough to compete night in and night out, as others have pointed out above.

A quick point about the lottery: I believe it was jscot who said that you don't need or want 15 "great" players on your team--that you also need "role players."  I'd go a step further: in essence, a great team is made up of FIFTEEEN "role players."  That is, every player has a specific role to play, and each role is equally important because you can't win without it.  A team entirely made up of "gunners"--no matter how talented--will lose every time (this is something Whitsett had no clue about).  You need two or three "go to" scorers--including someone who can post up; you need a couple defensive stoppers; you need hardnosed rebounders; you need a "quarterback" (usually the point guard); you need an instant offense off the bench guy; you need spot-up shooters; etc.  Don't get me wrong: versatility is important too.  If your hardnosed rebounder or your quarterback absolutely can't hit an open shot, that's a liability.  But if they NEED to take shots, that's a liability also.

The Blazers team, as currently constituted, isn't complete.  But it DOESN'T necessarily need more "great"--i.e., high-scoring--players.  And it's still uncertain which missing role players will ultimately need to be added because Outlaw, Jack, Sergio, Frye, Jones, and Webster are still young and may be able to fill some of those roles. By the end of this season, or certainly by the end of the next, we'll be able to tell.  And by that time, KP will be in a position to fill those needs, whatever they turn out to be.

I absolutely agree with you that this is a season in which we must fight as hard as possible and distance ourselves from the perennial lottery teams.

We cannot forget about what we already have, and must avoid salavating over the OJ Mayo's, and Derrick Rose's. While I won't lie, it would be amazing to get another destined superstar type player like these guys, but I think ultimately we already have a solid core of future superstars, who for all intensive purposes, enjoy playing with each other. OJ Mayo might be the most talented player in the country not already playing in the NBA, the problem I see with him is what I would call the "Kobe Bryant Complex" wherein he sees himself as the 'winning' factor and almost always alienates his teammates.

We have one of the few teams in the league that is free from that type of player, and still has a fighting chance to win 30+ games. I believe it is imparitive for this team to come together and play team basketball; lucky for us, this team is doing just that as we speak.

LaMarcus Aldridge was the most hyped player besides Greg Oden going into Summer League, he was also the highlight of the USA Select Team but chose to heal his body for the regular season rather than risk injury. At this point I'm glad the hype has died down for LaMarcus and our Blazers, it's like the NBA, ESPN, and the Media are giving us yet another chance to capitalize, turn heads, and rejoice...

I think we'll be just fine this season.