I would go with fifty, but it’s such a round and meaningful number, I don’t want to jinx us.

id say we’ll beat the dallas mavericks out of the playoffs and become the 8th seed, losing to the Lakers in 5 games.

but im loving seeing the guys play, 42 wins would be sweet, anything more than that is gravy

just watched the twolves highlights, got shivers when i saw travis and broys shots, the blazers name will be feared in the nba by the all star break, mark my words

The schedule gets significantly easier after January 7th :)

I think placing the Blazers somewhere around .500 at the end of December is fairly conservative, as long as we stay healthy that is. I agree with you 100% that we can’t look down the schedule and pencil in wins against the likes of OKC and Minnesota, but we also can’t look down the schedule and pencil in losses to the likes of Boston and NO.

This team is young, yes, but we have far more tools at our disposal this year than we did last, and more importantly a hunger to win I haven’t seen on the Blazers for a long long time.

Like I said, I think .500 is a bit conservative a guesstimate for the end of Dec. So, with the powers of my amateur basketball BSery and feigned skills of clairvoyance, say they will be closer to a 17-12 mark at the end of Dec.

The Blazers can just as easily do well during this tough schedule as they can suffer a let-down and play poorly during an easy part. Veteran teams can also foil the Blazers’ game and fluster them—they’re still young and not comfortable with all dimensions of the game. One question each night will be: will the Blazers’ youth and athleticism serve or harm them? Oh yeah, and how healthy physically are they?

That being said, they look so long and quick once defenders penetrate into the paint. If the shots are falling, they look unbeatable; when they don’t, they look for an answer somewhere. And whether they win or not, it is delightful to watch Oden healthy. I don’t care how many of those hook shots he misses or even if by taking too many he loses a couple of games; I just want him to get good doing that so that he becomes a threat in game situations. He is already passing and playing team basketball so well. What a treat.

sweep sweeep sweep sweep Champions!

The good news: Last year’s Blazers could do what you’re talking about, Dave. With Oden + Rudy, and with Outlaw covering for James Jones, this year’s Blazers should do better.

The bad news: We’re still in a nailbiter every night. We could mess it up.

Rudy I’m not so worried about.

Batum and Oden… well, if Webster gets back, I worry a bit about a rookie wall with Oden but not so much with Batum.

For that matter, I’m worried a bit about Sergio. The last few games he’s become an important part of the team… can he last all through winter? I seem to recall his shot flattens its trajectory incrementally with each game. It’s already looking a bit flat this fall.

One nice thing about all this depth on the team is that it helps ease my personal worries about a rookie wall (thanks KP!) but I still worry.

All my playoff expectations are going to be temepered by my unreasoning fear of January and February.

……………………………….. Things feel very different this year than they did last year, and it doesn’t really have anything to do with Oden. The team is hitting another gear (while at the same time teams like Dallas and San Antonio are coming back to earth…).

The window is now open.

The Blazers, I’m confident, will continue to be a very good home team. So, if they can go ~.500 on the road, they could get to 50 wins. I don’t think they’ll quite make either of those goals, but its possible.

                                            particularly about the future."
                                                        —Yogi Berra, American philosopher.

But no one will remember what we predict now, anyway, unless we’re Dave or Ben, so why no let predictions fall like leaves from our November trees. It’s fun. It’s easy. We’re unaccountable! Assuming no major injuries to the team, especially to Roy, here’re mine:

      * 50-52 wins
      * 6th playoff berth
      * eliminated in the second round
      * the 2009-2010 season begins with the rest of the league afraid. Very afraid.

And that’s the Truth.

…is that the Blazers are 6-4 after a ridiculously difficult ten game stretch – and they haven’t even come close to really putting all the pieces together.

First, of course, Martell’s been out, and he’s an important player for this team.

Second, Oden’s only begun to show glimpses of what he can do.

And third, each game it seems like one or two of Roy, LMA, Rudy, and Trout play well, but not three or four. Guys are going to have off nights (like LMA last night) but hopefully as the year progresses, those become fewer and farther in between.

That’s part of the beauty of this team – they can win without firing on all cylinders.

But when they start to do that… man, watch out.

I’m going to go to the O Live comments section for some more meaningful analysis.

har har har

is a lack of consistency, top notch teams will blow out crappy teams, last season and this season i have yet to see a convincing blow out from the blazers. i love the wins but we should be beating the twolves by 10, especially at home.

more convincing inside play, and less jump shooting would be nice as well. everything else seems to be going well, i doubt many teams have as many weapons as the blazers.

for the end of November is 11-7
and for the end of the calendar year 18-14

I think he is hitting the brunt of it right now. This guy has been so hyped to the moon and back that teams are double and triple teaming him, playing dirty and fouling him hard already.

Rudy on the other hand is probably about to hit that wall here really soon, as Ben said in the post game the scouting report is out on him, the league adjusted to him, now it is his move.

92… you think 53 wins is only going to be good enough for a 7th seed this year?… I really don’t think we are going to see W column numbers like we did last year in the west. If we do manage 53 wins I would guess a 5th seed or so…

after being cut off from civilization for 9 days and see Oden’s coming off of the bench (for now), Batum is still starting - and they had a winning road record!

I love it when two things I lobbied hard for came to fruition and the results are positive. Make me feel special in my own insignificant way :).

Think about it.. We have all these guys
Roy (Teams envy him)
Aldridge (Gifted scorer. Very effective majority of the time)
Oden ( There is no way he is not top 10 Center even at this point)
Fernandez ( He’s Pass He’s Assist. Nothing else needed)
Outlaw (He will do atleast something good off the bench)

Most teams have no more than 2-3 guys that are even descent.

    55-27 & building when the playoffs arrive.
GO BLAZERS !!!

So far so good in the close games, but these things tend to even out. I’m still concerned about our PG rotation and SF play. I don’t trust the defense to carry the Blazers to a 50 win season this year. Outside shooting is not a good strategy in the long run, the defense has to win some games when the shots aren’t falling. I would like to see Oden play 30+ minutes, but fouls will probably be an issue most the season due to bad perimeter defense. Roy and Oden will power the Blazers to 46 wins.

what you tryna do? jinx us?

Just for the record if we lose on Tuesday expect an inflamatory email from me.
;-)

Sophia

can’t wait for martell to return. hope everyone stays healthy — want to see what we are capable of at all cylinders. because we are ballin right now.