You don’t want a team like SA, LA, or Boston. You want a team like Phoenix, Golden State, or Denver?

as annoying as it is to watch us lose to teams like PHX and LA, we can easily beat teams like WAS, Char, ATL. atleast we are better than those teams w/o greg. when he comes back we will have more options on guarding big men and reducing pts in paint

Plan A going into this year, making Greg Oden the center of our team’s identity, is not going to be effective this year. We need a Plan B.

“When Greg comes back” is not a good Plan B.

I would like to see the Blazers identity revolve around LMA: Put LMA in the paint and surround him with three slasher-crasher scorers like Rudy, Outlaw and Roy. Add a wing player who can nail the 3 consistently to stretch the other team’s D, and bingo, there’s our identity. That plus tenacious D.

everyone was talking about how hard the schedule would be for the first few weeks.

We open flatter than a pancake against the reigning Western Conference Champs, beat perrenniel powerhouse San Antonio, then lose to perrenniel powerhouse Phoenix… and yet the panic button is getting pressed to the point that it’s batteries are fading. Why? We’re playing some of the best teams from last year, right? Teams that have established offenses and rotations, right?

1. Fast break team… yes, we want to have some fast break aspect, but no we don’t want to be a 7-seconds-or-less D’Antoni team. Definitely something that needs to be improved.

2. Knock dead shooters… see Martell and Rudy.

3. Penetrating point guard… see Roy and Bayless (I think that’s why Nate put him in last night… to penetrate against that Phoenix zone)

4. Bigger and more physical… see Oden and Przybilla.

5. Different coach with a different mindset… see no, we need fans that don’t expect us to be 3-0 against teams that won over 55 games last year. Last night wasn’t a bad loss. It was the 2nd of a back-to-back, not a home game, they landed in Phoenix at 2:30 am, played a still very good Phoenix team, and couldn’t get a call.

6. Better defenders… meh. Again, it was the second game in two nights. They’re young, going against solid teams that have established offensive sets. They’ll never be able to stop a team that is just hitting lots of shots. How many times did you see Phoenix hit a shot with less than 3 seconds on the clock last night with a defenders hand in his face? At least 3… it was just going in for the Suns.

7. More hustlers… no. I think that everybodies been doing quite well on the hustle, so I’m not sure what you’re insinuating there.

8. Fundamentals… this is a young team, learning the big-boy NBA game. Quick just had a story in the Oregonian about the Portland State coach (I think) that regularly stops in on team practices who commented that he’d never seen the fundamental get covered like they were in Blazer practices… I think that means McMillan is working on it, give it some time.

9. Quickness and speed… no. Outside of Joel, the whole team is fast. Roy plays at a slower speed, but that’s how he abuses opponents (and may I say, man is his game looking more and more polished… he’s going to become unguardable someday). Channing is quirky, but he still moves well. LMA and Batum might be the two fastest 6’ 9" and up guys in the league. Rudy will scorch anybody. We have speed.

I’m not sure what it is you are saying that you want… Boston, San Antonio, the L@kers… aren’t those the teams that are responsible for 75% of the last decades worth of Championships?

Personally, I think we need to take a wait-and-see approach. Two of our starters are out. Our schedule is brutal. Our team is young. We won a game against San Antonio (several major points about this win… 1] we snapped a 12 game losing streak to them, 2] the Spurs were unable to beat us in the same late game fashion that a battle-tested, playoff team would, and 3] we beat them by executing down the strectch. Great win.), when in all reality we very easily could be 0-3.

Are the fans, especially the super smart ones that reside here at the BEdge, really going to meltdown if we start out 7-12? If the Blazers played every game over the next couple weeks like the one they did against LA, I’d say we have major reason for concern. But they played decent, and lost. No big deal.

In sum, patience grasshopper.

it’s better than the 5-12!

I would be happy with a defensivly minded, scrappy team, that new the fundamentals very well, and wasn’t afraid to penetrate on anyone. of course I also think thats what Nate is going for as well… My only critique on the way the team has played so far is that they are one of the few teams that have a shooting coach and if I am not mistaken I think he is supposed to be one of the best, so why is it they are not hitting there shots?

so much of winning basketball games is about easy baskets and creating matchup problems..

The Blazers have the pieces to create some easy baskets, but I think team identity often revolves around where you really work to get your easy baskets. Do you push and run to get fast break points or do you pound the ball into the paint or create penetration to create more points in the paint?

We beat the Spurs by taking care of the ball by limiting turnovers and hustling on offensive boards (maximized our possessions and field goal attempts) and creating turnovers and securing defensive boards (minimizing our possessions). We would need to shoot a bit better (and defend a lot better on the permimeter) to a be a contender, but I do think that this could be the most successful identity for this team. This success really requires that we get plenty of blocked shots, steals, and rebounds.

And I think people are missing it badly.

What is the identity that we want for this team? If you know what direction you’re going, then you know what you need to do to get there. If you’re going across water, you build a team that has a boat, and if you’re going across desert, you have that boat pick up water to give to the team as they cross the desert. You also get some nice ATV vehicles.

I think this year is still too soon. Part of building that team is being able to determine “DO we have that ATV vehicle, or will this one break down a lot?” We have all sorts of vehicles, but we don’t know if they’re good yet. You want to build around what you DO have, so we need to figure that part out first.

My thoughts anyway.

This was also a question to ask when we tore everything apart, and I’m honestly not sure what that answer was. My guess is that we want a team like the spurs.