Some perspective on the early losses

by ocho-ocho on Nov 4, 2009 3:01 AM PST Comment 5 comments

5 games in, and already the hand wringing is ridiculous. I'm sensing the need for a little perspective. It's still early in the season. Some of the best teams are still working out the kinks.

There's just a period of adjustment-- Batum (our assumed starter and best defender) is out, the return of Webster, Miller and the team are still getting used to each other, and those are just the "big" things. They'll adjust. Maybe it will take them 20 or 30 games, but this team is going to be very good, and I believe most of us still believe they're going to at least make it to the 2nd round of the playoffs.

Additionally, a lot of comments I've read both here and OregonLive make it seem like nobody here pays attention to the rest of the NBA. For example:

The Lakers are widely considered one of the very best teams in the NBA this season. Well, they had to go into OT tonight just to beat the Thunder by a mere 3 points. The Thunder are currently showing up in most power ranking at around 16-20.

The Pistons (ranked at about 21) just beat the Magic (top 3 in the Eastern Conference) by 5. And the Bucks (ranked as low as 28) just beat the Pistons by 11 on the second night of a back to back.

All is not lost.

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no .... nate just sucked, and handed in his resume in one game...

he’s good at form, he’s good at teaching fundementals, but he know’s squat about letting a “team” play.

Maybe he’s spent too much time building the perfect squad that he fogot how to just let the “team” play…

or maybe he really does have a man crush on steve blake…

or maybe …

who cares… Nate just needs to keep steve on the bench, let andre start AND RUN THE OFFENSE and tell Brandon to stick a cork in it and do what he gets paid for.

Free Andre!!!! Bench Blake… Play Oden FEED ODEN.

Fire Nate!!

The Faith don't panic, the faith freaks out, burns out farms, and torchs small villages in the name of The Faith.

"New Man Law: If you don't show up for the draft you don't get to come later if you're picked. If you believe in yourself, show up and sit there. If nobody else believes in you, take it and cry like a man...in front of the cameras."

-Dave

by faith on Nov 4, 2009 4:57 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

i didn't notice a better team with miller in.

"Fernandez, to my eyes, is the Blazer who walks that walk most comfortably. A lot of Portland's fans (egged on, dare I say, by their local broadcasters) lament things like how Ron Artest or Yao Ming get to hit Brandon Roy's arms.

But I suspect Fernandez sees all that and thinks: We get to hit arms! Cool!"

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-39-135/On-Playoff-Experience.html

"I told Pau the Lakers never win here in Portland; I think it's great." -- Rudy Fernandez

by ratbastird on Nov 4, 2009 8:31 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

i can't even remember what I was ranting about but I'm thinkin it was becuase andre kept getting yanked after like 1 min ...

The Faith don't panic, the faith freaks out, burns out farms, and torchs small villages in the name of The Faith.

-Dave

by faith on Nov 9, 2009 9:14 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

any team in the NBA can beat any other team

once. Look at the Magic’s other games, they have played solid basketball, same with the Lakers, Boston, Spurs, Suns, Nuggets, etc… Only the Cavs could be compared to the Blazers right now in terms of struggling, but watching their games they look much better than the Blazers even in their losses.

I am tired of waiting, good NBA teams should not have to wait until the 20th game or so of the season to figure it out, most good teams have it figured out from the get go.

Ben II Blazersedge.com || New to Blazers' Edge?

by usmcr3049 on Nov 4, 2009 8:01 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

the wins would be nice, but......

The fact of the matter is— the 3 losses so far were not “that bad”. Yes, a loss is a loss; but: these were all super close and could have gone either way very easily. Very near the tipping point.

Loss to Denver- 3 Points

Just one less goal made by Denver, and one more Blazers goal, and we’re not having this conversation. Denver is playing great basketball right now. Carmelo was just named player of the week. Their other 4 wins have been by an average of 16.25 points. They won the same number of games as Portland did last year, and they essentially have their core intact.

Loss to Houston- 4 Points:

They’re playing great ball right now, we’re 1-1 with them, and we’re still only one game behind them. They took the Lakers into overtime tonight, and still only lost by 1.

Loss to Atlanta- 6 points

Not terrible considering they’re looking really good at 4-1. Same core as last year.

by ocho-ocho on Nov 5, 2009 1:03 AM PST reply actions 0 recs