Most encouraging signs from the early season

There has been a ton of early season hand wringing over the hurky-jerkey start the Blazers have had. I have certainly done my share. It was not from any sense of doom and gloom or anything, more of, what happened to that smooth flowing team I remember from last season.

Then Nate went to that 3 guard line-up and wow do we look smooth. It is a whole different team with this line up starting. I do not think it will last, Roy is not a full time 3 in Nate's offense. Roy needs his numbers, he won't get them swinging the ball from the outside like 3's do in Nate's system. For that reason alone this line up won't last. But it has provided many encouraging signs, here are my top 3:

3. Oden has his jump back. Do you notice how far off the floor he gets on some of his blocks? Man oh man, that alone is encouraging as all get out.

2. Miller is allowed to actually run the offense. McMillan is a very deliberate play caller by nature it seems. He has had his reasons to be sure, and he has been quite successful until now at it. That got us to where we are at, but to move to that next level we need floor general's. People not just observing the ebb and flow of a game, but feeling it. Basketball is a rhythm game, someone on the floor calling plays is more sensitive to that rhythm. The last two games seem to bear this out.

1. Aldridge and Oden crushing Minnesota's front line last night. I know it was the lowly T-Wolves. I know we should have mopped them up exactly the way we did. No doubt about it. But come on, we all know the wrap on Aldridge, he is not tough enough. I don't buy it generally speaking, but I will concede he tends to play to the level of his opposition or sometimes get taken out of games by some pretty rough handling by an opponent. I have seen LaMarcus have big nights before, but last night you could see that he knew the T-Wolves had nothing for him and he took it right at them time and again. It was great

Oden, too, looked aggressive. He did not spend any time trying to figure out the guy on him on either end, he dictated what happened in that match up all night long on both ends. No hesitation, just tone setting attack ball. He is still getting cleared out by two opponets on every board, but so what, Aldridge has been attacking the glass from the other side and harvesting strong rebounding numbers because of his aggressive play.

Closing thoughts

We know exactly what Roy can bring to any game at any moment. Clutch guy, good driver, great speed and an ability to create his shot. We know he can dictate the terms of almost any matchup. We know how good both Aldridge and Oden are too, but what we don't know is if they can become nightly tone setters. Last night's aggression was an encouraging sign. If they keep building on that attitude and start dictating play more, we will be hard to beat by anyone, anytime.