Today's Poll - December Record

10 wins seems like a huge stretch. Did you guys look at the schedule? Have you been watching how the team is struggling?

the way this team is playing right now, 8-7 over that stretch is very realistic.

11-4, 12-3??

i want some of whatever you’re smoking my friend!! :) hey don’t get me wrong – i’d LOVE it, but again – the way they’ve been playing, that’s seems like a stretch.

that was supposed to be a reply to leeroyjenkins

Its not at all hard to imagine this being a 6-9 month (4-3 at home, 2-6 on the road), or even 5-10, the way this team is playing. 8-9 wins would require significant improvement.

And yes, this is easily Nate’s most tenuous month as Portland’s coach. A 6-9 or 5-10 month could lead to him losing his job.

9 in the bag and one we should not win. The Bucks home fire this year could throw a wrench in this though.

that is a nasty, nasty road trip.

If they play like during much of the last road trip and vs the Bulls, it could be all but 1 or 2, but I have a hard time seeing that unless they find a new mojo in training ‘camp’ this week.

I’d be happy if they could get 8 or 9 wins

Six: @Knicks, @Pacers, @Bucks, Kings, Sixers, Clippers
plus two of Heat, @Mavericks, @Spurs,

Regarding Nate and tenuous? Anyone unlucky enough to have read my recent comments could see I’ve been vacillating. Lately I feel he’s earned the right to try and work it out through May (June). At any rate I like his chances of getting it together better than any horse at midstream.

it makes me feel bubbly and happy; same effect when I suck on the Redi Whip canister :)

Two tough road trips.
A lack of team defense, although several days of practice this week may help.
The team leaders worried about touches.
And most importantly, other teams noe looking at the Blazers as a possible win rather than a really tough game, even in the RG.

My 2c.

(I’m calling it a 10-5 month.)

Heat (W)
Rockets (W)
@Knicks (W)
@Pacers (W)
@Cavaliers (L)
@Bucks (W)
Kings (W)
Suns (L) If we lose any home games in December this is the game I’m picking.
@Magic (L)
@Heat (L) I think we win at home and they get the “payback” win in Miami.
@Mavericks (L)
@Spurs (W)
Nuggets (W)
Sixers (W)
Clippers (W)

Nate is not making the “hard” decisions. He will be history. Doug Collins let M Jordan make decisions also. Phil Jackson came in and introduced triangle offense. (not that this is anything the Blazers should do nor are capable of doing without a skilled set of teachers/coaches) MJ didn’t like it for AHWHILE…and yet when MJ saw that Phil Jackson was really the COACH and wasn’t going to make/let the young star take the lead; he LISTENED. I believe Brandon wants what is best for this team. I don’t think he is selfish. I do think he wants what is comfortable. This is human nature. The coach is the one who is supposed to facilitate change that is NOT. Change that would be for everyone’s own good in the end.
I look at that schedule and see a few wins. Bucks are playing better and it is the 2nd of a back to back. Sixers aren’t playing well. We will probably win there IF Andre plays.

This feels like a down moment before we get it together again and we all look back and go “we were that worried, and for what?”.

I voted Homery because I always put out in the universe the best possible scenarios. We can easily turn things around, and make this a problem we forget about.

Mortimer

Since it is widely believed that thoughts create our own reality, I figured that I had better take advantage of that. And for the Blazers to go 15-0, someone has to believe that it will happen. I will take that burden upon myself, mostly because there is no risk whatsoever. If I’m right, I can take all the credit. If I’m wrong, I can blame everyone else’s negative attitudes. That can only be win-win for me.

By the way, this is also how we missed out on Derrick Rose. And despite what I said then, I blame everyone else entirely.

That stretch from the 17th to the 25th is brutal. When they were beating bad teams but giving up leads or looking poorly I said this would be where we’d see what kind of team they really are. I also said they need to be hitting on all cylinders when they got here and…that’s not exactly happening. I voted for 9 wins in the month, which would mean winning all the games they’re supposed to and a couple against the good teams. At the worst they should win 7, because that would mean either just beating the bad teams or giving away one they should win and winning one they should lose.

It’s been said before, but they should have used the easy part of their schedule figuring out the rotations and everyone’s role. Instead they went with a gimmicky lineup that won some games and made them look good, but was exposed and they went back to square one. Now we’re entering the toughest part of their schedule with more questions than answers. I really have no idea what they’ll look like this month, so I guess more than anything 9 was just in the middle.

This stretch is so tough.

Book it.

that’s what I picked at the start of the season, so I’m sticking with it.

I also thought the Blazers would win 16 of their first 20. Now they will have to win tonight’s game four times to pull that off. – Elgin

but admire the karazy optimism of those who chose 10. 10? Really? That would be huge.

Heat W D-Wade vs B-Roy. Should be good!!!
Rockets W this is .500 team at best, really….
@Knicks W Can you say cake walk??
@Pacers W Umm… who’s on this team besides Danny Granger??
@Cavaliers L Although if the Blazers play well, they could take this game….
@Bucks 50/50 Who would have thought the Bucks would be any good this year??
Kings W The Kings are slightly surprising this year.. not enough to actually win against Portland though.
Suns 50/50 Eeek. This team is Golden State-like except they execute their offense better. Hopefully the 3’s won’t be falling….
@Magic L hmm…remember last year when they won in Orlando? Of course EVERYONE’s shot was falling, not likely to happen again.
@Heat W Yeah, I don’t think much of the Heat…
@Mavericks L Why can’t they beat the Mavericks?
@Spurs 50/50 I don’t think too much of the Spurs either….
Nuggets W The Blazers better win this game or they can kiss their chances of finishing 1st in the division goodbye.
Sixers W Crapshoot team…
Clippers W Ditto.

I don’t think this is optimistic, I think we are going to get it together and starting whooping *ss!

I heard that Steve Blake threw a chair during practice yesterday and Martell Webster smacked Joel Przybilla around in shoot around today…Greg Oden spilled Andre Miller’s Cheerios and LaMarcus Aldridge drank Brandon Roy’s Gatorade, too.

Blazers have struggled against teams w/ a positive performance in particular categories. Based on the strengths and weaknesses of both the Blazers and their opponents, my guesses are:

3 wins: blowouts of MIA and IND.
5 losses: SAC, PHX, ORL, DAL, SAS win by comfortable margins.
7 toss-ups: HOU, NYK, CLE, MIL, DEN, PHI, LAC

PHI and LAC are going to be trappy; AI and Blake Griffin might be in uniform by then with a couple of games under their belts.

In summary, the worst-case scenario is a 3-12 record. The best-scenario is a 10-5 record.

we loose too the ones were suppose to