For the Chicken Littles Out There

by BlazerTag on Jun 12, 2009 5:01 AM PDT

Now that the evil empire has all but assured another championship notch in it's bed post(season) and the sharp pain of the Blazer's playoff demise has dulled to a slow throb, it's time for a little perpective and reflection.

The moment our beloved Blazers locked in the fourth seed, I looked at our bracket and saw what I believed at the time to be the hardest route to the championship we (I use "we" when I talk about the Blazers because I am a loser) could have possibly drawn. When the Houston Rockets beat us in six, I lost sight of that. I hit the panic button.

THE SKY IS FALLING! We need two new point guards (Deron Williams and Chris Paul), a mentor for Oden (the Big Shaqtus), a lock-down wing defender (Scottie Pippen circa 1994), and some tomahawk missiles for Blazer One.

THE SKY IS FALLING! There's no way Nate is a championship-caliber coach; it's time for KP to hire a necromancer to revive Knute Rokne's corpse and have it replace Coach Mac.

THE SKY IS FALLING! The city of Portland deserves better announcers than the two Mikes; we need someone with eloquence and a high basketball IQ, why don't we get Barack Obama? (I made a Mike Barrett+Mike Rice+two second round picks for Barack Obama work on the ESPN trade machine. The salaries match, get it done KP!)

THE SKY IS FALLING! Lebron James is going to win the next 15 championships. He's already won zero in a row!

And then... the rest of the playoffs unfolded. The Rockets take the L*kers to seven games, even though Yao missed half the series (if only my voodoo doll would have worked 5 games faster). The L*kers beat Denver in six. The L*kers up 3-1 in the finals. The stupid, &^#%ing L*kers are about to win a championship and so far the only team that has tested them is the same team that eliminated the Blazers!

Well gee, it appears that the Blazers were indeed in the toughest bracket in the toughest conference in professional basketball. Maybe there's some reason for optimism. The soon-to-be champs don't match up that well against us. They haven't won at the Rose Garden since the Eisenhower administration. The only team that took the L*kers to the brink of elimination beat us by less than 3 points in two of their victories WITH their starting center. And the biggest reason for optimism of all: this team, as is, hasn't come close to reaching it's potential.

I think it's time to moth-ball the daily trade requests. Put the "Steve Blake sucks" rants on ice (I'm not naming names, but I'm thinking in Ben's general direction). Remove "toughness" from your Blazer lexicon (again I'm not naming Fatty's name).

Let's sit back and enjoy an off-season where we all have only a cursory interest in the upcoming draft. Then, let's sit back even further and enjoy watching Bayless bend the rim with the power of his mind during summer league. After that, it's time to lie down, take a nap, and hibernate 'til pre-season.

Until then, make mine BlazersEdge!

Tweet Comment 20 comments | 12 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

sanity is boring

I hope there isn’t a hue and cry for KP’s head from the “in KP we trust to gut the team and spend too much money” types after we make no significant moves this summer. We still don’t know what we have yet, the championship window is just coming unlocked, and we are in no hurry. Talking trades is fun I guess, but the front office has a long-term picture in mind.

by bink919 on Jun 12, 2009 8:52 AM PDT reply actions

Sanity doesn't bode well with Faith..... just sayin.

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

by faith on Jun 13, 2009 8:58 AM PDT up reply actions

Good points

And standing pat with this team would be fine. An upgrade would be great.

But the Blazers will bring fun for all of us for quite a while.

Oden and LaMarcus and Roy, oh my!

by Quik_Baller on Jun 12, 2009 10:20 AM PDT reply actions

Thanks for the sanity

If we can make a reasonable upgrade with Bayless, Sergio, Blake, Outlaw, or anyone else, that is great.

If not, they are all doing a fine job and getting better.

by staylost on Jun 12, 2009 10:48 AM PDT up reply actions

Rec

for using the word necromancer

by T$ 225 on Jun 12, 2009 11:26 AM PDT reply actions

agreed.

by pxilpooshr on Jun 12, 2009 2:56 PM PDT up reply actions

Neither chicken, nor goose, nor turkey am I

A bit of an odd Duck, no doubt. Anyhow, thanks for giving me a trade-centric fanpost I can rec for a change. I keep saying the same things over and over. I know it’s getting boring for everybody. Maybe it’s time to sign off from the Internets for a while, get off the grid, go dark, get outside, take a walk, smell the rhodies.

"Just kidding"

by CatMan2 on Jun 12, 2009 1:18 PM PDT reply actions

I as well became a chicken little

But I love this post. I think it high time to enjoy this last season. To think back on how awesome it was. How great the team looked, how far it has come. Maybe a week without obsessing over the Point guard position will do me some good.

Man what a great season! I loved the ride! And playoff basketball in the Rose Garden…Whoa Nelly that was the best of all.

by BlazerFanFromDenver on Jun 12, 2009 5:15 PM PDT reply actions

What in God's name is wrong with the Mikes?

The only thing I thought after the Houston series was we needed a better starting PG and backup PF. Everything else is juuuuust fine. Nate is a fantastic coach and silently feared by his opponents. LeBron will never win a title in Cleveland. And the entire Blazers broadcasting team is top notch in my opinion.

Next season will be even better.

Life is hilarious.

by SolGoode on Jun 13, 2009 11:00 AM PDT reply actions

Umm Lebron can easily win a title in Cleveland

He just needs ONE good player to support him. He couldn’t get a top 10 player at any position to help him out. That’s pretty pathetic. (And I don’t care if Mo made the AST, he’s not a top 10 PG.)

In no order. CP3, Deron, Parker, Nash, Kidd, Billups, Rondo, Harris, and Nelson are all guys I take over Mo in a heartbeat. I’m sure there is at least one more that I am forgetting too since this list took all of 20 seconds.

by Zaig on Jun 16, 2009 9:32 AM PDT up reply actions

the Mikes don't know their basketball,

And while there is abundant room for optimism about the Blazers’ future, Houston completely handled us in that series. Put another way, we are not close to being at the level of a Houston, let alone an LA.

The Sky is not falling, we are just not that good yet.

by Blazin' on Jun 13, 2009 6:58 PM PDT reply actions

A six point swing and the Blazer's win that series 4 games to 2.

Yes, they were just brutally handled.

by raoulduke on Jun 16, 2009 10:28 AM PDT up reply actions

Zing.

Life is hilarious.

by SolGoode on Jun 16, 2009 1:09 PM PDT up reply actions

Great Post

period. :-)

Brandon Roy, 'nuff said.

Best draft of all time: "1942, right after Pearl Harbor….everyone got drafted" --- 92wastheyear

by johnv59 on Jun 14, 2009 12:25 AM PDT reply actions

B Roy called it: the Blazers will challenge for a Championship next year

They may or may not win, but they will be in the hunt.

1) Eight of our top ten players are under 25. They may not all improve, but collectively they will only get better.

2) Unlike many top teams, the Blazers do not face the loss of any of our top players this summer.

3) Unlike almost all of the top teams, the Blazers are under the cap and have room to make one or more deals.

4) KP has demonstrated that he is one of the top evaluators of talent in the league.

The Blazers are a lot closer than many realize.

by upper left corner on Jun 14, 2009 5:43 AM PDT reply actions

I shall counter

1) 8 of our top 10 guys have no experience
2) Boston losing their second best player meant a title the next year!
3) The cap just gives us room to make trades and screw up our chemistry
4) KP drafted Oden, who is a clear bust.

OWNED!

by Zaig on Jun 16, 2009 9:34 AM PDT up reply actions

counter the counter

1) 8 of our top 10 guys have no experience (They actually played in the playoffs this year)
2) Boston losing their second best player meant a title the next year! (They got Garnett and Allen, I would trade Aldridge for those two. What’s your point?)
3) The cap just gives us room to make trades and screw up our chemistry (When has KP and crew ever made a bad trade and messed up chemistry?)
4) KP drafted Oden, who is a clear bust. (Wrong)

You have failed.

by Blaze of Glory on Jun 16, 2009 11:38 AM PDT up reply actions

Recounters!!!!!!!!!!!

1) Playoffs mean nothing. Houston made it to the playoffs… and then did the same thing for the next decade before their “experience” took them to round 2!
2) So shouldn’t we trade LMA and scrubs for some better players?
3) Roy and LMA don’t have good chemistry!
4) Simmons would never lie.

I win at life.

The Princess of Blazersedge

by Zaig on Jun 16, 2009 1:10 PM PDT up reply actions

not a loser for saying we

But you did cement it with use of the word necromancer

That's right, that's a picture of me with my new bff Joel Przybilla. He said my Billy Idol Karaoke was spot on.

by svlittle on Jun 14, 2009 10:27 AM PDT reply actions

Wait, the sky is falling because some people have ideas on how to make the team better and they want to share them during the boring offseason?

I don’t like preachy thread titles.

Blazer Fan

by leeroyjenkins on Jun 16, 2009 9:57 AM PDT reply actions

The problem becomes how do you separate someone sharing their thoughts ...

… on what the team might do to improve …

…. from the junior GM’s who think they are basketball geniuses waiting to be discovered.

For me a lot of it comes from people presenting their opinions as irrefutable fact. I rarely see it identified as opinion.

hakkaa päälle !

by timg56 on Jun 16, 2009 12:45 PM PDT up reply actions

Thanks

I’ve been consistently amazed by people who want to trade players from a 54 win team for players on a 20-30 win team. I believe the Rockets were ahead of the Lakers and probably would have won if Yao had not broken his foot. And we were very close to beating the Rockets. It seems sometimes like people are still thinking Portland is not very good. A couple of minor changes is what I’m hoping for. This was a very fun year.

by chrisoh on Jun 16, 2009 12:47 PM PDT reply actions