Don't Worry, Portland

92 wins

thanks dave.

win 50 games with a depleted roster last year, dont count him out. Of course we would love/need to find an upgrade at pg but if this team stays healthy or has a normal amount of missed games from key players i could see a 55 win team, no problem. Id love to see the thunder in the second round of the playoffs. We have more experience and deep in every position. Now, lets cross our fingers for good health. Rip City!

The smile kept widening and widening as I read on. It was a full-on, goofy-looking grin by the time I finished this passage:

But in this transitional time when the guard is clearly changing it’s pretty easy to anticipate that nobody will forget Portland when the next order is established. They’ll be in top-four discussion yearly. Hopefully that will evolve into top-two and just top-PERIOD as time progresses.

Now I’m all psyched up. I can’t wait for that day to come!!!!!

And angst is part of fan law. But isn’t it better not to know?

That is why we watch the games and all. If it’s a group or season with some unproven question marks, that makes it all the more interesting.

That said, as far as this quote goes:

We haven’t come close to seeing the Blazers’ full fury yet…

I do wish for a season where “Full Fury!” replaces Rise With Us as the goofy corporate slogan.

Perhaps with a picture Greg Oden flashing yet unseen “crazy eyes” like a cross between Mel Gibson and Charles Bronson. That would just be fun either way.

that deserves a rec from everyone on BEdge.

take the Chicago game and add 30 points, 11 rebounds, 3 blocks from camby.

It brings me back to the early 90’s teams and reminds me how fun it is to be a blazer fan!
To be a blazer fan means enjoying the journey and going with it.
Let it ride and enjoy the ride my friends.
Great Post Dave!
Your fandom is just so happy making.

The team is solid! Don’t sweat it, they will come through!

in recent memory. I don’t even care if you were drunk when you posted it — still my fave.

I completly agree and I think that mine and probably others nervousness doest come from if this team can contend with our current roster(which i think clearly they can) but that on any given play one of our players is gonna break like glass. Last year sure changed everything…..

This will likely be an oversimplification, but with current personnel…

- Roy would have to continue to improve and become more like Kobe – A legitimate, title calibre first option on offense and a guy who takes pride in his defense, rather than settling for being Joe Johnson 2.0.
- Oden would have to stay healthy, play big minutes and in my opinion become the best player on this team if we are to win a championship. Not the first option on offense but a legitimate defensive anchor and a consistent, high efficiency, high usage low post threat.
- LaMarcus Aldridge would have to fulfill at least some of his mammoth potential – becoming a better help defender, using his physical tools in the post on both ends and becoming an efficient third option on offense feasting on open looks off Roy’s drives and Oden’s double-team drawing post ups.
- Batum would have to be that Tayshaun Prince like roleplayer; a guy who can fill in the gaps on offense, pick up the best perimeter player on defense and be able to score 30 if we need it while being OK with scoring a lot less most of the time when we don’t.
- Bayless would need to show immense improvement in his PG skills and 3pt shooting while channeling his aggression to becoming a productive defensive player and learning when to attack and when to defer on offense.
- The supporting cast would need to be solid – assuming we don’t make it in Camby or Millers final years players like Wesley Matthews, Armon Johnson, Luke Babbit and Dante Cunningham will need to be reliable players who know their role and are willing to accept it. It would be nice if Joel was still around and productive too.

Of course it would be far simpler to just have a consolidation trade happen, get a guy like CP3 and overwhelm everyone with your talent but the simple fact is that it is overwhelmingly unlikely it will ever happen. Given that, I have to hope that the pieces we have can become the pieces we need. Luckily, I think most of the important ones will. Unfortunately, I don’t think most is enough for a championship.

We have a fine team and they’re getting better every year. Can anyone deny that?

Remember when we took making the playoffs for granted and we lost that 22 year streak?

We have tons to be grateful for, my friends!

All I want is at least one championship in my lifetime and with the team still in Portland. I’m 27 so we still have a while… I hope anyway.

Thanks.

check the calendar, go ahead and exercise once in a while, and see your doctor. Tell your doctor about you entire pharmaceutical regimen.
Some patients have reported intimacy issues. If your prostate is bigger than your wide screen, stop reading the sports page, and take up gardening.

See: High Risk Group

you will suck all the joy and fun out of this game, and when you’re not busy computing some worthless stat or being a toxic cancer around everyone I"m sure you’ll find some new reason to hate the Blazers

I’m not saying Dave is wrong. He’s right we could be great.

But the problem with predicting The Blazers future right now? Is it’s impossible to predict. Plus the two extremes of outcome are so diverse.

A healthy Bradon, Aldridge and Batum along with a Healthy Oden and this team IS good and heading like a metorite towards great.

But health and durability have been such elusive commodities with this team and primarily (unfortunately) with Oden and to a lesser degree but of equal importance to Brandon Roy.

Without a healthy Brandon? Without Oden reaching at least 3/4ths of his potential consistently? Then the outlook for this team changes drastically.

Honestly if Brandon breaks down again? Oden is injured? I think we go from expecting a level of Blazer dominating fury, to a reality where we brace ourselves for hard decisions about rebuilding.

I do believe Paul Allens goal is to be as good as possible, and to win a championship. Despite the painful and imo simply horrible handling of the dismissal of Kevin Pritchard, I still like Portlands management.

But I have to be worried and at the same time I’m happy. I think this upcoming season reveals where we are as a team. But my prediction is next year at this time, we are either all very happy, or very worried.

But I predict its soothing tones will vanish into the angst of Blazerland like a belch in a breeze.

. I do not fear the hands our Blazers are in from the front office, I don’t fear the players for they all are team players and will play their hardest.(I will hold on Rudy though) I don’t fear the schedule because we have to play all the teams whether in the beginning or in the middle or at the end. Of course if we are in a winning streak we might not want to play the L*kers because they have Steve now. Not only is he good but he knows our players and plays.

So like must of the Blazer fans

Bring on the games and we will take them one at a time and play all of them to win regardless of where and when.

However, he’s right about one thing: Portland has been horrible when it comes to getting easy baskets.

For some reason I’ve seen a lot of 90’s Bulls footage over the past week or so and that team sure got a lot of easy baskets. What made them so dominant wasn’t that they were so offensively brilliant, it was that they were defensively relentless and super efficient about converting turnovers into two or three points.

Brandon Roy doesn’t really run the break. Miller will get the ball down court to Batum and Aldridge, but as a team we don’t run. Oden hasn’t been an effective offensive player in the block. To be fair, he hasn’t had the opportunity to get the kind of experience we all hoped he’d have at this point, having only played one season worth of games in three years. He is foul prone, and even when he’s healthy can’t stay on the court.

What all this adds up to – for me, it’s hard to have high expectations for this team at this time. So perhaps they’ll do “fine”, but I don’t expect them to get to 50 wins this year. Hopefully, they’ll surprise me.

You’ve provided a voice of reason and perspective in an offseason when it has been hard to maintain confidence in our team and front office.

Big rec and sigh of relief here.

This is a great article with deep insight. Nice job and I couldn’t agree more.