Blazers vs. Thunder: The OTHER Division Team

the Thunder can’t afford to pay for what the talent will demand. I have more confidence that Paul Allen will be able to do just that.

1) Turnovers
2) Inefficiency at the 2 guard position
3) Interior defense

Until they resolve those issues, they will struggle to beat the top teams.

  This is not the matchup that defines the west Ever (in the next five years) there is this team in Los Angeles, the clippers, they’re pretty good right now no ones about to pass chloes team yet. So theblazers Thunder is not going to turn into a Detroit Pistons vs. Ron Artest type brawl/ rivalry.
As for who has a brighter future and the best chance to win a title the answer is far and away Oklahoma City.
Ya sure their interior defense is a little week (right now) they have some gaping holes at certain positions that if remain unchecked might prevent them from truly contending or even keep them out of the playoffs once in a while. But with that much cap room shouldn’t go unchecked even if ebenezer scrooge took over as gm they’ll be far enough under cap to add the right pieces. Where as the blazers are one superstar/allstar away from winning it all and barring massive roster changes are perennialy first/second round fodder. The blazers though are at a point where getting better costs quality players minutes making minor adjustments just treads water for us at this point.

 I love B-Roy hes damn good, can do it all. But we are a team that is top five in offensive efficiency and whos only hope on defense is our bigs making up for all our wings . Our seond offensive option plays less deffense then Ricky Davis Batum is our best perimeter defender and he’s only slightly above average. So that leave our glut of seven footers in the middle to clean up the mess. Thankfully they do a hella of a job though but they cant guard everybody. Uneless we get two more. That’s how it works right?
 
But OKC has Kevin Durant I’m talking about the twenty two year old that finished second in mvp voting last year, set a record for being the youngest player to win a scoring title, set a record for most points scored in the rookie game, but more important then all that the man is obsessive. I mean he likes OKC because he can focus on basketball. Nobody likes OKC nobody. But Kevin Durant plays there and likes it theres not going to be any south beach escapade from this guy he’s too obssesive. He obsesses over his jumper, his defense, his athleticism the man is well THE MAN.
He’s so good that west brook is a good enough #2 on offense. If they just keep adding defensive minded players like sefolosha who some people think played better “D” last year then Shane Battier (lookin at you Kelly Dwyer) With some defensive minded bigs who are easy to find Bass, Haywood, Gortat, Dalembert, Landry, Pryz, hell Kurt Thomas and a bit more growth from from Westbrook and Durant and this is the team to beat in the west once kobe gets old.

Even if things workout incredibly well for the blazers and Oden really is equal to Dwight Howard . . . . lol(in a twelve year old girl voice). There’s still Durant the man won’t rest on his building laurels until he explodes. He will be better then Kobe, James, Jordan, and of course Marbury because he won’t stop. ever. even once he is the best. And because they have Durant all they need is Defense Presti knows this. That’s why he went after sefolosha. Westbrook and Green were drafted for their defense although ‘’i think Greene might have forgotten that. And There’s always people ready to come in and be garbage men and thats all OKC needs.

Sick of him already
Nic Batum is gonna be his kryptonite and the thunder are gonna be the never was.

…The Thunder will probably aways be overrated — at least in the near future. That said, I’m rooting for Durant (but not at the expense of the Blazers) — he seems to be a great guy and I’d like to see the whole mythology that one has to be a sociopath (a la Jordan and Kobe) to be the best be blown apart…

But if Oden is healthy, we are a better team. The reason that OKC lost in the playoffs was because they had no post presence. They would be helpless against a healthy, effective Oden.

The guy who got the green background made some good points about OKC.

But enough with them, what about the Blazers?

What I want to see this season, and I think the prospects are good, is the Blazers coming on strong right out of the box.

Remember last year, before they were ravaged with injury the Blazers were playing crappy in preseason and early in the season. Their shooting was atrocious. They still won a lot of games, though, because a lot of other teams were also shooting like crap.

I think the prospects are good that this year they hit the ground running, instead of stumbling.

Further down the season, much harder to predict.

In one sense I am disappointed that Utah lost Boozer because I think it would be great therapy for the Blazers to try to figure out how to beat a strong Utah team.

And we’re not going to depend on him for the next 3 years, or ever. His contribution will help but the Trailblazers are only going as far as Brandon Roy and Lamarcus Aldridge carry us. My bet is we pick up another big man in a trade or next years draft because…. You know why. So I’ll take BRoy and LMA over Durant and Co. any day. OKC is where we were two years ago only they have fewer pieces to work with. JKSnake99 has the most likely prediction.

Blazers is better than Thunder now, especially the frontcourt players. I hope all players are healthy next season.
However there is one thing that Thunder have and Blazers dont. They have flexibility for next year new CBA.
In summer 2011:
Thunder have less than 20 M commited salary for 3 players (Durant, Aldrich, Sefolosha) plus team option salaries for Westbrook, Harden, Ibaka, Maynor, Mullens, White. If they pick up team options for those players, except White, they have 32M salary for 8 players. This is around 25 M cap space under current salary cap.
Blazers have around 50M commited salary for 7 players (Roy, Aldridge, Camby, Matthews, Babbitt, Williams and Johnson) + 1 M cap hold for Gomes. Team options for Batum, Bayless, Miller, Pendergraph, Cunningham, Mills, Fernandez. Free agents are Oden, Pryz.
Now, if NBA have a hard cap of 60 M, Blazers have to give up one of Batum and Oden. (can’t pick up Batum’s team options and give Oden offer sheet). Even if the CBA and the salary cap is the same as this year, Thunder can steal Oden and Pryz from Blazers by paying Oden to max contract (I hope it doesn’t happen though). And if Blazers decide to match it, Blazers will have another problem extending Batum.
If Thunder end up stealing Oden and Pryz, Blazers dont have frontcourt advantage anymore, especially when 36 yo Camby is declining. If they miss out on Oden/Pryz, there are several good big men free agents, such as Perkins, Marc Gasol, Horford, maybe Noah etc which can upgrade their frontcourt significantly.
Conclusion: Blazers are better now, but the future depend a lot on the CBA and what Presti will do next year.

Portland has the better frontcourt (if healthy).

Blazers have more experience in Marcus Camby and Andre Miller, but OKC plays more like a team (read: defense).

I think these teams are pretty comparable. I give the edge to OKC right now because they have fewer unknowns, and seem to have less ego/chemistry problems.

The touchiest subject possible on BE is “Durant vs Oden,” the second-touchiest is “Durant,” and the third-touchiest is “Oklahoma City Thunder,” with Kobe fourth and the Lakers fifth. Did you really expect everyone to come on here and be objective about this budding rivalry in any way? Here are some things to consider:

1) Everyone has brought up how “lucky” the Thunder have been with injuries compared to the Blazers. Well, here’s some news: that’s not luck. Roy was the best player in the 2006 draft, but slid out of the top five due to concerns about the long-term health of his knees. Not surprisingly, he’s had multiple injuries to his legs since reaching the NBA. Oden also had injury concerns coming out of the draft (knees, wrist, fact that one leg was longer than the other). And those are only two of our three best players. Meanwhile, the injury history for OKC’s two best players (Westbrook and Durant) is completely blank. It’s not entirely an accident that OKC stayed healthy all year.

2) Oklahoma City’s lack of size has been a hot topic, and that’s overblown too; Nick Collison is a solid defender who took his defense up a notch last year, Serge Ibaka has the potential to be a rock-solid power forward, and there’s a reason why Cole Aldrich was a lottery pick this last year. There’s been a lot of talk about his lack of polish and a decent offensive game, but like us all the Thunder need from their center is defense, rebounding, and shot-blocking, and those are Aldrich’s biggest strengths. I think OKC’ll be fine down low.

3) Stop Durant, and you stop the Thunder. Right?….Well, yeah. Also, from 1991-1998, stop MJ and you stop the Bulls. From 1980-1988, stop Larry Bird and you stop the Celtics. From 2006-present, stop Kobe and you stop the Lakers. Wanna know why all those teams still won, despite that seemingly easy gameplan the other team had in front of them? Because those guys couldn’t be stopped. Durant’s not at the level of any of those guys yet, but the fact remains that other teams approach OKC the same way every time: “Throw our best defensive guy on Durant and make him kill for his points every time down the floor”…and Durant STILL scores thirty a game. Even in the playoffs, facing the best team in the league and one of the best defenders in the league (Artest), he still averaged 25 points a game. And you’ve got to remember that Durant’s only 22, so to think that he’s just peaking as a player now would defy almost everything that’s ever happened in terms of the development of NBA superstars.

That’s the devil’s advocate point of view. The bright side for the Blazers? There’s obviously no way that Aldrich hangs with Oden if Greg is completely healthy. Nic is one of the best defenders in the league, which means that Durant’ll still score his 25-35 against the Blazers…but he’ll have to work for every point. Durant’s also not the most inspired defender, so if Nic blossoms as a player (as expected), he’ll be the X-factor in OKC matchups. So really, how we play against the Thunder in the future all depends on Oden and Nic, IMO. Right now the Thunder have moved ahead of us, but if luck breaks our way we could easily move right past them.