NBA Preseason Power Rankings Round-Up: Blazers Place From No. 11 To No. 17
by Ben Golliver on Dec 23, 2011 9:59 AM PST
in News
Email
PrintHere's a round-up of various NBA preseason power rankings in advance of Sunday's start to the 2011-2012 regular season. The Portland Trail Blazers are ranked anywhere from No. 11 to No. 17. Included with each ranking is Portland's forecast breakdown provided by the writer.
Marc Stein, ESPN.com: No. 14
Day 1 of Blazers camp: B-Roy stunningly forced to retire, Oden shelved for another season with more of his own knee torment and Aldridge sidelined by a heart scare. Maybe this is the season Team What Next gets it all out of its system early.
John Schuhmann, NBA.com: No. 12
One of the more interesting boxscore tidbits of the preseason thus far? Jamal Crawford's seven assists in just 22 minutes on Monday. The Blazers have a strong top-eight in their rotation, but unless rookie Nolan Smith is ready to run the show, Crawford could be asked to handle the ball quite a bit.
Britt Robson, SI.com: No. 15
Brandon Roy is gone and Greg Oden is, per usual, at least temporarily out of service. Still, the Blazers soldier on, picking up veteran role players like high-scoring combo guard Jamal Crawford and wizened center Kurt Thomas, who somehow makes a virtue out of his immobility. Coach Nate McMillan, who continues to run a tight ship while owner Paul Allen confines his bloodletting to the front office, will once again test the diligence of opposing defenses by milking the shot clock. With Roy's retirement and Andre Miller's departure in exchange for Raymond Felton, McMillan will break in a new backcourt and rely on the hard-nosed skills of swingmen Wes Matthews, Gerald Wallace and especially Nic Batum, whose improvement would go a long way toward clinching a playoff berth.
Sean Deveny, SportingNews.com: No. 14
It was a sad offseason for the Blazers, with the retirement of Brandon Roy and another knee injury to Greg Oden. But in reality, the team had already moved on from them. Portland signed Jamal Crawford, has athletic wings Nic Batum and Gerald Wallace, and saw the blossoming of LaMarcus Aldridge last year. All that is cause for optimism.
Matt Moore, CBSSports.com: No. 17
This team has a big hill to climb, but Nate McMillan seems to always get more out of his squad than humanly possible.
Kurt Helin, ProBasketballTalk.com: No. 11
This is a good team that added Jamal Crawford. They lack the superstar to get them over the top, but you underestimate them at your own peril.
Sam Amico, FoxSports.com: No. 13
LaMarcus Aldridge became the Big Man in the Rose Garden last season, and this is clearly his team. Newcomer Raymond Felton is also coming off his best season as a pro. Is this the year Greg Oden plays 56 games and fans celebrate because of it?
-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter
74 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
I think...
this is a very accurate reflection of the blazers and why you see the variations in pre-season rankings… in short, no one knows how this team will play or respond to the challenges of the regular season….
obviously pre-season rankings mean jack. But it will be interesting to see how the grueling schedule (and i am referring to the amount of games, not our opponents) takes its toll on our aging team….
Ewing Theory potential here.
Y’all here of Simmons’ Ewing Theory before? The Ewing Theory claims that when a longtime superstar who has never won a championship leaves the team via injury, trade, or free agency, and the media writes the team off, the team will play better.
I don’t know about you, but a bunch of #13-15 rankings feels like being written off. Ballyhooed shooting guard, one of the best to ever put on a Blazers uniform, but for which the Blazers have absolutely nothing to show other than some dramatic game victories (not even one playoff series win), leave via injury. Lot’s of Ewing Theory potential here. I think this team is going to shock some people.
"These are dreams that we have." --Rudolfo Fernandez
And hey, what two post players replaced Ewing on the 99 Knicks, thereby giving rise to the Ewing theory?
dinasour type of guys choir boys
by mittsabishy on Dec 23, 2011 12:58 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs
I don't think that is one of the two he was referring to.
But as long as we have Dudley as an “ambassador” for the time, I’m willing to say we’ve got all three.
LaMarcus has to raise his level of play. Last year he pretty much became the go-to guy for us. Nothing changes, we are certainly going to stay in that direction. - Nate McMillan
by conspirator5 on Dec 23, 2011 4:37 PM PST up reply actions
No, I know he was referring to Marcus Camby and Kurt Thomas.
Just thought it’d be funny to also toss Chris Dudley’s name in the ring.
"I Am Mine"
To be fair ...
The Colts HAVE won a superbowl with Manning, so they wouldn’t qualify for the theory.
"These are dreams that we have." --Rudolfo Fernandez
Every media outlet assumes that since Oden is injured and Roy is retired that the Blazers have no chance.
This is no different from last year. Roy hardly played, and Oden was still injured. Why the long faces sports journalists?
last year we were 9th or 10th in the NBA overall record wise.
its not that far off
by Chris Freed on Dec 23, 2011 11:10 AM PST up reply actions
i agree
to be honest i am worried about the lack of Lobs to LMA this year. There are fun to watch of course, its the extra points on lobs i’m worried about. I feel like LMA was getting high scoring last year because he could get 10 extra points off easy lobs which really helped. If LMA scoring 22 ppg we are beatable. LMA scoring 30+ we are unbeatable. i just hope he gets some easy baskets this year.
by Chris Freed on Dec 23, 2011 11:40 AM PST up reply actions
which,
i didn’t realize this till i watch LMA highlights on youtube. Its lob, after lob, after lob.
by Chris Freed on Dec 23, 2011 11:44 AM PST up reply actions
i might have to eat crow
“I still have to prove a lot of people wrong,” Aldridge said. "I still haven’t been an All-Star. I still haven’t led this team to the second round of the playoffs. People still doubt that I’m a go-to player. This is the first year, starting from Day 1, that I’m “The Man,” so people are writing us off because Brandon retired. There’s a lot that motivates me."
by Chris Freed on Dec 23, 2011 12:30 PM PST up reply actions
what I hope for is improved ball movement and motion
particularly including LMA, Crash, and Nic. Those guys moving, like Nic did in Europe, with all players looking for each other should open opportunities.
Yes, we do need to be able to make an outside shot.
The Blazers are back !
Elliot Williams seemed to be able to do this...at least when he was given
more than a few minutes on the floor.
Play him at home. Rookies do better on the home court.
You do realize that high light videos aren't going to show free throws or midrange jumpers, right?
He scored a lot more points off of those last year.
dinasour type of guys choir boys
i agree
i just figured his free throws and jumpers account for his 25points, then add +8 for lobs, which puts us into the really hard to beat category. i hear you though, it just was my train of thought.
So, LaMarcus averaged 33 points with four lob dunks per game last year?
That’s impressive. Why didn’t he make the All-Star team?
"You can walk away from someone who doesn’t love you. And you can walk away from someone you don’t love. But when the love is mutual," Roy said. "The hardest thing is to walk away."
Think he was closer to 22 ppg
33 ppg for the season probably would have made him scoring champion or close to it.
yeah the lobs were just great
Can’t do without them this season. Terribly demoralizing in the 4th quarter too. I still remember the dejected look and slumped shoulders of Taj Gibson when LMA spun off him for a Dre to LMA oop when we beat the Bulls last year.
Fun to watch, for sure
I think the on-court value of the alley-oops gets overrated though. Aldridge had 148 dunks last season, not all of which were alley-oops (some were off drives from the top of the key, and some were off low-post isos). That’s less than 2 dunks per game. We can easily replace those easy points by improving the pick n roll and transition play.
Phase 1: Collect underpants
Phase 2: ???
Phase 3: Profit!
"This is no different from last year."
Yeah, you’re right. It will be no different than last year.
"I Am Mine"
AK
Your comments lately have been very much the trolling type.
Being a Blazer fan is not exactly healthy.
by dpnim on Dec 23, 2011 1:50 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
AK is the Tom Coburn of the BE Senate.
i.e. principled, stubborn, and completely unwilling to make kissyface over disagreements. Coburn is one of my favorite®s because he makes his own party leadership almost as mad as he makes the Dems. The takeaway here is that AK only says what he really means and isn’t trying to yank anybody’s chain.
LaMarcus has to raise his level of play. Last year he pretty much became the go-to guy for us. Nothing changes, we are certainly going to stay in that direction. - Nate McMillan
by conspirator5 on Dec 23, 2011 4:51 PM PST up reply actions
That's awesome
because I’m the James Coburn of BE.
and my boy sammymohawk is the Rooster Cogburn.
dinasour type of guys choir boys
by mittsabishy on Dec 23, 2011 6:44 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs
Tom Coburn? That's no good.
If I’m to be compared to anyone in the U.S. Senate, I’d rather it’s a guy like Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
Now, if we’re to compare me to someone in the U.S. Senate who’s on the right, then let’s go with Rand Paul (R-KY).
"I Am Mine"
You're just picking people you are more likely to align with politically.
You’re totally Tom Coburn. Timbo, as we all know, is Ted Kennedy. hoodie is Joe Lieberman, because he’s affable, yet still doesn’t get along with anyone, and I’m John McCain, because I’m totally playing every side of the fence while pretending to be principled (and I like to think of myself as more a Dick Luger type, even though I’m totally not). Mortimer is Al Franken, TiH is John Kyl (cause he’s always PO’d about something)…
Man, this is fun!
Phase 1: Collect underpants
Phase 2: ???
Phase 3: Profit!
two4larue and BFS1970 are Max Baucus and Orrin Hatch, respectively.
BBK is Daniel Inouye, Dave and Ben are Harry Reid and Chuck Shumer. I think if anyone is Rand Paul, it’d be blacknoise. Nah, blacknoise is Sanders, Krang is Paul.
Phase 1: Collect underpants
Phase 2: ???
Phase 3: Profit!
When did brute honesty and trolling become synonymous?
Sometimes, as the ol’ sayin’ goes, the truth hurts. For Portland, the facts are both cold and hard right now. I don’t know what else to tell you, either.
"I Am Mine"
It's not our content, it's your style.
“Truth” and “Fact” are in the eye of the beholder. Problems arise when people espouse their “truth” and their “facts” as THE truth and THE facts, when in reality they are just your opinions. Be honest, by all means. But don’t speak as if you have cornered the market on basketball knowledge or common sense or whatever else. Other people’s opinions around here are just as valid as your own.
"These are dreams that we have." --Rudolfo Fernandez
"Other people’s opinions around here are just as valid as your own."
Very true. I can’t argue that.
"I Am Mine"
im glad we are 15th or better
im my heart we are number 1 like Troll Blazers says, but take the emotion out of it we are about 12th. im dying to ger the season going to find out if we are better then that
Uhhhhh...
Is this the year Greg Oden plays 56 games and fans celebrate because of it? [Sam Amica – Posted December 20]
Sam? Have you been sniffing glue again?
/s
by Hipster Olympic Team! on Dec 23, 2011 11:29 AM PST reply actions
I still think...
…a lot of national pundits are over reacting to our “Black Friday”. Sure, unexpectedly losing Brandon, in the manner we did, was shocking. The simultaneous news that Oden was probably NOT on a return this season timeline? Also disappointing. Aldridges Heart procedure? Scary to hear about…and culmatively scary on a very bad news day…BUT….
Seems to me, a lot of people expected us to use the Amnesty Clause on Brandon regardless of his status. And the truth is, the previous season, Brandon had been mostly an enigma.
And I hate to say it, but No Oden? Well…what’s new?
So? Yes, I hate losing Brandon. But? Did we not simply aquire more talent in all other respects? I think it’s short sighted, or lazy evaluation to simply look at The Blazer lost Brandon, The Blazer lost Oden….and conclude we are slipping.
Please, please understand, I was a huge Brandon Roy fan, and lobbied very hard for The Blazers to NOT amnesty him, when it seemed that was simply a choice to be made and NOT a retirement issue. But the real truth is the decline of Brandon Roy was severe and sudden and actually started last season. I was hoping for the best, but this team hasn’t had a 100% Brandon Roy for a long time….it’s really nothing too new. I do think you must ask, is a hobbled Brandon Roy, in and out of the line-up, struggling to find an identity and embrace a reduced role, better or worse for the team than a 100% healthy Jamal Crawford? It’s a bitter pill to swallow as a Brandon Roy fan, and in light of all the wonderful and heroic moments he provided the franchise, but in comparison to most of last season? It might be perfectly fair to say we are better with Jamal.
"Mother Nature started this fight, I think it's about time we ended it!"
I agree with you 100%
Blazer fans know, National media didn’t. Last year we mourned for Roy and Blazers fans realized this last season. I think its just because the news is hitting the national media hard right now. its a shocker. i dont think anyone has put much effort in to digging to hard on the TB team. its easier to write them off then to do homework on them.
by Chris Freed on Dec 23, 2011 11:50 AM PST up reply actions
"It might be perfectly fair to say we are better with Jamal."
No team is better with Jamal Crawford. I don’t what the situation is, either.
"I Am Mine"
Would you have preferred DeShawn Stevenson?
I just don’t know what practical solution you have for bench scoring.
by Oden Mad, Oden Smash! on Dec 23, 2011 2:08 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
I have an answer....
I would have preferred that nothing further was done. This move(Crawford) may have insured the teams presence in the playoffs but not a championship. Otherwise we would have improved the team’s draft position and maybe acquired that player that may have taken the Blazers to a championship.
Miller is going to kill us next time we play Denver
Nice to have a PG with range but Dre is no slouch. He’ll bring his own set of problems for us to overcome next time we play him.
Well ...
Atlanta got better in his first season there. So there’s that.
"These are dreams that we have." --Rudolfo Fernandez
A lot of hype to live up to for Durant and co, though.
The Thunder have never been expected to meet these kinds of preseason expectations before. We’ll see if that rattles them. They are a young team, after all.
All this is about right
From a national standpoint, the general consensus (minus outliers) is: “There’s not enough evidence that this team will be good enough for me to place them too far above the middle of the pack, but I’m allowing for the possibility that they will be significantly better than this ranking since they do have talent and some unknowns that may well pan out.”
As a homer, I’m going to go with the darkhorse half of the previews, but I understand why the prognosticators can’t.
More than anything, I’m just ready to start seeing this carnsarn thing start to unfold! I’m all stocked up on prognosticator types with their “probably just OK, but I wan’t it on the record that they may be better so I can say I said that I allowed for that possibility.” Let’s just find out, for cryin’ out loud!
These so called "experts" are making too big a deal out of Brandon and Greg.
When we’re in the WCF, they gunna regret this.
Batum Shakalaka
If you plot a graph of the Blazers performance measuring wins and winning percentage
you will see a steady and uniform decrease in wins. Using the same rate of decline for winning percentage and wins/losses this team is no better than 33-35 wins in the abbreviated season. Giving them credit for free agent upgrades and my own homerism still wouldn’t make them better than a 35-37 win team. That’s if you follow follow the trend and the trend is your friend.
True that trends are often your friend,
But it’s also true that change is the only constant. We lost a diminished Brandon and aging Dre’, added a younger, faster, better shooting (if less crafty) point guard, a super sixth man (can’t replace a healthy Brandon, but vs. hobbled Brandon?), an undersized banger/enforcer, a crafty low mistake/high efficiency (albeit undersized again) 4/5. Maybe we get some more traction from integrating crash, especially in a purportedly uptempo offense, maybe not. Maybe we see the elevated Batum game from Europe, maybe not.
Either way, that’s a fair amount of change, and the rest of the west has their own changing tides (some would argue slippin in many cases). Add in a rushed, shortened season and it all feels pretty in flux to me. I’m not ready to buy into this thing playing out according to trend at this point. Hence my earlier comment that I’m just ready to start seeing this Chrismas gift unwrap itself, historical graphery be damned. Let’s just play the games and see what happens – with a healthy dose of optimistic homerism sprinkled on top because, well…Rip City, baby!
"The trend is your friend."
I beg to differ. That was pretty much what the entire banking system was telling itself in the runup to the financial meltdown. As long as we’re dragging up colloquial sayings from the investing world, I prefer this gem from Warren Buffet:
“When everyone else is afraid, be greedy. When everyone else is greedy, be afraid.”
LaMarcus has to raise his level of play. Last year he pretty much became the go-to guy for us. Nothing changes, we are certainly going to stay in that direction. - Nate McMillan
by conspirator5 on Dec 23, 2011 5:00 PM PST up reply actions
The Blazers have been increasing their losses for 3 straight years
when this momentum is exhausted I’ll homerize with the best of them. Until then, I have to believe the trend which I’ve witnessed with my own eyes.
But sports (or real estate markets...) don't always trend if there is change.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Clippers trend upward to a degree that is unexpected this year if you follow their past trends. There was significant change, both in their team and in their environment (the west). I hear what your saying, and I’m a fan of recognizing numerical patterns and enjoying their predictive powers. To ignore trends can be foolish. But it can be just as foolish to ignore changes in variables that may very well reverse the trend (overinflated home values created by the false demand of easy financing and overleverage and the mistaken belief that real estate never goes down, etc, etc, etc; trades, free agent signings, player development, chemistry, changes in strategy and tactics; Strikes of lightening, acts of god, sheer human will power, karma and the forebearance of reptiles.). Here’s to the players, coaches and irreverent screaming homers bucking trends.
Well, what happened before that?
What’s that? You mean they increased wins 4 seasons in a row?
Well, what happened before that? What, you mean they decreased wins 3 seasons in row?
And before that? Oh, they actually waffled a bit around the same number?
Well, if the trend is your friend, maybe the trend is that no trend seems to last very long. My eyes tell me this year’s team is notch better than last year’s. But what do I know. Let’s play some basketball.
"These are dreams that we have." --Rudolfo Fernandez
You're being too rational
Either we will be in the lottery, but with no hope of a good pick, or we will the championship. For it is written…
Phase 1: Collect underpants
Phase 2: ???
Phase 3: Profit!
This sentence is pretty funny:
but unless rookie Nolan Smith is ready to run the show, Crawford could be asked to handle the ball quite a bit.
Have these people not heard of Nate McMillan?
It should be: “but unless Nolan Smith is no longer a rookie….”
Well, I have not written here much lately
it has been hard enough for me to read about the Blazers specifically and the NBA generally. But now I am pumped for the season. Maybe Stein is right and we got the horror out of the way in the first act. I am a little numb to Blazer pain right now.
I love the team assembled, and look forward to much much SCRAPPY basketball. Really SCRAPPY. This could be a terribly exciting year.
Beautiful Holidays to all!
GO BALZERS
scrappy
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
NBA Playoffs Content Module
Related FanPosts on Blazer's Edge
Related FanShots on Blazer's Edge
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
FanShots
Quick hits of video, photos, quotes, chats, links and lists that you find around the web.
Recommended FanShots
Recent FanShots
In Association With
Ball Don't Lie - NBA - Yahoo! Sport
- Behind the Box Score, where the Boston Celtics are moving on to the conference finals
- NBA Playoffs Fan Fiction: San Antonio Spurs vs. Oklahoma City Thunder
- The Indiana Pacers? Gone till November
- Shaquille O’Neal is in a Chinese beer commercial, too (VIDEO)
- ‘Deep Thoughts’ and Cheap Thoughts: San Antonio Spurs vs. Oklahoma City Thunder
