Blazersedge Mailbag: Things Every Fan Should Know

can convince one of those players to come though. That would actually be cool.

The issue would be who was left after we’d either traded for them or jettisoned enough salary to sign them. Chances are the team wouldn’t look recognizable anymore.

—Dave

Take a couple aspirin and call me after the playoffs. We have an 11 of 11 guy in our special “Fan Camp” as we speak. We feed him only baby carrots, let him out for fresh air for 5 minutes per day, and making him listen to tapes of John Hollinger speaking backwards.

—Dave

That’s only because the West has no clear front-runner without issues. And its a short and wacky season.
Who can truly exploit our weaknesses in the west? Everyone is loving on OKC… but they don’t have an offensive inside presence (yet). We are set up to stop perimeter guys, and when Westbrook needs to step up, he often falters, and that could make the difference for our Blazers if we faced them in a series. Memphis, who was absolutely frightening during the playoffs last year, might not even make the top-8, and they’re the toughest match-up for us. Dallas isn’t as done as many people think, but without Chandler, they’re fallible, and beatable. Chandler beat us, not Dirk. (Ok so Kidd killed too). Denver has all the young pieces, but they need one or two of those young bigs to step up to help Nene out before they’re solid contenders, even giving Lawson and Gallinari the benefit of the doubt. The scariest team is the one with the most issues right now, the Lakers. Kobe is the key there… if he wakes up and realizes he needs to slow down and pick his battles, they’ll go far. If not, they’re beatable too. I’m just saying, that inside presence we so obviously lack that is our achilles heel? Aldridge has shown he can step up to the plate from time to time and take it low. That’s better than a lot of teams can say about their weaknesses. Do we win a title this year? I highly doubt it. Do we make the Finals, probably not, but its definitely possible. If they can add a swagger to what they’re doing, they can demand the WCF, and they can take it. All that said… no we don’t have Kidd, Terry, Dirk or Chandler. And no, we don’t have Chauncey, the Wallaces, and Tayshaun, a comparison a bit more accurate. We have a flawed team, in a flawed year, and even when we’re hot we’re lacking that extra oomph. I just don’t see anyone else in the west with it either.

Or was that tongue-in-cheek?

—Dave

I have no idea why people say that… keeping faith, on the other hand, through adversity, I’ll grant you that. But having faith? Easiest thing in the world. Being rational while the world around you is exploding in praise for what you love… that’s darn hard.

Rational people often to get bombarded with derision and scorn from the people who claim faith is on their side. For proof, look no further than the flock of Tim Tebow fanatics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases

It’s incredibly difficult to be rational when our brains are so prone to errors and bias. It’s easy to fall victim to irrationality. It’s easy to believe in something that makes you feel good.

It is hard to be faithful when you are bombarded with realities and rationality.
It is hard to be rational when you have bias feelings of always being right or bombarded with “faithful-anything is possible”

or Philly. Frankly, we have the role player power championship teams want, we just don’t have the star power that is a prerequisite. We are the 10-11 Spurs with a stronger defense and a much younger, but more flawed PF. Fools gold, perhaps, but number 1 probably isn’t us.

I thought that too!

—Dave

in case you thought that was his real face

I do think this season is an aberration.
I think it will depend a ton on attitude. Even the injury thing. I think sometimes injuries happen due to unconscious processes/mind sets.

Which is essentially 7:1 odds. Vegas is probably playing a little to the hype of this team (which is obviously what they should do). But I would say 10-to-1 is probably right around where they should be.

the important thing is that there’s a chance. At least we can hope for postseason success. Many teams are basically pre-determined to miss the playoffs, or if you’re in the east run into MIA/CHI come playoff time. The west is open and we’re good enough to make it interesting. That’s all I can ask for from a season that almost didn’t happen on the heels of Roy’s retirement and Oden’s continued injury struggles. I think it’s quite remarkable actually. It’s not ideal, but given recent history from both a team and league perspective, I’ll gladly take it.

but then again, I fully expect Bynum to be injured, or at least hobbling come playoff time due to the rigors of this season. And without a healthy Bynum… I know its bad to expect certain injuries but the guy’s history is just too compelling. Healthy, Lakers are the team to beat. Hobbled, Thunder are. I don’t have any belief in Dallas in the playoffs this year, despite Kidd, Terry and Dirk. And the Clippers still have a ways to go.

I think 10% is as good as anything. We’re early enough in the season that random events can dramatically push the needle in one direction or another. Ask again when somebody more important in the west than Eric Maynor has a season-ending injury.

but hes a gunner.

The danger of working hard to convince people not to care is that it might work.

We may as well scratch off the Lakers, too. The Miami Heat are the clear-cut favorites by a mile this season.

That said, there are some teams with an outside shot — ranging from the Bulls to the Thunder, as much as it pains me to credit OKC — while watching things play out is part of the fun. Money is on Miami, though, and with good reason.

The reporter asked if Dirk felt good about his chances of making it out of the first round and Dirk responded with something like “I don’t feel good about winning a game in the first round. The goal is to win a championship. The only thing that will make me happy is to win the championship.” I knew they were the real deal then.

But rational thought is no gaurantee of a proper or correct answer. Two rational people given the same problem can come to entitrely different conclusions.

4. Is this site foremost a space for scholarly arguments, journalistic exchanges, or fans sharing their experience of the Blazers? If it is mostly the latter, then personal questions (about Dave’s mood, for instance), though perhaps in bad taste, are not completely out-of-bounds.

Yes.

Okay, I love flippantly answering “yes” to either/or questions. Just my bias. But I think there’s a truth to it in this case. As a pastor, Dave’s got subjects both deeply personal and deeply philosophical in his wheelhouse. I think BE has evolved to reflect that. Furthermore, Portland is stacked to the rafters with nerds. Speaking as a nerd, I reserve the right to overthink questions and chase tangents down rabbit holes anytime I darn well feel like it!

Opinions are fine, some you keep to yourself.

Crazily enough, this start makes me think Portland should be capable of getting the 4th seed and winning a first-round matchup. Plus, if this team gets a 4th seed and loses in round #1 for the fourth straight season, I believe heads could roll.

Not even close.

The 1981 Rockets, however, are a good reason why I wouldn’t count out the Orlando Magic.

I’ll suggest that the Western Conference is ebbing into the watered-down Eastern Conference of ‘99-’05, in which a rotating list of sturdy but ultimately flawed challengers bowed to the Spurs or the (mind vomit team) almost every year—with the one breakthrough being the ’04 Pistons (just mentioned and rejected as a bad comparison). In this analogy, I guess the Heat and the Bulls play the parts of the (mind vomits) and Spurs.

Of course this is a bad comparison. I should have just gone with Otto Graham’s ’46 Rochester Royals—or the 2032 Seattle Gentlerains.