Much of the talk in the last couple years has surrounded Portland's ongoing battles with division rivals Utah and Denver. The Jazz were the team the Blazers originally set their sights on in the early Roy years, assuming that the career arcs of Roy and point guard Deron Williams would place them (and their teams) squarely in each others' sights for eventual Western supremacy. Then the Denver Nuggets snagged Chauncey Billups. He patched up the cracks in their fractured roster, got their immense talent playing together, and unapologetically crashed the Western party. Give or take an injury-scrubbed season or two, for the last couple of years these three teams have fought tooth and nail. Many Portland fans think the current champs are the obstacle standing between Portland and ultimate success, but before that matchup takes on significance the Blazers will have to take care of business in their own division.
So I put it to you, entering 2010-11 how do you see these three teams stacking up against each other? You can talk strict head-to-head, talk number of expected regular-season wins, talk who would have the advantage in a seven-game series, or all of the above. Will the Blazers surpass their rivals this year or is this going to be another divisional dogfight?
Register your opinions below.
--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)