Portland's chances of a championship?

CP3 will never come here, he's going to end up in Miami with those three. He just fired his longtime agency and is joining LRMR, owned by Lebron James. This has been the supposed plan for those four since they played on the national team together in '08.

 

I think we have a great chance, Nik. Amare and Boozer left their teams so the West just got easier. We have the size to compete with the Lakers in the WCF. And in the Finals? Like Ed O said, if we get there, we have a chance. No one on the Heat can guard a healthy Oden.

Don't overreact to this news, Nik. We'll be okay. They haven't proven anything yet and we have a very good team with a potential ti be great.

 

I am still not convinced that three star players can carry the team all the way. Of course they are going to be a good team, but I'm not ready to say that the Heat will dominate the NBA for years to come. On a positive note, the West has gotten easier for the Blazers. Suns without Amare, Jazz without Boozer, and the Spurs aren't getting any younger. I will agree with everyone else when they say that Oden will be the main part of us competing for any title, though.

 

By the way, I know they were older, but how many titles did the Kobe/Shaq/Mailman/Glove combo win?

 

A lot of poople said the same thing when Boston traded for KG and Ray Allen. Top it off with the fact that those guys were nearing the end of their career's as opposed to being in their prime, and I think the writing is on the wall. The only way you can match up with a team like that is to maybe have 2 stars (like serious high level stars) and a deep bench to take advantage of their lack depth.

 

Right.

 

Another thing to celebrate: none of these guys went to OKC who had quite a bit of cap space.

 

Interesting question is which tired old saps take the minimum to try to ride coattails to a title?

 

OKC is expert at milking their space. They're saving it to get Deron Williams next year.

 

Iverson for sure. Juwan maybe? Jerron/Jason Collins perhaps. There will be quite a few guys I'd reckon.

 

If Oden's healthy, the team has a tremendous core of Oden, Roy, Aldridge and Batum (with a possible wildcard in Bayless).

I'd love a consolidation trade that made it a three man core like Oden/Paul/Roy, but I don't think that's necessary for the team to harbor realistic title hopes. Oden just needs to be healthy. Ultimately, it just boils down to offensive efficiency...Portland's two-man game between Oden and Roy, with support from Aldridge and Batum, can potentially be as efficient as a three-man game between James, Wade and Bosh. The reason is that there are diminishing returns on star power. The first superstar makes the biggest difference to a team's offense. The second one makes a major difference, but a bit less. The third one, less still. It's not entirely clear that James/Wade/Bosh will be far more devastating than James/Wade.

The other issue is defense. I think a team anchored by a dominant Oden, with Aldridge providing versatile man defense and Batum as a perimeter defensive ace can be a significantly better defensive team than a James/Wade/Bosh/scrubs team. Of course, that partially depends on what "minimums" Miami surrounds their trio with...but high level defensive players, like Bruce Bowen, are generally not super cheap.

Of course, this all requires Oden to be a superstar. I think he definitely has that ability if he stays healthy.

 

I think it's different. Only Pierce was a guy who had the ball in his hands to create - the other two relied on a point guard. And don't forget, that was the big FOUR. Are you telling me Mario Chalmers is Rajon Rondo?
Also: who's shooting the threes? Who's in the middle blocking shots? Who gets to guard Dwight Howard in the playoffs?

 

How do you know Miami isn't going to get injuries? There's certainly plenty of bad Karma directed their way...

 

With Cp3 or Deron williams

100%

Without him 1%

 

I will say this: If this experiment fails (Hell even Baylor, West and Chamberlain couldn't win it all together in '68) then does Cleveland rename itself to Schaudenfraude Ohio?

 

They may also have chemistry problems. Let's face it, Bosh is going to go from averaging 24 pts/game in his career to averaging 16. He'll start missing allstar invites, he'll become annoyed, especially if they don't make it to the finals.

In a nutshell, he'll become a role player having to guard the other teams best big man and spend a lot of effort rebounding. I don't think he'll like it one bit.

 

Winning cures all. I think if they are winning 60+ games a year (after spending his career in Toronto) he won't mind.

You have to think they all talked about this stuff prior to signing.

 

I hope so. I also remember Bosh saying distinctly last year that he didn't want to be 2nd fiddle to somebody. He must have changed his mind since then.