Last years injuries, or this years? I know last year there were a lot of missed games, but I'm not sure if they were more important missed games than this year.
This year's were worse. Last year, we lost Oden, Joel, Rudy, Outlaw, Martell, Batum, and Roy. But we thought that Oden and Roy would be back okay. We traded Outlaw and Blake for Camby. We had a couple of 2nd round picks playing above themselves because of an old dog willing to teach every day. This year, Oden goes down again, and Roy disintegrates before our eyes. Joel missed half the season, and is now a shadow of his former self. Camby's out and old. Roy is talking about his return as a 6th man. Pendergraph was better than Marks and Oberto combined, and we never got to see him play this season. Last year, we were scrapping to win while we waited for our chance to come back and get revenge once Roy Gets Back. This year, there is no cavalry coming. There is no "Once So-And-So Gets back" to look forward to. Just the long dark of Moria, and a tough road ahead. This year, we were stripped of hope. This year, we persevere.
Repped. Great Perspective. Sums up the sentiments of most Blazer Fans I believe. Last year we still hoped Oden would be back and a Blazer for a long time. Now it seems the best case is that he signs a QO and stays healthy for 1 year before he's an UFA. And Roy . . . Wow. What would be the worst you could have imagined last season? Torn ACL? Microfracture? Out for a year? How about no Meniscus left and done (as we know him) for his career? I've never even heard of that happening before. Definately, not to a 26 year old. Even the fantastic rise of Lamarcus Aldridge can't offset the damage of Roy & Oden. Last year felt like our misfortune was temporary. This season feels like the train has been derailed and nobody knows how to fix it.
This years by far. Greg can't get/stay healthy. Both injuries were non-contact injuries and neither he or the staff can pinpoint when/how they occurred. Roy's career altering injury came out of nowhere.
No question it's this year. Last year felt like a lost season, but still full of promise for the future. This year it feels like we are headed for some sort of inevitable rebuild.
So far, this season is worse through mid-February. However, if you assume that Roy can come back and put up 20-25 mpg and we don't get hammered with some new surprise, last year will be worse in its entirety. Mostly because of the timing of injuries. It really, really sucked to have our superstar basically gone during the playoffs, and Batum was in really bad shape too. Those were two of our five starters. Assuming we make the playoffs, we should have Aldridge at 100%, and he'll tear up whomever we face. There's just no way for opponents to adjust to him, other than to immediately double and take your chances with Matthews/Batum/Roy/Rudy picking you apart on the perimeter. We should have a much healthier, stronger playoff team this year than last year. Hopefully Matthews' ankle is getting better, and Camby can get healthy for this final stretch. It seems like the team could coalesce over this last stretch of the season and the playoffs to be the healthiest they've been in over a year. Two weeks of health in the spring is worth a month or more of health in the fall.
If you would have told me at the beginning of the season that this thread would exist in February, I would have cancelled my League Pass subscription. What have we done to deserve this?
