Sample Rotation: Lillard/Smith Matthews/Ewill Batum/Claver/Barton LMA/Freeland Hickson/Leonard/ Others: Jeffries/Babbitt/Price ************ Quality Grouping: Big 3: Lillard, Aldridge, X Ministars: Batum Strong Role Players: Matthews, Leonard, Hickson Other Role Players: Smith, Ewill, Claver, Barton, Freeland, Price Others: Jeffries/Babbitt I have given preliminary quality groupings. So, the drama that will be next season will involve finding out who fits in where. Will Batum up his game and become part of our Big 3? Hickson played like a ministar, will he continue. How good are Freeland and Claver? I have only seen a few games played by a healthy Elliot Williams - will he achieve the promise many envisioned for him? Who will even be given a chance? There are many more questions to be answered next season, but now that we have a good idea of who's on the roster, at least now we know many of the questions. Outside of Jeffries the Damaged and Babbitt the Suck, I think there are questions to be answered about each player and their role.
I kind of expect a hot mess this year. At best we get a coach with a sound offensive and defensive philosophy and players buy in quickly, but even with that there's going to be a pretty dramatic adjustment period as guys get used to playing with one another. When you get right down to it, there are really only three guys on the team with any kind of long-term familiarity with each other -- Batum, Aldridge and Matthews. At worst? Well, I won't even go there; we've had lots of experience with "at worst" the last couple of years, so there's no need to be reminded of it.
I'm just excited to see Lillard and Aldridge in the pick and roll while being able to kick it out to Matthews or Batum At worst the team will be competitive. The record might not possibly look that good at the end of the season, but I expect them to be able to compete in every game and give themselves a chance to win.
chit, my long cool answer was deleted. Basically, it will be exciting next year. Worst Case? Unless Lillard goes down we should be fine from a developmental POV.
My guess is 32-50 and 11th in the west. But like the 2006 season I think there will be a general "upward" vibe about the team.
I think they could hover around .500 for the first half of the season, then eventually fold as the seasons winds down 35-40 wins A lot of my guess is just based on the fact I think Lillard is that damn good.
Re-signing of Hickson was also huge Not only will Lillard and Aldridge be great in the pick and roll But Lillard and Hickson will be just as deadly. Hickson is still young, too. Kind of a forgotten piece.
I don't see why we would be worse than last year. We lost Thabeet, Crawford, Felton, Flynn, Przybilla, Thomas, and C. Smith. We're adding Williams, Lillard, Claver, Freeland, Barton, Leonard, Jeffries, and Price.
If it's any consolation I think we'll reverse the trend we saw last year: Start slow and kind of disjointed, but probably rap off some wins in March and April (depending on the nature of the schedule of course).
I'd be happy with that, and it wouldn't surprise me. Wins towards the end of the season are always nice, leads to optimism for the off season.
I'm agreeing with almost everything you post. Is the moon blue tonight? Anyhow, I see the same sort of thing, but with a slow start, and as Lillard gets comfortable, a noticeable improvement by the end of the year, with expectations for more the next season, including another lottery pick and some cap space for the summer.
I just looked up Brandon Roy's first year (2006-07) and we finished that season 32-50. Aldridge was an unknown, Roy was clearly good but unproven, and we had Z-bo (for good and bad). No Batum, but we had Former All-Star Jamal Magloire. Oh, and Jarret Jack, Trout, Webster, Juan Dixon and Udoka as role players. This year we have Aldridge in the Z-bo role, who is clearly better than Zbo was then. We have Lillard in the Roy role. Leonard is unknown. I don't think Lillard will be Roy-good (but hey, nobody thought Roy would be Roy-good either). We have Future All Star Nicola Batum. Oh, and Wes Matthews, Hickson, Freeland, Williams and Price in the role player positions. Honestly, I think this team is a lot better than that one. Aldridge is a legit All-NBA dude, and that counts for a lot. And our supporting cast is better. Batum is light years ahead of Magloire (that team's second best veteran player). I think we can get 45 wins and the 8th seed.
Perhaps ... but this wouldn't be good for The Plan. We'd lose a draft pick next year and we'd only get bounced in round one. I say dip into the lotto one more year to accumulate another good asset (we don't even have to keep the pick) Make a few consolidation trades and then take the West by storm in Lillard's sophomore year (and probably get bounced in the second round )
So, you're saying Lillard is going to tell off LeMarcus, but we'll win Just enough to get caught in the velvet rut
Do we even have our own draft pick next year? If we do, we won't be bad enough to get a decent draft pick. We did a lot of losing in the last 10 games and we still ended up with pick #11. Suppose we get pick #11 again, for argument sake, and that next years draft is worse than this year's, like it's suppose to be i.e. we have an equivalent to pick #16 in this year's draft: Royce While, Tyler Zeller, Terrence Jones. Reasonable players, but not worth tanking over. If you want to tank, you have to do something really dumb like play your players out of position (OKC) - Lillard at SG, Smith at PG, Claver at SF, Batum at PF, LMA at C. I think that would do it.
