So many more than 3, but 1. Having a real offense and defense 2. The progression of our rookies 3. If Batum and Matthews can take the next step
You probably mean Joel Freeland (Joe Freeman is a Blazers reporter, Joel Freeman is a crazy science experiment!) I feel pretty good about Lillard, I'm excited/curious about 1. Nolan Smith 2. The Center Position 3. The Bench (Rotation)
1. I dont know how Lillard couldnt be number 1, i feel like we are due for a stud and he has seems to have all the tools 2. Im curious to see if Babbit will 1) progress and/or 2) at the least maintain his 3pt shooting from last season for a whole season ... which leads into ... ... 3. I wonder how long we are going to talk about playing tough defense and just end as the team that just runs and bombs away and tries to outscore people. Although in this team's defense of that question, any defense system should be better than what we had before and I think Lillard's youth and speed alone will help at the first point of attack from the opposing quick PG's in the league.
1. Dame, 2. Nic, 3. ? Edit: 3. It's sad, but I'm actually interested in seeing how well the Lakers do. I wanna especially see how willing Kome is to share the ball and limelight with his new teammates.
Nate asked about "going into this season," and not just "The Blazers," so I'm going to take a more expansive view: #1. Our team (in this order): Lillard Aldridge under Stotts Leonard Batum under Stotts Freeland Lots of new pieces and old pieces being used in new ways. Some of it won't work, but it's fun to think about what might. #2. The Lakers: Yeah, I know it's the fucking Lakers and I should hate them. But come on, just the idea of Steve Nash setting up Dwight Howard is pretty goddamned fun to think about, isn't it? And Pau Gasol is probably their fourth best player! Jesus! I'm going to hate myself (and a lot you are going to hate me for saying it) but I'm really looking forward to watching this team. I'm just going to pretend the Lakers are the Suns, which won't be as hard because I doubt I'll watch any Suns games this year. If you can't beat them (or most likely keep within 15 points of them) you might as well enjoy them. #3. The Superteam Era This gets back to #2, but also what the Heat and Thunder are doing (and what New York has attempted to do). With so much talent consolidated in so few teams, it makes the likelihood of the Blazers winning a championship any time soon pretty remote. But it also means there are about 8 other teams who are more beatable than they would be in a normal season, which means a borderline playoff team like Portland stands a better chance of being at least a little relevant this year. And of course every Laker/Heat/Thunder head-to-head matchup is going to be must-see TV.
What was with all the technical difficulties during the Rider Cup. Was that you partying the night before?
I was on the Golf Channel show not NBC. But I heard all the engineers talking about the fiber cables used had issues.
