Woo hoo, we will contend for the 8th seed

San Antonio metro population: 2,194,927 (24th)
Portland metro population: 2,289,800

so portland is still a little larger of a market.

back to the original point: in the past 30 years only one small market team has won a championship; the Spurs 4 times. large markets have won it the other 26 years.

 

this being a Blazers forum; yes, i was talking about the Blazers.

if that's true about a "helluva lot of teams" tanking: 1. you'll have to provide a factual basis for that finding. 2. even if it were true, it would not constitute professionalism.

 

BUt we should account for the teams that also made it to the finals. Portland, Utah, Indiana, Cleveland all made it there.

 

it's still lopsided in favor of large markets making it into the finals.

 

I think what PtldPlatypus is getting at is, that our Starting unit already has the potential to be a top 5 team in the conference, with the right supporting cast. If McCollum can bring some offensive fire to the second unit and Robinson some hard nose defense/rebounding, the impact could in-fact be significant. Our second unit was sorely lacking both scoring and defense last year.

Yup, we drafted a 4 year guy for a reason.

 

You must really enjoy pendantry. I'm not going to research teams' records for the last ten years just to "prove" a fairly commonly observed pattern of behavior. As for it being exemplary of professionalism, I never suggested it was. But it is reality.

 

True, but that's to be expected. Larger markets = more money. More money = better players. Better players = more championships.

 

Oh and I forgot SAS, Phoenix and OKC.

Well since 1991-2013 = 22 years.

SAS = 5 years
PDX = 2 years
Utah = 2 years
OKC = 1 year
Phoenix = 1 year
Dallas = 1 year
Cleveland = 1 year
Pacers = 1 year

That's a total of 14 of the 22 total years

 

i believe in details and, if you don't, that's not going to change me from doing so.

i agree that it's reality, but probably not quite as common as you're insinuating. my initial point is that it' simply not what professionals do -- gm's or players or coaches. you seemed to have an issue with that back on page 2.

 

Tanking is for losers. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise!

 

I am anxious to see TRob play. I assume he will in Vegas even if they have not announced it.
(I will be pissed if he does not)

One thing I want to see is his lateral quickness. I know he is an explosive leaper, but can he guard a SF? I would love to see him get more minutes and he won't only at PF.

I think a small back court with Lillard and CJ, along with a big front court with Leonard, LMA, and Robinson would be interesting to watch. With Leonard at the high post and LMA taking his man away from the basket, I am hoping Robinson can attack the basket against smaller players. I don't want him playing outside on O, but I think if he was in the game with Leonard and LMA his rebounding would compliment the other two.

It would be just another option for Terry to have in certain situations. But of course Trob would have to be able to guard the SF's for it to work. Can he do an adequate job?

 

what about the past 30 years of Stern's tenure that i mentioned before.

 

You'd have to add 8 more years. 14 out of 30 is still not bad in odds. Almost half the time a small market team has made it to the finals.

 

Yeah, I'm doubtful, but also hopeful that he'd be able to give us a few minutes at SF. I'd really like to find a bigger SF, to help on guys like Lebron, but also to be physical with KD. Batum's an over rated defender in general, but I think a lot of that comes from playing SF and defending SFs. He'd be an above average defender if he was covering smaller players, where his length is a big advantage. But it doesn't really do much good covering guys like KD, Lebron, Melo. And he's not physical enough to bother them with strength.

 

Stern will never be gone. Dude is like Senator Palpatine pulling strings behind the curtain.

 

Not very many SFs do much good covering LBJ, KD and Melo though.

 

You just named three SF's Robinson could not guard either. Because no one can. But hopefully there are other scenarios where it would work.

 

That's true, but he IS long enough to bother them with length. He rarely let's LBJ get to the rim, instead keeping him about 18' out shooting jumpers. Even if it's not physical D, it's still excellent D. It's a tactic, employed by the best coach int he league, that almost won the Spurs another championship.

 

actually, if would be 10 out of 22 years (or 10 out of 30). since we're counting teams who made it to the finals and lost, the Spurs would only count as one in that category.

 

I'm intrigued by the different methods used to determine that San Antonio is a "small market".

So, their population is greater than Portland, but their metro area is about the same, and within that area they have fewer tv sets.

However, the entire population of Oregon is less than 4 million. Texas is a big-ass state. The second most populated, at 26 million. Am I to believe that no one outside of San Antonio's metro area is a San Antonio fan? Cuz I don't believe it.