Portland just exceeded every rational thinking persons expectations this season. Just for the team to make the playoffs was a huge accomplishment. To beat Houston in the first round was icing on the cake. SA is a much more experience, savvy team with a a lot more talent Kudos to the team for a great season
Yep, I most definitely agree. We got destroyed by the spurs but we made it to the second round for the first time since I was a freshman in high school. We took our punches and got some much needed playoff experience and now the team should really know what they need to work on Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk
I am especially glad that they got this many tough playoff games under their belts and also got to see how a truly fantastic team operates, and hopefully realize what they need to do to get there. Great experience all around. Next season will be fun.
If we were going to lose to the Spurs, I am glad we got our asses kicked. I think it will help them focus more on what they need to improve on. If they would have barely lost to SA, they might have been more complacent. This way they can feel good about the season, but also understand what it is going to take to get better.
Really fun season, and exciting first round. But man, please, please, please bring in a new top assistant defensive coach. I really like Terry, and the team is playing great on offense. But we can be so much better defensively. It seems especially important since we don't have a draft pick or much to trade this summer. We have to grow internally.
I hear you, but at the same time I'm glad they were fully exposed. It's now clear as day what we need from a personal standpoint, what our core needs to improve on, along with what advancements the coaching staff has to make.
I'd rather get fully exposed and work on it then barely lose and say we don't need any more pieces. It was a good series, better team won.
I'm happy too. I'm happy because we did what you're supposed to do: Raise our level of play in the playoffs. Houston did this, and Dallas did too. SA didn't do in until game 7 against Dallas. But, when the best team in the league ups their level of play, the rest of the league is in trouble - Portland and Dallas included.
We will have draft picks to trade. July 1st things reset and we could hypothetically trade our 2015 and 2017 1st rounders
I'm quite sad we lost. However, I'm certainly not disappointed in my Blazers. What an unbelievable season.
The Blazers exceeded my (admittedly conservative so my heart wouldn't be broken) regular season prediction by 10 wins. The Blazers exceeded just about every expert's first round prediction by beating the Rockets in 6 games. That series made me very, very nervous and stressed out, because I knew we could (I honestly believed my Blazers in 6 at that point) but they could just as easily not. They did. Hazzah! Again exceeding everyone's expectations. I was never even slightly nervous about the Spurs series, because I never thought for a moment we'd beat the Spurs in a 7 game series. They were a hair away from the championship last year, they had the most playoff experience in the league, the best record in the league, home court advantage, and arguably the best coach and best established system in the league. When the Blazers showed up for the daunting task of beating the Spurs, they kind of didn't show up, because the Houston series appeared to take everything they had, and they were spent. I'm not sad they lost either, and I'll go along with the silver lining that the experience, and being exposed the way they were, was simply priceless.
I mostly agree. Aside from the whole "rational person" thing. I consider myself rational and realistic and was not surprised by the season they had. I believed they'd win 48 games and if they grew they way I thought they might, I knew a few more would come along. So does that make me irrational? No. But I'm not sad. I'm proud of the season this team had. Leaves me excited for next year. Everyone thinks they're a damn expert.
Exactly. It would have been more painful if we were in every game & lost in 6 or 7, then spent an off-season doing very little while convincing ourselves we were THIS CLOSE & all we need is more time and a few small pieces. Spurs did us a huge favor by systematically exposing the warts that need to be removed before we can realistically compete for a title, or even WCF. 4 Losses by a combined 78 total points will do that.
Actually, IIRC, because we won't be participating in the 2014 draft, we CANNOT trade our 2015 pick until after we select player. Teams cannot be out of the draft for multiple years. So, we basically don't have the draft this year, but have the MLE and BAE exceptions which we can sign players.
