Win totals don't really mean much in today's NBA. Over half the league is irrelevant and it's all about racking up easy wins. Portland needs a better bench if they want to win a championship
Good enough to be in the discussion right now, at this point in the season? Sure. Good enough to be a favorite to make the WCF? Probably not where the smart money would go. Does any of this discussion matter at all? Not a bit. Contender status really amounts to the teams that can have a good enough regular season record to make the playoffs, preferably with home court advantage in at least the first round, and be healthy enough to compete at near full strength once the playoffs start. I think that the Blazers have enough going for them to accomplish making the playoffs with home court advantage, although there's not much margin of error in the West. I think they get home court because they're most likely to win the Northwest Division. The other thing I think they have going for them is health. This group of starters have been remarkably injury-free. OTOH, I think that the Warriors have several players with a history of being injury-prone. All of that said, I'd like to see Olshey go all in with this group and pull off one major deal before the deadline to bring in another consistent scorer off the bench. Blake is a solid floor general and defender, but offense isn't his calling card. Kaman is good for 10 points a game. Maybe CJ will get healthy and provide some scoring punch, but I'd love to see a wing player added who has playoff experience and who can create his own shot.
We are kind of for real. In the east, we'd be a contender. In a less-amazing west, we'd be a contender. In this year's west? No, we are not a contender. I don't see us beating Golden State or Memphis in a seven game series, which is a shame, because this is probably the best the team will be (maybe next year too, but then the door starts to close). Good plan, great team, shitty situation because we're stuck in the most stacked NBA conference of all time.
Yes but we started dominating before he went down. Who on GS can guard Aldridge? He feasted on GS in our last meeting but the refs didn't see Batum call timeout so we got screwed at them end. We would win a series though. Remember last fall in GS? Mo and Wes got ejected and then Aldridge ABUSED the Warriors. Grizzlies are another story though.
By the way, the Warriors have basically the same roster as last year and they got bounced out of the first round. They're hardly invincible.
Yes it does: "The team that has the best record in each of the three divisions in each conference is declared division champion. The three division champions, and another team in the conference with the best record, are seeded one through four by their records. This guarantees the division champions no worse than the fourth seed, and also guarantees the team with the second-best record in the conference will be the second seed even if isn't a division champion."
The seeding doesn't give you HCA bro. Just a guaranteed 4th seed. There was a time the 4th seed had the 6th best record and had to play the first round on the road
And? How does that have anything to do with your comment that GS is exactly like last year? Pat Riley won a title being a rookie coach. It's happened before
