Trail Blazers Vs. Clippers FINAL preseason game

where you lose it here my friend is . assuming that people have huge expectations...that and the money to go to Cancun AND bring suntan lotion! You've been a fan of this team long enough to know how to handle losing more games than you want to, but why anticipate losing more than you win? What's the upside in that? I see a slightly over 500 ballclub that misses the playoffs...that's realistic..make the playoffs and I'm thrilled..miss out..it's ok..meantime we know very, very little about how this roster will unfold..Nobody has us winning so it's all upside..we get to either play spoilers or become the sparring partner of the west...X factor..we're a young team with a good coach.

 

I agree in that we're gonna have some rough stretches next year.

I just think you're overvaluing the bad teams in the NBA. 20 wins would mean we're in the running for the absolute worst record. I don't see us as bad as Phily, Brooklyn, Denver or the Lakers. I believe we're significantly better than those teams. We are young but not full of rookies. Except Vonleh everyone has multiple years of NBA experience. Yes we're significantly worse than the top 7 teams in the west but I still think we get 30 wins.

 

I get that but people have different ways of rooting for their team so I'll let people root however they want. Lowering your expectations so you don't get crushed is setting yourself up for an inaccurate prediction as well.

It seems you would rather have your expectations exceeded and thus are self guarding yourself from disappointment. I don't want to be too high nor too low with my expectations so that's how I try to view the team.

 

The thing is, you seem to lump all of us into one optimistic can of bullshit ready to explode the moment the team loses. While this may be true for a few, it is not true for all of us. I am one of the more optomistic people here, but Im not going to blow my lid if they lose more games than I predicted. I'm going to watch with earnest and see what type of improvement the players make individually and collectively to see what moves need ot be made.
Lest us not forget, we actually have 2 all stars*
The team is young, it obviously has a decent amount of improvement in order to even compete with the top half of the west on a regular basis, but here is what I have seen so far from the preseason. The first unit of Dame, Plum/Meyers/CJ/Harkless has been stellar and tearing up the other teams starting units. The second unit is younger and then Stotts is mixing things up in the line up trying things out and then the team gives up the leads. Give this team half the season to solidify its top 8 rotation and know who's playing with who and all that is left that I see is learning curve. Of this learning curve, I see it being short. I am already liking how well they are playing together even a midst not knowing when your gonna get called upon and who will be on the court with you, etc.
I have seen some good inside presence from Vonleh. Yes, he needs to work on his touch a bit more, but his paint presence and nose for the ball is already exceeding my expectations of him coming out of the gate. I saw him as a project for this year and I already see him possibly being part of the regular rotation.
There will definitely be more lessons to learn, but I don't think these losses in the ends of the last couple of preseason games were all about the youth and the other teams taking over, as much as it was Stotts not really having our closers in the games at the end. Once be breaks into the starting lineup with the first sub, it has been fairly unpredictable as he is testing and trying options and so forth. Let him figure that out, the players define their roles, the confidence will then grow and yes... I see the team improving quicker than most believe.
With that said, if they don't, Im not gonna blow my lid, so chill.

This. Impartially, I see this team at about 35-40 wins. But my hopes are .500 or better and Ive made bets on that. I bet against the odds. People do that ALL the time in Vegas.. Can you not stand them either?

Some people don't like to take the safe road. Low risk Low reward. High risk high reward. Some like taking chances. Deal with it bro.

 

Bring back HackerHCP!

 

I think its the same guy just on a bender of bipolar mishaps. I need to stop responding, because I think he off some meds or something...all of a sudfden now I read posts that I agree with and sound like more in line of what I think of the game, but then another post pops up. It seems someones gone round the bend.