Up, Down, In and Out? How the west goes wild.

This past season
1) Warriors
2) Nugs
3) Blazers
4) Snot-Rockets
5) Jazz
6) Thunder
7) Spurs
8) Clips

Missed: Kings, Lakers, Wolves, Grizz, Pelicans, Mavs and Suns.

With Bron, AD and most likely D’Angelo Russell joining the Lakes, I expect them to move up, possibly towards the top of the conference. The Mavs and Pels both have a great shot at seeing massive growth and neither would surprise me to see in the playoffs. What about Minny?

The Warriors I expect to see drop off huge, but I doubt they actually miss the playoffs.

Denver and the Blazers both stand to improve through youth growth and hopefully the Blazers get back a fully kick-ass-Nurk.

So, who moves down? How does the balance of power shift?

As Free agency kicks off, we should be able to start answering these questions in Ernest.

 

On a couple other boards posters tend to agree with you on this. They don’t think the Blazers will be as good and they feel it was pretty much luck they did as well as they did.

 

Good points. If Nurk were back day one at full health I would say the Blazers would likely improve but that’s not the case. And with so many unknowns it’s hard to say.

I think Simons could be a huge help but it might take many stumbles before that benefit is realized. Little- to young and unproven for any expectations this year. I love the Baz for ET swap but that’s maybe a game or two over the course of the season, not enough to really affect the standings.
I liked Curry but don’t think he helped that much last year and Hood and Kanter were fantastic in the playoffs but didn’t have much sway on the regular season.

Mo, Aminu and new signings could make giant differences. Those questions don’t seem close to being answered yet.

 

They added Bazemore. Little is not going to be a difference maker as a rookie.

Blazers are gambling on a big leap by Collins and a YUGE leap by Simons. "Praying for a miracle" isn't my idea of actually having a plan! I hope Olshey makes some good moves and proves me wrong.

 

Unless Neil has some big balls to go along with his big talk.

 

Thats what many were saying last year, tough to make the poffs. It will be another horse race but around the last two turns and down the stretch we win 55 games and finish 2 seed.

 

Lakers
Nuggets
Jazz
Thunder
Rockets
Blazers
Warriors
Spurs
Mavs
Kings
Pelicans
Wolves
Grizzlies
Suns

No clue on the Clippers until after FA shakes out.

 

there may have been some 'luck' in the playoffs, but the regular season was Portland taking care of business. I suppose you could say it was lucky the Knicks waived Kanter and that he chose Portland, but that seems like Portland making a bit of their own luck

53 wins and the WC finals does seem like a real tall order to match again next season. If they lose Kanter, Hood, Curry, and Aminu (and at this point that seems possible) that's a lot to replace with growth, a tax-MLE and a vet minimum contract or 2. I doubt the trade-off will be a positive for Portland. That's over 10 wins Portland loses (counting half a season for Nurk) if you go by winshares

then there's just how close things were for seven of the seeds. It looks like the Warriors and the Rockets will be worse. But all the other 5 playoff teams look to be better, especially if the Clippers get Kawhi. And of course, the Lakers might be really good (yuck); the Kings could be tough if they get Horford; and the Mavs might be a lot better

and you just never know how injuries are going to rewrite the script

 

I'm sorry, but this is nuts. Best case scenario, Nurk is 100% by mid-season. More likely, he doesn't fully recover until the last 20 games or so. If you think the Blazers improve under those circumstances....you really have no appreciation for Nurk's contribution.

 

Posters are sometimes idiots.

 

Quit obsessing over Olshey's balls.

 

Agree. The Blazers played well in the post season and some of the moves at the trade deadline paid off. Sometimes you make your breaks. That is not luck.

 

Will depend heavily on the next couple of weeks. Injuries happen as well. I like our chances though to still be a playoff team and could see us taking the next step to contender.

 

Yeah, but keep in mind that they see and work with Collins and Simons every day. What we think of as praying for a miracle might be very realistic growth from those who are in the know.

As far as Little not being a difference-maker, probably not. OTOH, outproducing Mo or Chief or Jake isn't exactly outproducing KD and Klay. Sometimes it's just a matter of opportunity.

 

Utah adding Conley and Bogdanovic....they are going to be tough if healthy!