I only count 4 Blazers from last years opening roster that are returning; Anfernee Simons Jerami Grant (2nd longest tenured Blazer - trade agreed to prior to draft) Shaedon Sharpe (rookie) Jabari Walker (rookie) Is that the fewest we've ever had in Blazers history? Simons is the only player from the 2021-22 season - that might additionally be the fewest players returning with more than a single year of Blazers experience ever? I'll have to try and look - maybe after Sheed was traded we had some high turnover. I can't think of any year+ period that had even close to this much turnover, as well as it being so abruptly.
Yeah we are going to get slaughtered in the first quarter of the season especially. It’s a murderer’s row of opponents and we will have zero cohesion.
Out of the core, the 96-97 blazers only returned a few players from the prior season: trent, sabonis, Dudley and cliff. Buck, Strickland, Grant, James Robinson—gone.
Murderers row? I don’t see any dominant teams on the schedule. No superteams. Last year, Miami had a negative point differential in the season and then made it to the Finals. Denver had a low reg season record for a champion. Lakers started 2-10 and made it to the WCF. Fine line between winning and losing. Lots of parity. Anyone can be beaten. Success/failure is less about opponent and more about how well you play.
Whitsitt did a good job turning the 95-96 roster paper clip into a house, though. Those moves were vital. strickland became Sheed Kenny (fa) and Trent became the Wizard and stoudamire. James Robinson becomes rider becomes Smitty Childress and mckie becomes augmon Augmon and the wizard becomes pippen
In the context of parity it's already implied that it isn't. It implies that even the most athletic team is still on par with the least athletic team. Those are the conditions of parity. If he's right about parity then he's right about athleticism not being a determining factor.
Definitely think there's more parity in the NBA now than ever before. Utah along with San Antonio are the only western teams I'd possibly rank below the Blazers, but Utah has Olynyk and Clarkston coming off the bench. Back in the 90s we didn't see such strong rotations from the lottery teams. It might mean we will see less 60 win teams than in decades prior, but we also might see more teams competing for those last playoffs spots than ever before.
