Who Will Miss the Playoffs So the Blazers Can Make It?

Lakers will miss.

 

I actually agree with you. (for once) Other than your comments on why each team will make it over us. How we do against them really has no relevance. But you are right the other eight teams aren't going anywhere. They all have excellent talent and more experience. I find myself scoreboard watching every Dallas game because as you all say they are our best chance. Denver IMO is next. 50 wins may be the magic number again.

 

Added a poll. Options are in order of current standings.

 

Or, oops, Jazz and Suns are reversed. My bad. Too lazy to figure out how to fix that.

 

Dallas, but watch out for Utah if they keep getting bit by the injury bug. They were already a poor road team, their stars not being there for a chunk of the season has thrown off of their chemistry and they have some terrible losses so far. You can only play so many home games...

 

That's funny, so far more people think that the Suns will miss the playoffs than the Jazz. The Suns have been playing very well since they got J-rich, I see them making a push for homecourt advantage.

 

Thanks, for posting the poll.

For what it's worth, I voted for Phoenix, because I think that team will continue to struggle to find its identity. I think that team is composed in a very haphazard way. With Raja Bell and Shaq, it had at least some of the hallmarks of a team that could hold its own defensively. With Bell gone and J-Rich in, they lost their best defender and brought in yet another guy who wants the ball (add that to Nash, Amare, and Shaq!). I expect chemistry issues... and a team that will not play good enough defense to keep up with the other high-powered offenses in the West.

 

I agree. We're in the top 4 unless Nate blows it somehow.

Backup PF is still our only weak link, with no help in sight this season.

 

I agree that backup PF is a weak link, but to expect a team as young as the Blazers to vault from out of the playoffs to home court advantage in the first round in a conference as impossibly tough as the West is right now, I think is unrealistic. If it happens, I'll be extremely happy, but I'm thinking the Blazers are going to be in a dogfight down the stretch with the Suns, Mavericks, and maybe the Jazz and Nuggets, for who's where in the 5-9 spots.

 

One thing to consider is that while such a jump would be very unusual, historically, adding a rookie class to one team like Oden, Fernandez, Batum and Bayless is also very unusual, historically. And the team was already about a .500 team before adding those players, with their best players still on the upswing.

So, while I agree that it is unlikely...if it were going to happen, the circumstances of this Blazers team seem like the ones required.