We could be the Toronto Raptors. Last night the 7'1" 265 Andrea Bargnani, in 20 min. of play, managed to grab a total of ZERO REBOUNDS. They are stuck with the ever-so mediocre Hedo Turkoglu and will be paying him $12m when he's 36. Chris Bosh will likely bolt. Sure, they could trade him but who's going to give up a ton of value when he could easily bolt the as well? I bet he ends up in Miami this summer. They are now 7-13 and you think our defense is bad, they make us look like the Pistons from 4 years ago.
It could always be worse. But I think we all were hoping for good times for the next few years. The disappointment is what is truly upsetting. I can't imagine the Raptor fans thought they would be contender this year.
Some of us saw this coming. There were some definite tell-tale signs during preseason that this could happen. The question is, can the Blazers overcome?
Yeah, that team is just attrocious. Absolutely no defense on that team to speak of. For all the praise of Colangelo, and he has made some very good moves in the past, he ruined that team. Well, not ruined, because they weren't good before he got there, but ruined in the sense of looking at their future. I like Bargnani. I think he is a good player. On the right team, he wouold look really good. Heck, even in Toronto, he looks really good at times. And he's still plenty young. I think they'll be happy with his contract. The problem is, they drafted him thinking of him like Dirk Nowitski. Which is fine. Theer are siilarities. But to do that, you need to play him at PF, where your best player plays. So instead, they encourage him to gain mroe and more weight, so that he can play C for them, even though he doesn't have the game of a C. And shouldn't be pushed like that. Exploit the mismatch provided by Bargs. Should have moved Bosh a year ago. Now, the time is dwindling on him. I can't see him staying there. And if he leaves, it's not like he opens up a big salary slot. With a 52 million dollar cap, they'd have roughly 5 million in cap space next season. Not enough to try to replace him. Calderon, Derozan, Hedo, bargs? Yikes! Calderon's not bad, but he's not the player Toronto thought he was when they got rid of Ford. They saw his part time numbers, and extrapolated those out to full time, and were thinking top 5 PG. He's decent. Terrible on D, very good shooter, but more of a "game manager" type. Meh. I guess that works around Bosh and Hedo who are good with the ball, but doesn't work good when, in pressure situations, you tend to rely on your PF getting dribble penetration. Who knows, maybe they sign and trade Bosh, and get lucky. Need to find a strong defensive C to play alongside Bargs. Not him and Bosh.
Even though it looks like we could use Turkeyglue, that was a big bullet we dodged, that contract would have been awful.
What even sadder is we are apart to get passed by teams like the Kings and OKC. We were suppose to be at least a top 5 western team for years... now it looks like we will be luck for playoffs.
Last I checked, the Blazers were tied with the Spurs for 4th in the West, so, yeah, it could be a lot worse. Given the emerging role of Greg Oden, the difficulties in incorporating Andre Miller's style of play with Nate's controlled offense, and injuries to key players that have robbed the Blazers of their depth advantage, I'd say it's not too surprising that they're struggling. Let's just hope that they turn things around soon so that we don't fall to the Raptor's level of despair. I'm not sure that the mental health of some board members could take it.
You should check out the Raptors board at RealGM.com ... they have something of a reputation for unintentional hilarity. In a way they're a bit like Blazers fans though, in that they tend to see things through rose colored glasses when it comes to certain players, their GM, etc.
Whose giant mistake was it that we accidentally avoided? All these people who say we are lucky not to have signed Turgo never name names. In fact, some of them actually list this accidental non-transaction on their list of PRAISE for Pritchard.
They really thought they could contend with LA, Boston, Orlando and the like? I am big time Portland fan and I am pretty Portland isn't at that level yet. I do know that Portland in disarray is a better team by far then the Raptors are right now. And that doesn't even count Bosh leaving at the end of the season. They will loose their best player for nothing. Well done Suns North!
Aren't you supposed to be feeling great that we're struggling? In the preseason, you said you feel satisfaction if we failed.
