Is the Blazer team today better than the Blazer team this time one year ago? Not talking about future success or future expectations. I'm talking about here and now. Is today's team better than last season's team at the same point of the season. Is this an obvious answer?
If the two teams played a best of 7 series, I think it is a tough choice. At this point in the season last year, the Blazers looked like a steamroller. They were destroying teams. Then we saw what happened when the intensity picked up. The current team isn't showing the same dominance, but I also don't think there would be such a dropoff from less-important to more-important games, or more intense games. This is due to the addition of Miller and Camby, with Roy and LA being more mature. I guess I'd take this year's team in a best-of-7 series, if the series had large implications.
Absolutely. I think it has taken a while for the pieces to mesh, but who would you rather have on the court? I'll take Camby/Miller right now over Oden/Blake last season. I'd probably take Oden this season over Camby this season in some sort of Sim league w/out injuries, though.
They're like 13-2 since Batum and Camby both joined the starting line-up together, and they're actually winning road games against playoff teams. Last year's team was the ultimate in overachievement. How did they tie for the 2nd-best record in the West by only beating one playoff team on the road? It was borderline miraculous. Nate proved his worth last year, and the NBA knows it.
I think he's talking about differential. We were kicking the fuck out of teams this time last year if I remember correctly.
Personally? I don't think it's that close. I think we're better right now than we were exactly one year ago. And I think we'll perform much better in the playoffs than we did one year ago, no matter our opponent.
This is a smarter, more mentally tough team this year with a better starting 5 which tells me that in a playoff series (where the bench doesn't matter as much) they'd probably be the victor over "last year's" squad.
If the 2008-09 team played the 2009-10 team in the playoffs (i.e., if the 2010 team were the Houston Rockets of last year), the 08-09 team still loses, and still loses in 6. The reason? Andre Miller, Marcus Camby, a year of smarts and experience. Andre would decimate Blakey, and Camby would neutralize Oden. The rest is just picking apart your younger selves by knowing more.
Bad teams, though. I'd like to see a differential over the last 15 games. Last year's team seems like a mirage to me now. I think we'll see a much better team in the playoffs this year.
We're about the same level of playing as last year, I've seen no improvement there. We're not as deep as we were last year, nor do we have as much "potential" to hope for in our team's future. We're definitely more experienced, but our "dynasty window" has closed about halfway since last year. With Larry Miller apparently bouncing KP and his whole plan this summer I see the whole house of cards collapsing due to Paul Allen's impatience for a quick title before he dies. I warned of the likelyhood of this failure of character taking down the whole rebuild idea way back when we traded Sheed, and sadly it's all on the verge of coming true.
I tend to see most of what you posted as a valid argument/opinon, but the Rasheed sentence really doesn't make much sense to me. Rasheed was never going to be a good fit in a rebuilding phase; signing Theo to that ridiculous contract was a worse move to me.
What I meant was rebuilding from scratch through the draft, while I think it's the best way to rebuild, takes more years of patience and determination and trust in your GM than Paul Allen has ever shown he had. After all those years of losing, after voluntarily walking away from our league record string of playoff appearances, we're basically where we were 6 years ago.
I blame that more on Vulcan/Paul Allen hiring Patterson and Nash than I do anything else, though. Everybody makes mistakes, but damn, those two were flat-out incompetent. The best player from their era is Jack, and he plays for another team right now. Kryapa, Monia, Ha, Telfair...what a fucking waste of years. Wow.
This thread was never, obviously, intended to discuss the future. I made that clear, but thanks for derailing it Maris.
My point being, there is a business-like attitude of the current Blazers team that I never saw last season. A certain level of calm, confidence and strength that was absent last season. It's true that our bench isn't as good as it was last season. But the starters currently have a swagger and confidence that was absolutely lacking last season going into the playoffs. Put it this way. If the current Blazers squad went in to game 1 vs the Rockets last season, they wouldn't have had their asses handed to them. And that's the difference. Agreed?
