Is anyone besides me tired of hearing everyone clamor about how good the Thunder are and how they are going to be the team to really have a shot at stopping the Lakers? Man now I know how the rest of the league felt reading about the blazers for the last two years.
I too was thinking the Thunder won't sneak up on teams this season. And I thought that Paul Allen owns Sports Illustrated. National writers still get their prejudices from local media.
Nice article. As a note, I too am wondering what is in the national media Koolaid with the Thunder. Admittedly they took a big leap last year and have young, upcoming players (Westbrook may even be the best all-around player on that roster). But the Blazers took a leap like that a couple years back and it doesn't mean you're going to continue the upwards trend. People tend to forget that those teams won't be able to fly under the radar of other good teams' schedules. They are also forgetting in the case of the Thunder, this team had a near "perfect" season. Their big-3 players played all 82 games each. They gained great chemistry and never had to deal with adversity and injuries. And when the big games rolled around, they simply couldn't compete. I think Durant only shot 30% in the playoffs. Their just not lined up to improve much on last year if at all. So I'd think they'd be lucky to beat out the new, upcoming teams like Golden State or the Clips for that 8th seed.
Your avatar is fucking hilarious. O Z Iron E! Anyways, aside from giving props to Crandc how can you have part of what went wrong for OKC in losing Cho not be part of what went right for Portland? Yes the local media does color national media due to...laziness!!! Quick/Canzano's tripe is just a lazy ass google search away.
Yes but Durant was gifted about 40 FTA's per game! So that 30% doesn't matter much if he *cough*cough* draws *Cough*Cough* the foul so often. I actually respect Durant for resigning with the Thunder and not even putting it out there that he might want to play somewhere else or wanted a short contract. That said, his FTA's leading the league and many of them on jumpers is fucking ridiculous, shades of Reggie Miller Season 9 in his 3rd year. A skill no doubt, but one of my gripes with the FTA's decides the game outcome NBA. Also I hadn't paid a ton of attention to this years draft other then blazer trades and picks. Great pickup for GSW in Udoh potentially. Now they just need a sane coach to take advantage of Biedrins and Udoh along with Curry. Thats a decent core especially if they can trade Ellis for someone on a better contract. I find the pick of Udoh somewhat puzzling if you then go on to sign Lee. Crazy to think GSW has a potentially awesome front court rotation. Let me repeat a potentially awesome front court rotation on the Warriors. The Lee injury might be a blessing in disguise if it gives Udoh minutes.
I think the top four in the West will be the Lakers in the first spot and the next three in no particular order will be the Rockets, Blazers and Thunder and the ordering will be driven mostly by the relative health of the three team's stars. If Yao stays relatively healthy and returns to his former dominance the Rockets are going to be a very, very tough out, especially with a wing scorer like Martin who can kill people for doubling Yao. The Thunder still have room to improve and I think Durant could end up being the consensus MVP next season (I think Wade and Lebron will see their stats dip playing next to each other), and for us it's all going to come down to how productive and how dominant Oden can be and whether or not Brandon can add some wrinkles to his game (like playing off the ball or cutting off of screens) if Greg stays mostly healthy and resume playing the way he was right before his injury then I think the Blazers could be a 56-58 win team and could give the Lakers a real run for their money. The trouble is, I how much faith should we have in the durability of Oden (or Roy for that matter)? If healthy I'd rank the top 4 teams in the West this way: 1. Lakers 2. Blazers 3. Houston 4. Thunder If past patterns of injury recur: 1. Lakers 2. Thunder 3 ??? Blazers and Houston somewhere in the middle of the pack -- maybe in the playoffs, maybe not.
I have my doubts about the Thunder making another huge upward swing, I think they will be 5th or 6th - and I have my doubts that the Nuggets will not be in the top-4, they get back George Karl, they have 'Melo in a potential career year. Also - Utah is going to be very interesting to see - the Al-Jeff experiment could go both ways - they could become a real handful - or they could tank pretty bad.
I know this is about the NW, but I'm surprised at how many are sleeping on the Clippers. Blake Griffin was supposed to be a 20/10 guy when he was drafted. If he comes back and puts up those kind of numbers with a team that already has Kaman, Gordon and Baron Davis....watch out there. I can see them getting back in the playoffs this year. Especially with the Suns, Spurs, Mavs and Jazz falling off due to age and attrition, and the Hornets going nowhere. We may go back to the good old days where 44 wins gets you in the post season. (Note--I still think those first four all win at least 45 games, but 50+ wins is going to be less common.)
I think you are right on all accounts. I know it's the clippers, but I do think they are a playoff team this year. I also agree that the trend of having to win 50 to make the playoffs is over for now. (Unless a few teams are devastated by injuries and fail to field a decent team there bye jacking up the win totals for the other teams) I think winning 50 this year will be a more significant accomplishment.
!5 posts and not 1 thing about Denver! They always seem to bring it and they didn't lose anybody right?
Whenever I read such optimistic reports about the Thunder, it makes me wonder just what these writers are thinking. Durant has already had his breakout year - and a healthy Thunder team still won fewer games than a Blazers team that was decimated by injuries. It also ignores their biggest weakness - quality big men. Yes, they added Cole Aldrich, but that still doesn't give them nearly enough to match the size of the Lakers, or Blazers (when healthy). Rebounding and defense wins in the play-offs. Even if Durant continues to elevate his game, he'll need more quality big men supporting him for the Thunder to ever advance deep into the play-offs. BNM
The Thunder don't need to make another huge leap forward this season - they just need to keep moving in the right direction. That's something the Blazers failed to do.....and before anybody knee-jerks and whines about injuries, keep in mind that the front office turmoil and distractions were *self-inflicted*.
Sort of. They really kind of lost their front line by the end of last year when Martin went out with injury. He basically isn't healthy enough to pull it off again IMO. The injuries to him cascaded through their front line when all the rest of the guys minutes went up, and they all got hurt too. By the time the playoffs came up, their front line was so banged up they weren't relevant. I don't see that changing this year unless they bring in some help.
I've never seen anyone happier about being disgruntled. That Thunder team lost the series against us 3-1 and we had one hand tied behind our back while they had perfect health. Healthy, we kick the shit out of them.
