It seems everyone in the media is scared to make a call on the Blazers, rightfully so based on our past letdowns/injuries. That being said, OKC does not scare me and if G.O plays a full season we win the NW, IMHO. Ranking the Northwest Division: http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=17068
There is no way to sit down today and predict how the top 4 teams in the NW Division will finish. I'm not sure you will be able to make that prediction with a month left in the season. Health, in-season trades, and a certain amount of dumb luck, will determine the race.
Not to be too much of a wet blanket, but who cares about the Northwest Division. Correct me if I am wrong, but the only relevance of the Division, as opposed to the Western Conference, is some tie breakers. Question is where will we be in the Conference and what our seeding in the playoffs will be.
Division winners get one of the top three spots guaranteed, which is a nice little reward, especially in a division that is fairly balanced (4 teams in the playoff hunt) and thus harder to rack up the wins in.
Right, I forgot about that. Many years it is a non-factor, but one recent year a Western team won their division and got a better seeding than a team with several more wins. That is worth something I guess. I still focus on the Conference during the season. I pay NO attention to the division standings.
True, but record still determines home court advantage. If the #3 seed ends up playing a lower seed with a better record, the lower seed gets the home court. Still nicer to have a higher seed, for determining match-ups, but it's a "soft" seed, so to speak.
I have been of the opinion that the system is broke for a long time now. Every team in the same conference should play the same schedule if they are going to compete against each other directly for seeding. This bullshit of playing teams in your division make no sense logically. If you are going to compare the teams directly for seeding, they should play the exact same schedule.
Let's assume 4 teams from the NW make it, plus the Lakers and Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio... That's 8. Winning the NW Division puts you better than three other teams in your division and out of matchup range of two other teams, leaving two possible teams that could be better than you record wise but seeded lower Those two teams are probably SA and Houston. Of those, I only fear Houston. So, there's an 87.5% probability that we don't match up with a Houston team better than us record wise. I like those odds overall.
without Oden and everyone else healthy gives Portland a bad ass starting 5 with solid depth. They're the clear favs I'd put Denver and OKC on the next tier. Then Utah. Stranger things have happened then the Wolves not finishing last in the NW division 2010-11, but thats a near lock of course injuries can change the outlook for any team... someone will get snakebit as it's a rough game STOMP
Blazers will have a new lineup with Wesley Matthews and Oden in the mix. Can the team overcome their "jump shooting" offense or can they get some things going in the "paint". Limiting injuries this season is going to tell us how much this team will advance and improve.
After the way everything went down last year with injuries there is a part of me that would be happy with us being relatively injury free going into the playoffs. Of course when you take away the injuries at that point the expectations will go through the roof. Hopefully it doesnt come to this but it will be really really interesting to see how the team, fans and media react to injuries this year. After last year it may be demoralizing depending on the situation. Either way you have to just play on but how can the thought, "Here we go again" not creep into your head at that point? There is absolutely no reason the NW shouldnt be the goal. And a very obtainable goal. We werent that far off last year with all of our injuries. When you are trying to get over that next "hump" you need every advantage that you can get and we all know how this feeds off of our homecourt crowd.
I think it's going to go like "sitch" 1. OKC 2. Portland 3. Utah (Al Jefferson and Sloan feels oil and water) 4. Denver 5. Kaaaaahhhhhhnnn!!
