The computer simulations think very highly of Portland's chances this year. Basketball Prospectus has the Blazers first in the West, with 55 wins, a 35% chance of winning the Western Conference championship, and an 18% chance of winning the NBA championship. We are second only to Miami, which wins 58 games, has a 53% chance of winning the Eastern conference championship, and a 37% chance of winning the NBA championship. http://www.basketballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=1219 Basketball-Reference.com has the Blazers 2nd in the West, with 57 wins, a 32% chance of winning the Western Conference championship, and an 10% chance of winning the NBA championship. In the West, we are second only to the Lakers, which also wins 57 games, has a 35% chance of winning the Eastern conference championship, and a 11% chance of winning the NBA championship. In the East, we are behind Miami (64, 67%, 53%) and Orlando (58, 19%, 12%). http://www.basketball-reference.com/blog/?p=7896 Maybe our championship window is NOW!
Didn't WhatIf Sports have us in the finals last year against Cleveland? Didn't work out too well for us...
I like that Portland is out of the spotlight for a moment. I hope the players can use it against other teams.
Well their computer model didn't take into account that we'd be playing road games against western conference contenders without either center, Brandon Roy, Nic Batum or Rudy Fernandez.
