LA, Crash, and Mathews are the team now! Nate better figure those guys out in a hurry and set the offense around them. Oden and Roy should not be looked at as anything more than a bonus if healthy! You can actually make a pretty decent offense with those three playing off each other and Felton keeping the outside honest. Let's hope Nate can hire an assistant that can figure it out.
It's not a good big three, so let's hope Oden gets back. If Oden doesn't get back, the team needs to really work hard to bring in another really talented player. Aldridge could arguably make the jump to first option on a title-contending team. Right now, he's a very good second star. Gerald Wallace is a good third (or supporting) star. Matthews is simply a complementary player, as are Batum and Felton. Oden is the team's only current chance of getting that first or second (if Aldridge develops further) star, which will cause everything else to fall into place. If Oden proves to be a non-factor long-term, they need someone else before they'll be more than early playoff fodder.
Minstrel, I believe that the sooner Roy is gone the sooner LA goes back to the double double machine he was mid season. He can lead this team but not if Roys around to slow it down... As for another star... I'm just not sure where to look for that right now, that we could get.
Aldridge, Wallace, and hopefully Oden are the stars of this team. If they're healthy that's the best frontcourt in the NBA.
Maybe we can get lucky acquiring another borderline all-star, get a guy like Batum to produce at the level of a respectable starter, find a steal in a future draft or free agency; then we could be a team similar to the Sheed Pistons with a group of borderline all-stars competing for a title. Your right that historically most titles are won by having one or two dominant players, but Oden becoming a superstar isn't the only path that would let us compete for a title. The 2000 Blazers had a bunch of players around LaMarcus and Gerald talent level but no superstar, if we can increase the talent base on this team either from Batum/Matthews developing, Felton exceeding expectations, or bringing in another Gerald Wallace in a trade I like to think we could be right there irrespective of Oden.
Yeah, I was aiming for the formula that's been needed nearly every time. It's really really hard to win with depth of talent, rather than concentrated talent. The Pistons did it, but the Lakers seemed in disarray with Malone hurt and Kobe going ronin. I don't think that Pistons team would have beaten any of the three previous editions of the Lakers. Conjecture, of course, but I think everything has to go just right to win that way. I think a better hope if some combination of Batum, Matthews and/or Felton explode is to create a package and bring back a star or superstar that may not be willing to stay with his current team. Like, say, Chris Paul. I don't think it's a great hope, but I think it's the next most likely scenario after "Oden gets healthy."
I really think felton will be the 2nd best player next year, Wallace might edge him out a little or Roy if miraculously healthy. But Dre was the 2nd best player to me last year, and I don't think there is a lot of difference in talent level between dre and ray. Stats probably don't agree with my above statement about dre being our 2nd best player, but without dre our team has no leader and lacks an offensive orchestrator.
I think Felton might end up the 2nd most important player (behind LMA) just by virtue of the position he plays, but 2nd best? That's a tough prediction to make based on his past performance. Regardless of who composes our so-called "big three" it's clear to me that we better be sure they are actually worthy of that distinction instead of christening them by default -- as I'm sure some around here will want to do. Right now I'd say we have a big 1 and 3/4 (LMA a legit all-star caliber player and Wallace who may or may not be entering his decline) Beyond that Oden is a hopeful, but probably a longshot given his injury history and the rest all look like role-players and "just guys" to me.
Yeah, in the dark years we had a "big 3" of Zach, Darius and Ratliff. Thank gosh we didn't lock them up to massive long-term contracts.
