I will say that for the amount of bad news this franchise has encountered over the past year, their outlook is a hell of a lot brighter than it has any right to be. I don't think they'll be an elite team (I think they would have been if Roy and Oden hadn't had any injury problems) but I think they'll be a good team and a fun one to watch.
Hahahahahah could you imagine if Oden came back late Feb, got into playing shape by the end of March and we go to the finals in June? Talk about turn around!
Her name is Venus, and she's the goddess of all women. Actually, I have no idea what her name is. Sorry.
I've been following sports for a long time. When a team says there is no timeline for an injured player to return, what they mean is "the Dr looked at the X-rays and screamed/puked/fainted."
I like how you have a quote of "Greg Oden, where are you?" and Venus appears to be looking down like she's looking for something. Maybe she will find him, and sex him back into playing shape!
We're definitely better than last year. Last year Roy and Oden contributed jack squat to our team(except for Roys 1 great playoff game) and we did pretty good. Dallas said we were the toughest team they faced. If we had a legit bench that didn't suck at all facets of the game, and didn't run LaMarcus down to the ground, we'd may have won that series....Dallas was the nba champs, so that's a good compliment! I'd like to see LA's minutes go down to 37.
There was also some obscure statistic last year where when Aldridge scored 25 points or more, the Blazers would win 90-95% of the time. That might be asking a lot but now with the scoring load on Aldridge, that might be what the Blazers need: 25 ppg average. Sure, a healthy Roy would've won us the Dallas series and possibly the championship but that's just a pipe dream scenario. In retrospect, we should've put the ball in Aldridge's hands and gotten him to score that 25 ppg. The efficiency and consistency of giving Aldridge the ball would've put the Blazers at much better odds than letting an unhealthy Roy handle it.
No. Matthews is awful off the bench. Crawford thrives at it. But knowing our luck, Felton and Matthews will have injuries that put Crawford in the starting lineup from time to time. Our team is much better built to deal with injuries this year
More than anything else, I'm glad we have Gerald for the whole year! I think he's going to be huge for us.
Yes, we are. As Sinobas pointed out, we still have the core that took Dallas to a game six last year. 1. While we will miss the playmaking of Andre, the floor will be spaced better with Felton. He is after a contract too and should have no problem being motivated. 2. The backup point looks much better with Crawford and Nolan Smith. 3. SG should be improved with Rudy and the broken down Roy being supplanted with Crawford. Will assume Wesley and Batum play at a similiar level or better. 4. SF should be improved with Wallace not having to play the 4, plus having multiple players that can provide quality minutes. Luke may never get off the bench and that is not a bad thing. 5. Do not expect more from LA, but having Thomas play against him in practice should help. Really like the Thomas and Smith signings because that should lower LA's minutes, making him play harder the minutes he is in there. 6. Center is probably going to regress. Camby and Thomas are playing on borrowed time. Smith can provide minutes, but there is a reason no one else jumped at signing him. Will still take our other improvements and backsliding by the rest of the conference. Winning a title is very unlikely, but getting out of the first round is not.
If you look at 82games.com 5 man units http://www.82games.com/1011/1011ATL2.HTM it appears that Crawford should NEVER play PG, his win % drops 35 points.
I think one of the biggest things that might hold the team back is lack of continuity. We have six guys (Crawford, Thomas, two Smiths, Eliiot Williams and Felton) who have never played with the team before. Then Wallace and Chris Johnson only half a season. Add to that short training camp (and Aldridge and two free agents haven't even participated yet) and then the compacted schedule that leaves little time to train together. I think teams that have been together a long time will have an advantage this year, especially in the first half of the season.
Go look at those same stats for 09-10... Any plus-minus based stat needs more than 1 year of data to really mean anything.
We'll be fine. This team won't suddenly become the worst in the NBA this season, but I expect another 6-8 seed. Although I'm secretly hoping for an NYK-type shortened-season run to the Finals, or a type of team like Doc Rivers coached in Orlando that one year that didn't have any superstars but surprised a lot of people by winning and playing real well together as a team.
I'm not understanding all these glass half empty Blazer fans. I think this teams is deep and has a solid starting 5 with two great bench players. I think we'll get in as 4 or 5 seed and make noise in the playoffs. The West isn't what it was a couple years ago.
In the last minutes of the game, most teams have a reserve energy, a 2nd gear they can employ. But Nate's offense just plods along at 100% all game long and has nothing to spare when it's needed. Having no last-minute clutch shooter was the biggest problem caused by the absences of Roy and Outlaw. Now we have shooters Felton and Crawford. I think we'll be a lot better than last year.
