That one trick pony offense was built around an elite player who performed at his best in such an offense. Remember, it was the most efficient offense in the league when completely healthy. If Brandon had knees that could take the pounding, we'd have at least one ring right now, and Nate's name would be destined for the rafters. As for not starting Miller, again, that was because the offense was built around Brandon, and Blake pulled defenders out farther than Miller, which gave Brandon more room to operate. In hindsight, the mistake wasn't necessarily starting Blake over Miller, it was continuing to function as if Brandon would always be there. The same mistake led to trading Andre for Felton. In all honesty, I blame Brandon for not retiring sooner and saving us from the Year of the 5andbagger...
No "they" would not, that is ridiculous...That team with Roy\LA\Batum\etc did not even get out of the 1st round..... Who knows what could have happened if Oden had stayed healthy but that was never a reality....
In year one, they went up against the worst possible matchup in Houston. Had we played another team, our chances of winning the series would have been higher than zero. In year two, he had to come back right after surgery, and had he been healthy we would have rolled over Phoenix. Year three, thanks to an epic performance by a severely hobbled Brandon, we took the eventual Champions to six games. Again, If Brandon had any cartilage at all in his knees we could have, nay, should have beaten Dallas. "If" is the biggest word in the English language, BTW...
IF's don't hold any weight...the FACT is that they DID NOT advance out of the 1st round in either year.... I don't see your logic in the leap from 1st round exit to NBA champions.....That wasn't going to happen...That ship sailed when Oden went down again...and again....Roy going down only solidified POR new course, well after a year of Allen thinking he could put together a...I don't know what the hell to call that...playoff team? without Roy or Oden....
I'm gonna have to agree with you on this point. The fact is our team made it to the playoffs 3 years in a row and never made it past the first round. All with Nate our coach. Who cares who we were matched up with?! We didnt make it past the first round and that's the fact. The what if game doesn't mean anything to me. If that was the case, then lets play "What if we drafted Durant instead of Oden?" <-- That would have propelled us into contention.
I am one of the biggest homers around but no way we win a championship just because Roy is healthy. It would have also taken Oden being healthy and still a lot of luck for that to happen.
It's funny when people speculate whether Aldridge will suddenly reverse his personality, feel ambition, dump the Blazers, bring his unambitious act to another team, poison their team spirit, and free ours.
Portland trades Aldridge, Stotts, Freeland and #10 for Griffin,Bledsoe and the Clippers #25 pick. When George Karl gets canned we can pick him up.
his personality: I don't think there is any player on the Blazers organization that has a better team first mentality as Aldridge. feel ambition: You mean the long summer work to get strength, low post dominance and other areas that he's greatly improved since he arrived? dump the Blazers: Example what you mean by dump? bring his unambitious act to another team: Yes because playing 38+ minutes a game is sooooo unambitious. poison their team spirit: Dead wrong. Many of his teammates say he is a great leader and team oriented player.
Even though the first year was a huge over-achievement even sniffing the playoffs, and the second was another, if lesser, over-achievement? I give Nate credit for us making the playoffs the first two times, not blame for not getting past the first round.
Because our best player was injured against Phoenix and Dallas. You can't hold those two years against Nate. And the first year was just that. Our first year. If anything, Nate should be praised for even getting us into the playoffs in 2010. That season, Batum, Mills, Pendergraph, Outlaw, Rudy, Roy, and Przybilla all had surgeries that led to missing significant time. Batum was out half the season. Outlaw played very well in the first month and the got hurt and never played for us again. Rudy was out half a season. Oden and Przybilla went down in December. Przybilla was out for the year. Oden never played us again. Roy missed games throughout the season with a sore knee and then had surgery right before the playoffs. Blake was sick for a period of time. Aldridge got banged up and missed games. Nate himself had surgery and missed a few games. And we got the SIX seed and beat the Suns twice despite Roy missing the first three games and still be severely hobbled for the last three. Also, it is a lie that Nate kept Miller on the bench for half the season. Miller started 66 games that season.
No if your ambitions are low, you would not want to play 38+ minutes a game because you put more wear and tear on your body. An unambitious player would demand that his playing time drop.
Would you have been happier if we didn't make the playoffs that year? Then we couldn't have lost in the first round. The point was Nate didn't have his star player for two of the three years we were in the playoffs. Was he supposed to win the championship without Roy?
He wasn't Roy. He was severely hurt. He could barely walk. He played limited minutes and was giving it a go but he wasn't even an All Star that year because he was hurt. That's what made Game 4 amazing. The guy was done. He RETIRED after that series. Nate did not have The Brandon Roy. He had a healthy Brandon Roy ONCE in the playoffs.
So you admit then that Roy's "one trick pony" offense was destined to fail then? I mean you even said that we had Roy for only one playoff, which was the first time they made the playoffs. I mean how can you put all your eggs in a injury riddled all-star?
Well, that is what we did when we drafted the guy. We put our faith in him. He got us out of the cellar, got us to the playoffs, and then broke down. When we won games and made the playoffs (something we did NOT do this year), we did it by exploiting Roy's strengths. You were there for Game 4. If he was healthy, he could've carried us to wins like that every night. We had a great very efficient offense when he was healthy and we put the ball in his hands. We sucked before we put the ball in his hands and we sucked after we lost him. Going to him was never wrong. Unfortunately, he got hurt. He was damaged goods when we drafted him but we took the risk. It didn't pay off but we got a lot of entertainment and WINS out of it. Made people in Portland care about the Trail Blazers again. As was said, if he was healthy Roy in 2011, we win that series. But he couldn't even play 8 minutes in Game 2. Sad. But we had the 13 game win streak in 2007, a guy in the All Star game for the first time in years, he got us to the playoffs in 2009 after a 5 season absence, and he gave us one of the greatest playoff performances ever in Game 4. You were there. It was amazing. Now, we move on. Lillard is our leader. We're thankful for the time Roy gave us and hope that Lillard can even do what Roy did in his little time with us and then take us further. Nate and Royball were good to us. What would you have preferred? Foyeball? Go Blazers
