At what point will you believe this team is for real?

70s, 80s, 35, 135, it all blends together. It all goes to show you can trust my 10 games-in number.

 

So according to my iconic heuristic study in the 70s, which in hindsight I should have published to gain a position of professorship so that I would not be down here among you mole rats, a team's winning percentage at 10 games in is within 10% of its standing at 20 games in, which is even closer to its winning percentage at the All-Star break. But then occurs the discontinuity in the curve. Many teams change direction in the second half of the season, so that their All-Star break standing is a poor predictor of their final position.

This was true back then, but is even more true now that tanking is so routine. Or maybe it's just that I'm stuck in the Blazers rut of the 2000s.

 

If they come out of this road trip 3-1 or 4-0, I will start to commence to begin to believe. Granted, the combined record of the opponents on this road trip is 13-23 but good teams feast on teams with bad records and Portland 'should be favored in every game.

The Nets will be tough because KG gets under LA's skin, Williams is a tough matchup for Dame and Brother Brook is better than Brother Robin but hopefully they still haven't figured out how to put it all together yet.

Portland comes out of this trip at 9-3 or a not-dared-hoped-for 10-2, that is reason for optimism even if by that point I believe only the Spurs and Rockets will be above .500 of teams the Blazers have played so far.

You can only beat the team in front of you and Portland has done a pretty good job of doing that so far.

 

Of the seven wins.... Kings x2, nuggets, celts, a suns team who I think is still bottom 5 by march. Spurs great win but early in year. Not like we are beating warriors thunder or pacers here lol. To even take this thread seriously blazers need 3-1 trip minimum.

Also any injury to Lopez, LA or lillard and it's done. Also lillard looks off lately. His all around game. Not sure what's wrong.

Lastly did u see what the rockets did to blazers?? Dwight Howard who got destroyed by the Italian kid on Knicks dominated us. Howard has become one of most overrated players in the league. Hakeem and Mcale must sit there and think "we paid this guy the max?" What a joke. He's a liability in close games and doesn't seem like he wants to get better. Yet...... He made us look like we are a high school squad up front. The kid on Knicks couldn't guard me!! Listening to boston announcers last night they laughed about how bad our points in the paint are and our defense in paint. If that doesn't get fixed ur lucky for eighth seed.

 

The problem last season wasn't beating the good teams, but losing to teams that are bottom tier teams and having a dismal road record.

I guess you haven't watched the suns, but they are a damn good team, taking all contenders to them all the way till the closing seconds.

But alas, it's mixum and of course he's gonna downplay any positive the blazers accomplished.

 

So u disagree Howard killed us?

 

Listen I love the blazers (not sure what mixum like) but I can tell u that this team has some big IFS ahead. With all that said they do seem to have good chemistry and confidence.

Just remember the shortened season where we started 7-2 and Barkley said we were best in west and ended up with the 10 pick of draft lol

 

Context matters. What happened to that team? If you said Camby/Felton/Crawford/McMillan, redundancy and terrible performance on the road at SF, and no back up PG, you'd be off to a good start.

 

If after December, we're still Top 4 in the West, I'll start to believe. I know we'll make the playoffs, but we still need to improve if we're going to continue to win at our current pace.

 

Mags is correct.

Let's look at what Carlito is saying.

"Spurs was a great win, but it doesn't matter."
"Can't take this team seriously till after a road trip of terrible teams, but we also can't take this team serious because they've only beaten terrible teams."
"Single game performance matters in a loss, but not in a win."
"The Boston announcers are good, unbiased, and subject matter experts." I mean, they should be coaching right?
"If you fix points in the paint, you're a play-off team." I await your next syllable with great eagerness. In the mean time, I will remove my palm from my forehead and apply ice.

 

I believe this team is for real right now. 2nd in the west with the 1st seed in the west being a team we beat. I wouldn't have said this during preseason because Wes was not looking good, but now...we have the pieces to make a deep playoff run. I don't think the west is as deep as some think this year with the Jazz, Nuggets and Lakers dropping off. Success is tied to hunger for the Blazers. If they stay hungry all season they can beat any team in the NBA. Keys to the success are Damian not dropping off drastically on offense as he puts more energy into defense, TRob being consistant off the bench and Leonard staying on the bench. Our starting lineup is a nightmare for the opposition as long as they stay focused and don't mail in games on the road like last season.

 

Be careful. They will say you are going "full mags"! Lol

 

Pacers are the team to beat right now. How cool would it be if we kept our winning streak going, and the Pacers kept their unbeaten streak going, all the way until our matchup on 12/2.....and then we beat them in thrilling fashion? Realistic? Doubtful. Homeristic? Yes.

Let's see how we fare through the end of the calendar year. If we can respond to how the teams are scouting us by then, we'll be for real.

 

Ur right fanatic..... Only announcers that know nba ball are Barrett and Rice. Celtic guys are lost. Lol change ur name to blazer homer. Ur lost.

It's funny how neither u or Maggs mention what plumlee cousins and howard did to us!

 

Or how we stop the key players from the perimeter are doing? Basically we take everyone else from the perimeter from their game?

Sometimes a good strategy is to have unsung heros be the hero, while you take away the real players. Only cousins is the key player of their team.

 

This team is fun and I'm as stoked as I have been in awhile so I'm believing this team is for real at the moment. There are a few things we haven't seen that I want to see how the team handles.
1) can we beat the under .500 teams. The last few years we have played down to our opponents level and it has cost us in the end
2) How the team handles a losing streek. If we lose two or three straight I'd like to see how we handle the next few games. When we get behind and can't seem to gain any ground after a quarter is the team still trying and "scrapping" or do we look uninterested and are just jacking up shots
3) When we have an injury to a starter do we have someone capable of moving into the starting lineup and play well or will it be another situation like when we lost LMA for a few games last year and suddenly looked absolutely horrid on O.

I think we will handle all three situatuons without a problem but so far we have experienced very little of any of those three problems.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

 

This roster's 3rd string is better than last years 2nd string so....we're way better equiped to handle injuries

 

It seems that way but when you insert a new player into the starting lineup there isn't a guarantee their increased minutes will lead to increased production and that that person who replaces him in the backup spot can handle it either.
I think we will be just fine but we still need to see it happen before we can be sure.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk