Besides Lillard, the Blazers have a bunch of "potential". I hate the word, because it basically says "I have no f'ing idea how the team is going to be". Which is, itself, a true statement. Meyers Leonard, CJ McCollum, and Allen Crabbe are the returners that are going to be asked to shoulder the legacy role with Lillard, but they themselves are unknowns how they will react and perform with the spotlight shined directly on them on a consistent basis. Of the newbies, it's all a crapshoot. Mason Plumlee, Al-Farouq Aminu, Noah Vonleh didn't exactly set their previous teams on fire with their performance, and Gerald Henderson was a "good player on a bad team". Ed Davis and Maurice Harkless... man, who knows? They could be 6th Men Superstars, or end-of-bench towel-wavers. This is going to be one of those years where it's either going to be a surprising awesome ride, or a huge rollercoaster of suck that will make us wish in March for the season to be over. Not too much in between. I feel sorry for the season ticket holders who got sold on the LaMarcus Express, and now have to sit through another expensive "reloading".
I don't know if our team is going to make the playoffs. Win or lose, I'm going to enjoy the season. Go Blazers!
The only way we'll affect the playoffs is if a player from a good team gets injured in a game against us.
We have the potential to be above average if they mesh right away. We have, in my opinion, above average starting big men. Average starting wings and a superstar PG. Our bench has a solid 6th man in CJ and solid bigs. And you know who that reminds me of? OKC without Durant last year. Lillard is our Westbrook. Plumlee is our Kanter, only not as good on offense and better on defense. Meyers is our Serge. Athletic big man that can hit 3s. If he can become a better than average defender they can have the same impact. Aminu is our Anthony Roberson. Lockdown defender. Long and athletic. I think Aminu is a better rebounder and a better offensive player. Henderson is our Jeremy Lamb. Pressey is our DJ Augustin. Not quite as good but they play alike. CJ is our Dion Waiters, only more efficient and a better defender. Ed Davis is our Nick Collision. Very Solid defender who's meh offensively. Vonleh is our Mitch McGary/PJ3. Young project player with loads of upside like McGary, who can shoot and put it on the floor like Perry Jones. Crabbe is our Kyle Singler. Good shooter, solid defender, can't do much else. That OKC team was 1 game away from the playoffs. That's our ceiling, and we only reach it if Dame puts the team on his back just like Westbrook did. If he can put up similar numbers and lead us to the playoffs, he'll be a top 5 MVP candidate, and we will go into the offseason with a chance to lure a top free agent.
We're going to be getting a top 4 pick next year, and if we get helped out like the Cavs did when Lebron fucked them over the first time, we're going to get a new Aussie SF!
