For me, contenders are the 3 or 4 most likely to win it all. Basically, you wouldn't be surprised if they won it all.
The first part of your post it's just silly. Draft picks will not help us now unless they're traded. How many lottery picks do we need? We have a bunch now...
Talking about top 3 picks. Right now, its probably our best chance of getting franchise players, at least for the next two seasons until we can figure out what the best path to take is. Basically our team is Damian Lillard, a potential franchise PF in Vonleh and a bunch of pretty good role players.
I kind of want to buy a bunch of these Big Dog T-shirts to wear ironically. They're just so over the top ridiculous. http://www.bigdogs.com/Product/tees_classic/Surf_The_Net_T-Shirt/65564
I think the odds are good this eventually will turn out better than the Blazers of the last few years. Even had LA stayed, it was going to be very difficult to improve the team, unless maybe they got Monroe to come on board. It was kind of at an evolutionary dead end, IMO. I think there's a chance here that the Blazers have a young talent comparable to LA long term in Vonleh. There are a number of young players who will get a real opportunity to show what they can do without a lot of pressure. And, it it goes as I expect, there'll be a star-level potential talent joining the cast through next year's draft. It might be a painful couple of years, but I am looking at the payoff, and I think the payoff could be terrific.
how big a "chance"? some posters here really hyping the "potential" of Vonleh, I hope it works out that way but let me see at least a third of a season before I jump on that bandwagon
I mean, really, would you like a team that has peaked and hung around the 2nd round, or start over and give yourself and the city hope that you can do better? Sure, you'll get the ignorant hindsighters that aren't here yet saying it all went wrong if it does go wrong... but I don't know, I like the anticipation of "maybe now that we've changed up things, we can get different results." I mean, I guess this makes Olshey pretty sane. Since the definition of insanity is "Doing the same thing, expecting different results." I know a lot of people on this board saw the "apex" of this team... and so, I think a rebuild was necessary. I'm a patient person in a largely impatient world. However, if you look at -some- of the people on this forum...... lol.
I doubt that this team will eventually turn out better than the team we had (or the potential of that team with some minor twerks) The simple trade of Henderson + Vonleh for Batum made this team MUCH better from the get go when you figure Aminu was in and Ed Davis was as well. The rotation would have been much better with Aminu starting, Hendo as either the starter or backup SG and Davis backing up Aldridge with Vonleh in the wings waiting to take over. Add the cap space we had this year plus next year's INCREASED cap space due to revenue sharing. That team was FAR from an evolutionary dead end, Aldridge leaving just fucked it up. Honestly, that's why I'm pissed at him, I think if he stayed, the Blazers would eventually have built a western conference powerhouse within the next two seasons with a few slick moves by Neil Olshey.
LaMarcus Aldridge is the best Power Forward in the game. And you're already saying that Noah Vonleh has the potential to become that? Maybe he does, but I give that about a 30% of happening. Just my guess, but I don't think he gets on that level (although he may turn out to be very solid).
