What a long strange trip its been, the 2015-16 Preseaon & onward Power Rankings

Okay, so there's 14 years there, times 24 weeks is 327 weeks (336 minus 9 for the lockout season).

In 327 weeks, they've been 14th or better 322 weeks.
They've been 9th or better 306 weeks.
They've been 5th or better 272 weeks.

That's dominant.

 

That's just stupid consistent.

 

It makes me laugh. People want consistency in a team, harp about all the inconsistencies... and the spurs are "boring" because they are "consistent".

That doesn't make sense. lol.

I just don't like the spurs this year because Fuck Aldridge. #unreasonablesalt

 

Sly was going through "like" withdrawals so he created a thread where he could split his content into multiple posts and harvest all the "likes."

 

So let me get this straight..... the experts said we were supposed to be horrible this season and we have blown away expectations? Fuckaoutta here!

 

I guess you really can call yourself an expert in something other than lawn maintenance.

 

He already could call himself an expert in hotwife and cuckoldery.

 

PHD in leaf blowers.

 

Many experts picked the Blazers as a team that would significantly exceed the uniformed publics expectations. So people who don't follow the league or role players closely all thought nothing of the Blazers? Most of those people don't know crap about the NBA. Those are the crowds that many of the Vegas over/under lines are tailored to as well.

Kevin Pelton and other analytic experts thought we could be a team battling for a playoff spot. We acquired a ton of players with upside but also with years of experience and who measured as productive players in the time they did play. It wasn't as if we had a team full of rookie's or second year players. Everyone outside of Vonleh has multiple years of productive NBA experience. I know everyone here likes to paint us as the biggest underdog story ever to make the playoff but thats just not true.

Yeah we exceed expectations but we're only a .500 team; and in the worst year of the western conference in over a decade. We saw the Suns accomplish more than us a few years ago; Boston made similar strides last year after trading Rondo. Its been a hell of a fun exciting season but I think many posters are getting totally carried away with it.

 

Which "many experts" preseason predictions were you reading? Oregonlive's roundup of preseason predictions must have missed those that thought the Blazers would contend for a playoff spot.

http://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/index.ssf/2015/10/how_theyre_ranking_the_blazers.html

Pelton was the optimist of the group and he had us at 31 wins and 11th in the West. The Blazers have dramatically over-achieved this year. Assuming they beat the Nuggets, they're going to end up at .536 and, if they hadn't kicked so many games that they should have won early in the season, could easily have been closer to .600. Obviously, they've got to do some upgrading to contend with the elite teams, but I don't see why you feel the need to diminish what they've accomplished.

 

Can't remember all the authors I read; one might have been Zach Lowe predicting we were an interesting team with some great additions that could surprise people. Yeah Pelton said 31 wins but he also said there's a real chance we could play better than that and contend for the playoffs. I'm real excited with how this Blazers squad has played. I said its been a hell of a fun season. Guess I'm just kind of sick comparing all the lowest expectations this team had to where they ended up. We had abnormally good health compared to many other teams. The west was unusually weak in the middle of the conference. Many teams have unexpectedly been .500 in season, its an accomplishment but its happens with a few teams in the league every season. Phoenix had one a few years ago when they won 49 games. Milwaukee had an overachieving season to make the playoffs last year.

I'm still not sure if this is the most surprising Blazers team in the last 3 years. That we made a huge jump to win 54 games in 2013-14 and a playoff series after two year of being in the lottery and returning 4 of the 5 same starters? That team was 22-4 to start the year! That might be a bigger accomplishment.

I guess part of my reservations is what this team will do in the years going forward? Teams such as Phoenix and Milwaukee took a big step back the following season. Yeah we are young; but outside DameCJ do we have any quality players that would be playing on other contenders? It's one thing to build a .500 team; its exponentially more difficult to build a squad that can win a title. What will we think looking back on this years team if in three years we never improve?

 

I agree with what he said. The "experts" and people like HCP aren't that knowledgeable about the NBA. They hear that 4 starters are gone, so they must suck. What they didn't notice was CJ and Aminu's emergence in last year's playoffs, that we got a Team USA center for a draft pick, and that we added reliable vets in Henderson and Ed Davis. They also turned a blind eye to Dame's leadership getting the whole team together in San Diego in September. And they underestimated Dame's ability to flourish without Aldridge.

I don't usually watch preseason games but this year, I wanted to see what we had. After watching us beat the Warriors and run up a 35 point lead against the Clippers (even though we lost), it was obvious to me that we were going to have a great year. I was mocked for it yet put my money where my mouth was because the team was clearly better than the team that went in a downward spiral of last season. And it shows in the standings. Last year's team had the 6th best record in West. This year's team is currently 5th.

This is what Draco is saying. We didn't overachieve this year. This is exactly what this team as constructed should have done. If anything, we underachieved dropping some games we shouldn't have early in the year.

 

The 2013-14 team didn't surprise me either. Wes/Dame/LA/Batum played fabulous basketball together but we had zero bench and no center. Once we signed Lopez and Mo Williams, it was clear to me that we were elite.

 

Perfect!

 

Perhaps using the phrase "exceeding expectations" rather than "overachieving" would be more to Draco's liking? There may have been some stats gurus living in their parents' basements somewhere who assigned numerical values to each of Olshey's acquisitions last summer, applied some arcane algorithm to them, and concluded that this team could possibly, if the stars happened to align right, challenge for the last playoff spot in the West. If they wrote a memo about their conclusions, the NBA "experts" who issue the preseason predictions either didn't get it or didn't bother reading it.

There's a name game that goes on in the NBA and unless your team is stocked with at least 3 of those "name" guys, you aren't going to get any love from the prognosticators. I think Olshey and his staff undoubtedly went looking for the no-name guys that their stats gurus said had potential to make significant strides if given more playing time. Those decisions worked out very well, to say the least. Combine that with a leader like Dame who loves playing with a chip on his shoulder and is never willing to listen to anybody tell him what he can't do, who can instill a work ethic and camaraderie like the Blazers have exhibited this season, and you've got a recipe for turning a perceived pumpkin into a Cinderella carriage.

Sure, it helped that some of the teams in the West have fallen off from their performances of recent years. At least some of that, however, is due to the unusual number of wins that the top teams have been gobbling up this year. It also helped that the Blazers have been fairly healthy (although Dame's foot problems and Leonard's loss to a shoulder injury are not insignificant losses). Finally, I'd certainly agree that Olshey is going to have to work some more magic this summer if this team is to build upon its success this year and move into the ranks of the contenders.

BUT.....all of that said,

THIS HAS BEEN ONE HELL OF A FUN SEASON! GO BLAZERS!