Stacking up with the rest of the Western Conference

Top-four isn't a big stretch considering the Thunder were gutted by Durant's decision.

I don't think the Blazers currently can jump past the Warriors (obviously), the Spurs or the Clippers, barring a major injury to the Clippers. Anything else is up for grabs. I think they can compete with Memphis. IMO, Portland, Memphis and Utah will fight for the the 4-6 seeds.

 

It seems to me Harkless is be one of our largest wild cards. Seemed that in the playoffs his defense noticeably tilted the court in our favor whenever he was playing, whether it was the Clippers or the Warriors. Could be a game changer imo...

 

Honestly, we have the best bench in the west. I don't see anyone who's better.

I predict 56 wins and the 3rd seed.

 

The Clippers bench is trash. They have no one good at SF and no one to back up Griffin and Jordan. Crawford can get his but Rivers isn't a good 7th man either. I think we were even with them last year and they got worse while we got better. I think we pass them up.

 

That is one of the few things (along with perimeter back-court defense) that keeps this team from being a contender. There is no one to create a mismatch anywhere inside of 20'. Just occasionally to have that option when outside shots aren't falling or when the refs are 'letting 'em play' would take a lot pressure off of the perimeter players.

 

Who did GS have as their post scorer? Hell, who did CLE have? Even their post threats in Lebron and Love were working from the perimeter.

I think you can give Ezeli a few touches down low, same with Noah, and the guy on our team who prolly has the best touch inside -- Meyers a few looks. I think we have enough

 

Do a lot of teams even rely on this method any more? Warriors sure don't, unless I'm mistaken. Also Aminu's cutting speed and instincts is routinely going to be a mismatch at the four. Also can't Turner back down pretty well?

 

Meyers has to add this to his game...if Meyers learned to play with his back to the basket and score in the paint..we'd really be able to hurt teams for doubling on our guards...Turner is an excellent alley oop passer which I'm excited about and Festus can dunk in traffic pretty well.

 

The Clippers' bench has been trash for years. I think the Clippers, when healthy, were significantly better than the Blazers but, obviously, they were missing Griffin for a big chunk of the regular season and then lost Paul and Griffin in the series against the Blazers.

I think the Blazers have narrowed the gap slightly, but I see the Blazers as a 50-win team and the Clippers as a 55-56 win team. A major injury to any of their main players could certainly give the Blazers a chance to overtake them.

 

I'm just hoping Festus' knees last until Meyers gets back.

 

We played at a 50 win level after the guys got used to playing with each other. How do we not improve from that?

Clippers got worse. They're a 51-54 win team. I think we're a 53-57 win team.

 

I think the Blazers, Clippers, Grizz and Thunder fight it out for spots 3-6.

 

Agreed

 

Having shooters at the 4 and 5 brings bigs out of the paint giving us an advantage at the rim because we Dame, CJ, and Turner can attack and take advantage of it. We get easier buckets with spacing from Leonard and Aminu in the frontcourt

 

Absolutely. .good point. But I'm a little worried stotts is going to try and play Leonard at the 4 again this year with ezeli and plumbs at the 5. It was a disaster last year. Leonard has to play the 5 to have advantage of spacing aND to be able to stay on the floor defensively as he simply cannot guard stretch 4s on the perimiter.

 

Yeah that'd be foolish. I have no clue how theyre gonna make it work with Aminu, Davis, Vonleh and maybe Harkless playing the 4 as well. They really need to trade Plumlee.

 

Your math is way off. We were 44-38. 13-17 win improvement is 57-61 wins.

 

Y'all are a lot more optimistic. I like it. 50 wins makes sense to me.