Very good point that the depth we have at each position is going to help on the road..Stotts can give a guy a night off without losing production
I love the way the schedule shapes up: November is an easy enough schedule to build momentum and confidence with. Games shouldn't be affected by the integration of Turner and Ezeli because the schedule is easier. By December, Turner and Ezeli should be comfortable just in time for the toughest stretch of the season. After that, we have a pretty easy schedule. January is on the easy side and while February will be hard, there's only a few games due to the all-star break. We will likely have less games from Nov.-Feb. than almost every team. That means that the extra rest will give us an extra advantage in important matchups against tougher opponents. Because in March, we play a lot of back to backs. However, these 5 back to backs (10 games) will only feature 3, maybe 4 playoff teams. The rest of the schedule in March consists of home games against Brooklyn, Philadelphia, New York, Minnesota, Milwaukee, and Denver. Those last 4 games a listed are also part of a 10 home game stretch over the final 12 games. We could rest our guys in some of those games against bad teams near the end of March (or concede a back-to-back against SA or another solid team), so that our big guns can be well rested for the final 12 game stretch which features one games against SA with the rest being borderline playoff teams like NOP, UTA, MIN, NYK, or scrubs. By game 70, if we're only a couple games back of the 2 or 3 seed, it's likely that we jump those teams due to the easy schedule to finish. If we aren't close enough to move up, then we can rattle of some wins so that we wouldn't slide down and put ourselves in a position where we could rest our guys against SA and NOP to finish the season.
That game against Indiana won't be that tough. Their backcourt of Teague and Ellis SUCKS defensively. McLillard should blow them out of the water. Turner has experience playing George in the Eastern Conference and should be able to do a serviceable job defensively. I like our matchups against them.
Hello! First off let me introduce myself to all of you! Ive been a Blazer fan my whole life. My first game I think I went to a game was the Blazers vs Sun's in the early 90s. I'm not sure if the record still holds, but I remember correctly the Blazers only had 3 turn overs the whole game! My first exposure to the team was I'd say around 86 when my soccer coach would give me rides to practice. He would have the games on the car radio. After that I was hooked as a Blazers fan. I used to have season tickets in the late 99 to about 06 till I moved to Bend. I've been reading this forum for about 3 seasons now, I just never made an account. I don't have a very high basketball IQ when it comes to team match ups and who should be guarding who in different situations. I'm excited for the new season to start up! This schedule looks brutal in the late Nov to mid Jam. By then the team should be dialed in with our new players! I will be posting more instead of just reading the posts! You can chalk that up to insomnia and having to be up at 4 am to go to work for me gracing you with my presence tonight!
Chief defends PG13 about as good as any other defender in the league ... completely locked him up both times last season.
Feel like we're gonna be around .500 around New Years. Then run off a few extended win streaks. Just hope we stay healthy enough to get through to the cake part of the schedule to finish the season.
Followed inevitably by "Remember where we were at last year?" By KS... with some threats to bet by other people. Vegas may call soon....
