It seems to me that the Blazers' defense is improved the last few games, primarily on the strength of individual efforts such as Bazemore and Dame getting quite a few steals and Whiteside dominating the paint. The team is still painfully lacking in ability to avoid leaving 3-point shooters open. All in all, I think it's safe to say that this version of the Blazers will never be a great defensive team, but if they can reach middle tier on D, their offense will carry them to a lot of wins.
While true, the first couple of paragraphs of your post seem to me to be of little help in trying to rate how the team that the Blazers now have on the court will do going forward. The constant string of injuries has resulted in way too much playing time as starters for guys like Tolliver, Hezonja & Skal, and even some for Little and Trent. Out of the opening night starting lineup, Collins, Whiteside, Hood, and Dame have all missed multiple games, resulting in an ever-changing starting rotation. Sure, a lot of teams have dealt with some injuries, but I don't think that there are any who have had the degree of injury that the Blazers have had while also dealing with the most road-intensive schedule in the league up until the current home stand. It's hard for me to see any valid correlation being drawn between the Blazers' record in the first month of the season vs. what it's going to be from here on out. I agree with your third paragraph. While the defense has been better, I'm going to be very interested in how it fares against the Lakers and Clippers this next week.
GSW is good? 4-17 Brooklin is good? 4-16 Pelicans are good? 6-14 Cleveland is good? 5-14 Cause those are all teams we lost against already and looked like shit in doing so. Are you telling me you don't see improvement from those games go now? and you need more games against good opponents to... what, im not sure. Your bias is oozing....
