Yeah....how did that go again? Would they have been in the WCF if Ant doesn't completely screw Stotts' strategy to lose the final game and we get the #3 seed thereby avoiding the Warriors in the 2nd round?
The Blazers are 3 games out of the #8 seed but only 1.5 games out of moving up 4 spots in the Lottery. The non-Playoff teams in the East are putrid so no chance of 'catching' any of them but could climb as high as #10.
Yeah, that's the only good thing about 6 teams being so tightly bunched together is that we could be talking about 10th pick versus 17th pick not 14th versus 17th. I still believe finishing 9th in the West is the worst possible outcome. Not good enough to make the playoffs even though they fought for it but not bad enough to make the lottery more interesting. That's on top of being a tax team too.
Portland now has the 4th most losses in the West even though they have the 6th worst record. They recently climbed from #14 to #13 but should easily be in reach of #11, possibly #10 and if the Wizards and Hornets keep trying to win games to get the #8 seed in the East, could remotely have a chance at as high as #9 (highly unlikely). Play the heck out of Simons, Little, Trent, Gabriel, Swanigan, Hoard and Mario and use it to actually develop some of those players for next year. Well we're movin' on up (movin on up) To the least side (movin on up) To a deluxe selection, Draft night. Movin' on up (movin on up) To the least side (movin on up) We finally got a piece of the pie. Team don't play any defense; Looks like they never will. Took a whole lotta tryin' Just to get up that hill. Now we're up in the Draft picks Gettin' our turn at bat. As long as we hope, it could turn out dope There ain't nothin wrong with that. source: https://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/thejeffersonslyrics.html
The Blazers have quiet moved from #14 to #12 in the Lottery rankings. That might not seem like a large move, but their chances of moving into the Top-4 have gone from: #14 - 2.4% #13 - 4.7% #12 - 7.2% (3x greater at #12 than #14) #11 - 10.4% #10 - 13.9% #9 -- 20.3% (This is where the first big jump occurs) #8 -- 26.2% (That is the absolute highest Portland could get on their own IMO....but very unlikley) The Blazers are within 3 losses of the #8 spot which would give them a 26.2% chance of getting into the Top-4. That is nothing to sneeze at. No time for silly, useless wins at this point. T A N K ! ! ! !
The good part is our pick should be high enough to have the opportunity to get a young player with excellent potential. The bad part is the player will most likely be 2 -3 years away from being a major contributor. That means 2 years of annoying posts about him being a bust.
Here's a wild thought - draft someone like Trent who shows clear development in year 2 instead of someone like Leonard. A year from now, it would be interesting to compare Trent to all the 1st round picks in that draft. I wonder how many of those excellent potential players he will have blown past? Disclaimer: I really hate what the NBA draft has become. In the decades I have followed the league it seems like scouting and player development have never been worse.
With the Kings win last night, the Blazers moved up to #11. Up 3 spots just since the All-Star break. Now getting to #10 will require a little more work but #8 should still be the goal. #8 is 2.5x more likely to be in the Top 4 than #11. Finally, something to cheer for this season!
Can we at least stop pretending we believe in making the playoffs and give some more opportunity to guys like Little, Gabriel and even Simons? And when Zach is back just remove Melo from the rotation. When you lose to those teams you definitely pretend you want it so lets just take advantage of the time left so we don't say next year is essentially the rookie year of Little or Gabriel, lets not use this excuse again and play them more now on order to be better next year. Don't call it tank call it player development.
Fantastic! Did you write that? You should be in lyric writing if you're not already. It scans perfectly to the song.
With the way things have been going, it almost seemed to write itself. Was in a band way back in the day....had to pen a few songs.
