How're you feeling about the coming season?

Optimistic. We have the pieces, just need to get them to gel.

 

I am sure glad some of you are optimistic. I am not, but I tend to be rather negative in general. Hey I am working on it OK.

 

Would love to be optimistic.

But still see Stotts, CJ, now an even higher usage Melo, and still no additional playmaker which has been blantantly missing in the Playoffs when they play anyone of legit contender status. So my optimism must be tempered with reality.

 

I think we've seen players who are really lacking fans to get them competitive in games...I think Melo, Nurk, Enes and even Dame miss the fans more than they admit to...manufacturing that intensity is probably anti climactic for some players and coaches more than others...some guys do look bored...the new guys have never played for a Blazer crowd before...Roco, Jones, Giles, Elleby, Blevins...never had that rush of a home game at Moda

 

I’m optimistic. I always am. This year, I’m not sweating the small stuff. Remember when the refs stole the Utah game from us? That game ended up having zero impact on how our season would end. There are a lot of those losses throughout a season that when you look back on, didn’t matter. Without fans in the building, I wonder if HCA is still a thing. If not, all that matters is finishing Top 6 in West. Order doesn’t matter. So a frustrating loss here or there won’t get me down like in year’s past. What’s most important is becoming a better team in May then we are now and I’ll forgive the learning curve.

 

Selfish, lazy, low IQ basketball. A coach that doesn't believe in accountability. Anything negative I could say about Stotts you have already said repeatedly and far better.

 

Yeah but:
A.) Stotts is making the right changes defensively. There will be some growing pains.
B.) The more we improve defensively the more runouts we'll get.
C.) Lack of ball movement hurts them more in the playoffs than the regular season. They have time to figure it out.
D.) CJ usually doesnt play as selfish as he did last game.

I'm happy to wait and see.

 

My brain is Optimistic but my eyes are Pessimistic so that puts me smack dab in Scared.

 

A.) Stotts is making the right changes defensively. There will be some growing pains. - Perhaps....almost anything would be an improvement. But Stotts and 'adjustments' aren't historically a very good thing. Maybe perhaps why when coaches actually make adjustments at halftime, we sadly so often get crushed in the 3rd quarter.
B.) The more we improve defensively the more runouts we'll get. - Again, anything would be an improvement as we have been last or next to last in run outs and fast break opportunities for years.
C.) Lack of ball movement hurts them more in the playoffs than the regular season. They have time to figure it out. - Will CJ and Melo still be playing in the Playoffs? If so, my optimism is tempered.
D.) CJ usually doesnt play as selfish as he did last game. - I guess it would be difficult to play much more selfishly than CJ did last game....but it wasn't exactly an outlier either. It's just his style....has been for far too long.

I'm happy to wait and see. - We will all have to wait and see....been waiting for 8 years now. Hopefully this time is magically better.

 

That's why I clicked "optimistic" and "pessimistic".

 

I think management like any organization updates their 3/5 year plan qtyrly, thus I feel after approx. 30 games of the 72 game season and this team has struggled and it appears we are not a contender, I could see a trade involving CJ and others as a way to retool and use assets.

 

These 538 projections are very similar to what I see happening. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2021-nba-predictions/

Lakers - Clear #1 (~48 wins)
Clippers, Nuggets, & Rockets - fighting for seeds 2-4 (45/46 wins)
Mavs & Jazz - fighting for 5/6 seeds (~41/42 wins)
Suns, Pels, Grizz, Warriors, & Blazers - all fighting for the 7/8 seeds. (~34-38 wins)


I don't think it will happen (because of Dame), but this team could easily miss the playoffs this year. I think it's more likely they miss the playoffs than be a top 4 seed.

 

Those projections are made using this rotation.

 

As a fan I hope for one of two things.

1.) Everything gels and we make a championship run.

2.) We fail spectacularly and finally break up the Dame/CJ/Stotts core.

Anything in between leaves too much room for excuses to repeat this bullshit again next season (and the season after, and the one after etc....)

My optimism for 1 happening is not great at the moment.

 

Dame would disagree with us both. lol

 

In answer to the thread question: I’ll let you know after seeing them play a real game.

 

worried with new pieces and limited practice time we get off to a very bad start with the tough early schedule, and it may be difficult to recover from if it happens, hope am wrong

 

I like this

 

Jesus, we’re not missing the playoffs lol. We’ll be a Top 6 seed and the order doesn’t matter. No fans.