Game Thread GAME# 20: BLAZERS @ WIZARDS - FEBRUARY 2, 2021 - TUESDAY, 5:00, NBCSNW

Not if reincarnation is guaranteed within 3 years by a reverse-order draft.

 

I have to admit that I hadn’t considered that option.

 

I don’t understand why ppl don’t get that. Thunder were having chemistry issues all that year and like you said they didn’t even do the classic get “dame out of his game” double team playoff teams always do on him. It’s the reason they blew that team up right after that..

Denver was literally just gaining experience and tasting the playoffs at the time, then of course we got swept like usual in the Warriors series.

I’m starting to think the worst thing to happen in a way to this franchise is make it to the western conference finals that year. It did nothing but prolong the inevitable that needs to happen with this team

 

Heh heh. I sure can.

After my Sonic owner stupidly fired Head Coach Bill Russell, he replaced him with Russell's friend Bob Hopkins. Note the 4th line down.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/SEA/1978.html

We started 5-17 (.227). Wilkens took us to 42-18 (.700). Look a few lines down.

That was a fucking exciting season!!! We lost the championship only because owner Sam Schulman experimented in the Finals, playing in the brand new KingDome, which set attendance records, increased his profit, but lost us the home court advantage!! The players were comfortable in Seattle Center Coliseum, and uncomfortable with the sudden change of sheets hiding thousands of seats in the cavernous football stadium!! So we lost the Finals 4-3!!

Maybe there were other examples, but that's the one I experienced.

P.S. Don't get me started talking about history!! You wanna talk about 33 Wilt & Jerry wins in a row in my first season as a fan, and 2 Walton NCAA championships? You see why I've been fucking bored out my skull since Whitsitt left the Blazers?

 

But what were you thinking when you traded Brian Grant for Kemp the druggie?

 

That disproves the entire theory that it can't happen; it did happen.

We, a flawed team, beat flawed teams. We also immediately turned over 50% of our roster two months after going on that run. So we got there with the scheme (not saying it a good one), changed the roster, and the results got worse.

I don't know of any team that made a long playoff run without beating flawed teams. If the expectation is we beat 4 flawless teams on the way to the championship, we need to get rid of everyone... players and coaches.

 

How about this one? We were .500, Bob Whitsitt hired the unknown coach of Rio Madrid, George Karl, who took us to .643! Good times!

https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/SEA/1992.html

 

How can you tell I'm Bob Whitsitt?

 

Eventually you run into a team that isn't moronic. Whether that's in the first round against the Lakers or Pelicans, or it's in the WCF against the Warriors.

The likelihood of us going through four teams that are all so completely inept that they can't figure out how to trap Dame or spread the floor and abuse our three point defense is so slim that it's not something you should ever count on.

Lillard is so good that he has covered for our sins for a long time, but as he starts to slowly decline, those sins will become more and more obvious. They pop up every time a smart team traps him and takes him out of the game. We just completely collapse. Stotts owes Dame a massive commission for all the money he has gotten in Portland because of Dame.

 

When the Blazers won it all, Walton said the thing that made him the most proud was that they had gotten no shortcuts, the way it should be. They beat the best teams in the league, with no easy byes or mid-level teams all playoffs long.

 

George Karl, who turned around and made an exciting season in dreaded Seattle for non other than the pride of the Sonics offense.....Teryy Stotts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I knew you were a Sonics fan....just the first time I've heard you mention it here....it was inevitable ...you need to bring the Wizards to Seattle!

 

Dude, I was a Laker/UCLA fan till I moved to Bellingham in March 1974. And I tried to be a Vancouver fan later. For a year, I had 3 car radio buttons set on the Blazers, Sonics, and Grizzlies. It was my best radio, so I'd sit in the carport to listen. The Blazer reception faded in and out, like the free internet games I watch now.

 

And I know for a fact that YOU are HIS!

 

We can't all get our company's logo tattooed on our leg

 

I vote for 3 current Blazers to be all stars this season everyday.....CJ...Dame and Enes...Enes is having a career year and playing at that level....without winning they won't get votes but all 3 are deserving

 

Yeah, but you keep bringing up Seattle crap. I'm talking about real NBA cities.

 

Dude, I only lived there 2 years because of Boeing and then I got the hell out of the big city! Traffic. I like our cute baby 2-lane freeway here.

 

I agree that as currently constructed, we are unlikely to play a team that isn't a superior matchup.

The statement I was responding to was someone saying we can't make a playoff run with the defensive scheme Stotts runs. My response was that we have, it's a fact.

Like the fact that no team with a bottom half defensive rating has won a championship, no roster without a 6'6' or taller all-star has won a championship. We are trying to be the first team that thinks they can overcome the schemes team use to limit elite players, without an elite player of size ourselves.

Point being, championship expectations with this roster are not realistic.

 

Would love to have the best 7'-0" in the league who can shoot, pass, rebound, and defend. Add that guy to this roster, I think things would be much different.