If the Blazers get healthy with 3-4 weeks left in the regular season, NO ONE is going to want to deal with them in the playoffs. The current situation is allowing depth to build, for other players to get playing time, gain confidence, figure it out with their teammates and find their games. You add a healthy CJ, a healthy Nurk, maybe even Zach to typical Dame, a confident, consistent Trent, an Enes who can do even more damage playing in a few less minutes or against back-up bigs, a Hoodie who's worked the rust out, a RoCo who knows his team and style, and an Ant who's gotten the seasoning to help and you give them a few weeks to get in shape, figure out the rotation, and play together, that's a dangerous team. I think that's not worse than the third team in the West and a team that, if hot, can push the Clippers and even the Lakers. It's a team that can win a road series. Barring Dame getting hurt or someone going crazy, the Blazers are going to be in the top 10. We've been pretty much in the top six even with all the injuries. All we have to do is keep our heads above water until the reinforcements arrive.
its very simple, if the blazers arent between 3rd and 6th seed, its a first round exit against the lakers or the clippers anybody else we can beat and hopefully put a good fight against the lakers or the clippers
If both CJ and Nurk come back after missing 10 weeks then that would be the beginning of April and that should give us over two months with them. If the team can keep going at the rate they've been going without CJ and Nurk which after today's loss is a game under .500, then we would expect to be 3 or 4 games out from HCA with 30 games remaining. If this team as constituted is healthy for 30 games and can't make up 4 or 5 games in the final 30 games of the season then there are some real problems with the narrative that we had before the injuries.
right now, Utah looks every bit as good as the Lakers and Clippers; and they are a matchup problem for Portland
To the NBA champs, who did the same thing to Houston & Denver. We're not a top 4 roster in the West when healthy anyway.
By the eventual champs and Lillard going out from injury. And yes, I totally picked the Blazers to win the series but I'm not shocked that they didn't.
I'm with you but that Ariza loss was a real punch in the gut. I don't think we would've beat the Lakers with Ariza... Barkley did but we definitely would have got more than one win off of them. The fact is, as constituted with our GM, Coach and Roster we aren't real contenders. So something should be done but likely won't. Again, we should actually get more than two months and around 30 games with the team playing now plus CJ and Nurk. If that group doesn't look like a serious title contender then we never will be without big moves at every level.
Yeah that hurt as well. Collins going out. Dame getting hurt. They were playing well but i still don't think they had enough to beat the Lakers.
i dont think theyre gonna end up being 1st or 2nd seed, but who knows yeah, theyre a bad macthup for us, good 3-point shooting team and we cant defend 3-point line
Yeah, I don't see how it invalidates it, though. Did we have Hoodie in the playoffs last year? Did we have DJJ and RoCo and Enes? Was Ant someone we could count on? Was Trent better last year or this? This roster is a lot closer to the one two years ago that went to the WC finals than last year, IMO, and it's probably better. One more point before I let it go: When this road trip started, a number of posters were talking about how we were going to be 0-6 and get crushed in every game. Today, we have fans considering it a bad road trip because we didn't go 4-2. A .500 team goes on an East Coast swing without two of its three best players, without really four starters, and playing not .667 ball is a disappointment? I think maybe, just maybe, fans need to back away from taking that jump out the basement window. This team is doing reasonably well ... few teams really are winning consistently ... and we might have as good a team on the injured list as we have on the floor. I seriously think sometimes everyone is so sullen because they don't want to get their hopes up and lose. Guess what? The Lakers or Clippers probably will win it all. Guess what? We beat the Lakers in LA. Last year, only one team took them farther in the playoffs than we did, and we did it without Zach and Hoodie and even Dame at the end. It's OK to say we probably won't win it, but I don't think it's OK to say this team at full strength will get run over by anyone.
Also, we still have an open roster spot that could pave the way for another Hoodie/Enes-type acquisistion. There're reasons to feel optimistic about what this team could be by the playoffs.
People keep talking about the record but that's like talking about your pimple when you have herpes. It's beyond the regular season record. It's the way we play. It's going to get destroyed in the post-season. We're still AWFUL on defense. An injured Stotts team is better than a healthy one.
Peresonally, I don't think we need another Hoodie/Enes type player who was deemed worthless by their current team; we need to consolidate and bring in a legit all-star level player with length. We're trying to win a championship with a roster type that has never won a championship. Championship teams have an all-star that are at or above average height.
