With 23 games left in the season, the Trail Blazers are the 10th seed, 2 1/2 games behind the Lakers and 2 games ahead of the Spurs and Pelicans. The Trail Blazers have the 29th toughest remaining schedule in the NBA. The Lakers have the 3rd most difficult remaining schedule, the Spurs the 15th most difficult, and the Pelicans the 8th most difficult remaining schedule. The Lakers had a nice win at home against the Jazz last Wednesday, but are 3-7 in their last 10 games. The Trail Blazers are done playing the Lakers, but have 3 games remaining against the Spurs (1 at home and 2 in San Antonio on the same road trip) and 2 games against New Orleans, one at home and one on the road. EDIT: The Trail Blazers split the season series with the Lakers 2-2. San Antonio is 1-0 against the Blazers with 3 games remaining. New Orleans is 1-0 against the Blazers with 2 games remaining. 8th seed LA Clippers beat the Blazers 3 of 4 games.
team qont lose on purpose. And with Dame likely back… I'm finding myself more aNd more pessimistic we keep our pick.
I think the worry will be the spurs really a good young team. So I think it might come down who wins the between us and the spurs who get that 10 spot. If we get that spot we still have to win 2 games to make the playoffs.
And the first game for the 8th seed is against the 7th seed. If 8 beats 7 in that game, they become the 7th seed. I don't know what Golden State or Memphis is going to look like at the end of the season but right now Phoenix is better than those two teams.
Nice goal but if we get that far we loose our draft pick to Chicago. Then we have hope the new Orleans pick don't fall in the top four. We either get zero picks to up to 2 first round picks.
The Blazers owe Chicago a first round pick anyway through 2028. It'll most likely be "lost" at some point, and at the beginning of the season I think most people figured we'd lose it this season. The New Orleans pick is the one we really want to have.
Our guys aren't letting up and we just beat a very good Memphis team. I think we've got some Ls coming our way over the next ten games which are all against legitimately competitive teams but I have a feeling after watching these guys gut out the last four games against legit teams that there will be some Ws in there as well. After those ten games we might actually rattle off eleven straight wins and we very possibly will see Dame come back during that stretch. I didn't think this squad had the last four games in them, so maybe I'm misjudging them again by over correcting my initial underestimation of them but that's just not the read I have on it. I think @KSF-ERIC has the right idea that the goal should be getting past both LA teams and being able to play in that 7/8 play in game but to me it's not a goal, it's what I predict these guys will do. I think if Dame coming back doesn't fuck up the good shit this team is doing... and I don't think that it will, we will win that first play in game and give whoever the second seed is some trouble before going out in the first round again. I disagree with you when you say, "I sure hope not." This team isn't going to drop a lot of those eleven straight games against lottery teams. So we aren't going to end up with a great chance of jumping into the top four picks and would likely get the 10th pick at the highest. I would much rather have access to all of our future draft picks than the 10th pick in this draft. I think we can get a lot more with them, if in fact we're going all in this off season to build a contender around Dame.
With the way people have been raving about the way Chauncey can just convince anyone of anything basketball-wise, I hope Chauncey sits down with Dame and tells him it’s for the best if he sits out the whole year. Chauncey has this job as long as Dame wants to be here, and probably beyond, based on what we’ve seen so far. I think that even for Chauncey, this is the perfect opportunity to see what he can do. As a fan, I’d feel a lot better about losing my pick if it meant Chauncey got to the playoffs with Simons and a bunch of unestablished guys. Hart’s a good player and might end up being on our team for awhile, but he’s been a journeyman thus far. Luckily for us, we got to know as soon as year 1 that he is better building a young nucleus than starting fresh with a veteran team. Better that Dame’s abs caused major issues now rather than later. The CP3-Suns comparison looks like a reality if Chauncey is there studying, picking-and-choosing the draft picks. We will at least have a late lotto pick from NOP + 2 2nds to move up maybe into #9-10 as well. You cannot play Dame in the play-in games if we make it there. Simons lifted us into the 3rd seed in his rookie year when a lot of us groaned, and it sparked the best postseason in the last two decades. If Simons wins two play-in games, THEN you bring Dame back when it’s a foregone conclusion that we lost the pick. Healthy Dame + Simons + Hart and a bunch of young hustlers taking one game out of the Suns would be fun to see if we get there WITHOUT Dame. And that’s a worst case scenario.
If Dame is healthy why would he sit? I don't know if you've read about the procedure he had but the average time to be back to full health is 4 to 6 weeks. He was shooting at the practice facility two weeks ago. Thursday will be six weeks out from his surgery. I don't expect him to be back for the Warriors game but I think two weeks after that he'll be ready to go and when I say that I mean he'll be ready to go physically and will be telling everyone in the organization to let him play. The guys who have had this surgery have not had a high level of recurrence. So as long as Dame is pain free, I just don't see him sitting out past the Nets game. I think that's good because even though for some weird reason you want to see if Chauncey can make a name for himself by winning with a bunch of guys that aren't too established in the league, I think it's important for us to see as much of Dame and Ant playing together as possible to make sure that it's a good idea to proceed with them as our starting back court and top two players.
