I'm pretty sure if you had a team that started G. Anthony, Bonzi, Schrempf, Grant and Jermaine this season (with Augmon and a few other role players off the bench), they'd probably make the playoffs and might even make a little noise.
Using that link, 53 teams have started the season 13-2, 39 started 14-2, etc. One-fourth (14) of the 53 teams lost our next (16th) game, and another 14 lost 1 of our 2 games after that (17th or 18th). Teams..record 53 13-2 39 14-2 32 15-2 25 16-2 23 17-2 16 18-2 15 19-2 http://bkref.com/tiny/AoMA3
I think our current team is more like that Sacramento team than that Portland team. Which is good, because that Portland team was hard to love (outside of Sabonis and to a certain extent, Wallace).
What I was hinting but should have said overtly was: the chances (28 out of 53) are that the streak will end in our next 3 games.
Gotcha. I would agree it probably ends with Indiana, given it's nearly as bad a situation as you could put the Blazers in (second of a back to back against the best team in the East)... at least it's at home.
No chance in hell. Those guys are old as hell and out of the league. I guess Jermaine is still on a roster but he's a mediocre injured backup at best.
I think Miami and Denver having the crazy streaks last year, as well as the Blazers 13 game streak in 2007 kind of puts things in perspective. Sure a win streak is nice but in our case it didn't even get us a playoff birth and Denver got wooped in the first round. I agree its good the team isn't getting too wrapped up in it. But at the same time enjoy the moment and have fun with it.
If we had a damn time machine who cares about moving our backups from 1999 to the present. How about we go save Roy's meniscus and switch ping pong balls with Seattle!
Wanna know why? We didn't have two starters on the floor at every position. We also had go to guys in clutch situations. This current team has 3 clutch players for the 4th as well.
That NBA on NBA feels. God those were the days. More than anything else, that 99-00 Blazer team was dripping with swag juice.
Man, I have to say, that first quarter looked a lot like a 2013 Blazer game... Sheed and LMA, Damon and Damian, Pippen and Batum... it all looks very similar in shot selection and style.
the resemblance is really uncanny. this team really reminds me of those late 90's blazers teams, and that's a good thing because i LOVE those teams. we don't have a dynamic weapon in the middle like our-vydas, but he was broken down enough at that point that robin is good enough to play his part. we also have more likeable characters on the team. i love this current blazers squad.
I was somewhat skeptical of that comparison, and I'm not sure it entirely fits now, either. But now I feel that way because the current team as it's constructed, has more potential than the '99 team. Let me start by saying the '99 team, and the one that followed with Pippen and Steve Smith, were two of my all-time favorite teams, and they're probably the reason I'm a die-hard Blazer fan now. There are some similarities. On offense - the ball movement, the matchup problems, the potential for "big" and "small" lineups, the "chip on their shoulder" mindset from the shooting guard position... But that '99 team was not built to last the way the current squad could be. Players like Jimmy Jackson, Jermaine O'Neal, Bonzi Wells, and Brian Grant were not getting the playing time they either wanted or needed to develop. Damon Stoudamire's defensive liabilities - it was obvious then - were not going away, and had to be compensated for. It was really hard to depend on temperamental players like Rasheed Wallace, and JR Rider (Bonzi's similarities to them weren't obvious until later, as I recall). Contrast that with this season: guys like Dorrell Wright, Mo Williams, and Thomas Robinson seem to like their roles off the bench. There aren't any loose cannons around - even after the "scrum" at Golden State, I came away convinced that what happened there was players coming to each other's defense, not a melee that resulted from some kind of mental meltdown. And sure, Damian Lillard needs to work on his defense - but I feel like his potential to improve is far greater than it was for Damon Stoudamire. Context is important: The lockout-shortened season that year made it possible for a really deep team to overwhelm teams that weren't built or conditioned for a long sprint, like that year was. That's what helped them reach the Western Conference Finals. 2013-14 is a much more "normal" year, and for that reason, I don't know that this Blazers' team's strong depth will make as much of a difference. I don't see a WCF appearance. The West is so strong, and so many teams have playoff experience, that I'm not sure the Blazers are likely to survive the 1st round. But, I think they've got a great chance at being a very good team for longer - because Olshey doesn't have to make blockbuster trades like Trader Bob pulled off...
