I realize I am reaching an early mid-life crisis and am now dreaming of a top pick. Ben Simmons..... Are you the one? If you come here, I will follow your AFL team I swear!
I don't think we're going to be as bad as people think. All of the dudes we signed play real hard D and are going to be competing for minutes with each other. Dame and CJ will be getting buckets and who knows who our rotation players will be but we're a much deeper team top to bottom than most teams in the League. If we can hash out a consistent 3rd scorer, either with the starters or the bench, I'd say we can hover around 500 all season long. Is this a playoff team? Not in this conference. Is it going to be challenged offensively? Most of the time. But is it outright bad? I don't think so.
I just randomly chose this thread to post this. Do you remember how hyped people were for that season?...Turned out to be one of the worst. Not a lot of people seem too hyped for this next season, maybe it will be one of the best.
One of the worst? That was probably my favorite Blazers season of the last 10 years. It was the season where we went on a 13 game win streak which led me to following the team on the road. We didn't make the playoffs but we finished at .500 and a corner had been turned. Outlaw was fucking CLUTCH that season. Fun fun team.
+> "Rollercoaster of suck" is a perfect phrase.... Also somehow I don't see Crabbe's name striking fear into opponents. For light hearted opinion, these names could have different expectations to other NBA fans: Meyers Leonard sounds like a litigation attorney and CJ McCollum sounds like a rodeo star. Mason Plumlee sounds like a high school chemistry teacher who took over Lynrd Skynrds place. Al-Farouq Aminu sounds like a halil meat deli in NJ, Noah Vonleh sounds like a Ob-Gyn specialist and Gerald Henderson sounds like a body in a Celtics uniform. Ed Davis.....hmmmm.. Dept of Transportation state worker and finally Maurice Harkless...golf pro at a small CC. Really...I hope we end up 10 games over .500, then the team can appoint a mascot bully (Allen Crabbe) .
And Kevin Durant sounds like the name of a CPA. Who gives a shit? I want D'lincoln Tramarsay Jones to come and fucking kill. I could give a shit what his name is.
Wild card? I thought it was obvious the Blazers were going to be the undeniable favorites to win it all, but then again I've been reading a lot of mags' posts.
Where did I come from? Where did you come from rook? Calling me a hater but you just went on about how our players names don't incite any fear in our opponents. But I just named Kevin Durant (who again sounds like a Tax Attorney) and that dispels your "logic". The actual hating was when you were conflating our players skills with their names...
It's funny, I thought you were right until I looked at all the new rosters. Now I am not so sure. You have Minnesota, Philly, NY, NJ, Boston, Denver, and Detroit that potentially could be worse. Not sure about the Lakers, Dallas, Charlotte,and Orlando. That is 11 teams that right now when I look at their players.......they are not any better off. I am not saying we are better than all of them, but seriously take a look at those rosters. A lot of young teams.....just like the Blazers.
I think a lot of people are a little too quick to write off this team, and are particularly sleeping on Leonard. He had a very solid coming out party in the playoffs, and I think he's ready to take the next step and become more of a featured player in the offense. (Sort of reminds me of that playoff series where Randolph nearly pulled us out of the first round.) He may not be the guy you can throw it into and get production like you could with LMA, but he doesn't take all the bad midrange shots that LMA did either. He really is developing a nice pick-and-roll game, where he's a threat to pop out to the three point line or finish at the rim. The above video is the anti-Aldridge, which isn't really so bad in some ways. Set really wide screens and make yourself available at the perimeter or the rim. Rinse and repeat. People talk a lot about CJ, but I really wouldn't be surprised to see Leonard put up 18ppg/7.5 rebs (the numbers Aldridge put up when he was 23) with a more featured role. When we drafted him, he was lacking basic competence and court awareness. He's clearly at a stage now where it's more confidence than anything else. I have no doubt that Stotts is going to look at his last season's gaudy shooting averages and tell him to start firing, and that confidence will come. Will it make the playoffs? Probably not. But I don't see this team winning 25 games either.
I think you are right. I know we as fans are accused of overvaluing our own team's players too much, but in a lot of ways I really think it is just the opposite. We are very aware of their weaknesses because they tend to piss us off, analyzed, and remembered....especially when we lose. We never forget them. But when we watch players from other teams we only tend to remember their highlights. We really are not that focused on every aspect of their game like we are for our own players. So when we start comparing what we have on our roster, vs what other average teams have on their rosters, players like Leonard may produce more then we think. I don't think we make the playoffs either. We just need these young players to grow a lot this season.
