At what point will you believe this team is for real?

OoooOOoooooooh…. My mistake…

 

This is a transition year and it was going to be difficult to do worse than last season. Honestly, I'm surprised with Rollo Tomassi's game so far. I wasn't expecting immediate impact with Lopez. On that score, I was pleasantly wrong. Thanks for starting the thread, Mags. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

 

So you are complaining that the Blazers weren't getting respected last week?

 

LMAO nope. I haven't complained at all. Just clarifying that the national media was wrong, and they used SOS to justify their wrongs.

 

I don't think anyone can be right or wrong 15 games into the season.

 

I realized this team was for real about the ninth game. I hadn't seen a game all season and assumed the team hadn't made good moves in the offseason.
But both Lopez and Robinson were playing great and the guards were doing great despite missing AJ. They had good chemistry and a good rotation.
Even if Meyers Leonard is a waste of space.

 

They get more of a pass because they are established as 2 of the best teams in the NBA and both are fresh off deep runs in the playoffs. Once we've made the postseason a few years in a row and maybe make a deep run in the playoffs we should get the same credit.

 

Fuck that. Part of being a basketball fan is thinking about the game, how players fit, how match ups will work, how schedules will affect teams, and so on. This isn't history class, we don't need several years of evidence to draw a conclusion. A proper analyst will make his/her determination based on the team that is currently together and their strengths and weaknesses and not based on what last years sports illustrated year in review dictates,

 

they're in the top 5 of most peoples power rankings, it's not like they're being ignored

 

They haven't recently. We earned it too!

 

history absolutely matters. if one team has won 50+ games for a decade and one team has been in the top 10 of the lottery for two years in a row the team with 50+ wins history gets the respect. The Blazers have to take that respect and earn it. They are well on their way to doing that but it is a process. They are fairly ranked in most peoples power rankings that I've seen and don't see much disrespect from the national media.

 

That's right, and that's deserved because of what was done this year. Not last year or the years before. My issue with what you had said wasn't that we weren't getting props, it was that you said those props were contingent on a history of getting to and winning in the playoffs.

But if a team like the blazers who didn't make the playoffs last season and ended the year on a huge skid, but can come in and demonstrate competence then that should be sufficient to gain recognition. And it's working that way.

 

Now you say they have to take respect and earn it.

History is taken into account because it's an indicator of future success, but it should not be relied upon as much of a determinant once the season gets going and we have actual evidence to go on. Too many pundits don't actually watch the games and make predictions instead on history of the team, or star power of the players instead of the quality of the basketball being played.