I had no expectations for this season. So I'm really surprised that midway through the possibility of the post season doesn't seem so crazy. Could KingSpeed's preseason prediction actually be right???!?!??!??????
I'm just saying this season has a little early 90s Rod Strickland Blazer team vibe to it. 8th seed, mid-teen lottery pick good. In other words... basketball purgatory.
Basketball purgatory generally involves aging vets on big contacts that prevent the team from improving via free agency. We don't have that. We have a bunch of players 28 or younger that are still improving, and are still figuring out how to play together complementarily. Very different situation.
We have plenty of lottery picks on the team already. Wins >> late lottery position. I think some on these boards are underestimating the tank factor late in the season. Some teams will (ahem, Brooklyn) start tanking hard about 60 games into the season. I don't want the blazers to fight tanking with tanking.
loco weed. Each player on this team will improve, many will improve substantially. Those earlier, caught in the 1st round and out rut, had a bunch of vets. Different situation, entirely.
Nope. If it was about development, Pat, Luis, and Cliff would be playing. We went to the Finals twice in the early 90s. You are referring to the mid 90s and how was that basketball purgatory? By 1999, we were back in the WCF.
I've already gone into this in the basic math. a pick between 7-9 isn't anything to sneeze at. Missing the playoffs and losing an incredibly valuable asset because of some sense of bravado and a pat on the back does not make any sense. I already counted the Nets into that equation- they won't start tanking- they're already there. The Blazers mathematically can't break into the top 5- however if they end up in the 6-8 range they have roughly a 10% chance of landing a top 3 pick. That's a tangible asset that can be quantified and used in a variety of ways. Just because a team has some lottery picks on a team means they shouldn't try to get more talent? That seems more than a little counter productive to growth and I'm nearly certain there's not a GM in the league that sees things that way. The Blazers have a brutal schedule and a young team- they have all the room in the world to actually tank if they see fit - however I feel the natural course of things will take over and the tanking will come as a byproduct of growth.
Technically it was 89' and 91' we went to the finals, but we are nowhere close to basketball purgatory as some seem to think. Compare this roster to other purgatory teams of the past and as already mentioned, we are nothing like them. We are still full of upside.
Sorry, my mistake. Usually when that term is used, people intend to intimate a scenario in which a team is stuck in mediocrity with no hope of improvement. My apologies for the misinterpretation.
I don't recall the Rod Strickland Blazers, the team I was specifically referring to, going to the finals, do you?
When you list off that absolutely list of cluster f@#ckery and add in the revolting Kings underachievements it really makes you glad to be a blazers fan with a super young team full of nice dudes who like entertaining.
