Who cares what a bunch of people who pay far less attention to the Blazers than us, think about the Blazers? Their "honest" opinions don't win us games.
I’m not ready to say anything like that yet. I’ve been one of the optimists from back at draft time. The west is deep but weak at the top. To be on pace for 57 wins, and match the Nuggets of last season we should have a record of 24-4. That is based off winning nearly all home games, beating bad teams on the road and losing to good teams on the road. So our schedule is far more difficult as we get to the middle part of the season. Also if we get to a second round playoff series I’m not sure this team will be able to keep their intensity up. The Blazers will be such a feel good story and these players will be in such a new environment the focus may change. Even if we can beat any team in the west in a single playoff series, I just don’t see this team taking the next step to winning FOUR consecutive playoff series this season. So I guess it depends what your definition of “contender” is. Do you define it as a team that can win a playoff series, or a team that can win a title? Could we get hot and make the WCF? Yeah I say there is a chance of that. But I don’t think the Blazers can win a title so I say we will not be true contenders.
24-4, say what? That's on pace to win 70! Were the 10-11 Mavericks a "contender"? Not a single person here or in the media picked them to win the title that year.
Did LeBron fall off a cliff? Did Durant break his arm? Dame is a very good PG but he still has work to do on defense and his shooting % haven't been up to what we should be expecting this year. Wes can't keep shooting 54% for the year, at some point he will settle back down to a more realistic %.
It's what I believed at the time. I'm not sure why some fans have a hard time realizing it's a long season and things change. I think Miami will win another title right now, but if Lebron gets hurt, I won't think that anymore
The teams that make the playoffs on a whole simply play better defense than many of the teams one faces in the regular season. %'s do go down in the playoffs, not just from 3, but in general. The four teams you mention all shot worse from the field in the post-season, and all but the Spurs shot worse from 3. Last year of the 16 playoffs teams, 14 shot worse from the field (average of -2.3%) and 14 shot worse from 3 (average of -3.2%). It's no surprise that MIL and LAL, which faced MIA and SAS in the first round, shot 9.9% and 8.5% worse from 3 in the playoffs compared to the regular season. I read, but can't confirm that the overall percentages were likewise down in the 2011-2012 post season. I think that's pretty typical. But there are tons of factors such as matchups, coaching and game-plans, playoff experience, guys getting hot, a DEN-GSW first round matchup, etc., so of course you can find exceptions to this trend, especially with the elite teams.
Wade is injured again. If he is injured come playoff time they won't come out of the east, let alone win a title this year. No, I don't know the extent of his injuries.
No, if we have a 22-4 record we will be on pace for 56 wins, due to our schedule being easier at the start of the year. See this thread We have a 4 game road trip in 5 nights @SAS @DAL @HOU @OKC and later we have a 5 game road trip @DAL @HOU @MEM @SAS @NOP. Those stretches are far more difficult than anything we've faced thus far and should be projected for less wins to give a true indicator of the winning rate the team is playing at.
