From all the panic and nay-saying around here, it sounds like we're 1-14 . . . but last I checked, we're 9-6 right? We started the season against 5 consecutive teams that won 54+ games the year before. Oden comes off an entire year off - and hurts himself after playing 13 minutes. Misses more games and never gets that chance to shake off that rust from sitting out a year. He/we start all over again. Oh yeah, the guy penciled in to be our starting SF hasn't played a minute all season. We have a 19 yr. old rookie starting. We have three rookies (should be four) playing major roles. We're the second youngest team in the league (and not by much for that matter). Tonight's game was only our FIFTH home game all season!!! And . . . we're 9-6! Who honestly would've predicted that given how our opening schedule stacked up? Come on people, enjoy the win - enjoy the season thus far. These guys are young and, seemingly, only going to get better with time.
I agree. We're undefeated at home. .400 on the road (way better than last year where we were 1-9 on the road, I believe). Tonight's game was tough but the great teams win games like this and that's exactly what we did. Go Blazers
Yes, tonight's win was ugly. Yes, we were damned lucky to have won. We could have (should have) very easily lost. But did anyone really think we'd blow out the Kings twice in a row in a span of 4 days? It's always very tough to beat the same team twice back to back - especially if you blow them out them out that first game. They'll be pissed, they'll be hungry and they'll be looking for payback - which is exactly what happened tonight. The Kings, even on the back end of a back to back, were playing inspired ball in the second half to avenge that beat down we gave them last week. On heart and effort, they should've won. Yet, the "W" is ours - no matter how ugly it was. I'll take it!
I predicted a 12-6 start. I didn't figure on Oden missing a bunch of games. I'm OK with the record. I'm not convinced they'll "only get better with time". LMA and Frye have regressed. Sergio and Roy have improved. In Sergio's case it came only with more minutes after a trade demand. Roy is playing like a freak of nature right now, and I love him for it. Oden and Batum and Bayless and Rudy are "incompletes". Outlaw's better at his 3pt shooting, worse at anything inside the 3pt line, and has shown flashes (both good and bad) on D and rebounding. If one keeps saying they're happy with the product on the court b/c we're winning games against SAC at home by one (when they have the ball last), or needing Roy to swish 30-footers, or Mike Finley to miss a 10-footer, then go for it. I see us as incredibly lucky not to be 6-9. And if we were, I guarantee you there'd be a bunch more people in here criticizing the way the team in playing. If you just want to watch the standings, that's your right. I'm trying to point out things that will prevent us from winning championships. And if I can see them, you better believe Sloan/Pops/etc can see them.
I'm not stupid enough (nor are many others in here) to simply look at the record and say everything's rosy - but it seems like a lot of people are so easily spoiled by a little success. If you predicted such a record prior to the season (given our starting schedule), then I give you props for having that much faith in this (very young) team. But I would bet that the majority of us "fans" didn't know one way or another how this team was going to fare. They're so young and there are so many unknowns, that they could've been 1-14, 9-6 or 6-9 and it'd really just be anybody's guess. I'm not sure if this was done, but let's say we took a poll pre-season and asked how they'd be at this point in the season, I'd venture to say that many/most would be happy (or content) being around or slightly above .500. But Greg goes down and you hear some people looking for another high lottery pick next draft already. Then there's some success . . . and two blow out wins back to back and some people have us winning the championship THIS YEAR! Yay! Point is, it's a long season of ups and downs. And if people flip out after every loss or gets the team sized for rings after every decent win, we'd all be spent before the All-Star Break.
I have one complaint, Aldridge. I know it's only been 15 games but he is our second option and needs to start acting like it. His shot has looked god awful and needs to work on that immediately.
My boss was telling me he read somewhere that statistically, the Blazers have one of the hardest schedules for the start of an NBA season in NBA history. Factoring in opposing teams win\loss record from last year blah blah blah somethin like that. (sorry no links, so I cannot say if it was true or not) but interesting none the less.
I think for a lot of us fans that don't look through rose garden colored glasses, we see a team that has horible defense and a bloated offense that has been hitting 3's more than they normally will. It's not that we aren't winning, because we are, but more so that we probably won't win as much if we continue to play the way we are playing. It's the big picture that some of us fans are talking about
If some people are this negative after a 9-6 start, I can' wait to see the meltdown once they lose 3 or 4 in a row.
we did a prediction at bbf, a couple responses what will our record be after 22 games, 15 on the road, against such tough teams? me 12-10 with me having us 9-6 right now. nikolokolus 11-11 jayremmie first said 9-13 then 11-11, then anywhere from 7-12 wins (way to take a stand ) maris61 15-7 reep 11-11 god 7-15 HCP we start 0-5 Nate Bishop 11-11 mediocreman 11-11 or 9-13 or 8-14 utherhimo 14-8 blue32 14-8 moldorf the best they will do is 9-14. it really looks as though we are exceeding most of our expectations. and this was before martell/oden got hurt.
10/28 at lakers 10/31 spurs 11/1 at phoenix 11/5 at utah 11/6 rockets 11/8 wolves 11/10 at orlando 11/12 at miami 11/14 at hornets 11/15 at wolves 11/18 at warriors 11/19 bulls 11/21 at kings 11/22 at phoenix 11/24 kings 11/26 miami 11/28 hornets 11/30 at detroit 12/2 at knicks 12/3 at wizards 12/5 at celtics 12/7 at toronto we could easily lose 4 out of the last 5 games on this list. and 5/6.
And at that point I'll have to leave the board for awhile. It's why I left when things were pretty bad a few seasons ago. I'm all for discussion, but when the Chicken Littles of Portland come out in droves it ruins the fun of just watching our young team rise.
HOW THE EFF ARE THEY "RISING"???? My goodness, I've tried to be reasonable in the posts I've done over the last 3 weeks, but this is getting ridiculous. Let's go down the list, and you help me understand why what I'm seeing is "Chicken Little" or wrong. We're 9-6. We're also a 31-foot heave with 0.8 seconds left, a Mike Finley missed 10-footer, and a John Salmons missed 8-footer away from being 6-9. That's INCREDIBLY lucky. The other teams have had the last possession with a good chance to win multiple times, and we've escaped. If we were 6-9, would you say "everything's rosy and the cake is baking fine?" If so, more power to you. I sure wouldn't. I won't compare Oden, Rudy. Batum, Bayless, Diogu, Shav, Raef or Webs since they don't have good samples of 07 to 08 comparisons. Roy 08>Roy 07. No arguments from me there. He's actually starting to move a LITTLE without the ball, and has been our best player so far. LMA 08<LMA 07. He's not taking it into the post any more than he did last year, and yet he's shooting horribly from the field. I'm not talking about %, I'm talking about clanging off the side of the backboard or the outside of the rim or off the backboard without touching rim. It's been gross to watch. He's had a couple of ah-ha! moments, but how can you say he's progressing, or cake baking, or whatever? Outlaw 08>Outlaw 07. This is almost entirely due to his improved 3pt%. He's still shooting 37% when he goes inside the 2pt line, and that's including the dunks and layups he has. His on-the-ball D has improved, but he still loses his man when he's guarding a player who he has to follow around (Miller, McGrady). He's quite good when Nate can draw up a play for him. He's quite good when he actually tries to rebound and play D. He's quite horrible when he tries to freelance, especially in "clutch" situations. I'll believe you when you say "Nate trusts Travis late". I wonder how long that would last. Joel 08>Joel 07. Dude's playing some of the greatest Garbageman that I can remember. If he gets his hands on it near the rim it's 2 points, pure and simple. He's playing tough D, and grabbing boards. I like it a lot. Frye 08<Frye 07. Channing had started to progress last year at the end, when he had a bunch of double-doubles. He's fallen in love with the Travis-esque 22 foot 2 pointer, and likes that he can hit the corner 3 now. He's averaging about a rebound every five minutes, whereas last year he was getting more than 1 every 4 minutes. If his J is going down he's a good player, but he needs to get some fire and go inside a bit. Grab some rebounds....foul someone so they don't get easy layins and dunks. Sergio 08 > Sergio 07. More minutes, better flow to the offense, getting more looks at the basket, being aggressive on D...he and Roy are really the only people I see who are "progressing" or "cake baking". He's been told what to work on, he's working on it, the results are there, and he's becoming more valuable to us. Some will bring up offensive EFF numbers, and they'll be right. When we're shooting 50% from 3, we're pretty darn good. When we're not shooting 50% from 3, we're pretty darn bad. The difference is: few in here are willing to criticize that team for just continuing to run Isos, or jacking up 3's, when they're contested or not going in. The most efficient shots in the game are in the order that follows: 1) Dunks, 2) Layups, 3) Free Throws, 4) Open 3's. We're getting lots of dunks with Joel and Oden. We're last in fastbreak points. We're 23rd in FTA. We shoot the 4th-most 3's, with the 2nd-best %. So 2 of the 4 metrics of efficiency, we're quite poor...dunks are average, and 3pts is great (on average). But over the last couple of games, our 3pt% is down, and that means that we have 3 bads and one average. How is that good? What cake is baking there? Is Bayless an ingredient in this cake? Is Blake? And I haven't even talked about defense and rebounding yet.
These forums are funny. After a solid win, everyone is comparing us to the best teams in the league, how we're unbeatable at home, just one game out of first place, etc etc. But after a loss (or a too close for comfort win over a struggling team), everyone is frustrated...trade him, fire the coach, start this guy instead, bench that guy, blah blah blah. Reality check time. As the OP said, we are 9-6 so far through one of the (if not, THE) toughest NBA opening schedule of all time. Unless the 08-09 Blazers have the same expectations as, say, the 91-92 Bulls (in which case we should be 12-3 at least), then I'm damn satisfied with our record so far. I think a lot of you are forgetting that this is, for all intents and purposes, the youngest team in the NBA (I know we're second technically, but take off Lafrentz and we're #1). Our current starting lineup consists of players who are 19, 20, 23, 24, and 28. That's an average starter age of 22.8 years old. For a team this young to be considered a playoff contender, one of the deepest teams in the NBA, and to have a record of 9-6 at this point in the season is very, very impressive, especially when you add into that four rookies, three of which are already playing big roles, and two of which are currently starting. Yes, the Blazers have weaknesses. We struggle shooting the ball sometimes. We lack solid interior defense. We settle for too many jump shots. So what?! This is a team still learning, still getting better, still gelling, still learning their roles, and still learning to play in the NBA. Will our guys improve? Of course they will. It's called experience...the more you do something, the better you get at it. Perhaps I need to define common sense for some of you too. But if you're not damned proud of this team for their performance so far, then I don't even know what to say.
Funny enough I revised that prediction downward even further before Oden and Martell got hurt -- I was fully prepared for an 8-16 start to the season once I really started looking at how road heavy the schedule was, how many back-to-backs, who we played on those back-to-backs, and just how many "elite" teams we got matched up against. 9-6? Are you fucking kidding me? I'm blown away how well they've played so far, we're in full on gravy mode as far as I'm concerned.
Can we officially stop this "hardest schedule in NBA history" myth? Yes, we had the toughest opening 5 games. Got it. We have also played 5 home and 10 road games. Got it. But we're the 8th best SOS right now. We're playing our fair share of crappy teams, and we're beating them (with two exceptions) by single digits when we do. When we've lost, we've lost to good teams. We are 15 games into the season, and 10 games past that "toughest opening schedule in history" tag.
