I've never seen any preseason rankings from 1976, but I know that Portland's roster was widely viewed as fairly loaded... Sure would be curious to see some sports page archives from that season. The SI vault always makes for good reading, but they didn't seem to do much in the way of predictions or rankings back then.
unfortunately, i don't know a lot about that team. i had always figured any notoriety it had was from Walton and Lucas.
IIRC, the ABA dispersal draft helped quite a bit. Maurice Lucas for one. Moses Malone, but he got traded for a 1st rounder. I think that pick became Mychal Thompson...albeit, he had nothing to do with the championship team. I was thinking the Blazers got Twardzik in the dispersal draft. Could be mistaken, though.
...they are who we thought they were. If you want to crown them, then crown their ass! [video=youtube;aYKIcnj1MJY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYKIcnj1MJY[/video]
The pick kinda netted us Thompson. We got a pick from a NY team, I want to say it was the Braves, for Malone and we used that pick and something else to move up to #1 and pick Mychal Thompson.
This is one of those embarrassing thread titles that you stumble into an opposing team's forum and snicker at.
I don't get all the shitting on Leonard. Given his size, age, and frame, he's developing pretty well. It's not like he's Saer Sene, Alexis Ajinca, or Patrick O'Bryant. All in all, Leonard had a great rookie season. Legitimate question - Who would you rather have: Thomas Robinson or Meyers Leonard? I'm a fan of Robinson's, and I think both players have bright futures, but damn, Leonard had just as good of a rookie year, if not better, than Robinson did. If ya'll are excited for Robinson joining the team, then why not get just as excited about having a player like Meyers Leonard in the fold? He's taller, younger, and more athletic. Not to mention that he was arguably more productive... My Grizz don't have many tradeable assets, with our "core four" being locked up in long-term deals and with no real future prospects, but I'd throw Ed Davis and picks your way any day for Leonard.
I think you're reading too much into my joke -- I like Meyers, and I'm glad we have him. I was just poking some fun at the recent "Meyers isn't as good as Player X, therefore he is garbage" thread(s). Answer to your legitimate question: Robinson, though that's based more on college performance than on actual rookie production.
I'm 100% cereal. If we were in the East I'd give us basically no chance since the top 4 NBA teams are all there. I’m just not very impressed with the top half of the west this year its the weakest its been in at least a decade. I admit we need some lucky breaks to go our way this year. We basically know what LaMarcus is, one of the best PF’s in the game but not a superstar player. Can Batum become a borderline all-star? Can Lillard take the next step from a top young PG to a top10 NBA player? Can the Blazers bring in a legit borderline all-star from a team looking to tank; similar to when we got Gerald Wallace three years ago? If any one of those three questions turn out to be a yes we are right there with other the other teams. If before last season you said the Warriors would win almost 50 games everyone would have thought you were nuts. The NBA season always has some surprises, and I think we have a chance of being that team this year.
Robinson all day. He has a great NBA skill right now, rebounding the basketball. He is much more athletic and proved more at the college level. Robinson was the conference player of the year, Meyers barely made 2nd team Big 10. Meyers best skill is his jump shot and predraft measurements. Those have little value for a big man in the NBA game. I do think Meyers could carve out a good niche as a Matt Bonner type of big man off the bench but he won’t ever be the type of player you want in the starting lineup.
What? You see Meyers sitting on the 3 point line hoisting up three's? Meyers pick and roll game has huge potential, don't think I've ever seen Boner attack the hoop on a roll.
Look at the roster turnover. We raised our talent floor, but did almost nothing to raise our talent ceiling and we still don't know if Stotts knows how to coach defense.
And we knew this was coming. Pritchard's five-year plan was nearly perfect (save for knees) in that all of his big draft picks would be in their prime right as San Antonio, Dallas, Lakers, and Denver lost their mojo. Our team might be too new to take advantage of the situation, but you honestly never know. It'll be an exciting season, methinks.
