Its been a ton of fun to watch the team so far this year. The ball movement is very pleasing on the eyes. While it’ll be very tough to make the finals, we will need some luck, but I still think along with 5 or 6 teams in the wide open west we have a real shot at it.
I'd consider us the Warriors of last year. That said, I think the Warriors have a good shot of making the finals this year. Blazers, not so much.
If I'm not mistaken, Stotts was asst coach of a team nobody thought was close to a ring in Dallas when they won one. I'm leaning toward the String Theory crowd, anything is possible! This is also a year many teams are going to race to the bottom for the lottery. I never get too pessimistic this early in the season. Last season the lakers were supposed to cream us on opening night but guess what...Lillard destroyed Nas
If I'm not mistaken, Stotts was asst coach of a team nobody thought was close to a ring in Dallas when they won one. I'm leaning toward the String Theory crowd, anything is possible! This is also a year many teams are going to race to the bottom for the lottery. I never get too pessimistic this early in the season. Last season the lakers were supposed to cream us on opening night but guess what...Lillard destroyed Nash
Winners don't race to the middle...the swagger the Blazers have been looking for comes from believing...optimism is fuel for success. Don't tell any team member of this squad that it's too optomistic or they may as well just mail it in. I don't think they will.
If Aldridge plays at the top of his game, anything is possible. This is the prime of a #2 pick. He has the perfect supporting cast. It's absolutely possible. No one, no one at all picked Dallas to reach the Finals. Right befo the playoffs started, not one person here or any analyst I read picked them to even reach the Finals. Most picked us to beat them in the first round. Anything is possible.
Can you identify some players/teams? It's too early in the season for me to have a grasp on what teams are doing to position themselves for the draft/off-season. I'm having a hard time thinking of any teams that are tanking, that have good players that they'd want to get rid of. Is next summer a good free-agent class where teams will be looking to cut payroll so they have space to sign someone? Which teams would be looking to cut payroll? The only player the Trade Machine shows as having 1 year left on their deal is Watson - so unless some of those 2-year guys are team options it doesn't look like we can offer a cap-clearing trade. Honestly, this is the only way I see us taking the next step - so I'm hopeful that there are some scenarios out there that make sense.
Sure they need to play with confidence, but Finals appearances come from high talent levels combined with really good defense ... almost without exception (the exception: being from the Leastern Conference)
Meyers Leonard isn't very good at basketball, but he can still put up numbers as good or better than many so-called "serviceable" backup centers. If and when he learns how to play basketball, his production will only get better.
Just razzing you. =] You can click "edit post" on any of your posts. Then also in the lower right you'll find "delete post" which drops down another button on the middle, left which will allow you to actually delete a post.
Rajon Rondo should be available once he is healthy. Anderson Varejao on the Cavs. The Pelicans might decided to abandon the Gordon/Jrue/Tyreke trio. One of Monroe/Drummond/Josh Smith? Gortat on Washington. Larry Sanders although his value is probably at an all time low and Blazer fans hate bad PR. What about Marc Gasol? Very unlikely at the moment but if the team is below .500 at the trade deadline they might decide to tank. Same with Al Horford, Gallinari or Lawson in Denver, Love or Pek in Minny. I had thought Kevin Love may be on the block before the year started but Minny looks good right now, so its very unlikely unless a crazy scenario happened such as both Rubio and Martin getting hurt. Its hard to know what team will struggle but odds are one or two unexpected teams will, they could be ready to tank and interested in young guys like CJ/Meyers/TRob/Lopez contract and picks. We don’t have any big expiring contracts but with multiple players we can come close enough to take back a big deal such as Marc’s $14.8 million.
