I think the Blazers will be competing with the Nuggets for third in the division. Of course, if they finish ahead of Denver and Minnesota faceplants again, the Blazers could finish as high as second. But fourth is definitely a reasonable prediction. I'd say third or fourth is most likely, with second a small but distinct possibility (as is, sadly, fifth--the Jazz may still be pretty good even without Hayward).
Portland could easily win the division. Timberwolves can't shoot, have no bench, and only 2 above average NBA players. They're always overhyped.
I don't think the Blazers will come close to the Thunder. They're being underhyped relative to the Rockets--I think the Thunder could very well be the #2 seed in the West.
Never stopped me... They haven't posted the previews for all of the teams, but they have UTA projected at 5th in the NW (quite a drop from their first place finish last season). So, that means they are projecting both MIN and DEN finishing ahead of us. MIN has made some huge upgrades in talent, to be sure, but where they finish will depend on how well and how quickly they mesh as a team. I could see them finishing ahead of us, but I could also see us beating them out. That franchise just does not have any experience winning and the key players they acquired didn't exactly lead their teams to the promised land last season. Sure, CHI and IND made the playoffs in the East, but it was the East. MIN had 10 fewer wins than POR last season, and Portland spent the first 75% of the season underachieving. With a full season of Nurk, MIN still needs to prove they can learn how to play together and learn how to win, period in order to pass us in the standings. DEN added Millsap (at $30 million a year) and let Galinari, their leading scorer walk. Millsap is a better all around player, but he's also older and will begin to decline. The real issue is DEN did not address their glaring weakness at PG. Jameer Nelson is too old, too short and too slow to be a starting PG in the Western Conference in 2017-18 and Emmanuel Mudiay just flat out isn't very good. They will easily have the worst PG rotation in the Western Conference and get out scored at that position by 10 PPG a night, on average, and by 20 points against the better teams. You can't just be that weak at the most important position in the modern NBA and hope to compete in the Western Conference in 2017-18. My prediction is DEN is the least likely team in the NW Division to finish ahead of POR. UTA will struggle to score, but with their defense, I think they will finish solidly ahead of DEN. Finally, I know OKC added Paul George, so on paper that looks like a huge upgrade, but again it's a chemistry experiment in progress. They could be very good, but it's not guaranteed. They have very little depth. So, any injury to one of their starters will have a huge impact. Of course, you could say the same thing about POR. We addressed our depth issue up front, but are now thin in the back court. All the experts will pick OKC to finish first in the NW division, but I don't think it's a done deal. Patrick Patterson and Paul George will help address their poor 3-point shooting (last in the league last season), but their starting back court shot .295 3FG% last season and that hasn't changed. OKC relied heavily on offensive rebounding to offset their poor shooting and losing Taj Gibson will hurt them there. Their season is really 100% dependent on how well Westbrook and George play together. Will George be happy playing second banana to Westbrook during a contract year? Will Westbrook tone back the 4th quarter hero ball enough to actually allow George to be a factor down the stretch in close games? So many changes == so many unknowns. At the very least, the NW division will be very interesting to watch this season. BNM
Interesting, I'm not sold on OKC. Too little depth and too many unknowns. They have a great Big 2, on paper, but this guys need to prove they can play well enough together to offset their lack of a reliable 3rd option. Kanter could be that 3rd option, but they can't really play him and Patterson at the same time. So, Kanter will likely continue in his 6th man role. Plus they added that fat ass, cancer Raymond Felton. Let's hope he brings the same locker room presence to OKC that he brought in his one season in POR. Any chance VooDoo Donuts will open a franchise in OKC. I'm sure the local population could easily support one, or more stores. BNM
Nurkic is the 2nd biggest upgrade in the division behind Butler, and nobody is even crediting that as improvement. Stupid. Paul George is the better player overall, but his fit doesn't make him much of an upgrade in OKC. For example, if you had one Westbrook doing everything on the floor, compared to two Westbrooks splitting time on the floor, there's not going to be a difference, because the Westbrook clone wouldn't be able to space the floor for the other one, and the duplication cancels each other out. Basically, Westbrook has such a high usage rate that lowering that usage rate for someone else isn't going to improve Westbrook's performance and the net result is about the same. The way Westbrook players diminishes the effect that an addition of Paul George could have. Millsap is a decent defender, but offensively he's overrated. He shot 44% from the field and 31% from 3pt last year. The only thing that kept his offense somewhat productive was his career high of 6 FTAs a game. With the ball out of his hands less and him playing more off of Jokic, I see that regressing to the mean. He's old, and on the decline. He makes Denver better, but not by much.
If the entire league is healthy....which it won't be. It's just as likely Portland finishes 1st in the division as 4th.
They don't have an established third option, but they've put a tremendous defensive team around a Westbrook-George scoring duo and I thought Patterson was a phenomenal pickup--he gives them spacing at the 4 (which Roberson robbed them of at the 2) while adding to that excellent defensive group. I think if they aren't one of the best non-Warriors teams, it'll be due to an uninspiring bench. But I think their starting five is going to be one of the best units in basketball and one that may even give the Warriors a little trouble defensively.
Really? So because I work for the team, that should some how change my opinion of them? What do you do for a living and who do you work for if you don't mind me asking. What about mechanics that work for a Buick dealership? Are they not allowed to have the opinion that not all their cars are perfect? You believe we will finish ah ahead of OKC, Denver and Minny?
Denver and Minnesota for sure. We might be 2nd behind OKC in the Northwest, maybe we beat them for the NW. OKC is the only team that will threaten us. Minnesota got better and will orobably make the playoffs but we will still best them in the NW. Denver...come on. Even with Milsap we are still a far better team. Plus they lost Galinari. They don't have shit on the Blazers. As far as I am concerned I wish them a good summer 2018.
That starting five has a below average starting PG, the most overrated player in the league, and an average starting PF. Not impressive.
It'd be one thing if you made different predictions and had different opinions based off objectivity, but every opinion/prediction you have about Portland is pessimistic. You're essentially the pessimistic version of Kingspeed.
