“Although some dictionaries accept the meaning of this word as “medium” or “average,” in fact its connotations are almost always more negative. When something is distinctly not as good as it could be, it is mediocre.” The Blazers are currently not as good as they could be if Ant, Scoot, Brogdon and Williams weren’t injured. So maybe the Blazers are mediocre now. OTOH, even with those guys, the Blazers would still be on the lower end of average, so maybe they would be mediocre then as well. Seems like kind of a shifty term. Kind of like @Mediocre Man
In the NBA it's always seemed that maybe 6 teams are deemed contenders each years, so 24 other teams or either mediocre or lottery laggards. The league knows this thus playin and in-season. It's a way to create excitement for all the fans of mediocre teams and now the lottery laggards even get excited.
I would say 2025-26 is the year I think we break through. But there are so many moving parts, as others have said, that make it hard to predict the roster. We drafted two lottery guards who will have another two seasons of experience. DA will be in a contract year. Camara and Walker are both high quality bench forwards who will keep getting better. There are enough vets on the team that should be able to return a young forward when we trade them. If we bring in a few more guys from the draft (two of them will likely be lotto talents) over the next 2 years, I don’t see why we wouldn’t have the talent to be a lower tier playoff team by Shae’s fourth season.
The mediocrity level to which this thread pertains, however, is single-season rather than multi-season. How, precisely, would you define mediocrity for a team in a single-season?
Playoffs third year make noise 4th year. And I'm fine waiting as long as we're improving. No reason to get bent out of shape when we know we're not good. What wasted energy lol.
That seems incredibly optimistic, but I hope you're right! Agree with you on getting bent out of shape. I haven't been up in arms about this team failing for over 20 years because we haven't had a roster worthy of contending in that time.
Couple of those jail blazer teams had moments. And yeah, I'm cautiously optimistic. Too many variables to really know and am by no means buoyed to those years. Has a hell of a chance of being longer.
I’m hoping playoffs in Shae’s 4th year, make noise Scoot’s 4th year. I’ve loved every moment of getting to see this team develop this season, more than most moments in the post Aldridge era. I love that there are multiple guys (Camara, Walker, Mays, Thybulle if we can’t get a good return) that we can already pencil in as positive contributors to a contending bench in a few seasons, if not sooner. We’ve lacked so much bench depth forever, and we might’ve already found another Andre Miller-esque PG(!!) to have off the bench for several years?? 2 more years of losing, 2 more high lotto talents added to this roster. Grant, Brogdon, and maybe even Ant will bring in a young forward or two to grow with this squad for the next couple seasons. Maybe a few things go our way, like the Warriors pick turning into a 10-12th pick, or a team like the Hornets are willing to trade their mid lotto pick for Ant, or we win the lotto in ‘25. I’ll give it one more year of losing after this season, and I think we are good enough to make a play-in/off run. Scoot/*/Mays Shae/Thybulle/*/Rupert ‘24 POR/Camara/Walker/Kris */*/Camara/Walker/Kris DA/‘24 GSW/Williams * is anyone who could come back from trading Grant, Brogdon, or Ant. A stroke of luck like being able to draft both Sarr AND Buzelis next summer, or drafting either of those guys and winning the ‘25 lotto to draft Cooper Flagg, or having a team offering up a promising forward (like Amen…) for some of our vets, and I think we are challenging the Spurs for the next decade. Glad to hear you say this. I am always annoyed with short-sightedness. My co-workers were talking earlier this year about growing up when the Blazers were good. One was 34, and he grew up kinda around the Blazers (seeing Sabonis at friend’s birthday parties and whatnot) and talked about multiple viewing parties a week as a kid. Another was 41, and she was talking about how Blazermania consumed Portland, and even if you didn’t like Basketball, Drexler’s pictures were just all up in your face. Sounded like a good time to be alive in Portland, and I’m jealous that I haven’t gotten to experience that feeling yet. Hopefully soon.
Can confirm! My avatar was the first Blazer poster I ever had. Everyone I knew had a Blazer poster, even adults. Blazermania was something else!
I would imagine that most fans expect a stop at mediocrity before greatness, if in fact we make it to either.
