For sure. If you look at the age of your rotation or our active roster, we are most likely the youngest in the NBA. IMO, this team has only one direction to go and that is up. Our team will learn more from a loss, and need a firm kick in the ass to get going. I am disappointed with Nate, but i'm not going to blame any one player. We win and lose as a team, imo. I think our team didn't play well enough to win, and there are a TON of improvements to be made.
Some fans act as if this were an election - take both wins and loses way to seriously. This is a game, experience will prevail. Lack of experience must live on skill and natural ability. The Blazers don't have the experience yet. If the blazers beat any top five team, its natual skill and abiltiy but NOT experience. When the blazers have experience, the bi polar fans will shut up.
Again, pointing out a consistent pattern of mediocre play does not equate to "being bi-polar," it's acknowledging reality. The sky isn't falling, but this team looks strikingly similar to how it ended last season which doesn't demonstrate improvement. Is our defense better? Is our offense looking more organized? To me it's "no" on both counts.
It's also not the same team. 3 rooks getting heavy rotation minutes and/or starting minus the stabilizing effect that James Jones had (when healthy) = starting almost all over again. I do think this team has the potential to look substantially better and when they really get into the soft chewy part of their schedule in the next couple of months and that potential success has the chance to increase this team's confidence and improve their consistency. Whatever happens (playoffs or no playoffs) this team is not going to be battling for a Western Conference title.
Nobody disagrees with that. But I do disagree that players like Sergio, Frye and Outlaw are going to get us to that level no matter how much experience they get. If you wait to make a trade until we are in position to compete for a title with the current roster, that day will never come. You need a trade to get to that next step.
If that's what you read from my post then I mislead you. I fully agree that Sergio, Frye and Travis (and maybe a few others) are not going to get substantially better with experience, but guys like Greg, Rudy, Bayless, Batum and even pillars like Brandon and LaMarcus (who have a couple of years under their belts already) all have a great deal of learning and challenges to face before they are able to fully exploit their prodigious talents on the court. I do think this team could benefit from a trade for the right kind of player, and probably needs to add a veteran high level player or two (not necessarily all-stars scorers but more of the all-NBA first or second team defense variety) to help shoulder some of the burden on the court. Whether that player is acquired before the deadline or picked up in FA remains to be seen, but I have little doubt that KP and Tom Penn understand the team's deficiencies and will work to correct them -- we're mostly talking about the timetable, fans want it done yesterday, management probably wants to be a little more deliberate and patient.
I disagree that this team, as constructed, could not compete. Our only blowout losses have been at the hands of LAL and BOS. They're widely acknowledged as the best two teams (i.e., ones we'll potentially meet in the WCF or Finals). Aside from 2 buzzer-beaters and last night's egg, we're undefeated and generally playing well at home. On the road we're holding our own. When we're playing intelligently, and/or making our shots, we're quite good, and that's been borne out against teams like TOR, ORL, UTH, DEN, SAS, HOU, etc. When our "veterans" (NOT rookies) are playing unintelligently or uninspired, we get beat by teams like the Clips. Wiz, etc. in addition to good teams. This team, if all they did was have the same effort as the Celtics or Jazz or Spurs 80% of the time would win 58 games. And that's with "young" players, with a stagnating offense, with little perimeter D. It's not Bayless, Batum or Oden that's losing us games. It's poor play from our veterans and poor gameplanning/adjustments from our coaching staff. All of those are "fixable", whether through trades or a new game setup.
Veterans? You mean Blake and Przy, cause those are the only two "veterans" (aside from Lafrentz) that this team possesses.
Sorry. I consider our All-Star, Przy, Blake, and Travis (6 years in the League) as vets. How is Blake one, and not Travis? And in my book, if you're one of the top 24 players in the league you're by definition a "vet". I understand that's subjective. Two of those are playing pretty consistently well. Two are very on-and-off. When they're on, they add a lot to the team. When they're off, we lose. It's almost that simple. I don't think I can (though I'm open to someone pointing it out to me) pick one game this year that Oden, Batum, Bayless lost for us. I can pick a few that Sergio/Frye put us in the hole with with poor play. I can point out games that LMA seemed to disappear, or Rudy couldn't hit the ocean. I can pick out a bunch that Blake and Travis didn't play like vets. That's what I'm talking about.
I guess you have a point with Travis, but I've never considered him a "veteran" because he was such a project for the entirety of his rookie deal. Brandon, I don't consider him a veteran at all even though he's shown himself to be an elite player; until he goes through the fire of a playoff series and has seen more and endured more adversity (like the nightly double-teams he's starting to see) he doesn't qualify. As for Oden, Batum or Rudy losing us a game (Bayless doesn't count because he's barely been in there) I've seen plenty of breakdowns mentally on shot selection, defensive rotations and general disappearing acts that I know they've contributed to more than a couple of losses ... not to say that they are bad players or deserve scorn heaped on their heads, it's just the reality of being a rookie in the NBA -- thems the breaks.
