Exclusive Playoffs or Lottery?

Discussion in 'Portland Trail Blazers' started by TBpup, Dec 22, 2016.

  1. Reep

    Reep Well-Known Member

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    This. I would much rather see the team develop guy who could potentially help get to the ring and be in the lottery, then to watch a team wallow around .500 and get first round exits year after year. It is really hard for me to get excited about this teams very good offense when you know they are just going to give it back on the other end.
     
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  2. SlyPokerDog

    SlyPokerDog Woof! Staff Member Administrator

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    More people or better people?
     
  3. Pinwheel1

    Pinwheel1 Well-Known Member

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    That is why I specifically made sure I wrote "for most of us". I know you and a few others claim you would rather watch a total rebuild. And that is fine. But for most fans, being one of the worst teams in the league gets old after one year. But to each his own.

    Secondly, sure in theory a higher pick could bring more opportunities for trades, but unless you get a top pick then I doubt a few spots will bring you much. Plus if we do land a top pick.....isn't your argument to keep that pick in order for the Blazers to get better. Isn't keeping the "higher pick" the better scenario for us...in order to land the next Bill Walton?

    When the season is over I admit I will be praying for winning any tiebreakers in order to move ahead of other teams in the draft. Yes the higher the pick the better. But for right now I am not going to worry about if we are 16th or 6th, because the potential for these players is about the same. And that is what the draft is about......guessing on a 19 year old's possible ceiling, and hoping like hell they are dedicated to wroking their ass off to achieve it.
     
  4. BlazerWookee

    BlazerWookee UNTILT THE DAMN PINWHEEL!

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  5. SlyPokerDog

    SlyPokerDog Woof! Staff Member Administrator

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    Wait, so people can't want the team to lose yet you can't be bothered with saying they will win.

    Nice try, WookeeAnne.
     
  6. Nikolokolus

    Nikolokolus There's always next year

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    I think this is the bright line separating most people on this forum into two very distinct camps (and in fandom at large). On the one hand you have a group that wants to cling to this notion of "respectability;" those content with 8th and 7th seeds and middling .500ish records, because they either fear rooting for a team that the media and public at large consider a laughingstock, or they just can't bear to witness the losses. On the other side, you have people that see a championship as the only goal worthy of pursuit; any amount of pain or shit is worth enduring as long as the team seems to be selling some kind of hope -- hope of championship contention, or the hope of landing a star that might some day help them contend.

    I don't want to give the impression that it wasn't exciting to watch this team buck the odds in the second half of last year, but I never could shake the feeling that it was just a cheap thrill -- like riding a roller coaster. Carrying the analogy one step further, roller coasters are fine, but I'd rather summit Mt. Everest (or die trying).
     
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  7. SlyPokerDog

    SlyPokerDog Woof! Staff Member Administrator

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    Or there is the camp that realizes it doesn't matter what we want. The Blazers will do what they do, we just buy the tickets if we halfway approve.
     
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  8. Minstrel

    Minstrel Top Of The Pops Global Moderator

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    Hello darkness, my old friend
    The question ends up, how much "shit" do you want in your entertainment for the possibility of even greater entertainment? I fully understand the people who don't want to endure years of unwatchable play just for a chance (and still not even a good one) of a championship. After all, is it really worth getting no entertainment value from the Blazers--when sports is supposed to be one of our entertainment outlets--for an unspecified number of years just to maybe have a title contender for a few years? What ratio would be acceptable? Would 10 years of crap be acceptable for every 3 years of awesome?

    I'm not suggesting that there's a good answer, but I definitely don't think people who don't want to tank are doing it wrong. Some people just want to be able to consistently relax and watch a Blazers game and have at least a competitive game. Those people might even have the best sense of perspective about sports. (And I say that as someone who really wants to see the Blazers maximize their title hopes.)
     
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  9. SlyPokerDog

    SlyPokerDog Woof! Staff Member Administrator

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    I like seeing the greatest basketball players in the world play the Moda center, I just wish they were Blazers.
     
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  10. Strenuus

    Strenuus Global Moderator Staff Member Global Moderator

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    Then for the most part the blazers havent lived up to their end this year.

    Last year? Yes. This year, no.
     
  11. Strenuus

    Strenuus Global Moderator Staff Member Global Moderator

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    Never heard of that arena.
     
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  12. Minstrel

    Minstrel Top Of The Pops Global Moderator

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    Hello darkness, my old friend
    Yes, I'm not saying that the Blazers are currently entertaining. Every team (other than the Spurs) will have times when they just plain suck. But do we want the Blazers to intentionally suck for X amount of years to hopefully bring on a golden period (that may or may not emerge, because lottery picks are fickle and will sometimes die of dysentery or just not pan out)? That's all I was rhetorically asking.
     
  13. Strenuus

    Strenuus Global Moderator Staff Member Global Moderator

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    Oh I know, I was being snarky. lol.

    I'd like to at least watch a competitive team - I've barely seen that this year.
     
  14. blue9

    blue9 Well-Known Member

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    Sounds like something Herr Drumpf would be into.
     
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  15. Minstrel

    Minstrel Top Of The Pops Global Moderator

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    Hello darkness, my old friend
    I'd rather not know how that would work.
     
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  16. Pinwheel1

    Pinwheel1 Well-Known Member

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    Great post. You bring up some great questions. For me I don't mind sucking for a year or even two, but no longer than that and I am a die hard Blazer fan, as are almost all of us are who hang out on a Blazer message board. But I am pretty certain that the majority of Blazer "fans" in Portland would walk away from a team that took years to rebuild. The Lakers can afford it because they exist in a 20 million person market. But can the Blazers? If hitting rock bottom for several years in order to achieve greatness had a good success rate, then most of us would be all in. But there is no strategy that is better than the other. They both take a long time and neither guarantees anything.
     
  17. Mediocre Man

    Mediocre Man Mr. SportsTwo

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    Both really. I meant better though
     
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  18. Strenuus

    Strenuus Global Moderator Staff Member Global Moderator

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    I, too, dont mind waiting a year or two... As long as i see hope from it.. I saw hope last year... But this year im not seeing it as much - and thats why its frustrating.
     
  19. blue9

    blue9 Well-Known Member

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    I don't mind sucky rosters, but I hate sucky leadership (GM, coach). I can root for a bad team - I actually kinda liked the Z-Bo years. I knew we weren't gonna get many wins, but it was really fun whenever we did pull an upset.

    But once it becomes obvious that Mo, Nate, and now Terry (or Nash, Patterson, Pritchard...Olshey?) just aren't doing anything to make the roster better than the sum of its parts then it becomes a lot less fun watching the team spin its wheels until it works up the will to make a needed change.

    I'll always be a fan of the pinwheel, but not necessarily of the people who don it.
     
  20. TBpup

    TBpup Writing Team

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    One nice thing.....because of the Cavs recent slide, the pick owed to the Blazers had gone from #28 to #27. :breakdance:
     
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