With Roy seeming to fall apart, my expectations have definitely taken a hit. But I definitely wouldn't say we're closer to a rebuild. The biggest variable in that calculus is Greg Oden. Nobody can say for 100% that he'll never recover and always have the injury issues of his first three years. You may not think it's likely that he'll recover 100% and have a decade+ of All-Star level productivity, but you have to admit there's still a reasonable possibility. To really know if we're closer to a rebuild than a championship, go back to around 2002. That's when we were at that same pivot point. Pippen and Sabonis had mostly broken down. Smith was broken/gone, and DA sucked. Damon was fucking Damon. Mo Cheeks was our coach. Sheed, Bonzi and Zach were really our only talented players entering or in their prime. The GM "mind trust" was Patternash. They went from 50 wins to death spiral 41 to 27 to 21. Do you really think our team is in that kind of a place? Our core is still pretty good. Batum, Aldridge, Johnson and the coin tosses of Greg Oden and Brandon Roy seems like a lot safer bet to eventually work toward contention than Sheed/Bonzi/Zach did, even back then. Add in that we've got a much better coach, much better GM (not hard to beat Patternash) and an owner much more willing to open the purse strings. Mostly, though, our hopes as always reside in Greg Oden. I personally think there's around a 30% chance he could still be the dominant center we all hoped for. So assuming Roy really is done as a superstar, I think there's still a 30% chance of the Blazers being a real contender.
So are you enjoying the "ride"? I've been a fan literally my whole life. My dad took to the streets with my year old self to celebrate the one championship of my lifetime. I'm sorry but grainy film of our last championship isn't cutting it for me. I saw the 90 thru 92 legit runs at a ring, I saw the infamous game 7 WCF meltdown/whistle swallow blow up and I saw the jailblazers years. I participated as a fan in the LONGEST playoff run in NBA history. I want a ring dammnit. It's possible that won't happen in Stern's league and that's a problem in and of itself. Maybe Phil Knight and Paul Allen or some other billionaires will start a new league that is fairly reffed during the lockout. Lord knows I would support that. I hate Stern and everything he stands for. So maybe I'm a fool with a dream about a Blazers championship, but that's what I want not to get slaughtered in the first round. That's Vulcan beancounter thinking. I want a damn ring. Right now that means Oden getting healthy mentally and physically with buy in to be a Blazer. Barring that and that might be a faint hope indeed, we need to start thinking about the future.
Yup. This about sums it all up. Right now we're further away from a championship than we were two years ago. We hedged our bets, we traded for and signed some veterans, and we went all in on Brandon Roy, Aldridge, and Oden. Unfortunately Roy is now a shadow of himself, Oden is a gigantic question mark, and Aldridge is proving to be inconsistent at best. This team could pull itself out of this nose dive, but without Roy or Oden, I really don't see the point. We don't have a shot at a title, and really our only achievable goal this season is the playoffs. That's only a moral victory, and not one I think is worth striving for. IMO, we should do a refit, build around Batum, Johnson, and Aldridge, with the hopes that Oden might come back as well, but not counting on him.
In all honesty, I have to ask why you even follow the team if you think all of the above is true? You could make a similar laundry list for every team in the league. Here, guess which team I am describing below: 1.) Useless Euro point guard who can't defend a fire hydrant. 2.) Often injured ball hogging undersized shooting guard. 3.) Primadonna ball hog small forward. 4.) A power forward who seems to be allergic to human contact and rebounds. 5.) Aging euro center with bad feet and worse defense. 6.) Second year point guard who still plays like a rookie 7.) back up wing with bad hair, worse D and a declining jumper 8.) A human statue backup center 9.) A smallish power forward disgused as a back up center. 10-13) A collection of meaningless players.
The Miami Heat! Honestly though, you're trying to make a point but you're glossing over the fact two of the players you mentioned are top five in the league. The fact that they have Wade and James alone makes them one of the best teams in the league. They JUST built that team, so of course it's going to be a collection of garbage until they can surround those guys with some decent players, and right now they're not all that bad. They've had guys like James Jones step up. They'll still make the playoffs. I thought MM's assessment was pretty damn close to spot on. What did you disagree with?
Yea it about sums up all the negative things. The only thing further from a championship is your Expectations. The doom and gloom that the season is over with, and that things can't change in a moments notice towards the positive as they have negatively. For example, our bench is the best its been in years. Imagine if we actually had a center to go with it...
Only telling one side of the story as if it's the whole truth, and acting like our issues are terribly unique for an NBA team.
Did Golden State giving Steven Jackson an extension, then having to trade him to Charlotte for pennies on the dollar not teach you anything? Not picking up Miller's option year until we absulutely have to gives us a ton of flexibility. We are not going to get a discount for extending him now anyway. Let him play out the next year and a half. If we still need him, he will more than likely not be able to command anything above the MLE and can be signed for a better price.
But that is the entire point. Every single player in the entire NBA has parts of their game that are less then ideal including LeBron James. Listing them all without any mention of anything else is both pointless and depressing. It is pretty depressing that Roy's ceiling is late career Bernard King right now but if that is going to ruin the entire Blazer organization for you then you should probably stop being a Portland fan. This shit has all happened before and it will for sure all happen again. Actually, I would rather have this season AND last season put together before I "enjoyed" 1978 again. That team actually won a title the year before and seemed invincible until injuries ruined what could have been special. Two years later Walton is gone and the team was a complete disaster. As an added benefit, it's all documented in one of the best sports books of all time. That way you can relive the disappointment as often as you want. For as important as Brandon is to the team he will never, ever be as good as Walton was. Hell, he isn't going to be as good as Clyde. Speaking of which, remember that delightful season when Portland traded Clyde for a box of popcorn because he hated Bob Whittsit? That was worse. At least B-Roy still wants to be in Portland. That was the same year where the announcers would jock Uncle Cliffy by saying he lead the league in 3-pointers attempted. Let's not even mention those 12 minutes in LA. If you want to follow a team where things always seem to work out great and the lows are extremely short you should follow the Lakers. Their history of success is stupifying. In all honesty, I follow the Blazers because I watched them with my Grandmother when I was a kid. I will continue to watch them in part because they remind me of her. That and sometimes they are pretty damn fun to watch. Also, they tend to beat the Lakers here in Portland and that always warms my heart. Long story short, if watching a team that never seems to get over the hump depresses you to no end I respectfully suggest you stop following the Trailblazers for your own personal health.
Nothing. Everything you wrote is exactly correct. It's also only half the story, at best. That is where I am perplexed. Is this really and truly all you think of about the current trailblazers team? If so I can't imagine why you would bother following such a collection of fail. It's at least as bad (and probably worse) then being a complete homer who believes the team is a title contender no matter who suits up to play.
I am old school, and probably messed up from my father who was a football coach. He had all the crazy philosophies like "If every individual wins every play, then the there is no way for the team to lose." "If you are not winning, then the only other option is that you are losing" Crap like that. Anyway, I tend to think along these lines too. So if the Blazers aren't in possition to win it all with the roster they have, then get a new roster that you can win with. Simply making the playoffs is not good enough unless the team can win it all. The first year they made it to the playoffs, it was great. The next year though, they failed by not taking the next step. This year, they should take yet another step, and if the same injuries are a reason they can't, then it's time to bring in new players. Harsh yes, but making the playoffs isn't enough anymore. LOL, lot's of rambling, and I'm not sure it made any sense, but I hope everyone understands that?
Your entire point is that you're taking the opposite end of the spectrum from MM, which is fine and everything, but it doesn't get us any closer to a championship. Sorry, but I don't take the rose colored glasses approach to this team. I was there when we had Bassy, Ha, and Randolph. I saw the Rose Garden when it had roughly 11k people and there were vast seas of empty seats. I've watched this team, without pause, since I was roughly 11 years old and interested enough to understand the NBA. I've seen this team go through ups and downs, but I've always tried to keep a realistic viewpoint on the team. I was never the guy who proclaimed us the preseason champs because we were blowing teams away, but I also wasn't the guy who said we should blow it up because we lost a few games in the preseason. I view this team as a talented squad that was built to win championships. The way I interpret MM's post is thus: we are much further from a championship than we thought we would be. We are much further from a championship than we were two years ago. He may have focused on the negative, but right now it's hard to focus on anything but. Our superstar is, for all intents and purposes, a shadow of himself. Our franchise center is still out, with no real indication of when he will return. This team was built to win a championship, and if we cannot achieve that this season or next, we need to rethink our plan for the future. Let's look at our roster. Roy- in his first year of a max contract. Exhibiting very little of the skills that we have seen over the past four years. He was a huge part of our title hopes, and without him playing at a high level, we are in deep shit. Oden - what do we even know about him right now? Most Blazer fans hang their hats on Oden's potential to bring us a championship, but right now we have no idea when he'll even be back on the court. That's a scary prospect. I would love to have Oden back, but at this point I'm ready to start adjusting this team to build for the future. I think our window has shifted. Aldridge - I still think Aldridge is an All-Star. I don't think he's a #1 option, but he's a guy that can dominate on any given night. We just can't count on him to be a consistent scoring threat. We also can't count on him to be a bruiser. He never will be that guy. Rudy - We're not even six months removed from this guy basically demanding a trade, or his outright release from the team. This is a guy who threatened to walk away from his contract and sit out the remaining two seasons so he could return to Europe. Forgive me if I don't have much faith in Rudy Fernandez as a part of our future. Wes Matthews - I had high hopes for Wes, but so far he's been a disappointment. I suspect he's pressing because of his contract, which is adversely affecting his overall play. I think he's a solid defender, but he needs to relax, let the game come to him, and get his shooting back on track. I think he'll work out in the long term. Armon Johnson - I like Armon. I think he has a lot of potential and I'd like to see what he can bring to the table with more minutes. Batum - Nic is a bit of a conundrum. He has so much talent, and so much potential, but is he ready to be a star? He's been a bit inconsistent, but he's shown real flashes of dominance at both ends of the court. I'd like to see him highlighted more by McMillan. Camby - He was brought in to help us win when it matters. He's a vet with experience in the playoffs, and a former defensive player of the year. He's a great player, but he's not part of our long term future. Miller - I've always loved Miller's game, but he was meant to be a short term answer. Similar to Camby, he's a guy who is worthless to this team if we aren't in the playoffs and if we can't move past the first round. Przybilla -we have no idea what he's going to bring to the table after two knee surgeries. Cunningham - I like Dante, I think he's a good role player, but he needs to add something to his game to be a more dynamic scorer. Babbitt - I haven't seen anything that would lead me to believe this guy is anything more than a scrub. I don't think it's time to rebuild the team, because in my mind a rebuild is a complete blowup of the roster. I think it might be time for a refitting of the roster though. If Oden is out for most of the season, and let's face it, we have no idea when he'll be back, then this season is essentially lost without Roy and Oden. I think Oden, if he can stay healthy, is at least a season away from being able to contribute like he was before the injury. Because of that, I think we should take this season, and possibly next season, and refit our team.
I would not (sign Miller any longer). His biggest value to this team, given the injury situation, is as a trade asset. Otherwise, this team is a playoffs team and out in the first round for a while. If this season can not be salvaged because of the Roy/Oden injuries, this team needs to trade him for picks/prospects and take a bad year - with the hope that Oden/Roy do recover (some or a lot) and have good prospects next to them going forward. We have seen what teams with Andre Miller as the best/2nd best player look like. They make the playoffs, they go out in the first round. That's a recipe for ho-hum improvement going forward.
