When did we beat any of these teams on the road? Good teams win a few of these on the road, great teams maybe lose of quarter of them on the road. We are 1-12 against above 500 teams in the west on the road.
I never expected that it was "all going to happen this season." However, I did think we'd be able to beat the Spurs without Duncan and Ginobli. We should be at least that good with the talent we have.
I think you're dead wrong on that. Paul Allen likes McMillan, the players like him, and he's improved his win-loss record every season he's been in Portland. He will be back next year. As for the players, yes. I think a couple of them could easily be moved this summer.
Um.... it means we can't win a significant road game and we have to get home court to have any shot of not being killed in the first round. The point is that good teams can win a few on the road. We lost to a team without two of it's three stars last night. It's telling!
It's pretty universal amongst most fan communities ... that is to say ascribing too much blame, the media tends to ascribe too much credit for successes. Anyway, I'm mostly just worn out by the incessant over-analysis (I've been guilty of this myself) and hyper-negativity that seem to be the dominant discourse around here lately ... or maybe it's always been this way and I'm just more sensitive to it right now (probably the more likely thing). Blech.
A number of people are frustrated because they've lost faith in Oden (who represents the long-term hope) and they've lost faith in the team's ability to win games against good teams this year (which represents the short-term hope for the coming playoffs) and so they're venting. At one time, it would have gotten to me, since I don't really agree with the premises underlying the negativity, but nowadays, I don't let it get to me. Fan perceptions don't shape reality, so it doesn't entirely matter. I come here for good discussions...if I don't find them, I go do something else. I don't let the emotions here affect my own emotions. I'd recommend just seeing this place as a discussion service. If there aren't any discussions that are interesting to you (due to the venting/negativity), then it's akin to your e-mail service being down or your favourite lunch spot being closed for repairs. A shame, but there are other options. Less psychically tiring, that way.
This isn't really about emotions, it's more about the weariness that comes from having the same conversation over and over; That's why I said I think I need a break. I'm not bailing out completely, since there are still a few people around here that I really enjoy talking hoops with ... but lately I just feel like this place is in a bit of a rut, with the same topics being raised ad infinitum, ad nauseaum: "Fire Nate," "Oden's a bust," "Bayless should get more PT", " Travis Sucks," etc. It's getting a little stale, that's all.
It's definitely a problem with discussion forums. It's similar to the problem with 24 hour cable news stations. When nothing is happening, all a discussion forum or 24 hours news channel can do is spin its wheels repetitively. There a strange sort of urgency that's completely at odds with a slow-moving phenomenon. We aren't going to know the fate of the 2008-09 Blazers (or the recession) for a while, yet there's a frenetic pace of analysis and argument. Lacking new things to churn through, you just get the same fights and themes turned over more and more rapidly.
Nik...you are too good of a person to be a Blazers fan...Come join the Lakers bandwagon to the promised land!
That almost sounds like, "Luke .... I am you fa-tha. Come to the Dark Side" "Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
That settles it. I'm going to start being more proactive and shake up the status quo myself. Look out guys, expect a wave of Petteri Koponen, Michael Ruffin, Shavlik Randolph, Joel Freeland and 2011 draft threads!!
It's become pretty obvious to me that Oden is the next Blazer the fans are going to pick to rail out of town. The fans never learn. Lets pick a player and rail on them until they are gone. That always works so well, when they get to the point that they hate the fans and the city so much that they deciide not to play hard for the team. Great job fans. Keep it up, and we can be all be eternally frustrated.
Freeland's per 48's in Eurocup and Euroleague are pretty good. And he's not getting much burn from his coach, either. Ruffin's "dropped rebounds-to-rebound chances" ratio is infinitely better than Frye's. How great does Shavlik play in practice to be able to get 9 full minutes of garbage time? 2011 draft...blech. Looking at guys who are HS juniors right now? No thanks.
