Report: Blazers will have the worst starting 5 in the Western Conference

Wrong!

Kobe played half the season and when he did play, he was shooting a dismal sub 40%

Hill has nothing short of a complete disappointment. That's why they let him go.

Johnson was alright, but he was hardly something to compare to Aminu with.

 

You also forgot to mention how horrible the Laker's coach was too.

And Dame is >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> than any PG they fielded

 

Jeez, it's pretty sad when our debates are not over whether the Blazers will suck or not, but rather the order of magnitude that they're going to suck by. I figure they're going to lose at least half of their games. That's a sufficient measure of suckitude for me at this point.

 

Whooaaa.. . stop the train. IF we lose half our games, that means we win half our games. That's not a success this next year to you? I think about 99% of us would consider that way better than expected and would consider that a huge win of a season considering.

 

Really digging the rebuilding roster Neil has put together.

25 and under, we have Dame (25), Leonard (23), CJ (23) as our big 3 prospects, with Plums (25) and Aminu (24) projecting as likely starters. Vonleh (19) and Harkless (22) as the high potential guys, and Crabbe (23) as an emerging role player. Then we have three extremely long shot prospects in Frazier (24), Patty (22), and Montero (22), who may or may not find second contracts.

Henderson is our oldest player at 27. Ed Davis follows him at 26. Both can probably start on half the teams in the league now and have likely plateaued in terms of their development.

I don't think we will be nearly as bad has been made out nationally. Even if a couple of our prospects reach their potential, we will be set up really well over the next few years. Key here is getting ample PT for the deserving youngins, lots of focus on player development behind the scenes, and nailing this next lotto pick. I think we win about 35-40 next season, get one more lotto pick, and a younger FA, and we're back in the mix in 2017 in the playoffs/

 

Not everyone is saying they are a twenty win team either. Personally I've sort of got the number 27.5 floating around in my head as the over-under. Still probably bad enough for a top 7 pick.

 

Finally got around to reading Brian's post. What a great breakdown.

 

Oh hell no. I ain't crazy.

 

And it just proves that Blazer fans are the most knowledgeable fan base in the world!

 

Pussy

 

I don't think this is a real fair analysis.
Remember Stotts was brought in to maximize Aldridge.
I want to see how Stotts will adjust his offense to fit his personnel.
If he still runs this permiter oriented offense that jacks up a lot of 3's contested or not. The Blazers will offense will struggle. We saw it last year in every game Aldridge missed. Without the player the offense is designed around it's going to struggle.
Lets see how Stotts adjusts his offense to maximize players other than Aldridge now.
Before someone says "Blazers will be the worst team in the west this year."
He's supposed to be a genius. Lets see it.

 

Stotts designed the same type of offense around Dirk at Dallas. The problem he has now is no Dirk and no LaMarcus. I think he's going to have a hard time.

 

I don't think the offense with the Mavericks was all that similar to what Stotts used here the last 3 years. We shot a lot of 3's. Dallas started Kidd and Terry at guards, backed up by Stevenson, Barea and Corey Brewer. Their SF was Marion and Caron Butler. Those guys were OK at shooting 3's but it was not exactly their forte'. They attacked the basket much better.

Sure both times he built his offense around his PF, but Dirk and LMA are not exactly the same type of player. So maybe he is a little more adaptable then we are giving him credit for.

 

Dirk and LMA aren't the same type of player? that is true. LMA is black and Dirk idolizes Franz Beckenbauer. Other than that they could finish each others sentences on the court.

 

One could dribble out past the top of the key, one can not. One was a very good passer, one is average at best. One played like a 7' SF, the other played like a 7' stretch 4. The only thing they have in common is their step back turn around jumper is unblockable.

They are both great players, but I just think that Dirks ability to dribble made a huge difference for his teammates. (Especially at the end of games) To me LA and Dirk attack the basket differently, and the offenses were affected by it.

 

I stopped being impressed with Nic Batum half way through the season. Always hurt, always worn out....good riddance. Go back to France if you love playing for them so much. Let's see if Charlotte is as patient with your bullshit as we were here in Portland.

The Matthews loss probably hurts the most. He'll likely never be the same player he was before his injury. I'm still a fan of his for life though; such a great guy.

Aldridge....if he hadn't penned such a defensive "Fuck You" letter, I'd have more appreciation for him.

Lopez sucked fucking balls during the playoffs, and stopped being any kind of productive. I'll gladly take Plumlee over him. He seems to be far more aggressive.

 

If this team gets 9th I'll be very impressed. Means we keep our pick and have a great young core to build around. The West is a loaded bloodbath; to be that competitive for the playoffs while rebuilding is a feat. A couple of our young players will have to play as quality starters, some others key roles to give us that kind of success. We'd have a late lottery pick, a young playoff core, and cap room for two max contracts next summer.

Now if the team is 15th sure it means we get a better draft pick but our young players will likely not have even met nor exceed expectations. That may well be more harmful to this teams future than the benefit of a top pick.

 

Thanks, I've been trying to put it this way for a while. Everyone wants to see us get the lottery and to me that means we are way worse than we should be. If we lose the lottery pick, then we exceeded expectations and have a couple guys step up. We already have a bunch of lotto picks. One more isn't going to make or break this team compared to how they are coached and played this season.

 

Outside of Lillard who else do you see on this team that has true blue-chip potential? I see a ton of guys that project to be at best solid rotation players, with maybe the exception of Vonleh in a few years.

This team isn't going anywhere long term if everybody just meets optimistic expectations; they are talent poor when it comes to guys with true star potential and the only reliable way for a small market team like Portland to rectify that situation is through the draft (trades might or might not get us there and is hard to count on).