Interesting. The expectations around the league for Portland seem to be very big. I think one of the biggest adjutments will be for the Blazers to now realize there is a bullseye on their back every time they walk into an arena. The question is, do they step up, or step out? New Orleans had huge expectations on them after the season before last. Then last season happened, and they were clearly not ready to handle the pressure of being a marked team every night.
Yeah I was like, WTF are they doing? Then after I already posted "submit" I re-read is cause I doubted CNNSI would make such a Huge mistake.
The closer you get to the head of the pack, the more hungry jaws you have snapping at your heels. The challenge is going to be a bit different this season.
With Greg's apparent vast improvement and their overall size & depth I expect them to wear teams down... thats how they led the league in points differential the 2nd half of last season. Once the season starts the minutes and roles should become a lot more delineated/set then we've seen this preseason, things won't seem so chaotic. I doubt they'll fall behind early quite as often as last year as their young team should still be on the upswing, but I'll take their chances of coming back on teams when they do. STOMP
I agree 100%. During the pre-view on NBA.com TV, I was like hearing "winning on the road more" as an improvement, but I suspect we will lose some games we are supposed to win, just because we have "off nights" etc. I will be happy with a win improvement, but even more happy seeing us win against "winning ball clubs" on the road. If I see a significant improvement on that, I will be a happy Blazer fan!
