I've had a few days to digest the departure of all our FA's, and you know what--I'm still excited for the upcoming season. There are so many unknowns, so much opportunity, I can barely contain myself. Dame is going to be the unquestioned leader for the first time. Urkel and Legend are going to get consistent minutes for the first time. Crabbe looks like he has a new attitude and confidence that will do volumes for his game. Plumlee is poised to be Lopez+. Aminu and Davis are going to provide defensive ability and intensity that we haven't seen in years. People are calling Connaughton "Project Pat", but I think he's going to be ready to contribute from day 1. Vonleh is a legit top 10 talent, and I have no idea what to expect from him, but I hear he can put the ball on the floor better than any PF we've had...maybe ever. Even that summer league kid Montero is touted in his draft profile as "an elite level player" Call me a homer. Call me delusional. Call me whatever you want; I don't care. The moratorium isn't even over and summer league hasn't even begun, but it doesn't matter to me. I'm excited about what our team can be, and I firmly believe that it's still a great day to be a Blazer.
I assume that Urkel is CJ? This to me is the most interesting part of the season. As currently constructed, this is going to be a 35 win team - and that's OK.
I'm excited about seeing the young guys play. Excited to see the $tat$ that Meyers, CJ and Dame put up. I think Meyers and CJ are going to be in contention for MIP. But with that said we're also gonna suck. Hard.
What bugs me the most is that CJ is now my favorite Blazer, but I am unclear on how he can work long-term with Lillard, our "franchise player". I just don't think they can start together - you can cover for one weak defender (as the Suns always had to do for Nash) but two will kill you. Now, CJ could solve this problem by suddenly becoming Joe Dumars, but that would indeed be a miracle. And I guess he can stay here long term if he embraces the Ginobili perpetual sixth-man-of-the-year status... But it just nags at me that we have so few good players left and two of them don't work together. (Of course it doesn't help that we could have drafted Giannis or Rudy Gobert, but I try to put that behind me...) I just see a Thunder-with-James-Harden scenario coming up sooner rather than later. Oh yeah - optimism.... "It probably won't come up THIS year though!"
If CJ becomes James Harden and doesn't work with Lillard I'll personally toss Lillard into a burning fire. (kidding) But seriously, CJ is already a better defender than I would have expected at his height. His wingspan helps him get steals and bother shots a lot of other 6'3 guys can't.
Hey--I'm not saying that I think we are a title contender, or even that we're a playoff team (though we could be). What I am saying is that there is a lot to look forward to about this season, and that enjoyment thereof does not necessarily need to hang solely on wins/losses. I also plan to like every post that joins me in the positivity party. There's too much negativity around here.
I agree 100%. Writers be all "off course LMA wanted to leave, team only hot out of 1st round once in 9 seasons"... maybe because Lamarcus was our go to guy. Maybe Lamarcus is our infamous "good stats on a not great team" our Shareef Abduhr Rahim... honestly I don't know. What I do know is I am 40 years old and Lamarcus has been a Blazer for just shy of 25% of my life. He isn't magically going to be better than he has been and honestly once in a while sports franchises just have to move on.
I am fully able to enjoy the development of a young team going in the right direction, even in the face of a losing season on the way to better days. So yes. I'm looking forward to this new chapter. BTW: Is there a more promising 'group' of young bigs in the league than Meyers/Plumlee/Davis/Vonleh? Might be worth keeping old man Kaman around to mentor them. Meyers is going to break out BTW, and make us forget that LaMarsha...LaSofty...LaDiva...LaLoner....whatever that guy's name was.
