Last year's team reminds me of the 07-08 Blazers team that also won 41 games. That team had two young studs (Roy/Aldridge vs Dame/CJ) and a ton of youth. The next year we went on to win 54 games by adding a franchise center (Oden/Nurk?), and swapping out Outlaw/Webster for competence in Batum/Fernandez, which we may well do this year with Vonleh/Leonard on the out in favor of Swanigan/Collins. Prior season record: 41 wins - 41 wins Franchise level star: Roy - Dame Elite second banana: Aldridge - CJ Bruising size at center: Oden/Pryz - Nurkic/Swanigan? Coach with very distinctive style of play: McMillan - Stotts Draft steals: Batum - Swanigan? Collins? Stand-and-shoot big: Frye - Leonard Veteran role player guard: Steve Blake - Evan Turner Average age: One of youngest teams in league It's not a perfect comparison, obviously. That team focused on McMillan/Roy iso-ball and was molasses slow, while Stotts is just a better coach who has a modern free flowing offense focused on threes. Nurkic was added toward the end of last season, but I think you could argue we haven't seen the real in-shape and fully integrated Nurk yet. Portland could be poised this year to make a much bigger jump than many are predicting.
Yes but our team has got 5th seed the year before and took a step back last year. 08-09 team was riding from nothing.
That team was the most fun team I have seen from that era - I remember being in the building when a young D-Rose and Bulls came to town and the Blazers ate them alive. Oden just devoured Noah, Roy did Roy things (for 3 quarters only if I remember correctly) and the Bulls made some kind of a garbage time run so they only lost by 42. That was a fun team.
