Notice This is the worst Blazer team I have seen in my lifetime.

Yes. Because there is parity in the league this season like we haven’t seen in awhile. “Shitty” teams are beating “good” teams. We will be right where we are supposed to be 4th-6th or 7th.

 

There is parity right now because teams didn't get much of a training camp or preseason, but that rust will wear off come playoff time.

 

I really don't think we'll be lower than 6th and have to be in that play-in tourney. That is if Nurk comes back right around the second half. I do think that this team will likely get beat badly in the first round though.

 

Sadly, it is almost always poor defense no matter what else is going on.

 

close. But only 1 of the 8 wins have come against a team with a winning record and that was 3 weeks ago. In fact, Portland has only played 4 teams with winning records. They beat the Lakers, but the other 3 times they lost by an average of 22 points

of course, this season is pretty wacky right now and blowouts are the norm; there are five 6-6 teams in the West, and one of them is Denver

 

So we are a 50 win team basically in a normal season then?

 

As long as we keep playing scrub teams. At least, that is how it has gone so far. Now dealing with injuries will make it even tougher against the teams you would play in the Playoffs.

 

So the rust will wear off the good teams but not the bad teams?

 

Strength of schedule rankings:

http://www.tankathon.com/remaining_schedule_strength

http://powerrankingsguru.com/nba/strength-of-schedule.php

 

I never really understand them? If a bad team has a good stretch the whole thing can change or if a good team trades for another great player the whole thing changes again. How about Injuries?
SOS is a really tough thing to try and judge. Even more so this year.

 

All great points!

Most SOS uses the assumption that rosters and production are constant, which we know is not true. Over a large sample size (which we don't have yet), there is an assumption good/bad scretches should even out to the mean of a teams ability.

Having said that, SOS advantage is it's lack of bias humans have, who usually over value teams based off really short term or multi-season results.

 

Another issue is conferences. Over the last few years it seems the west has been a little tougher. (Now we all know there is a stat out there that will prove me wrong here) Teams play more games against teams in their own conference.

 

This season has been completely weird. But it was expected because of corona and the health protocol. Anyone can beat anyone this year on any given night, except for the Lakers probably, they are stil very good

 

I disagree, Walton was our best player in the last 51 seasons. I'd place Lucas second, Lillard third, Roy fourth and Drexler fifth, I suppose Petrie would be sixth. Somewhere in there I'd put Lloyd Neal, maybe seventh.

 

Walton did everything, crazy d, Score inside out, best outlet passer the game has ever seen, blocking machine and most importantly made players around him so much better!
He beat two super teams on the way to a championship too.

 

San Antonio, the Clippers and Portland have beat the Lakers this season. All three of those losses occurred on the Lakers' home court. Also, the Lakers barely beat Chicago and Memphis. They are not that invincible.

 

Took the words out of my mouth, especially the parts about how he was the best outlet passer the game has ever seen and how he dragged mediocre players into the spotlight. He was also an incredible rebounder.

 

Add one more to the “team with winning record blows us out by 20+” column.

 

It wouldn't be this bad if the greatest player in franchise history wasn't in the middle of his prime