I agree with the sentiment about Nate for regular season record. He gets the most out of his guys. But he gets guys to push so hard for the whole season there is no more potential for improvement in the playoffs.
The funny thing is that I normally am very bullish on our picks. I guess I have less confidence in the current braintrust, and I have a dislike for older rookies as a general rule. It will be, for sure. Aldridge alone makes it better, and we have very nice pieces in Batum, Matthews and Wallace. And, of course, we have the possibility of Oden becoming a force. My expectations are low, but I'm not disgusted at the way things are being handled, as I was under PatterNash. We haven't passed on a Chris Paul lately. If the team were to somehow slip into the second round this year, I'd be delighted. If they don't make the playoffs, I'll be disappointed but not overly much so. This is just an average team right now. That would be something to see that again, huh? Ed O.
Wouldn't that be great? Everyone picked the Jazz to go back to the finals and the Blazers weren't on anyone's radar. I was at game 6 when they eliminated the Jazz - great memories! The Rose Garden was so loud and the players stayed out on the floor after the game just soaking it in. Several players were so excited they ripped off their jerseys and threw them into the stands. I lost my voice for a week from screaming so much. Good times.
I remember getting so excited about that team even before the playoffs, me and all of my high school buddies would get together and pool our money to order the games on Blazercable. It may have been more fun then the following years WCF team, it was less talented and more of a fluke but that lockout team kicked ass out of nowhere. So many young talented upside guys, it also felt like the possible beginning of an era. Nobody knew who our best player was, if anything it was some role player off the bench.
I'm confused as to why you're mentioning Miller's departure as a reason the team can now run more. Miller's career until Portland was one of a fast-break point guard. It seems a little strange to cast Miller as a slow-it-down guy that prevented the team from running. Roy, sure. Miller almost certainly would have liked to push the tempo more. The likeliest reason the team didn't play at a faster pace was the influence of McMillan and Roy, rightly or wrongly. One of them is gone, one of them is not.
FML. We have an opportunity but I just know our dumbass front office is going to fuck this up. We're going to waste Aldridge's prime fucking around in mediocrity because Larry Miller and the rest of the asshats have no clue what they're doing.
That's what makes this harder to deal with. The front office is reactive rather than proactive in improving this team. They don't have a clue. Makes you miss Bob Whitsitt.
In Wallace and LMA, the Blazers have two of the league's top talents. Felton is going to give you 15/8 at least, and some 3pt shooting. Mathews and Felton should combine to give you 30 PPG, and Matthews is a good defender and 3pt shooter. He's a legit starting SG. Camby is a really old man, but you could do worse. If I were coach, my lineup would be Felton, Mathews, Batum, Wallace, and Aldridge (at C). I don't see that as a bad lineup at all! The team needs help in the depth department.
