Purely gut, but I'm getting a sense that the Blazers will end up having a better record than the: Mavs, Pelicans, T-Pups, Jazz, Suns, Kings, & Lakers That would place them 8th behind the: Spurs, Grizz, Rockets, Thunder, Nugz, Clips, and GS
Pretty much the way I see it, except I think the Nuggets are likely to fall out of the playoff picture. The Grizzlies and Warriors aren't locks in my book to finish ahead of the Blazers.
Here is a Sporting News article on thins topic posted on Oregon live today: http://www.oregonlive.com/nba/index.ssf/2013/07/sporting_news_portland_trail_b.html
I think NoVoodoo may disagree with their assessment of losing Hollins: Memphis Changes: The Grizzlies’ big change thus far has been dumping head coach Lionel Hollins and promoting assistant Dave Joerger. It’s likely that Joerger will run the same offense and defense that Hollins had in place, but Hollins was popular among his players. Is that true? I thought they were all arguing with him.
You're right, that's complete bullshit... he was unpopular with Tony Allen, Zach Randolph, and apparently even Jerryd Bayless, which didn't even come out until he picked up his option this summer. Hollins and Bibby really got too much credit for the team's identity from the sports writers who never watched us play. I remember listening to Mike and Mike during the playoffs, and both admitted that neither had seen a Grizzlies game all season, yet when they had Lionel Hollins on a week or two later, they were both "shocked" that he got fired. I don't blame these sports commentators that much, because when you have to cover as much as they do, you can't watch every team play or get every inside scoop, but around town, it was no secret that he was an unpopular coach amongst his players. Also, that article said that Joerger will run the same offense and defense, but the offensive gameplan he was describing is a lot different than the one Hollins was running, and well, as far as the defense goes... that was JOERGER's defense to begin with!
So you don't see the grizz losing a step? I will admit that I haven't watched enough griz basketball to even make an argument; but there's something inside me that thinks this firing will hurt your team.
One way that Stotts needs to prove his worth and earn his money is that he has to drill into this team that we DO NOT lose at home. This is how teams get successful and build. You can not lose bad games at home. Shit happens on the road so be it but this needs become a team motto or something this year: "Every home game is an elimination game" The other thing I see in successful team is the recognition and importance place on the last 2 minutes of each quarter. You will often bad teams (and the Blazers were guilty of this) lose leads in the last minutes and that is a killer. We have to focus and buckle down in those 2 minutes.
The team I think will show the biggest improvement are the Minnesota Timberwolves. The biggest 'addition' -- a healthy Kevin Love. Rubio/Bazz/Martin/Love/Pek/Shved/Dieng They're going to be good if they can stay healthy.
Don't want to completely hijack the thread, but as of today the Warrior are 95% done building their roster and I was wondering what some outsiders' perspectives of it were. GS' depth chart: Curry/Douglas/Nedovic/Machado Klay/Bazemore Iggy/Barnes/D. Green Lee/Speights Bogut/Festus*/JO Quick thoughts; swapping out Jack and Landry (and other crap) for Iggy, Speights, JON, and Douglas might make us a little less dynamic on offense. Jack and Landry could both get a good shot for themselves and for certain stretches they could carry the team offensively. The new guys aren't really creators. Iggy is sort of unpredictable in that regard and the other 3 are opportunistic scorers who can be effective, but are typically finishing plays off, not creating them. We're banking on Steph, Klay and Barnes to continue to improve. That said, we added much more size, length, athleticism, and just flat out more talent on defense. Last year's team did well on defense considering the individual talent, but it will be very interesting to see if they can take the defense to another level by adding Iggy and swapping out some pretty below par defenders with guys who are better defenders as well as bigger and longer. And although I've been somewhat critical so far, the guys we added are actually two way players and Speights and JON's ability to shoot could really add a dynamic to the team that we never had with Bogut, Festus, and Landry playing center. And I'm assuming Barnes gets relegated to the bench. Hes a big X factor. He'll be going against reserves quite a bit and he should have a major green light on the second unit.
The biggest question mark for me is Barnes. I just think he's too good being just a bench player. You must give Iggy significant minutes and I can't see Barnes getting more than 15-20 minutes a game. Jerm was a solid pick up because the Aussie does have a history if injury. I really wanted him as a blazer! Other than that; your team is pretty stacked. Still fucking can't stand lee though (no offense)
Barnes will play plenty, because Iggy will play the 2 as well. Douglas will basically take Jack's role, and I think he can create OK. I like Green as a 3/4 reserve and Speights as a 4/5 (I've always liked tweeners as backups, just because of the lineup versatility they provide). They definitely have a chance to be pretty good, but it really all comes down to the health of Curry and Bogut, IMO.
