Sure everything broke right for them. And everything broke right for basically EVERY team that has had a good amount of success in the league. You need a good amount of luck. Everything broke right for OKC, they could have had Oden and Bayless. Teams need a considerable amount of luck to get to the top in our league. You see plenty of franchises who sit in the lottery forever because they don't have that luck.
It's all conjecture at this point. We haven't played a single game. We have no idea how the new guys will mesh with the old guys. We have no idea how much Lillard will progress this year. About the only sure things are Aldridge and Matthews. We pretty much know what we have in those two, and I don't expect much more or less. The rest is a complete unknown for me, and I'm excited to see how it plays out.
While I agree with you, I'm not sure if OKC would be a good comparison because I don't think we have a Durant-level player on our team. Aldridge is an All-Star, no doubt, and quite possibly the best power forward in the game, but is he a superstar? Will Lillard be a superstar? We need that top-ten level talent if we hope to get past the first and second rounds.
Westbrook is arguably the second best point guard in the league. I think he would make some top-ten lists, so no, we probably don't have a Westbrook either.
Ah good points. So even after tanking, and a team striking gold with the best draft selection of any team in a couple years, those teams have to not only add one additional all-star, but get a 3rd great player to get a title. That makes it sound like tanking to build a contender is so insanely difficult, so highly unlikely to succeed that it’s nearly a lost cause. The owners of a tanking team will have to be willing to lose millions in revenue while they intentionally suck.
Cleveland made the finals Orlando made the finals Hornicans lost in the WCF None of that says Pugatory
I agree. Wasn't trying to compare rosters at all. Just trying to say that them, with 2 top 10 ish players on the team, didn't even make the jump from bottom feeder to top 5 team. That almost every team goes through a progression. And OKC always seems to be the team brought up as the ONLY way you build a team, or should. The "OKC Model". Tank, get a superstar or two, and championship. Which takes an equal amount of luck, IMO, as does moving from the middle to the top. Maybe even more.
The OKC model is the Blazers model, BTW. One that would have been ridiculously successful had we either A had a healthy oden B had a healthy Roy C drafted Durant
Well, I think that's Max's point. We don't have a superstar and we won't be getting one unless we tank. The likelihood of us signing a star is almost zero, and the chances of us trading for one is very very slim. Even if we traded Aldridge, it would most likely be for a young up-and-comer and not an established star. So his point about us being trapped in the middle is a valid concern, but I think it's too early to freak out. We really don't know how good Lillard will be, and I still have hope that Batum will stop being so inconsistent.
It's been a while since the Blazers made the playoffs . . . hoping this is the year we finally get back into the playoffs.
Wow. I guess I was silly for living in hell since April. Because ESPN said no way do the A's duplicate last year's miracle, they will be back in third place (out of four) or in last place. Silly me for actually watching the games. Oh yeah, guess who won the West? This time with time to spare?
Nobody that I've seen has argued that T-Rob *IS* the next Buck. I said that I hoped he could "fill that role". HCP made a similar comparison. The fact that Buck had a "sublimated" role compared to his total potential in no way invalidates the possibility that a revitalized T-Rob might do some of the same things for us that a sublimated Buck did.
Theres some people who think you can't work your way up and the only chance you have to succeed is by having things handed to you. Upward mobility is the american dream, all you terrorists who think they are "stuck in mediocrity" must love obama like all the other lazy communists
