The list could be endless, but what are the most important things that need to go right for the Blazers to improve again and be one of the true contenders? 1) obviously health. A healthy Lillard and so forth... 2) The return and continued growth of Nurk. 3) Zach needs to take a big step forward. Fouls, a consistent touch on offense and learn to hold ground. 4) One of Baz or Mario needs show some serious skills, especially in team defense. 5)Whiteside needs to harness his crazy and return to defensively abuse anyone who dares enter the paint. 6)Simons and Hood need to be the best versions of themselves, consistently. What else?
You’re asking what has to happen for them to IMPROVE? So that would be a trip to the Finals, correct? For that to happen, I think the talent has to improve.
Mario comes out as the point forward ET was never able to be. Tolliver thrives in Stotts' scheme and is a consistent 40%+ from 3; or Skal--emboldened by his game 82 showing--comes out and plays to his heretofore untapped potential
I think we will do well if everybody on the team comes out and plays well, outscoring their opponents each night.
Mr. 40 Wins has spoken. http://www.sportstwo.com/threads/2018-around-the-nba-november.336996/page-27#post-4596029 Only off by 13 last year.
I would say that the most important things are Ant and Zach playing at average-starter level, and Hassan playing at 2016-Hassan level.
I don't think the fan sentiment about players will have any impact on the players' performances (apologies to @swish3)
We need to stay relatively healthy. Whiteside needs to be a force defending and serviceable on offense. Pau needs to stay healthy until Nurk is back. Nurk needs to get back to his stellar level of play by April. Collins needs more respect from the refs. Ant needs to show that he’s ready for 20-25 minutes per game. If those things happen we can win it all. We are NOT lacking in talent.
Quite the opposite. The higher the fan level of excitement, support, and energy, the more likely the team will find a higher gear.
Stotts and staff have to adjust to defensive and offensive counter points in a game. The GS series proved that Dame could not drive into traffic and be effective. The defensive aspects truly did suck.
The role players this year need to play as well as the role players we lost from last year. Given that Harkless, Aminu, Jake, Turner, Curry and Leonard were all kind of "meh," it's not exactly a ridiculously high bar to reach. Dame and CJ have to stay healthy. Dame has quietly turned himself into a physical specimen in the past few years, and CJ notoriously avoids contact. So this seems likely. Whiteside has to follow the same playbook that somehow turned Kanter into a passable team defender (and not just a shot blocker). I think this is highly likely--Leonard is the only big I can think of whose defense didn't steadily improve in our system with regular minutes. I'm pretty sure Hood, Bazemore, Gasol and Simons are who I think they are. If they play like I expect, they'll be just fine. If all the above goes according to plan, we'll get 50-54 wins, and maybe home court in the first round. Hezonja and Collins are the real "high upside/high downside" wildcards in my mind. They could really bounce up, or really disappoint. I feel like Collins especially is on the verge of really breaking through, but I remember feeling that way about Meyers for like 6 years, so I just don't trust it. He's such a foul magnet. Simons is the real "definite baseline/high upside" guy for me. At a minimum he gives us much of what Seth Curry did. But this could also be the year where he takes a CJ McCollum-like leap into semi-star.