Bleacher Report pegs us at 45 wins next year - What did we win this past year, 54? Most of us will admit that we were surprised, as was the rest of the league, at that blistering start up into December. Then we fell back to Earth. And it took Damian's miracle 3 to get to the 2nd round (doubt we would have won in Houston). So, did we overachieve, or were we really that good? I think we were, and are, about a 50 win team. Which ain't chopped liver, but we overachieved, yes.
YES we did. Nobody expected that amount of wins. Great seasons, but I think we outdid what everybody thought we'd do. That said, 50-53 wins this season would be about right. West is tough again.
I think the Blazers overachieved...their early run of dominance wasn't sustainable but the wins they got during that run were banked. After that, they played more to their "true talent level" (in my opinion). I think around 50 wins is realistic for the coming season and that's actually because I believe they improved in the off-season. Not a huge improvement, but I think Blake and Kaman will prevent things from falling apart when Lillard sits and especially on defense when Rolo hits the bench. I also think Dorell Wright will play better in the upcoming season than the did last year. IMO, anything near 50 wins is really impressive in such a stacked conference.
Yes. Part of that was extraordinary good luck with injuries. Part of it was the amazing and unexpected effect of replacing JJ Hickson with Robin Lopez.
I'm on record for predicting the Blazers would go 82-0 so I firmly believe we underachieved last year.
This is pretty much it. I think anyone who had realistic expectations were presently surprised, while even the most pessimistic expectation was met with "Well, this is great!" *please note that Mixums' vote did not count in this study. He was disqualified for mere silliness of epic proportions
Did we win the title? If not, then, no, we did not over achieve. There may be some under - expectation going on though.
There's an old saying that I think holds true for the Blazers: First you win, then you get good. I think we shocked ourselves in the first half of the season and then when we got LA back after his injury through the Houston series we got really good. Our win total may not be much better next year, but I think we'll be a much better team than at the beginning of last year.
Success in the NBA does have a ton to do with scheduling and we had an easy(ier) one so that's a tough question. Guess it does somewhat depend on your expectations. And don't give me that "I'm a realist BS," everyone has some form of bias positive or negative.
We overachieved sure but that doesnt mean our sucess was a fluke. There will be no huge improvements but we dont need huge improvements to take the leap from a good team to a top 4 in the west team. The starters gelling a little better on the D side, our bench being better on both sides and more importantly having some consistency will be enough to keep us at the level we played at last year. I think 55 wins 4th seed.
Sure we overachieved. (That is a good thing... right?) So we may not win 54 this year, but we could still make the 5th seed again. If the west is tougher this upcoming year, than everyone will lose more games.