Or do you think they need to add some more pieces before they can be a legitimate threat? I think the window is open NOW. We have a great starting 5 and our bench is improved with the acquisitions of Kaman and Blake. CJ looks good and players like TRob, Leonard, and Freeland should be better with another year of experience.
HELL YES!!! If we stay healthy and our backups make serious strides during the regular season, which means Stotts has to do a Popovich and spend the regular season getting them ready for the playoffs. So, yeah, why not?
They won't come out and say it but I think Olshey and Allen think they have a winner. I think if you are buying what they are doing I think you have to say they are. They should be better because the bench will be better and if you ask many that was the hold up last year.
I'm not sure. It will be interesting to see how the league handles the Blazers. I would imagine ht league doesn't feel they are a contender and will probably not hype them up as so especially not being a big market team.
Btw, Canzano is on record that the Blazers will NOT win a series. Who wants to take care of this small prob for us?
Need to see some better D, man. This is not that out of the realm of possibilities. Look at what happened to GS the last two years.
I think it's possible. Kaman and Blake are a pretty significant upgrade for us, teh Development of CJ, Thrill, Robinson and even maybe Leonard will be the difference between Yes and Close.
Well, we have the 2 superstar rule and now added some role playing vets to our youth. I would argue our starting 5 is better than any in the league, so the question was really our bench. If our bench is above average, I will be a believer and say "YES WE ARE"
I'm not like many that thought GS was a legit team. They had some major gapping holes. And many of their key players are injury prone.
We have the same shot as the Spurs, Thunder and Clippers to make it imo. I believe we are still one more proven guy away from "winning it all" though. We needed to also pick up a guy like Shawn Marion or AK47 last offseason to go with Blake/Kaman.
I disagree... Marion or AK47 would be extremely unhappy getting 12-15 minutes a game. That would cause turmoil. And quite frankly I think our current young guys maybe just enough to be of that type of player (Will, CJ, and Wright).
How many minutes do you think Marion and AK47 are getting in Cleveland and Brooklyn? About the same as they would get here ~15. Those guys are team first vets imo and wouldn't complain, especially since our team is so close knit together. They would've fit right in.
Ak is always injured so I don't want none of that. Marion used his athleticism to be good. Does he still have it? Then take minutes away from our youngsters? Meh
They wouldn't be taking minutes away from CJ, Will, or T-Rob (okay maybe a little of T-Rob's) they would be taking over the hole that is backup 3. Marion and AK are very capable defenders still... I agree that AK has his problems with injuries so I would lean towards Marion.
Let's see how we play defense and our bench plays in a regular season game. I think our chances are better than Miami and NY, which Vegas says are the same, but agree with SA, OKC, and the LAC all having much better chances.
Completely agree, This small market vs Large Market issue is the only thing that holds me back from really saying yes. It's easy to say the Blazers have a great starting 5 and that they now have a good bench, That they can pretty match up with anybody. The real question is does the league want to agree?
These guys can win it all if they are able to put it together. It's just a matter of retaining them next season, I don't know that they can put it together this year, but they should be close!
