Are the Blazers a gigantic Wild Card in the West?

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Wild card? I thought it was obvious the Blazers were going to be the undeniable favorites to win it all, but then again I've been reading a lot of mags' posts.
 
We will be one of the bottom five teams in the league.
 
stampedehero said:
Where did you come from??? Appears like.... :evilfire::devilwink::gasoline::grim::hater::smiley-domi71b2::smiley-elektro: :smiley-bigcry: :smiley-love: :inquisition: Chill .. Relax...Be :smiley-happysmoke::smiley-handshake: :smiley-sunce::smiley-thankyou:
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Where did I come from? Where did you come from rook? Calling me a hater but you just went on about how our players names don't incite any fear in our opponents. But I just named Kevin Durant (who again sounds like a Tax Attorney) and that dispels your "logic". The actual hating was when you were conflating our players skills with their names...
 
tlongII said:
We will be one of the bottom five teams in the league.
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It's funny, I thought you were right until I looked at all the new rosters. Now I am not so sure.

You have Minnesota, Philly, NY, NJ, Boston, Denver, and Detroit that potentially could be worse. Not sure about the Lakers, Dallas, Charlotte,and Orlando. That is 11 teams that right now when I look at their players.......they are not any better off.

I am not saying we are better than all of them, but seriously take a look at those rosters. A lot of young teams.....just like the Blazers.
 
I think a lot of people are a little too quick to write off this team, and are particularly sleeping on Leonard. He had a very solid coming out party in the playoffs, and I think he's ready to take the next step and become more of a featured player in the offense. (Sort of reminds me of that playoff series where Randolph nearly pulled us out of the first round.) He may not be the guy you can throw it into and get production like you could with LMA, but he doesn't take all the bad midrange shots that LMA did either. He really is developing a nice pick-and-roll game, where he's a threat to pop out to the three point line or finish at the rim.



The above video is the anti-Aldridge, which isn't really so bad in some ways. Set really wide screens and make yourself available at the perimeter or the rim. Rinse and repeat.

People talk a lot about CJ, but I really wouldn't be surprised to see Leonard put up 18ppg/7.5 rebs (the numbers Aldridge put up when he was 23) with a more featured role. When we drafted him, he was lacking basic competence and court awareness. He's clearly at a stage now where it's more confidence than anything else. I have no doubt that Stotts is going to look at his last season's gaudy shooting averages and tell him to start firing, and that confidence will come.

Will it make the playoffs? Probably not. But I don't see this team winning 25 games either.
 
mook said:
I think a lot of people are a little too quick to write off this team, and are particularly sleeping on Leonard. He had a very solid coming out party in the playoffs, and I think he's ready to take the next step and become more of a featured player in the offense. (Sort of reminds me of that playoff series where Randolph nearly pulled us out of the first round.) He may not be the guy you can throw it into and get production like you could with LMA, but he doesn't take all the bad midrange shots that LMA did either. He really is developing a nice pick-and-roll game, where he's a threat to pop out to the three point line or finish at the rim.

The above video is the anti-Aldridge, which isn't really so bad in some ways. Set really wide screens and make yourself available at the perimeter or the rim. Rinse and repeat.

People talk a lot about CJ, but I really wouldn't be surprised to see Leonard put up 18ppg/7.5 rebs (the numbers Aldridge put up when he was 23) with a more featured role. When we drafted him, he was lacking basic competence and court awareness. He's clearly at a stage now where it's more confidence than anything else. I have no doubt that Stotts is going to look at his last season's gaudy shooting averages and tell him to start firing, and that confidence will come.

Will it make the playoffs? Probably not. But I don't see this team winning 25 games either.
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I think you are right. I know we as fans are accused of overvaluing our own team's players too much, but in a lot of ways I really think it is just the opposite. We are very aware of their weaknesses because they tend to piss us off, analyzed, and remembered....especially when we lose. We never forget them.

But when we watch players from other teams we only tend to remember their highlights. We really are not that focused on every aspect of their game like we are for our own players.

So when we start comparing what we have on our roster, vs what other average teams have on their rosters, players like Leonard may produce more then we think.

I don't think we make the playoffs either. We just need
these young players to grow a lot this season.
 
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dviss1 said:
Where did I come from? Where did you come from rook? Calling me a hater but you just went on about how our players names don't incite any fear in our opponents. But I just named Kevin Durant (who again sounds like a Tax Attorney) and that dispels your "logic". The actual hating was when you were conflating our players skills with their names...
Click to expand...
-> Your hostility and beligerance are obvious. Just ignore my posts and I'll do the same your way. That is the best solution.
 
This team needs another all-star or two if they're ever going to do anything. The best way to acquire one is via a very high draft pick. We should all be praying for a very bad season so we can draft another player that's worth having.
 
This team is such an enigma to me. I dont' think any team in the last 15 years have I been more confused on what we are going to be. We revamped our D with the cost of experience and shooting and we just have so many unknowns. We'v seen flashes of greatness from a lot of our unknowns and we'v got a closer who seems to be better at it then Roy was but who suddenly is going to have the brunt of the opposing teams focus instead of being the second player they prepared for.
I think our D is going to be good and its our O that is going to flutter and we will have a lot of games decided by 3 or less points. There will be games we click and we will be saying "lMA who?" and games that I won't make it through because I have broken my TV.
I could be talked into 15-45 wins anywhere in their you can make an arguement. Lillard is going to take the next step, CJ/Leonard weren't flashes in the pan and will step up, Vonleh will be injury free and show why he was so touted our of HS, Aminu will find his shot, Ed Davis/Plumlee will prove to be better then expected Bam 45 win team. Or the opposite and everyone sucks or regresses and 15 wins and 1-5 in the lottery.
 
ebott said:
This team needs another all-star or two if they're ever going to do anything. The best way to acquire one is via a very high draft pick. We should all be praying for a very bad season so we can draft another player that's worth having.
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We have 3 players currently (CJ, Leonard and Vonleh) that has the potential to be all-stars. We won't be bad enough to get a pick in the top 5 unless Lady Luck lets us win it, being the 10th-14th worst team in the league. All 4 spots have less than a 0.5% chance of that happening.

Anyone, and I mean ANYONE, that believes we have a shot at being one of the top 6 worst teams is seriously fucking low balling us. No chance in hell its happening and I am willing to wager $100 1/1 that it won't happen.

Our true shot is being good enough, with the current team assembled, to entice a all-star to come via trade or free agency. For free agency, we will need to be 8-10 in the west to even have a shot. For trades, we need to part with a combo of CJ and Vonleh/Leonard.

There is another chance, but the chance of this happening is about a hypothetical 3%. We could trade our cap space and solid player (CJ, Plumlee or Davis) for an albatross contract for a top 5 protected pick and hope they are just bad enough to be 6-7th worse team in the league.
 
tlongII said:
We will be one of the bottom five teams in the league.
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that would be a good thing, we'd get a great pick. You failed and actually stated a positive about the Blazers in your post. You should give up now.
 
mook said:
I think a lot of people are a little too quick to write off this team, and are particularly sleeping on Leonard. He had a very solid coming out party in the playoffs, and I think he's ready to take the next step and become more of a featured player in the offense. (Sort of reminds me of that playoff series where Randolph nearly pulled us out of the first round.) He may not be the guy you can throw it into and get production like you could with LMA, but he doesn't take all the bad midrange shots that LMA did either. He really is developing a nice pick-and-roll game, where he's a threat to pop out to the three point line or finish at the rim.



The above video is the anti-Aldridge, which isn't really so bad in some ways. Set really wide screens and make yourself available at the perimeter or the rim. Rinse and repeat.

People talk a lot about CJ, but I really wouldn't be surprised to see Leonard put up 18ppg/7.5 rebs (the numbers Aldridge put up when he was 23) with a more featured role. When we drafted him, he was lacking basic competence and court awareness. He's clearly at a stage now where it's more confidence than anything else. I have no doubt that Stotts is going to look at his last season's gaudy shooting averages and tell him to start firing, and that confidence will come.

Will it make the playoffs? Probably not. But I don't see this team winning 25 games either.
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He works hard, I'm a little worried that he's not going at it now that he's married though.

I think you're spot on.. but I also think he's underrated in the low post. His jump hook looks so certain and easy for him, that if he develops a couple different moves to counter he'll be a good low post scorer.

Now if they somehow helped him make his first step quicker he'd be scoring 22ppg. He'd be more effective than Aldridge. The thing is, its hard to develop quickness at 7 foot 1.
 
I'm kinda bummed about is signing Davis. It takes away minutes from Vonleh and Plumlee. Plumlee, Meyers, and Vonleh should all be getting 30 minutes. We might be a little worse, but that's a good thing. And a lineup with Meyers, Vonleh, Dame and CJ could be offensive gold. I wish we could run those guys out together me because of they could at least be average on defense, then you got something brewing.
 
If by gigantic wildcard you mean no chance in hell, then ABSOLUTELY
 
magnifier661 said:
We have 3 players currently (CJ, Leonard and Vonleh) that has the potential to be all-stars. We won't be bad enough to get a pick in the top 5 unless Lady Luck lets us win it, being the 10th-14th worst team in the league. All 4 spots have less than a 0.5% chance of that happening.

Anyone, and I mean ANYONE, that believes we have a shot at being one of the top 6 worst teams is seriously fucking low balling us. No chance in hell its happening and I am willing to wager $100 1/1 that it won't happen.

Our true shot is being good enough, with the current team assembled, to entice a all-star to come via trade or free agency. For free agency, we will need to be 8-10 in the west to even have a shot. For trades, we need to part with a combo of CJ and Vonleh/Leonard.

There is another chance, but the chance of this happening is about a hypothetical 3%. We could trade our cap space and solid player (CJ, Plumlee or Davis) for an albatross contract for a top 5 protected pick and hope they are just bad enough to be 6-7th worse team in the league.
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we were number 5 and couldnt keep our own all stars. I've never been this pessimistic. I mean 71-11 isn't even record breaking and I truly believe that is our ceiling.
 
BonesJones said:
I'm kinda bummed about is signing Davis. It takes away minutes from Vonleh and Plumlee. Plumlee, Meyers, and Vonleh should all be getting 30 minutes. We might be a little worse, but that's a good thing. And a lineup with Meyers, Vonleh, Dame and CJ could be offensive gold. I wish we could run those guys out together me because of they could at least be average on defense, then you got something brewing.
Click to expand...

There is no downside IMO in the Davis signing. How many times do we make it though the season without 2-3 big's going down?

Plumlee and Leonard are going to get 28-30 minutes regardless. I understand why you want to get Vonleh as many minutes as possible, but I think starting out with 15-18 , and then 25-30 when our depth is depleted, will serve the same purpose.

Also with all your possible trade scenarios, won't he come in handy? Either has part of a package, or starting when everyone else has been traded? I think he and his contract are good assets to have.
 
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