Are we headed toward the mediocre middle?

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wizenheimer said:
the first team might have been a contender in 3 or 4 years after Oden was drafted. But by then, Roy's real knees were as shot as Oden's real knees. So, as I said, they weren't close to contending

neither was the Dame/Aldridge team. They had a 6-10 record in the playoffs, then fell apart

those teams were 'contenders' in the same way the current team is a contender if they had only drafted Middleton instead of Meyers, Giannis instead of CJ, and Adebayo instead of Zach. Alternate realities for the wins!
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Let me give you my perspective on what a contender in pro sports means to me....it means making the playoffs....having the ability to contend for a title....being a contender doesn't make you a champion...just another team that either wins it all or plays for a lower result....just like college hoops...March madness is where schools truly get to contend for a national title....if they make the sweet 16 or the final 4...they are contenders....we have eight straight years of contending in my view and for most of them have had game changing injuries come playoff time....that WCF team would have been so much better with Nurk and Enes rotating and Dame not having his first real abdominal pain...as it was we had home court a couple times as well....you lose in the playoffs...credit the other team...it's not all on your team for coming up against a hot team in a series....that happens. When you get beat in the playoffs by the team that goes on to win it all like the Lakers did and the Warriors did....you were a contender just like every other team they beat to get the title. The LA Batum Dame Rolo Wes team was as good as any team in the league before Wes went down and Rolo got hurt and Lamarcus had dangling thumbs.....bad luck...just bad luck...yes...the Blazers have suffered injury bad luck more than lack of talent on the roster....we'd have been better with a healthy Zach Collins probably too....just didn't pan out. Championships are so hard to win because so many little things factor into that happening...everything has to click almost all the time...and stay healthy.
 
riverman said:
Let me give you my perspective on what a contender in pro sports means to me....it means making the playoffs
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sorry...there were not 16 contenders last year when the playoffs started anymore then there were 30 contenders when the season started. Portland made the playoffs last season and they sure as hell were not a contender. And neither was the team that beat them in the first round. And there won't be 16 contenders when the playoffs start this season. Don't need to try and parse the semantics of the word 'contender'
 
THE HCP said:
Correct nobody said they have been contenders. But I’ll take squeezing into the playoffs every year over This shit.
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I'll take 'this shit' if it means getting a Draft pick anywhere close to Dame.
I'll take 'this shit' to finally find out what Ant/Nas can be.
I'll take both of those shits before being ceremoniously dismissed in the 1st round year after year.
 
TBpup said:
I'll take 'this shit' if it means getting a Draft pick anywhere close to Dame.
I'll take 'this shit' to finally find out what Ant/Nas can be.
I'll take both of those shits before being ceremoniously dismissed in the 1st round year after year.
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I'll take the playoffs and close to 50 wins for 9 straight years. You can have the ifs and maybes.
 
TBpup said:
I'll take 'this shit' if it means getting a Draft pick anywhere close to Dame.
I'll take 'this shit' to finally find out what Ant/Nas can be.
I'll take both of those shits before being ceremoniously dismissed in the 1st round year after year.
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Get at me in FIVE years and let me know how it goes.
 
The Timberwolves and the Knicks hold that higher honor (as of today). I never thought this team would need to set our sights towards the records of these two.
 
Orion Bailey said:
@Mediocre Man thoughts? I doubt you want everyone to be like you, no? :)
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I hate this shit. I am so fucking tired of KNOWING this team will be an also ran EVERY FUCKING YEAR. Andy Dufresne said …… hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies…. I’m fucking tired of never having hope. This team is constructed to make the playoffs, not to win a title. What’s so fucking annoying about that is the majority of fans are ok with that. This team, as constructed, will never win shit. It will never be taken seriously as a title contender. This fucking team needs to commit to winning a title. It needs to take steps daily to do that. THIS team is never going to win, so tear it down, identify players to move forward with that fit whatever timeline you identify and COMMIT to WINNING A TITLE.

So much more rant to spew, but that’s the gist of it

 
If you finish top 4 in the league during regular season or the playoffs you were a contender.
 
One of the reasons the NBA along with other pro sports gets the huge TV deals is that fans really love playoffs and enjoy watching their teams make the playoffs. Advancing and championship is the ultimate.
March madness is huge because of the expanded tourney years ago. MLB finally expanded their playoffs and it's has paid off big time. NFL, NHL & NBA expanded as well. Now, College Football is looking at expanding?
If fans were strictly interested in ships, these leagues would not be viable as viewership wouldn't be there. The game itself is enough for most fans, otherwise arenas would be empty.
The day after Lenny Wilkens was fired from Portland he said " watch Bill will be healthy and they will win a championship"
 
Hoopguru said:
One of the reasons the NBA along with other pro sports gets the huge TV deals is that fans really love playoffs and enjoy watching their teams make the playoffs. Advancing and championship is the ultimate.
March madness is huge because of the expanded tourney years ago. MLB finally expanded their playoffs and it's has paid off big time. NFL, NHL & NBA expanded as well. Now, College Football is looking at expanding?
If fans were strictly interested in ships, these leagues would not be viable as viewership wouldn't be there. The game itself is enough for most fans, otherwise arenas would be empty.
The day after Lenny Wilkens was fired from Portland he said " watch Bill will be healthy and they will win a championship"
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Bill Walton was one of the best basketball players of all time when he was healthy. Put Bill Walton on the Blazers any year and if he's healthy they could win the championship.

God he was good. I've watched so much footage... I wish I were alive when he was healthy...
 
Phatguysrule said:
Bill Walton was one of the best basketball players of all time when he was healthy. Put Bill Walton on the Blazers any year and if he's healthy they could win the championship.

God he was good. I've watched so much footage... I wish I were alive when he was healthy...
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He made players around him so much better when on the court!
 
Mediocre Man said:
I hate this shit. I am so fucking tired of KNOWING this team will be an also ran EVERY FUCKING YEAR. Andy Dufresne said …… hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies…. I’m fucking tired of never having hope. This team is constructed to make the playoffs, not to win a title. What’s so fucking annoying about that is the majority of fans are ok with that. This team, as constructed, will never win shit. It will never be taken seriously as a title contender. This fucking team needs to commit to winning a title. It needs to take steps daily to do that. THIS team is never going to win, so tear it down, identify players to move forward with that fit whatever timeline you identify and COMMIT to WINNING A TITLE.

So much more rant to spew, but that’s the gist of it
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now that is a post to be proud of. A Shawshank reference; a judicious use of caps-lock; a half dozens 'fuckings'; and a hint of more to come

you da Mediocre Man!!
 
Mediocre Man said:
Not remotely
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You're more than welcome to feel that way. Most people would disagree.

Many teams have been swept in the finals. Were they not contenders either?

I get that you're frustrated, and fan is short for fanatic. But come on... Let's give credit where it is due.

Are we also saying Cleveland weren't contenders in 2017 or 2018 (or multiple other times they were destroyed in the finals with LeBron), Miami wasn't a contender in 2014, okc weren't contenders in 2012, Lakers weren't contenders in 2004 when they were swept by the Pistons...

Seriously. There are more contenders every season than just the last 2 teams. And results on the court matter. Otherwise we wouldn't play the games.
 
Mediocre Man said:
I hate this shit. I am so fucking tired of KNOWING this team will be an also ran EVERY FUCKING YEAR. Andy Dufresne said …… hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies…. I’m fucking tired of never having hope. This team is constructed to make the playoffs, not to win a title. What’s so fucking annoying about that is the majority of fans are ok with that. This team, as constructed, will never win shit. It will never be taken seriously as a title contender. This fucking team needs to commit to winning a title. It needs to take steps daily to do that. THIS team is never going to win, so tear it down, identify players to move forward with that fit whatever timeline you identify and COMMIT to WINNING A TITLE.

So much more rant to spew, but that’s the gist of it
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Agreed. The team as constructed was always likely to fail. Too many key players have injury problems.

Olshey should have been fired before Stotts. The new GM should have figured out where to go from there.
 
wizenheimer said:
now that is a post to be proud of. A Shawshank reference; a judicious use of caps-lock; a half dozens 'fuckings'; and a hint of more to come

you da Mediocre Man!!
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don't think "judicious" means what you think it does
 
Phatguysrule said:
Are we also saying Cleveland weren't contenders in 2017 or 2018 (or multiple other times they were destroyed in the finals with LeBron), Miami wasn't a contender in 2014, okc weren't contenders in 2012, Lakers weren't contenders in 2004 when they were swept by the Pistons...
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c'mon man

both Cleveland and Miami won championships the year before the one you mentioned. And both OKC and LAL actually made it to the finals before losing 4-1. The Lakers got to the finals by beating the reigning NBA champion Spurs in the conference finals. OKC got to the finals with a 12-3 record in the playoffs before facing Miami

none of those situations is similar to the Blazers in 2019 getting swept in the conference finals. Contenders don't consistently end the playoffs with a whimper. The Dame/CJ teams record in close-out playoff series is 4-24. When the Warriors swept them in 2019, that record was 1-16. That's not a contender
 
wizenheimer said:
c'mon man

both Cleveland and Miami won championships the year before the one you mentioned. And both OKC and LAL actually made it to the finals before losing 4-1. The Lakers got to the finals by beating the reigning NBA champion Spurs in the conference finals. OKC got to the finals with a 12-3 record in the playoffs before facing Miami

none of those situations is similar to the Blazers in 2019 getting swept in the conference finals. Contenders don't consistently end the playoffs with a whimper. The Dame/CJ teams record in close-out playoff series is 4-24. When the Warriors swept them in 2019, that record was 1-16. That's not a contender
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No problem. If your reality includes contenders who don't make it as far in the playoffs as non-contenders that's fine by me.

Fan is short for fanatic.
 
If the Blazers were the Kings over last 15-20 years I doubt this site would be as active. The fact that the Blazers historically have usually been in the playoff hunt has hypnotized all of us as fans of the team and sport. You’re under a spell and don’t realize it.
 
TBpup said:
No. Contenders don't get swept.
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We swept the lakers in 77 they were #1 seed and we were #3 seed. They were an early version of a super team to, I guess they were not contenders?
 
Hoopguru said:
We swept the lakers in 77 they were #1 seed and we were #3 seed. They were an early version of a super team to, I guess they were not contenders?
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Not that year, or they would have given the Blazers a better battle. Being even the #1 seed doesn't make you a contender.
 
Hoopguru said:
We swept the lakers in 77 they were #1 seed and we were #3 seed. They were an early version of a super team to, I guess they were not contenders?
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the NBA has changed over 44 years

Portland was not a contender in 2019 because the Warriors stood in their way and the Blazers had no hope of beating the Warriors. None. Portland and Golden State had met in the playoffs 3 times in 4 years and Portland's record against them was 1-12, and the 1 win came when Curry was injured and out of the game. If you add in the regular season, the Blazers were 5-27 against the Warriors over those 4 years. The Warriors were Portland's crucible and they failed every time.
 
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