Blazers to Tankers: FU, We're Winning

[PCmor7]

Cant talent develop though? Some of the guys on this team are still unknowns that might just develop into that needed talent. Playoff experience can be a huge help to growth.

Of course it can develop. But there are limits to that. Is Plumlee going to get significantly stronger or taller or develop a consistent 15 foot jumper? Same with Ed Davis? Maybe. What would you put the likelihood of that? I'd say some improvement is likely, but Davis is 26, Plumlee's 25, Aminu's 25 ... unless they are extremely atypical, what you see from them is probably what you are going to get. How much improvement do you really think Leonard and Crabbe are going to make, and I mean realistically?

There's hope for Vonleh and Montero, but right now they are really far away from being big contributors for a contending team. The odds of them getting anywhere near it are probably 50 percent if you are being an optimist.

Playoff experience can help growth, but you still need the talent to get to the next level. There are a lot of teams and players that made it to the playoffs but it didn't turn them into contenders. Remember the Nuggets team that beat Seattle and played in the Western Conference finals with one player with more than four years of pro experience? The next year it lost in the first round. It missed the playoffs the next eight years. How about those great contending T-Wolves Garnett played for? They lost in the first round seven straight years before finally losing in the Western Conference finals -- and they haven't returned to the playoffs since. The Dominque Wilkins-era Atlanta Hawks made the playoffs 13 times in a 16 years stretch and never made it beyond the second round of the playoffs.

I have a lot of experience, but I am not going to be taking a team deep into the playoffs. There's a reason for that.

 

[e_blazer]

I wish science could figure out a way to beam Sabonis' brain into Meyers' body. Man, that would be something.

Then again, his body would have to learn to adapt to cigarettes and vodka, so I'm not sure that it would be totally good.