Do you guys believe that Portland is a contender?

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it's_GO_time said:
It is hard to argue Blazers (or for that matter NO) are a legit threat to win it all. I only put Boston, LA and maybe SA (because it is their year) in that category. So I agree Blazers are not a contender (and I agree NO was not a contender last year as I don't think they had a chance against LA . . . I do think NO had a chance against SA with game 7 at home)

But, because I'm a Blazer fan I will expand the defintion of contender to kingspeeds defintion. So I think the Blazers are a contender. :D
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Cleveland? They have improved over last year and it took Boston 7 games last year in the Eastern semis to eliminate them.
 
Nikolokolus said:
God forbid we lose to the Mavs tonight (we always suck in Dallas) or against the Thunder on Friday (who pose a serious matchup problem in Durant and Westbrook; serious athletes at the wing and point guard which always seems to give us fits).
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I actually like the defense that Portland can put on Westbrook and Durant, in Bayless and Batum. Chris Paul and Deron Williams give Portland fits, but Westbrook isn't in the class of either as a distributor. I think he's a very similar type of player to Bayless and that should be a fun match-up. Durant is pretty amazing of late, but what he lacks is the physical strength to overwhelm Batum.
 
Natebishop3 said:
If Oden doesn't dominate against OKC, I will be severely disappointed. Who is their starting center anyway?
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kristic I believe ... I actually don't even think it's going to be about him dominating the Thunder Frontcourt, I think he's going to have a ton of trouble staying out of foul trouble with Westbrook diving into the lane and taking him out of the equation with 3 or 4 quick fouls. Oden's achilles heel (aside from committing stupid touch fouls) is our guards' inability to cut off dribble penetration ... unless Jerryd can get the job done.
 
We're about as much as a contender for the NBA championship as the Arizona Cardinals are for going to the Super Bowl or as much as the Phillies are to win the World Series (or the Tampa Bay Rays are to even go to the World Series for that matter). Oh, wait...
 
B-Roy said:
That's funny, because I don't recall ever facing Russell Westbrook.:devilwink:

Oh, and when have small forwards ever dominated us? Besides Bron.
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Westbrook gets to the foul line like Jerryd, and Durant has turned into a helluva three point shooter, that's two areas at which we suck defensively.

I'm not saying they are guaranteed to win, but I won't be surprised if that ends up being a very close game on Friday ... part of it is due to home court advantage.
 
Nikolokolus said:
kristic I believe ... I actually don't even think it's going to be about him dominating the Thunder Frontcourt, I think he's going to have a ton of trouble staying out of foul trouble with Westbrook diving into the lane and taking him out of the equation with 3 or 4 quick fouls. Oden's achilles heel (aside from committing stupid touch fouls) is our guards' inability to cut off dribble penetration ... unless Jerryd can get the job done.
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I think if we actually go to him, Oden should be able to get their big guys in foul trouble rather quickly.
 
I think we have a damn fine (and fun) team. Very young, very exciting, I really like the addition of the new rookies, they've meshed well with the core group. But they ARE rookies, Oden didn't play at all last year, Batum's season in france ended, I think, before the playoffs (at least his team's participation in the EuroLeague), Bayless is still up and down and Rudy, well Rudy is magnificent, he will probably win both the dunk and 3-point competition one day, but probably not in the same year. But he, also, is still a rookie who doesn't even come close to reaching his full potential.

To answer your question - I can't answer your question, the players can. and maybe Nate should ask them dat.
 
Minstrel said:
Not if you have no real chance of winning both the WCF and the Finals. I think there would be an element of over-performance for Portland to reach the WCF and, at that point, they'd be in a final four with three much better teams...the Lakers, Celtics and Cavaliers. At that point, their chances of winning two seven-game series would be essentially zero.
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If you're in it, you have a chance to win it.
 
it's_GO_time said:
Don't put to much stock in taht Jazz win. Utah was ccoming off a back to back game, have not been good on the road this year and were missing AK (Boozer too, but he has been out a good part of the season) . . . all the while the Blazers had a tune up game at home with a rest befoer playing the Jazz.

I think tongiht's game will be very a good indication of where the Blazers are right now . . .
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The Jazz win was HUGE. Even if ALL their players were hurt, it was still huge for two reasons:

1) We prevented Utah from winning the tie breaker.

2) Utah pulled 5 losses ahead of us.

It didn't matter who was playing the game. We needed the win. Same thing about the Hornets game. Doesn't matter that Paul didn't play the end of the game. It tied the season series for us and pushed into 4th place.

At the end of the season, only wins and losses matter. Wins against battered teams count the same as wins against healthy teams.

If we LOST that game to Utah, they would've had renewed hope. They would've pulled into 3 losses ahead of us and they would've won the tiebreaker. We would've been playing with fire, ESPECIALLY since they had lots of injuries.
 
KingSpeed said:
If you're in it, you have a chance to win it.
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Every team has a "chance" to win the championship at the start of the season, for example. It's generally probabilities that determine whether one is a "legitimate" contender. I agree that Portland would have a chance to win the title. I just think that chance would be to slim too call them a real contender.
 
PapaG said:
Cleveland? They have improved over last year and it took Boston 7 games last year in the Eastern semis to eliminate them.
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Um yeah! Cleveland is a contender every year for the next 8 years at least. They reached the Finals in 2007, they nearly knocked off the Celtics as you said, and they are a better team this year.
 
Blazer4ever said:
I think we have a damn fine (and fun) team. Very young, very exciting, I really like the addition of the new rookies, they've meshed well with the core group. But they ARE rookies, Oden didn't play at all last year, Batum's season in france ended, I think, before the playoffs (at least his team's participation in the EuroLeague), Bayless is still up and down and Rudy, well Rudy is magnificent, he will probably win both the dunk and 3-point competition one day, but probably not in the same year. But he, also, is still a rookie who doesn't even come close to reaching his full potential.

To answer your question - I can't answer your question, the players can. and maybe Nate should ask them dat.
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Read my signature.
 
Norman Dale said:
We're about as much as a contender for the NBA championship as the Arizona Cardinals are for going to the Super Bowl or as much as the Phillies are to win the World Series (or the Tampa Bay Rays are to even go to the World Series for that matter). Oh, wait...
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Or as much as the 76/77 Blazers were to winning the NBA championship.
 
Norman Dale said:
We're about as much as a contender for the NBA championship as the Arizona Cardinals are for going to the Super Bowl or as much as the Phillies are to win the World Series (or the Tampa Bay Rays are to even go to the World Series for that matter). Oh, wait...
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I didn't know the greatest movie high school basketball coach lived in Sherwood. Sweet! Go Hickory!
 
I'd say tonight's game gave us a clear answer: no.

If the Blazers can't win a moderately tough game on the road, the best they can hope for is a first round elimination.
 
oldmangrouch said:
I'd say tonight's game gave us a clear answer: no.

If the Blazers can't win a moderately tough game on the road, the best they can hope for is a first round elimination.
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Please. It's just one game. We beat Orlando in Orlando. At 30-18 and 4th place in the very competitive Western Conference, we are absolutely a contender.
 
KingSpeed said:
Please. It's just one game. We beat Orlando in Orlando. At 30-18 and 4th place in the very competitive Western Conference, we are absolutely a contender.
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We beat the Magic on the 10th of November. Way to reach.

You are only as good as your current play. We are a contender of a playoff spot, but are still out-classed by veteran teams.
 
craigehlo said:
We beat the Magic on the 10th of November. Way to reach.

You are only as good as your current play. We are a contender of a playoff spot, but are still out-classed by veteran teams.
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Be beat the Hornets and Jazz in our last couple games.
 
Our biggest road wins.

Orlando (By far the biggest)

Detroit (They suck now)

New Orleans (No CP3 in the final quarter)

Hell, I think that's it. You NEED to win games to the road in the playoffs, and so far, Portland has shown a knack of getting crushed on the road. Blowout losses to the Suns, Jazz, Lakers, Mavs (Yes, it wasn't really that close), and Celtics prove this (and almost to the Hornets too). Yes, those are all good teams, but you aren't going to face shitty teams in the playoffs.

Therefore, I don't think we're a contender.
 
KingSpeed said:
Be beat the Hornets and Jazz in our last couple games.
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That's proof that maybe we can beat the Cavs without LeBron or the Lakers without Kobe.

Tonight was our first true test of a veteran team at full strength and we failed.
 
craigehlo said:
That's proof that maybe we can beat the Cavs without LeBron or the Lakers without Kobe.

Tonight was our first true test of a veteran team at full strength and we failed.
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So we lose ONE true test by 5 points and that means we're done? That means we can't get better as the season goes on? And earn homecourt advantage in the first round therby meaning that we don't even HAVE to win on the road to win a series?
 
If we beat a healthy San Antonio or Houston or Cleveland on the road, will you change your tune and make us a contender merely on one test???
 
KingSpeed said:
So we lose ONE true test by 5 points and that means we're done? That means we can't get better as the season goes on? And earn homecourt advantage in the first round therby meaning that we don't even HAVE to win on the road to win a series?
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The final margin was 5 points, but this loss really wasn't close.

It doesn't mean we are done by any stretch, but it doesn't indicate that we are a serious contender (which is the title of this thread).

We've got a chance ot see this team match up with the Hornets (before CP3 goes down) and the Mavs on the road. I'm not that encouraged at the mettle of this team against veteran teams.
 
KingSpeed said:
If we beat a healthy San Antonio or Houston or Cleveland on the road, will you change your tune and make us a contender merely on one test???
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Beating the Spurs or Cavs on the road would be HUGE. Those are elite teams contending for the title this season.

Beating the Rockets would be nice, but they are a team in turmoil right now.
 
craigehlo said:
That's proof that maybe we can beat the Cavs without LeBron or the Lakers without Kobe.

Tonight was our first true test of a veteran team at full strength and we failed.
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To be fair, we had ONE bad quarter, other than that we outscored them in every quarter.
 
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