Is Portland the best team in the West?

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Pinwheel1 said:
Yeah, this year has been different. Instead of taking so many bad 3's, we are pushing the ball resulting in turnovers. (offensive fouls and forced passes) It is more fun to watch even with the missed lobs, but they still need to clean it up.
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Went to the Phoenix game. Was the most enjoyable I've witnessed in a long time. Chauncey ball is so refreshing. Attacking the basket, pushing the ball, D'ing up. Grinding.
 
No they are not, the Jazz are also 3-0 with a much better points differential !
 
LayneStaley said:
Who’s getting their minutes cut when GP2 gets back? Will Watford get minutes?
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im guessing It will still be rotation who’s ever playing best and hardest. Also depends on the needs at the time
 
Anyone know who dame was talking shit to after the Triple to put us up two ?
 
Wade Garrett said:
No, they are not the best team. But, they are really fucking good. The West is so loaded though. 50 wins may not be enough.
You gotta understand what the addition (by subtraction as I sang all summer!) of the type of players Cronin brought in, along with adding a finally healthy Damian Lillard
to a man like Chauncey Billups, and good things are going to happen.
Duh.
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i do think Billups made a crucial mistake in Laker game keeping Nurk in allowed LeBron to get a huge mismatch. Imagine GP, Grant, Winslow, Hart, and dare I say Sharpe in on one defensive Possesion to win the game. (I know Dame would never be taken out “ out of respect”). Sharpe kid has natural instincts on defense going to be special player. He has that “it” factor on both sides of the ball
 
The last time we were 3-0 was the Felton season. We completely collapsed after a 7-2 start. Missed playoffs.
 
Strenuus said:
I think we're facing the 1st or 2nd best team tomorrow. Denver is legit. We get a win tomorrow I'll be damn impressed, I just don't think we will. And that's okay.
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Beating the Suns didn’t impress you?
 
It all comes down to whether we can win a playoff series against the Warriors. The Warriors haven’t lost a Western Conference playoff series since 2014.
 
A big part of being a great or the best team is chemistry. The current Blazer roster does not have the best raw or highly touted talent. The roster hasn't played enough to have great chemistry... yet. But I think that chemistry is going to be our secret sauce. We have a nice mix of solid veteran leadership and young hungry players. This team has the potential to be greater than the sum of its parts.
 
SlyPokerDog said:
A big part of being a great or the best team is chemistry. The current Blazer roster does not have the best raw or highly touted talent. The roster hasn't played enough to have great chemistry... yet. But I think that chemistry is going to be our secret sauce. We have a nice mix of solid veteran leadership and young hungry players. This team has the potential to be greater than the sum of its parts.
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2 teams come to mind as great examples of chemistry beating talent:

1. 1977 Blazers. Yes, Walton was a generational talent but "on paper" the Sixers were a more talented team.
2. 2011 Mavs. Same thing, one great player on the roster with roll players vs the Miami Heat squad that was stacked!
 
The start is much better than expected and there are some real areas of concern, but there are areas with a lot of promise as well.

1. The offense is clunky, yet - and you can't have Dame score over 40 2 out of every 3 games to win. There is not enough movement off the ball in the half court - and even Terry's teams which were much maligned for iso plays had more flare screens to get people free off the ball. We need to see more of that, especially to get Ant and Sharpe free.
2. Lots and lots of turnovers. Maybe it is just a start of the year thing and the team needing to gel, but this needs to be cleaned up.
3. It feels to me that Ant is somewhat misused. He does not move enough without the ball when playing next to Dame, and at least in the last couple games, when Dame sits, Winslow was handling the ball a lot in the 2nd unit. Now, I am a big Winslow fan and I am not surprised he is initiating the offense a lot, but if he does it on the 2nd unit with Ant, once again, I want to see a lot more off-the-ball movement to get him free for catch and shoot.

The good parts are the defense and the pace, Hart is a great part of that, he is an excellent defender and rebounder and he pushes the ball in transition so much better than any Blazer has done in years.

I am really enjoying this year so far, but this team is not as good as it's record is now - there is a lot of work to be done, but a lot of promise as well.
 
What's interesting is that for all the talk of the pace being up, they still sit in the 18th spot in the league when it comes to that stat and play just a tick above where they have the past few seasons (excluding last year when they were tanking). Haven't had a chance to sit and watch them yet this season but should be able to tonight and excited to see how they look.
 
bigbailes said:
What's interesting is that for all the talk of the pace being up, they still sit in the 18th spot in the league when it comes to that stat and play just a tick above where they have the past few seasons (excluding last year when they were tanking). Haven't had a chance to sit and watch them yet this season but should be able to tonight and excited to see how they look.
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They're playing a grind em out playoff style of basketball (which I love) but the difference is after stops or steals (surely those are up?) they are really pushing the ball and attacking the rim on fast breaks.
 
I think “pushing the ball” has to be done judiciously. Pushing when your advantage is minimal leads to more turnovers not offset by the gains.
 
PDXFonz said:
Gonna be interesting tomorrow to see how the power rankings have changed after these first few games.
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First one I’ve looked at.
https://www.nba.com/news/power-rankings-2022-23-week-2
https://www.nba.com/news/power-rankings-2022-23-week-2

I’m not even tripping about us being 25th in Off. Efficiency. Being 5th in Def. Efficiency is something I’d much rather see.

The fact that is the case and we aren’t further up is wrong. But it’s not uncommon for people to sleep on Portland. Lot of people probably don’t even know Sharpe can dunk yet.

We do well in these next few and we’ll see how they change again.
 
Cugel said:
Zero national media on whether Portland is good. Just an also-ran. It gets a bit tiring.
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total point differential of 11 points over 3 games. I'm sure that nobody believes in us.
 
PtldPlatypus said:
total point differential of 11 points over 3 games. I'm sure that nobody believes in us.
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An average margin of victory of 3.666 points is a 50+ win team historically in the NBA. It's a very small sample size and early in the season. If this continues after 10 or so games - I promise you there will be a lot more noise.
 
SlyPokerDog said:
A big part of being a great or the best team is chemistry. The current Blazer roster does not have the best raw or highly touted talent. The roster hasn't played enough to have great chemistry... yet. But I think that chemistry is going to be our secret sauce. We have a nice mix of solid veteran leadership and young hungry players. This team has the potential to be greater than the sum of its parts.
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I hear the Lord of Light Hearted Chemistry...
 
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