Maybe we're okay after all?

[Shooter]

Yes, we lost Roy and Oden--but we now have Kurt Thomas, Jamaal Crawford, Raymond Felton, and a very promising Elliot Williams, who is having a great camp. Will the addition of Thomas in the frontcourt, and Felton, Crawford and Elliot in the backcourt, help us overcome the loss of Roy and have a winning season? I really don't know, but I'm starting to wonder if these small moves by the Blazers are actually going to be very effective at shoring up our weaknesses.

 

[DaLincolnJones]

This may very well be the season to have a lot of very good players, rather that a few exceptional ones. With the back to back, three in a row games all played in a shortened season, endueance is going to be the key. A couple of reletivly fresh good players may have the advantage over a burned out "starr"

 

[Mediocre Man]

The team will play better without Roy. Portland has a chance to be good if Nate let's the reigns go a bit. Not title good, but good enough to make a lot of fans happy.

 

[Nikolokolus]

The team will play better without Roy. Portland has a chance to be good if Nate let's the reigns go a bit. Not title good, but good enough to make a lot of fans happy.

I think that's pretty close to the mark.

 

[BoBoBREWSKI]

I also think Nolan Smith is going to be a very solid back up PG.
We are gonna finish 4th in the West!

Great thread Shooter... and even better avatar! WOWzers!

 

[Pinwheel1]

I am still trying to figure out if we actually lost Oden this year. If he was going hard on the bike for an hour yesterday like Rice was saying in the video interview, how long could the "set back " be. I bet he is back in February.

 

[Pinwheel1]

Great thread Shooter... and even better avatar! WOWzers!

Yes. I am sure this has been asked, but does the person those are attached to have a name?

 

[Mediocre Man]

I also think Nolan Smith is going to be a very solid back up PG.
We are gonna finish 4th in the West!

Great thread Shooter... and even better avatar! WOWzers!

3rd string PG now that Crawford is here

 

[magnifier661]

God would that be great to hve oden back by feb. not holding my breath though.

 

[BoBoBREWSKI]

Yes. I am sure this has been asked, but does the person those are attached to have a name?

My wife!

 

[BoBoBREWSKI]

3rd string PG now that Crawford is here

I think Crawford will start at the 2.

 

[Further]

I think Crawford will start at the 2.

Crawford (If I remember correctly) said that he was told he would be a backup in PDX and was fine with that.

 

[BoBoBREWSKI]

Crawford (If I remember correctly) said that he was told he would be a backup in PDX and was fine with that.

True. But I think Nate will quickly discover that he'll help us more in the starting lineup and playing starter minutes.

 

[Shooter]

The team will play better without Roy. Portland has a chance to be good if Nate let's the reigns go a bit. Not title good, but good enough to make a lot of fans happy.

Look at our center position . . . Camby, Chris Johnson, and Kurt Thomas--none of them will scare you, but the 3 of them working together could provide a very deep and respectable strength for us. I think Chris Johnson could even be a surprise this year.

 

[magnifier661]

True. But I think Nate will quickly discover that he'll help us more in the starting lineup and playing starter minutes.

Over Matthews? Nah I think Nate wants some vetran leadership off the bench. Also, I think a vetran will be more accepting of coming off the bench. I really like Batum and Crawford being the guys coming off, than Batum and Matthews, IMO.

 

[Pinwheel1]

True. But I think Nate will quickly discover that he'll help us more in the starting lineup and playing starter minutes.

He will still get 30 minutes a game off the bench. I would prefer he give us a spark as the 6th man.

 

[Masbee]

I think Crawford will start at the 2.

6th Man of the Year winner.

Comes of the bench, and likely finishes games. That is his role.

 

[magnifier661]

6th Man of the Year winner.

Comes of the bench, and likely finishes games. That is his role.

Probably a very good chance to get it again, now that Odom will probably start and Terry may as well.

 

[Draco]

I'm very excited for the year, getting Crawford and Felton will be huge additions. Thomas is a nice veteran backup for a few minutes off the bench. We are losing Andre Miller, and while I was in favor of the trade I still don't think people appreciate how much he contributed to our wins last season. Over the course of the season he was our second best player. He got so many easy lobs to LaMarcus, Nic, Wes. We were leading the league in alley-oops and that was solely from Miller's excellent play. Miller was posting up smaller guards when we had the mismatch.

Now Miller lack of outside shooting really hurt us in the playoffs but we could lose a number of games this season that went our way with Miller running a very effective offense last year.

Roy hurt the team last season so he'll sadly be addition by subtraction. Oden didn't play at all so even if he plays 10 games in March that will be more production. I believe bench scoring will be much more important this season then a normal season; with Crawford and Batum we have one of the best scoring bench pairs in the league. That will win us extra games.

I'm very excited for this season, maybe I'm just a blind homer optimist at the moment but I really like the direction of this team and the flexibility it will have in the offseason.

 

[RoyToy]

Oden doesn't count as a loss at this point anymore. He hasn't played in 2 years.

 

[Minstrel]

I will say that for the amount of bad news this franchise has encountered over the past year, their outlook is a hell of a lot brighter than it has any right to be. I don't think they'll be an elite team (I think they would have been if Roy and Oden hadn't had any injury problems) but I think they'll be a good team and a fun one to watch.

 

[magnifier661]

Hahahahahah could you imagine if Oden came back late Feb, got into playing shape by the end of March and we go to the finals in June? Talk about turn around!

 

[Shooter]

Yes. I am sure this has been asked, but does the person those are attached to have a name?

Her name is Venus, and she's the goddess of all women.

Actually, I have no idea what her name is. Sorry.

 

[oldmangrouch]

Hahahahahah could you imagine if Oden came back late Feb, got into playing shape by the end of March and we go to the finals in June? Talk about turn around!

I've been following sports for a long time. When a team says there is no timeline for an injured player to return, what they mean is "the Dr looked at the X-rays and screamed/puked/fainted."

 

[Voodoo]

Her name is Venus, and she's the goddess of all women.

Actually, I have no idea what her name is. Sorry.

I like how you have a quote of "Greg Oden, where are you?" and Venus appears to be looking down like she's looking for something. Maybe she will find him, and sex him back into playing shape!

 

[Sinobas]

We're definitely better than last year. Last year Roy and Oden contributed jack squat to our team(except for Roys 1 great playoff game) and we did pretty good. Dallas said we were the toughest team they faced. If we had a legit bench that didn't suck at all facets of the game, and didn't run LaMarcus down to the ground, we'd may have won that series....Dallas was the nba champs, so that's a good compliment!

I'd like to see LA's minutes go down to 37.

 

[DeanMoriarty]

We're definitely better than last year. Last year Roy and Oden contributed jack squat to our team(except for Roys 1 great playoff game) and we did pretty good. Dallas said we were the toughest team they faced. If we had a legit bench that didn't suck at all facets of the game, and didn't run LaMarcus down to the ground, we'd may have won that series....Dallas was the nba champs, so that's a good compliment!

I'd like to see LA's minutes go down to 37.

There was also some obscure statistic last year where when Aldridge scored 25 points or more, the Blazers would win 90-95% of the time. That might be asking a lot but now with the scoring load on Aldridge, that might be what the Blazers need: 25 ppg average.

Sure, a healthy Roy would've won us the Dallas series and possibly the championship but that's just a pipe dream scenario. In retrospect, we should've put the ball in Aldridge's hands and gotten him to score that 25 ppg. The efficiency and consistency of giving Aldridge the ball would've put the Blazers at much better odds than letting an unhealthy Roy handle it.

 

[KingSpeed]

I think Crawford will start at the 2.

No. Matthews is awful off the bench. Crawford thrives at it. But knowing our luck, Felton and Matthews will have injuries that put Crawford in the starting lineup from time to time. Our team is much better built to deal with injuries this year

 

[tlongII]

More than anything else, I'm glad we have Gerald for the whole year! I think he's going to be huge for us.

 

[Shooter]

I like how you have a quote of "Greg Oden, where are you?" and Venus appears to be looking down like she's looking for something. Maybe she will find him, and sex him back into playing shape!

Yeah, I sort of like that, too.