The Trail Blazers, and the promise and peril of 'pretty good'

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I love the stability...it took half a season last year for me to feel very invested in the roster as a fan but this season I'm excited to see improvement..I love that the core is young and not playing for a contract but playing to win. I think returning players are all going to improve and shots will come easier for Dame and CJ than they did last year. Looking for Mo, Meyers, Allen and Noah to make big leaps in their game...deepest bench in ages.
 
In regards to this article, every year my mother buys me a German Chocolate Cake. It's not the best cake. It''s not the most elaborately designed cake. It's not the most flavoral cake. But the cake is still my favorite cake! And it's 'pretty good." As long as I can have my favorite cake with a glass of Damian Lillard perfection, a couple times a week... I'll take that over the overpriced White/Purple/Gold Carvel Birthday monstrosity down south!
 
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ripcityboy said:
In regards to this article, every year my mother buys me a German Chocolate Cake. It's not the best cake. It''s not the most elaborately designed cake. It's not the most flavoral cake. But the cake is still my favorite cake! And it's 'pretty good." As long as I can have my favorite cake with a glass of Damian Lillard perfection. a couple times a week... I'll take that over the overpriced White/Purple/Gold Carvel Birthday monstrosity down south!
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If your mom buys you a cake every year and you enjoy it twice a week...you eat really tiny slices my friend...around my house it'd last 5 games tops
 
The Warriors 3 years ago had that aorist playoff run and everyone talked about how great their future is because they were so young.

Thing is, that team was built much like this one and everyone was around the same age as we are. They added a point forward in Iggy, we added one in Turner. There are many parallels.

That's why I don't understand why they don't even acknowledge the youth of not only our role players but our starting backcourt
 
BonesJones said:
The Warriors 3 years ago had that aorist playoff run and everyone talked about how great their future is because they were so young.

Thing is, that team was built much like this one and everyone was around the same age as we are. They added a point forward in Iggy, we added one in Turner. There are many parallels.

That's why I don't understand why they don't even acknowledge the youth of not only our role players but our starting backcourt
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They sleep.
 
Intriguing article. The thing that gets me is this seeming assumption that the Blazers arent going to be able to win many more W's then last year. That they are somehow going to return to that first half 11-20 play. What the writer of this article and others who underestimate the Blazers again and again, fail to see is that they are going to start this season at a far better pace then last year....the guys have had a year to coalesce and it only gets better.

Too, I don't like the Blazers being compared to the Warriors, when the only things we have in common are our small ball play and three point veracity. When it comes to character these teams are completely different. For one its about ego and for the other its about leaving everything on the court and winning for the sake of game.
 
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Chris Craig said:
Intriguing article. The thing that gets me is this seeming assumption that the Blazers are going to be able to win many more he's then last year. That they are somehow going to return to that first half 11-20 play. What the writer of this article and others who underestimate the Blazers again and again, is that they are going to start this season at a far better pace then last year....the guys have had a year to coalesce and it only gets better.

Too, I don't like the Blazers bring compared to the Warriors, when the only things we have in common are our small ball play and three point veracity. When it comes to character these teams are completely different. For one its about ego and for the other its about leaving everything on the court and winning for the sake of game.
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Before they became a championship-caliber team, were the Warriors "about ego", or does this perception only stem from their success?
 
I think the Warriors comparison is valid in that both teams like to run and both coaches give a lot of players the green light to shoot..both players choice systems that like the deep shot and share the ball
 
PtldPlatypus said:
Before they became a championship-caliber team, were the Warriors "about ego", or does this perception only stem from their success?
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I think it was there
 
Yeah I don't understand why everybody is saying we will have the same record or a few more wins, this team has seen the playoffs and battled hard with GS and actually competed. You saw at the 2nd half of the season, they were getting a rhythm and getting used to playing with each other plus for whatever reason we kept Vonleh starting the longest time. It's the same team but better plus Turner and Ezeli, Meyers too because he barely played last season due to his injury. I think we are 4th in the west easily.
 
I'm not worried about being "pretty good." NBA prognostication is full of revisionist history. If we were to make the finals, for example, no one would be surprised: "They spent huge $$ to keep their talented core together...." OTOH if we miss the playoffs altogether, our players will all be judged as "overpaid." Shrug.
 
Cippy91 said:
Yeah I don't understand why everybody is saying we will have the same record or a few more wins.
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The article makes clear that their reasoning is that injuries will revert to the mean. Last year, we had none except Leonard, while some other Western teams were ruined.
 
Given who was really available to be signed by us, I can find no fault with NO's summer moves. He's not paying the LT. He's maximized the talent we could reasonably have on the roster. His prior bets look well placed.

We have a couple of top tier NBA stars and solid, if not spectacular, players at the other positions. There's every reason to expect growth by some of the younger guys who are well paid now.

We have the depth to survive a few games missed due to injury - we survived Leonard's loss and did give the defending champs a run for their money.

Plus we have Stotts and his system that seems to maximize the strengths of the players and he's good at the X and O strategy in game.

I'm quite happy to root for a team that is going all out to win instead of accepting mediocrity. If we don't win it all, you can't say we didn't give it 110% effort.
 
Stackpoole's medical staff has done an incredible job with getting guys fixed ahead of schedule...they've also done a good job of resting players like Dame for 7 games so his foot could heal up rather than run him into the ground mid season..I think we have the right approach and before we just lacked depth so starters played too much..the depth now will give guys opportunities to ice a sprain or sit out a game if need be
 
Denny Crane said:
Given who was really available to be signed by us, I can find no fault with NO's summer moves...We have a couple of top tier NBA stars and solid, if not spectacular, players at the other positions...We have the depth to survive a few games missed due to injury.
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That's all you got to say about this?

http://www.basketball-reference.com/contracts/

(It gets worse. Try sorting that by any season other than 2016-17.)
 
With the 3rd-highest payroll, we should have the 3rd-best team in the NBA, not a "pretty good" team. Olshey accomplished nothing special.
 
This third highest payroll thing is a farce. It's a really superficial way of looking at things.

Wait a year or two until the league normalizes to the new cap. It was just coincidental that we had so many RFAs come up for new contracts in the same year.

Take next season for example, UTA (currently at 84 mil) will max out Hayward, Gobert, and Favors. George Hill will get over 15 mil/yr. And they still will be paying over 10 mil each to a decrepit Joe Johnson and oft injured Alec Burks. That will bring them to 110 mil for just 6 guys on a mostly mediocre roster.

UTA is just an example. Minny, BOS, OKC, CHA, etc etc etc will all be in the same boat. MEM committed almost 250 mil to Parsons and Conley alone. This idea that salaries define expectations would be fine were it not for this massive jump in the cap. It distorts the perceptions a bit.
 
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jlprk said:
With the 3rd-highest payroll, we should have the 3rd-best team in the NBA, not a "pretty good" team. Olshey accomplished nothing special.
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With the 3rd highest payroll, we get to grow the team to be the 3rd best team, if not better. With a lower payroll, the team has less of a chance.

With the lowest payroll, we were a lot better than worst.
 
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