Welcome to Hell, Blazer fans.

[e_blazer]

They already did rebuild

Really, because I'm not seeing any franchise-level stars on their rosters. Curry's a very good player and a perennial All Star (if he isn't injured), but I certainly wouldn't put him in the same category with the LBJs and Kobes of the league. Zach Randolph is a lower tier All Star.

 

[Mediocre Man]

Really, because I'm not seeing any franchise-level stars on their rosters. Curry's a very good player and a perennial All Star (if he isn't injured), but I certainly wouldn't put him in the same category with the LBJs and Kobes of the league. Zach Randolph is a lower tier All Star.

If you don't see it, then you are an edited name

 

[BlazerDuckSeahawkFan94]

It's not so bad. We've acquired a lot of young talent the past couple of years and if we develop them correctly we could be a very scary team in the next season or two.

 

[e_blazer]

If you don't see it, then you are an edited name

Please, remember to attack my edited post, not the edited poster.

But seriously, who on the rosters of Memphis or the Warriors do you put in the superstar/franchise player category?

 

[Mediocre Man]

Please, remember to attack my edited post, not the edited poster.

But seriously, who on the rosters of Memphis or the Warriors do you put in the superstar/franchise player category?

Not sure either has a super on it, but Lee, Curry, Conley, Allen, Gasol and Z-Bo are all defensive and or all NBA and or allstar players

 

[e_blazer]

I'm sure you'll disagree, but I would say that Lee & Curry is pretty much a wash with Aldridge & Lillard. The Grizzlies have more experienced depth and I'd give Gasol a clear advantage over anything the Blazers currently have in the middle, but still...that's a roster that's reached the summit of its possibilities.

 

[Rhal]

I'm sure you'll disagree, but I would say that Lee & Curry is pretty much a wash with Aldridge & Lillard. The Grizzlies have more experienced depth and I'd give Gasol a clear advantage over anything the Blazers currently have in the middle, but still...that's a roster that's reached the summit of its possibilities.

The rest of.GSW are better then the Blazers based on last year. I think the.Blazers have better depth and will be the.better overall team but we need to see if our bench unit clicks or not.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Wizard Mentor]

I don't feel like we're in Hell AT ALL. The road to hell is really starts when we've been bounced from the 1st round of the playoffs for 2 years in a row. It's that 3rd year when I'll give myself the luxury of really worrying about it. We haven't even made the playoffs yet, even though I'm sure (barring significant injuries to LMA or RoLo) we will.

Assuming we make the playoffs, I'll be looking squarely at Lillard. If he shows he's made the leap in the playoffs, I won't worry at all, I'll be very excited, even if we are swept. OTOH, if Lillard looks like Uncle Cliffy in the playoffs, I'll start to be a little nervous.

 

[e_blazer]

The rest of.GSW are better then the Blazers based on last year. I think the.Blazers have better depth and will be the.better overall team but we need to see if our bench unit clicks or not.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

I agree, but that's not the question that is being discussed here. The basic premise of this whole thread is that the Blazers are stuck in mediocrity because they didn't get an elite player or two before deciding to upgrade the rest of the roster. I don't see that the Grizzlies or the Warriors have those elite players either, which according to some here, should mean that it's time to tear them down again so that they can hope to pick up an elite player in the draft and then build into a true contender. It's not a philosophy that I happen to share, but I get what they're saying.

 

[STOMP]

Before he blew out his knee, RW was among the league leaders in many stats including minutes played. Being that his game has been based more on raw athleticism then refined skills (Chris Paul), I'm interested to see if his approach and productivity changes this season

a day later it comes out that Westbrook is having another surgery on his knee and will miss the first 4-6 weeks of the season... guessing he'll be well outside a top 10 talent this season

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/9...-regular-season-due-arthroscopic-knee-surgery

STOMP

 

[Draco]

Hell is a lot nicer than I expected.

 

[BlazerCaravan]

I'm not judging yea or nay on this, so i'm just going to post my thoughts out loud as I look:

The PER of the starting five from 1988-89: 23.6, 17.7, 16.6, 14.6, and 13.9
The PER of the starting five from 2012-13: 20.4, 19.7, 16.4, 15.7, and 14.1

Buck Williams replaced the 14.6 (with a 14.3 in 1989-90); RoLo replaces the 19.7 (with a ??.? in 2013-14)

1989-90 Starting 5 PERs: 22.2 (heh, Clyde), 20.0, 15.7, 14.3, 13.3
2013-14 Starting 5 PERs: ????

LMA needs to get more efficient, Damian needs to get way more efficient, but everyone else can pretty much stay put in order for us to be on par with 1989-90. As an aside, Duck was righteously inefficient; RoLo doesn't have to do much to exceed Duck's impact on the game, or Buck's for that matter. I guess the point here is fit. Buck fit with the team much better than Kiki. RoLo might (??) fit with the team way better than Hickson. If Damian steps up his game a lot, either by opportunity because defenders will have a harder time or by sheer force of skill, everyone else's impact goes up too.

Are we a "single piece" away? Who the hell knows. I can respect the opinion of "heck no" given how little we've improved in the past couple of years as a team. At the same time, maybe some players added to our mix that fit right are already on the roster, and we'll see that improvement that comes when the dice fall right, and the sum is greater than the parts.

I feel smug.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

Hell is a lot nicer than I expected.

LOL! Awesome bump! Rep'd.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

I feel smug.

Smug + hell = Smell.

 

[BrianFromWA]

or Hug.

 

[BlazerCaravan]

or Hug.

I can dig it.

 

[PapaG]

http://espn.go.com/nba/powerrankings/_/year/2014/week/-1

We're ranked #15. Mediocrity is the worst place to be in the NBA. Not good enough to compete for a championship; not bad enough to get a franchise-changing talent.

Yay.

Here's to our future of 38-44 wins!

31 wins so far right now. Is this when the crash comes?

 

[PapaG]

Mediocrity is a lot like that crazy, high drama chick your brother is dating that you hate. You keep warning him not to get too close or, God forbid, get stuck in a bad marriage, but in the back of your mind you just know she's going to sink her claws into him. Next thing you know it's two years later and she's walking down the aisle and you look over at your brother and he's got this stupid grin plastered all over his face. You shrug and sigh, thinking to yourself, "welcome to the family."

Nik is rarely seen here these days. I'm guessing it will take a losing streak to bring back his "knowledge" to the board.

 

[mook]

I'd love to see this bumped again after winning a championship. Hey, you can't spell "fantasize" without the word "fan."

 

[Sedatedfork]

Fail...

 

[Natebishop3]

Man.... maybe I drank the cool-aid, but I think this team is going to surprise some people. I think we addressed all of our bench issues from last year, and hopefully our starters can play as well, or better, than last year.

Apparently I drank the cool-aid back in September.

 

[maxiep]

Hell is a lot nicer than I expected.

Awesome! I will tell everyone on this board that this is the most delicious crow I've ever tasted. I am thrilled to have been so completely, utterly and thoroughly wrong.

Go Blazers!

 

[maxiep]

31 wins so far right now. Is this when the crash comes?

The crash isn't coming. I was wrong. I deserve to be trashed in this forum for being so pessimistic.

Trash away!

 

[maxiep]

I'd love to see this bumped again after winning a championship. Hey, you can't spell "fantasize" without the word "fan."

If it means a championship, I say sticky this bad boy!

 

[julius]

I see that some of the conversation was about the 88-89/89-90 teams. That 20 win increase was a lot, but this team potentially could improve by 30 games (IF they continue at their winning %).

Not sure it'll happen, but crazy considering how low some of the expectations were.

 

[Nhawz]

These threads are always fun to reference midway through the season. Way to take it in stride maxiep ??????.

 

[jlprk]

LOL! Awesome bump! Rep'd.

You're the one who's so strongly against bumping old threads. The purpose is usually to ridicule someone or ones. When I saw this thread's starting date, I thought, "Sly won't like this."

 

[SlyPokerDog]

You're the one who's so strongly against bumping old threads. The purpose is usually to ridicule someone or ones. When I saw this thread's starting date, I thought, "Sly won't like this."

Nate is the one who doesn't like bumping old threads. I think it's a nice feature to have. Other forums delete threads after a couple of weeks. What I don't like is when the bump happens just to insult someone. Draco bumped it with a pretty funny comment that didn't attack and insult anyone.

 

[jlprk]

Nate, Sly, the guy who's overseas in the military, what's the difference? I can't tell you apart. This is probably another of Denny's tricks.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

Nate, Sly, the guy who's overseas in the military, what's the difference? I can't tell you apart. This is probably another of Denny's tricks.

I'm the good looking one.