Who's better than us now (in the West)?

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Rastapopoulos said:
...in the hearts of Blazers fans? Because I can't imagine fear being struck anywhere else
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I don’t know, man.
Dame is unearthly. I expect the thermonuclear version.

His roll partner, Nurkic, is an emotional player who can back up his angst and is locked into a contract--so I expect we'll get the good Nurk.

Ant is a professional catch and shoot scorer with the newfound ability to be crafty with the dribble (likely worked on his handle over the summer as well).

We, me included, devalued Grant for some reason. But other than a lack of rebounding, he can slash, shoot (ish), and play defense. He is essentially what we've been asking for: a better version of Chief.

The worry begins with Nas, but he clearly works his ass off and has a lot to prove. Even an incrementally better Nas (a healthy Nas) makes us significantly better. He, like Nurk, has that emotional energy you need to win, and the physical gifts.

Bench: yes, Hart, the perfect 6th man, the perfect roll player.

Sharpe, you ask? Maybe not getting a ton of playing time this season, but he'll be All-NBA before we know it.

Winslow? Underrated, savvy player. I think we all should be huge fans of him. (But injuries again).

After years of having a baby team, I thought we'd go gigantic, but instead: GPII. Like I said above, I was a bit perplexed until I did some reading and watched some defensive highlights. Now, I'm in. He's about to be a Blazer favorite.

After that, we have some young guys with incredible athletic ability (Keon, Greg) and a savvy mf in Watford.

I see the flip-side of this, of course. But I'm excited. If Dame is locked in, we are going to be a handful.
 
Tince said:
I'll bet we're not a top 4 seed.
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We have just as much chance at it as any team out there...even those with aging superstars like Lebron and Chris Paul. The Lakers and Nets showed the world that super teams can grossly underperform and are beatable. I'm here to cheer for success..not predict failure.
 
Propagandist said:
I don’t know, man.
Dame is unearthly. I expect the thermonuclear version.

His roll partner, Nurkic, is an emotional player who can back up his angst and is locked into a contract--so I expect we'll get the good Nurk.

Ant is a professional catch and shoot scorer with the newfound ability to be crafty with the dribble (likely worked on his handle over the summer as well).

We, me included, devalued Grant for some reason. But other than a lack of rebounding, he can slash, shoot (ish), and play defense. He is essentially what we've been asking for: a better version of Chief.

The worry begins with Nas, but he clearly works his ass off and has a lot to prove. Even an incrementally better Nas (a healthy Nas) makes us significantly better. He, like Nurk, has that emotional energy you need to win, and the physical gifts.

Bench: yes, Hart, the perfect 6th man, the perfect roll player.

Sharpe, you ask? Maybe not getting a ton of playing time this season, but he'll be All-NBA before we know it.

Winslow? Underrated, savvy player. I think we all should be huge fans of him. (But injuries again).

After years of having a baby team, I thought we'd go gigantic, but instead: GPII. Like I said above, I was a bit perplexed until I did some reading and watched some defensive highlights. Now, I'm in. He's about to be a Blazer favorite.

After that, we have some young guys with incredible athletic ability (Keon, Greg) and a savvy mf in Watford.

I see the flip-side of this, of course. But I'm excited. If Dame is locked in, we are going to be a handful.
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Perhaps your best post, ever.
It is OK to acknowledge the positives.
People seem to forget, we really haven't seen a healthy Damian Lillard since 2017.
The NBA (and S2) will be reminded.
 
Wade Garrett said:
Perhaps your best post, ever.
It is OK to acknowledge the positives.
People seem to forget, we really haven't seen a healthy Damian Lillard since 2017.
The NBA (and S2) will be reminded.
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I just think it's easy to forget the vibe this team has with Dame leading the way. That edge is something else altogether.

Now, I'll compliment Chauncey. One thing I really like about Chauncey (not that he had too much of choice) but even in the beginning of the season, he develops guys. Stotts didn't seem to like young players. Maybe Chauncey's greatest strength seems to be his ability to get the young guys to buy in.

And thus my optimism. You have Dame leading the charge and Chauncey trying to get the most he can out of the young guys. His demeanor seems to aide him in this, and his experience of course.

(Look at that. Two things I like about Chauncey...the times they are a-changin'?)
 
Rastapopoulos said:
You do know what happened to Walter White, right?
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Yeah..
He died from a gunshot wound. He also had lung cancer.
Prior to that, he built an $80 million empire, based off, among other things, ...understanding chemistry.
What's your point?
 
Like everything else, this is health dependent. The 2018-2019 Blazers which were the last time we have seen a healthy Dame + secondary offensive guard with a proper set of defensive role players won 53 games.

A somewhat injured Dame + secondary offensive guard but without a proper set of defensive role players still managed to get this team to the playoffs 2 years later.

If Dame is back to healthy, we are a lot more likely to get to the 53 win team than the somehow making the playoffs team simply because these teams had one real good defensive player - Nurk. This team has 3 or maybe 4 (Nurk, Hart, GP2, Grant). I am keeping Nas/Winslow out of it because I do not trust them health-wise.

I think anyone that thinks this team healthy is only a play-in team is not remembering things. My prediction was 6th in the west simply because there are many new faces, and Chauncy and his system is still new to Dame. But, if Dame really is healthy, 6th is the lowest I expect them to be, I would not be surprised to see them maybe finishing with HCA at the 4th position as well. If anyone like Nas, Sharpe pops up and Ant might take another step, this team is very dangerous.
 
riverman said:
We have just as much chance at it as any team out there...even those with aging superstars like Lebron and Chris Paul. The Lakers and Nets showed the world that super teams can grossly underperform and are beatable. I'm here to cheer for success..not predict failure.
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If we have an equal chance as anyone else: I'll take Golden St and you can have Portland. If both or neither finish top 4, it's a draw. If one team finishes top 4 and the other doesn't, that's the winner.

Deal?
 


He may be overrating Dallas given the "conditioning" of their star player:

 
WesleyMatthews said:
Do you think this is a positive, as Dame enters his mid 30's?
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Do I think seeing a healthy Dame Lillard is a positive?
Regardless of age? (which, for the record is not "mid 30's")
I have no words for this.......
edit: I guess I'll go with "Yes."
 
Rastapopoulos said:


He may be overrating Dallas given the "conditioning" of their star player:

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Not that I care what some random redditer says but he does say in bold and all caps that those are the top ten teams NOT IN ORDER so I have no idea where he's ranking Dallas because I don't think anyone but Dallas fans have them ahead of the Warriors or Clippers and probably most Mavs fans don't either. So like he said that's just his random order of his top 10.

I think it's pretty early to say that the top 10 is locked in, those would be the teams I would have in my top ten too but we have no idea what Utah is going to do (they could tear it down or coulld flip some pieces to stay competitive) and I think the Kings could be sneaky good (getting Fox back, Huerter being a nice complement to him in the back court with Davion in that rotation and there biggest addition being the "most NBA ready player in the draft"). So teams like Dallas who got worse, Minny who I think just got worse, the Lakers if they can't straighten their shit out and a few other teams including us have a lot of questions to answer and a team like Sac or a Utah roster that looks much different than it does today, could find their way into the play ins bumping one or tow of those ten teams out.
 
Chris Craig said:
Blazers will not be getting Wembanyama
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This Portland roster is extremely dependant on Dame's health. Remove him from the mix for a good portion of the season and they're lotto bound with a decent shot at saying bonjour

STOMP
 
Why is Memphis better than us by so many?

Anybody want to bet on whether or not we finish higher than Memphis?

You can bet against me saying that we finish with a better record than the Grizzlies…

Steak Dinner, loser buys.
 
PDXFonz said:
Why is Memphis better than us by so many?

Anybody want to bet on whether or not we finish higher than Memphis?

You can bet against me saying that we finish with a better record than the Grizzlies…

Steak Dinner, loser buys.
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Because they have more talent.
 
WesleyMatthews said:
Because they have more talent.
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Starting lineups look very comparable talent-wise, actually:
Dame <> Morant
Ant < Bane
Hart > Brooks
Grant <> JJJ
Nurk <> Adams

Then looking at the benches:
GP2 <> Jones
Nas < Clarke
Watford <> Tillman
Winslow <> Williams

I don't know that the Grizz having more talent than us is necessarily true. The one thing that I will say is that their defense was significantly better than ours last year. If the Blazers want to be on their level, they'll have to defend on their level.
 
PtldPlatypus said:
Starting lineups look very comparable talent-wise, actually:
Dame <> Morant
Ant < Bane
Hart > Brooks
Grant <> JJJ
Nurk <> Adams

Then looking at the benches:
GP2 <> Jones
Nas < Clarke
Watford <> Tillman
Winslow <> Williams

I don't know that the Grizz having more talent than us is necessarily true. The one thing that I will say is that their defense was significantly better than ours last year. If the Blazers want to be on their level, they'll have to defend on their level.
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Be careful. You may have just hit a hornets nest saying Lillard and Morant are on the same level. I think that's fair, but others don't.
 
SlyPokerCat said:
Be careful. You may have just hit a hornets nest saying Lillard and Morant are on the same level. I think that's fair, but others don't.
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My favorite fan is the fan who hates every player on it. Lol. They make me laugh.
 
Strenuus said:
My favorite fan is the fan who hates every player on it. Lol. They make me laugh.
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I don't think there is anyone that hates every player on their team.

Saying someone is a comparable talent does not equal hate.
 
STOMP said:
Once the games start up in earnest, with all this off season pretend time expectations I'm reading, I bet he'll be a scapegoat.
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That definitely seems like a possibility. If we're getting "Chauncey guys", though, and then we don't win... it's hard NOT to blame him. I think he'd deserve more than one more season, even if the year goes entirely sideways, but I wish we had a GM that would get good players for a coach to work with, rather than trying to get guys a coach wants to work with (especially when we're building from a borderline lottery-level starting spot).
 
STOMP said:
This Portland roster is extremely dependant on Dame's health. Remove him from the mix for a good portion of the season and they're lotto bound with a decent shot at saying bonjour

STOMP
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Not sure why people are so high on Wenbanyama. He's getting meh stats in the French league (which is pretty weak) just like Ntilikina did (Frank was a role player in my hometown and I had no clue why anyone would pick him in the lottery)
 
The Blazers will be good not great.
To
Nobody really knows?
To
The Blazers aren’t good enough!
To
Nobody really knows?
To
What about injuries!
To
Nobody really knows?
To
If the Blazers could just get!
To
Nobody really knows?

I’m going with nobody really knows.
 
Fairly-Hard said:
The Blazers will be good not great.
To
Nobody really knows?
To
The Blazers aren’t good enough!
To
Nobody really knows?
To
What about injuries!
To
Nobody really knows?
To
If the Blazers could just get!
To
Nobody really knows?

I’m going with nobody really knows.
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I tried to put your post to music...the best I came up with was Strawberry Fields Forever ('To" had 5 syllables a couple of times)
 
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