Portland Trailblazers

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A surprising year last year. Everyone gets paid and retained. IT took awhile to gel last time. I predict even better things to come. Playing the Clippers tough and straight up as we speak.
 

JSeahawks

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The problem with the NBA is that you can pretty much pencil I'm the finals before the season begins. The blazers will be better, they'll be fun to watch, but we all already know who's going to be in the finals.

On a side note, the clippers are one of the most hateable teams in sports. Hate almost all of their dudes.
 
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Yeah...they have that center that crashes the boards with reckless abandon, a lot like the Warriors Greene. He's a human foul machine. The Blazers didn't look like they had home court the way the whistles were blowing.

Aside from that, the Blazers held there own and did well. I feel that the rotation will get better this season.

The championship has always been for sale in the NBA. Now nearly every guy gets paid. Probably the product gets worse. My Blazers are that ray of light. No mercenaries.

Evan Turner.......give him time to adjust. Amino and Harkless can play.
 

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NBA is the opposite of the NFL, you can basically pencil in the finals every year. Cavs are coming out the East without a doubt. West is likely a two team race between GS and SA. You can possibly make a case for the Clippers, but I doubt they make it.

The Blazers are just very limited in what they can do. Everything has to come from Lillard and McCollum. Shut them down and you basically shut their entire team down. And they are just too dependent on jumpshots. As shown yesterday, when they don't fall, they struggle. I like a lot of their supporting cast, but they simply aren't even close to the elite teams in the West.

Not really sure how I feel about the Evan Turner signing. He's looked pretty bad in his first two games. I just don't think he is a great complement to Lillard and McCollum. Turner needs the ball in his hands to be effective, I think they're much better off with a guy who can play off the ball because Lillard and McCollum dominate the ball so much.
 
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Stotts will work ET in. It will take some time.
Chemistry will improve over the next few weeks. Evan should turn into a Pippenesque type player or one the Blazers saw in That frenchie that was never all consistency Batum. LAST year at this time the Blazers were a mess. The Blazers spent the first half of the year developing Vonleh. HE does look world's better. Cant believe he was such a high pick and ditched after one season. V has been good early....every bit of the physical ability to be a star.
 

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Portland needs one more star if they ever want to be a serious finals contender. I'm thinking they win 47-50 games this year and a second round.
 

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CPHawk":qcayrm62 said:
Portland needs one more star if they ever want to be a serious finals contender. I'm thinking they win 47-50 games this year and a second round.

Yeah you can pretty much predict them, as well as the rest of the NBA.

Portland has a nice regular season, wins 45-50 games, and then gets bounced in the first or second round. They just don't pose a threat to SA or GS. I still think they are a step behind the Clipps too.

As much as I like some of their other pieces (Plumlee, Vonleh, Harkless, etc.), they need another star.
 

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McCullough and Lillard clutch late. (never should have been in the position to have to come back though.. they had that game in hand).
 

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Best offseason acquisition has to be Kevin Calabro.
 

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Just a reminder that the Blazers aren't near the elite of the West. Losing at home to the Clipps and Warriors.

As someone who wants the Sonics back badly, I forget how much it sucks being a fan of an NBA team that has little to no shot at winning a title.
 

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This is the Blazers team that I was expecting last year after Aldridge left. Losing Lillard for a portion of the season was unfortunate, but even with this team at full strength they are probably a .500 team at best. At some point they are going to have to try to replace Aldridge, you can't get by with Plumlee, Ed Davis, and Leonard as your bigs. It's Lillard, CJ and then a bunch of average guys.
 
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Mason Plumlee traded to the Nuggets for a top 5 only protected 2017 1st round pick and Nurkic-280lb Bosnian player in his second year hasnt had a chance to develope. The Blazers now have 3 first round picks and Jahlil Okafor doesnt have a clear destination.

Blazers have been not very good this year. Turner is injured and was turibl.....The forwards have been inconsistent and turibl..................change has to happen. Go Blazers!!!
 
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Nurkic looks pretty good. A good presence inside. Blocks, pick setting, bothing shots...even a three. This team is still a long ways from being a defensive team.
 

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Nurkic has a lot of talent. I think he is easily Portland's best big man. Unfortunately the Blazers just aren't that good. Best case scenario, the Blazers make a run at the 8 seed, maybe the 7 seed, and get blown out in the first round of the playoffs. Unfotuntately, only about 3-4 teams have a realistic shot of winning it all this season.
 
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Well, I was holding out hope for the magic that I saw a glimpse of last year. At this point, going for the ping-pong balls is more exciting. The new kid does look promising. With three firsts, there has to be legitimate forwards somewhere.
 

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I hate to say it but with 3 first rounders and all the injuries it might be a good time to tank it, let the youngsters play more minutes and see what we have and what we don't, address those needs in a pretty deep draft this year, maybe get into the top 5 somehow and bundle the other two for something around pick 12 and see what we can do. This year has been an absolute trainwreck defensively.
 
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