Time was Blaer fans were as classy as they were knowledgable. Apparently those days are over. A decade of dominance? When will they win their championship? Sheesh.
A couple of things.
- As long as Kobe Bryant is in the league, it is his trophy to lose. He just turned 30 two weeks ago and he’s got a pretty decent cast around him for the next few years. And the Lakers will make another move in the next few years to get their next super-star. So the Blazers have to get past him. See also #3.
- Utah is going to be really good for the next several years. They just locked up Deron “the next great Blazer point guard!” Williams and Boozer will get paid in 2010 as well. They’re going to be every bit as good as the Blazers during this stretch.
- There is nothing stopping another Eastern Conference team from assembling a team for a one or two years run like the Celtics did last season. When LeBron moves to New Jersey/Brooklyn, that franchise will become a destination for guys fishing for their rings. You could easily see Kobe heading to Brooklyn in 2011. Easily. You think that team might win a ring or two? There will be lots of misfit puzzle pieces floating around the league for the next several years and lots of places for them to land. To wit…
- The Kumbaya-era of the Blazer franchise will be coming to an end. At some point, one or more of the following will be asking for a ticket out of town: Outlaw, Webster, Bayless, Fernandez. Now it may well turn out that two of them will be gone just as part of the process, but there’s a log jam at the 2-3 and there’s no way Nate will be keeping them all happy. Especially not this season. Someone’s going to start griping. Especially when there are any number of teams out there (Utah?) who could use a man like Webster.
The Blazers definitely have a wide-open window coming up, but it’s not a foregone conclusion that they’re going to win a championship. I’d like to see Brandon Roy play an injury-free season first. I’d also like to see Greg Oden play period. Let’s maybe wait a little while before we go getting all giddy over the prospect of a Blazer championship. At least that’s how we did it back in the day.
Does anyone have an explanation for the Winter Hawks’ performance in Kelowna that doesn’t involve the fact excuse “they’re tired”? Everyone’s tired at this point.
As a fan, all I’ve asked for both this season and last is improvement. I just don’t see it. Especially this year. How is this mess any better than the one Willy supposedly left? And what’s the path forward? Once losing is ingrained in an organization, it becomes difficult to get it out. Just look across next door at the Rose Garden. That place stank until Brandon Roy came in and simply refused to accept the status quo. Who is the player on the Hawks roster capable of shaking the locker room to its core? It’s a lot to put on a 17-year-old kid, but I’ve seen it done. I fear what will happen next season when some combination of Ross, Loo, Hamilton, and Peters shows up and runs into a player who’s been around for the past two seasons. Will they be able to overcome? Is there a captain among that group? For the Hawks’ sake, they’d better hope so.
NBA coaches around the league have been receiving iPods with Brandon Roy’s picture on them to promote the Blazer guard for the All-Star game in New Orleans. No doubt they’re pre-loaded with video highlights. And perhaps a personalized greeting?
Kudos to the Blazer marketing department for coming up with this one. Roy definitely deserves a spot. This will help.
HT: Deadspin
First it was Oden’s knee. Then it was Brandon Roy’s heel. Now LaMarcus’ pinkie toe is all the rage. People are wondering if the Blazers are cursed. I wonder if we’re not all overreacting. For example, Roy had a heel problem last season that kept him down for over a month, yet he still was able to win rookie of the year.
If these were veteran players we were talking about rather than second-year guys, would we be worrying this much? That is to say, if this were 2011 and we were hearing about these injuries after Oden, Roy, and Aldridge came off their second all-star seasons and a trip to the Western Conference Finals, would we be this concerned? By 2011, we’ll have been through a couple cycles of this and everything will have worked out just fine. Instead, it’s the first time through all of this and we’re a little freaked. Kind of like first-time parents. We need someone not named Walton or Bowie to come in and tell us it’ll all be alright. Like maybe Grant Hill Michael Jordan.
