NBA / Blazers Thread

[thomas time]

Blazers make franchise record 21 3's tonight, nba record is 23. They had 21 with half of the fourth left but didn't shoot many late.

[oregontrack]

LaMarcus 31pts and 25reb tonight against the Rockets. 19-4 at this point I have to admit shocks me. Win tonight without a great effort from Lillard. Offense is looking stellar at this point, but are going to need to shore up the defense as the season goes on.

Nice to see LMA really busting out into a premiere player. He's always been talented, but this might be his first true all-star year.

do you mean his 'best' season? i would certainly agree -- but he was a legitimate all star the last few years.

[oregontrack]

lillard hits the GW w/ 0.01 left on the clock to beat detroit at the palace at auburn hills.

gritty win for the team. played @ 8 last night, and had to come back and play @ 3 today. to add to the quick turnaround, the team was delayed leaving philly last night and didn't arrive to their hotel room until 3:30 in the morning. you could tell they had no legs. still, they found a way to win. it's game like this that will get them into the next round of the playoffs: winning a game they could have easily laid down and died in, further helping the push to get homecourt come april.

through the first 25 games of the season, pdx is 21-4. if they went .500 the rest of the way, that would put them in the 53-54 win range and easily in the top 8. that's what a hot start will do for you. let's hope they don't go .500 the rest of the way, but still.

i've seen several really good blazer teams in my lifetime, but this is one of my favorites. i was in school still when they made the finals in '90 and '92. people really jumped on the blazer bandwagon against detroit's bad boys, but i remember there being A TON of bandwagon bulls fans in '92. quite a few people were pulling for MJ in '92 (i lived in springfield, oregon at the time, a mere two hours from pdx) and it drove me livid. but that era of blazer basketball will always be fondly remembered. for most of the remainder of the 90s the team was always good, but i always knew we'd sneak into the playoffs as low seed and get blasted in the first round. in fact, after the blazers beat the jazz in the '92 western conference finals, they didn't win another playoff series until they knocked off the suns in the first round of the '99 playoffs. that '99 team was really fun -- it was a strike shortened season, and portland finished the regular season with the first or second best record in the west (can't recall). beat the suns in the first round, then turned around and beat the jazz in the conference semis, a huge win for the franchise because malone and stockton were certifiable blazers killers. it felt like we finally turned the corner. lost to the spurs in 4 in the wcf, but ah well. damn you, sean elliott. damn you for beating the ducks so often, and damn you for hitting that shot. the 2000 team was stacked, and of course lost to the lakers in 7 in the wcf, in the worst 4th quarter in the history of professional basketball. bah. 2000 wasn't as fun as 1999, even if 2000 was our best chance at a title since '92. incidently we would have played indiana that year, my other nba team. instead, i got the joy of watching kobe and shaq tear my heart out in the wcf, then again in the finals. rot in hell you bastards. the team made the playoffs for a few years thereafter, finally snapped the playoff streak after 21 straight years, got terrible, then roared back with brandon roy. those teams were a blast, especially the '09 team, which stunned everybody and won 54 games. i think that team might have been my favorite blazer squad ever; i had never seen portland really bad until the mid-00s, and it was so nice watching a successful rebuild. roy, lamarcus, oden. what a future!! then things got sad again rather quickly

but this team is really fun. anybody can carry on any given night. we're so fun to watch play basketball bill simmons, who has practically said that he gets us confused with the idaho stampede of the d-league, declared that we're his favorite team to watch on league pass this season. i hate the dude, but he's always hated portland (for some reason), so hearing that from some of our biggest detractors is nice.

</memory lane>

[lukeyrid13]

^ IDK if Simmons hates the Blazers, he just knows that we have the most vocal fan-base and we are easily baited when he trolls us.

[thomas time]

I just read that earlier tonight about Simmons, I think blazers would have 49 wins if they went 500 rest of the season. Amazingly Damien had another bad shooting night (under 40% on the season) and still have the most wins in the NBA. About half way through the ducks season I was getting really excited for the blazers this season to start, and this start has been better then I thought. I knew they were going to be very good and maybe 4-6 range but not #1 a quarter way into the season. GO BLAZERS!!!!!

[Boom]

Think there's anyway for Blazers to get Asik?

[Zyme]

Think there's anyway for Blazers to get Asik?

If we cant get him for the price we gave him away for, I dont want him. He shut down the minute his role looked like it would change. I dont like that attitude.

p.s. His original price was 3 2nds.

[bellsduck]

Why would we want Asik? At best, he's an equal to Lopez. And Freeland has proven to be quite adequate as a backup at that position for way less money and more room to grow.

[lukeyrid13]

Asik will make 20 million over the next year and a half due to his contract. I doubt Paul Allen wants to pay him 15 million next season. Lopez(this season) is equal to what Asik brings and for less than half the price. Plus the Rockets were asking for 2 1st rounds picks, there is no chance we make a move for Asik.

If anyone, I'd be looking at: Big Baby Davis, Spencer Hawes, the Toronto bigs(Amir Johnson, Patrick Patterson). I think the most we'd give up in a trade is Barton and Leonard/T-Rob. Don't expect anything big.

[Boom]

Why would we want Asik? At best, he's an equal to Lopez. And Freeland has proven to be quite adequate as a backup at that position for way less money and more room to grow.

Lopez has had a nice year, but I think it's more like Asik is at worst equal to Lopez than the other way around... Blazers are still a pretty awful defensive team. What if you could have Asik and Lopez together?

I'm not sold on Freeland. He's already 26 and he's still below average for the NBA.

If I was the Blazers I would trade anyone not in my starting 5 to get a 3rd big for the playoffs. Asik is obviously available, but the asking price maybe to high. What about Spencer Hawes?

[oregontrack]

spencer hawes might be the worst defensive (starting) center in the nba. it'd be kind of a kick to have a 5 that can knock down treys, but nah.

it's hard to find a very good scenario for asik. lopez is playing just fine. you could argue asik is better, but what are we going to give up for him? with McC still a question mark you really can't give up mo williams. we need depth on the wing, and dorrel wright is really it. asik wants to start, that's why he wants out of houston, but i fail to see why it'd warrant the potential hit to team chemistry to either trade or bench lopez, to say nothing of the hit our depth would take when we're forced to give up another piece.

if you're going to tinker with a team that's 21-4 you need to make a slam dunk upgrade, and asik isn't it.

and freeland WAS below average last year (he was awful, in fact) but he's been more than serviceable this year.

[lukeyrid13]

Hawes can play the 4 as well though. He is nowhere close to what Asik brings in protecting the paint but if Lopez and Asik played together it would get quite ugly, plus Hawes would take far less to obtain.

[Boom]

spencer hawes might be the worst defensive (starting) center in the nba. it'd be kind of a kick to have a 5 that can knock down treys, but nah.

it's hard to find a very good scenario for asik. lopez is playing just fine. you could argue asik is better, but what are we going to give up for him? with McC still a question mark you really can't give up mo williams. we need depth on the wing, and dorrel wright is really it. asik wants to start, that's why he wants out of houston, but i fail to see why it'd warrant the potential hit to team chemistry to either trade or bench lopez, to say nothing of the hit our depth would take when we're forced to give up another piece.

if you're going to tinker with a team that's 21-4 you need to make a slam dunk upgrade, and asik isn't it.

and freeland WAS below average last year (he was awful, in fact) but he's been more than serviceable this year.

I think our biggest trade chip is McC. It would have to be a 3 team trade to land Asik.

I like Lopez. I think he's a bargain at his salary, but I do think Asik could be a significant upgrade defensively and I don't think Paul Allen cares about spending the extra money. He wants a title contender and the window is opening now.

Our bench was awful last year and I really don't think it's that much better this year. Most of the guys are easily replaceable.

[oregontrack]

you don't think our bench is much better this year compared to last?

[Boom]

you don't think our bench is much better this year compared to last?

I think it's slightly better.

I think almost all of the improvement in this team from last years team is credited to replacing JJ Hickson with a true center and the improve play from Mathews & Batum. Both of whom are currently having career years.

The bench really hasn't done much. Mo Williams is actually having his worst year in his career since his rookie season. Dorell Wright has only been slightly better than Babbitt who was absolutely awful.

The biggest improvement was probably the addition of Thomas Robinson.. but that's because we had guys like Claver & Leonard playing those minutes.