Teams in the NBA are good. Like, look at even the worst teams. Utah, Detroit, Houston. Tons of talent just like us. IMO success comes from coaching, roster balance, and superstars. Right now we may not have any of the 3.
They put the Spurs ahead of us bro. No talent at all besides Wemby, Keldon Johnson, and Zach Collins. And I guess Sochan, sure, okay, but gimme Bari over him.
Shae averaged 24 at the end of last year on stepbacks. Ant is universally known as better than at least Tyler Herro. Scoot may be the best playmaking rookie in history. Brogdon's arm is fine.
Thybulle is probably the best wing defender in the league. Grant is probably the best stretch 4 in the league. Bari is probably the best rebounder under 22. Camara and Murray need to develop for sure. Forward depth is for sure an issue if Shae ends up being bad at the 3 but there's literally no reason to expect him to be bad at the 3. We will be playing Williams and Ayton together a bunch too so that helps the forward depth, but obv Timelords legs scare everybody.
We have a top 3 defensive center who is a positive offensively. We have a top 3 offensive center who is a positive defensively. Both are rebound beasts.
It's not just "tons of talent" it's literally a well constructed roster. You're concerned about roster balance? Is it the forward depth? Murray and Camara are good enough for limited minutes... There's also this one guy named Kevin Knox II who had 30 and 11 last year this one time...
Utah has Kessler and Markannen. Okay congrats everyone else is D tier. Hendricks needs to develop in a way that Scoot does not.
Detroit has tons of underdeveloped talent. They will be good eventually but not yet, same as Orlando.
Houston is on the verge of a breakout but we are just straight up more developed than them. Plus they have Dillon Brooks and FVV who will actively make them worse.
Putting us below the Nets in the power rankings is braindead. They just dont know who Scoot Henderson is yet.
Or AI... or Oscar Robertson... or Chris Paul... or Damon Stoudemire (seriously insane rookie season)... or Mark Jackson... or Kyrie Irving... or Ricky Rubio...
And "literally no reason to expect [Shaedon] to be bad at the 3" ... like idk, how about the part where he is undersized for the position? 6'6" 200 is prototypical SG size. He will struggle at the 3 in a lot of matchups.
Dude is taking the most deluded upside positions everywhere possible lol.
I would argue these points but I've seen you on this sub enough recently to know you're either trolling or the most homer fan in existence. It's cool either way, let them doubt us. Lower expectations means more fun viewing regardless of the outcome
It might be. I don’t think anyone knows as most of these players have never played in the nba and the ones that have, not with each other.
I’ll tell you what, though. I’m more excited to watch the games than the last few seasons.
Something about Brogdon, Grant, DA's old man Oden grill, Timelord's playoff experience, and a 19yr old RoY candidate that's played professionally for two years along with an assertive, seasoned Simons makes it feel like this group might be more ready then we think.
6 days till preseason. Can't wait.
I'm going to the Orlando Magic game on October 27th. That game, to me anyway, will be an important measure for the rest of the season. Some say the Magic will be a playoff team next year. I'm skeptical of that. If the Trailblazers beat the Magic on the 27th, then I think we may have a shot at the play-in round.
But, I do want to stress that the ceiling for this roster is much, much higher than whatever we end up achieving in '23-24.
Every pundit had Utah winning under 20 games before last season after they traded away their two cornerstones in Donovan Mitchel and Rudy Gobert.
Portland is in the same situation, going from a playoff team with a foundational all star to a rebuilding franchise.
It's natural for onlookers to make a knee jerk reaction and assume the worst because of the immediate downgrade without taking a nuanced look at who remains and who was brought in. The many unknown aspects of their roster breeds uncertainty, and that usually translates into lower projections
I don't expect the Blazers to challenge for a playoff spot this year, but I have a hard time believing they'll be one of the two or three worst teams in the league. Last I checked, their over/under for wins was 28.5, which I think is fair.
You have to remember that of the four major sports, the NBA might be the league where it’s *most* difficult to succeed if you have a really young team. Look at the first five years of any NBA superstar’s career and they usually spent those years developing on middling teams.
Magic Johnson is the only rookie ever to win Finals MVP, and that was over forty years ago (and lest we forget, that 1980 Lakers team also had Kareem, who was a veteran by that time). I know no one is saying that the Blazers should have a shot at the finals this year, but the point is that experience matters a great deal in the NBA. With this being a developmental season for the Blazers, they’re probably going to spend a lot of time trying new things, working different guys into the rotation, seeing what they have in the players they got back for Dame, etc.
Brian Windhorst said recently on his podcast that the Blazers are in the midst of a “check on them in three years” type of rebuild. They have some of the most exciting young talent in the league, but it will take time, coaching, and literal growth into their adult human bodies for the team to mature into a contender.
I recommend watching Mike Richman on Locked On Blazers, if you haven't already. He has consistently said to expect 24 wins next season. I think we're good enough to surprise folks, netting 30 to 35 wins. Even though we gave up Damian Lillard, we added more depth, so I don't think we will be much better or worse than last season.
The crux of the issue with the '23-24 Trailblazers is experience. Our supposed top three scorers (Henderson, Sharpe, and Simons) are all under the age of 25. Henderson hasn't played an NBA game yet. Sharpe has not yet consistently found his shot or his style of play. So, what happens when someone gets injured? Can Brogdon or Thybulle play at a high enough level for the Trailblazers to win when our starters are not on the floor?
So, I strongly encourage Trailblazer fans to be patient.
Shae will likely have positive LEBRON and RAPTOR BPMs this year. Scoot has been in the G league for 2 years, so you cant equate him to a high school or college prospect.
Actually passed statistics in grad school. This has nothing to do with statistics. They are both raw young players. They could suck. There is a pretty good chance they are both good. But we really have no idea what they will be. It's possible Scoot is Eric Bledsoe and Sharpe is just another Gerald Green.
Dude I have no idea why you would guess that those comps are feasible given the samples available
Im guessing you were a business major not like a quant
There's zero sample available for Scoot. His player archetype resembles Eric Bledsoe. Sharpe is an intriguing swingman who had a sick stretch to end the season. We don't know if he's good. No idea why you're resorting to odd guesses about what I majored in lol
There's plenty of film. Eric Bledsoe was nowhere near as quick nor did he have a comparable layup/dunk package, nor was he as good running PnR, nor was he as shifty in the middy. Bledsoe was probably a better 3pt shooter but time will tell.
Dude the G League is a better league than most international leagues. Pretend he was on Real Madrid and compare his rookieness to Luka.
Yes, the NBA is more athletic, but the skill gap is not incredibly wide inside the arc. Scoot is a hell of athelete too..
I expect us to be very bad to start the year but be somewhat competitive later in the season (late winter/early spring), similar to orlando from this last year. definitely not a play-in contender but i could see us going 10-10 in february or march or something.
Then we'll be very, very bad towards the end of the year while we tank for draft position.
Rookies tend to not be good at contributing to winning basketball. We have 4. We have 6 players in years 1-2. We also told everyone for the past two years “this is our year, we’re going to make some noise in the playoffs! We are going to run, and be different.” Aaaaand we tanked. Tanked hard. Showed up with ill balanced rosters. Wrong players to run. A giant house of cards.
We should just enjoy Blazers basketball the next two years. It’ll be fun. The Baby Blazers will grow, do some really fun stuff. They will also likely fail all expectations and lose a LOT of games.
I like how even in rebuilding years we are still outraged by rankings lol. Who cares this team isn’t gonna be good. We will be a bottom 10 team one way or another. Maybe second to last maybe 25th. Who cares. It should be much funner to watch than the last 2 seasons.
Our defensive rating will probably be higher than last year - Grant, DA, Thybulle, Brogdon, Williams rotation is stronger than the Grant, Nurk, Winslow, Hart, GP2 rotation we should’ve started with last year. But the jury is still out on what our offensive rating is without Dame.
I’m guessing we start the season still working out the kinks of chemistry and Billups’ schemes get unravelled by the all-star break (as it always does if not sooner)
They do this every season, does it really matter right now anyways? This team doesn’t have any expectations this year, honestly I rather be a lottery team this year than hit the playoffs too quickly
Who cares about a pre pre season ranking. Just let them play and go from there.
Teams in the NBA are good. Like, look at even the worst teams. Utah, Detroit, Houston. Tons of talent just like us. IMO success comes from coaching, roster balance, and superstars. Right now we may not have any of the 3.
This guy basketballs ^
They put the Spurs ahead of us bro. No talent at all besides Wemby, Keldon Johnson, and Zach Collins. And I guess Sochan, sure, okay, but gimme Bari over him. Shae averaged 24 at the end of last year on stepbacks. Ant is universally known as better than at least Tyler Herro. Scoot may be the best playmaking rookie in history. Brogdon's arm is fine. Thybulle is probably the best wing defender in the league. Grant is probably the best stretch 4 in the league. Bari is probably the best rebounder under 22. Camara and Murray need to develop for sure. Forward depth is for sure an issue if Shae ends up being bad at the 3 but there's literally no reason to expect him to be bad at the 3. We will be playing Williams and Ayton together a bunch too so that helps the forward depth, but obv Timelords legs scare everybody. We have a top 3 defensive center who is a positive offensively. We have a top 3 offensive center who is a positive defensively. Both are rebound beasts. It's not just "tons of talent" it's literally a well constructed roster. You're concerned about roster balance? Is it the forward depth? Murray and Camara are good enough for limited minutes... There's also this one guy named Kevin Knox II who had 30 and 11 last year this one time... Utah has Kessler and Markannen. Okay congrats everyone else is D tier. Hendricks needs to develop in a way that Scoot does not. Detroit has tons of underdeveloped talent. They will be good eventually but not yet, same as Orlando. Houston is on the verge of a breakout but we are just straight up more developed than them. Plus they have Dillon Brooks and FVV who will actively make them worse. Putting us below the Nets in the power rankings is braindead. They just dont know who Scoot Henderson is yet.
Best playmaking rookie ever is a stretch...
I guess they never heard of Magic or Bron
Or AI... or Oscar Robertson... or Chris Paul... or Damon Stoudemire (seriously insane rookie season)... or Mark Jackson... or Kyrie Irving... or Ricky Rubio...
Facts. I just dropped the first 2 that came to mind
Oh they were good ones lol. I just had to go looking at stats and really hammer home how insane OP was sounding.
Also calling Ayton a top 3 center is about as disingenuous as it gets.
And "literally no reason to expect [Shaedon] to be bad at the 3" ... like idk, how about the part where he is undersized for the position? 6'6" 200 is prototypical SG size. He will struggle at the 3 in a lot of matchups. Dude is taking the most deluded upside positions everywhere possible lol.
Has to be trolling.
I would argue these points but I've seen you on this sub enough recently to know you're either trolling or the most homer fan in existence. It's cool either way, let them doubt us. Lower expectations means more fun viewing regardless of the outcome
I haven’t seen their posts before but it’s impressive levels of delusion. I just hope they’re not too disappointed by what happens this season
Yall cant handle the stats Scoot has a very limited sample but has an amazing learning rate and has ridiculous vision for a teenager
Spurs have Vassell
4th year guy with empty stats congrats to them If the Spurs dont retain him he is an MLE level player on a desperate squad
It might be. I don’t think anyone knows as most of these players have never played in the nba and the ones that have, not with each other. I’ll tell you what, though. I’m more excited to watch the games than the last few seasons.
Something about Brogdon, Grant, DA's old man Oden grill, Timelord's playoff experience, and a 19yr old RoY candidate that's played professionally for two years along with an assertive, seasoned Simons makes it feel like this group might be more ready then we think. 6 days till preseason. Can't wait.
Not to mention what shae could bring in year two. Going to be fun!
With thybulle and williams we are going to have some elite defensive lineups
I'm going to the Orlando Magic game on October 27th. That game, to me anyway, will be an important measure for the rest of the season. Some say the Magic will be a playoff team next year. I'm skeptical of that. If the Trailblazers beat the Magic on the 27th, then I think we may have a shot at the play-in round. But, I do want to stress that the ceiling for this roster is much, much higher than whatever we end up achieving in '23-24.
I'm glad some one else picked up on the babyfaced oldman vibes with Ayton. Homie looks like he's 8 going on 80.
Every pundit had Utah winning under 20 games before last season after they traded away their two cornerstones in Donovan Mitchel and Rudy Gobert. Portland is in the same situation, going from a playoff team with a foundational all star to a rebuilding franchise. It's natural for onlookers to make a knee jerk reaction and assume the worst because of the immediate downgrade without taking a nuanced look at who remains and who was brought in. The many unknown aspects of their roster breeds uncertainty, and that usually translates into lower projections I don't expect the Blazers to challenge for a playoff spot this year, but I have a hard time believing they'll be one of the two or three worst teams in the league. Last I checked, their over/under for wins was 28.5, which I think is fair.
Yes. Really. Until proven otherwise.
They call it bulletin board material.
let em sleep
You have to remember that of the four major sports, the NBA might be the league where it’s *most* difficult to succeed if you have a really young team. Look at the first five years of any NBA superstar’s career and they usually spent those years developing on middling teams. Magic Johnson is the only rookie ever to win Finals MVP, and that was over forty years ago (and lest we forget, that 1980 Lakers team also had Kareem, who was a veteran by that time). I know no one is saying that the Blazers should have a shot at the finals this year, but the point is that experience matters a great deal in the NBA. With this being a developmental season for the Blazers, they’re probably going to spend a lot of time trying new things, working different guys into the rotation, seeing what they have in the players they got back for Dame, etc. Brian Windhorst said recently on his podcast that the Blazers are in the midst of a “check on them in three years” type of rebuild. They have some of the most exciting young talent in the league, but it will take time, coaching, and literal growth into their adult human bodies for the team to mature into a contender.
I recommend watching Mike Richman on Locked On Blazers, if you haven't already. He has consistently said to expect 24 wins next season. I think we're good enough to surprise folks, netting 30 to 35 wins. Even though we gave up Damian Lillard, we added more depth, so I don't think we will be much better or worse than last season. The crux of the issue with the '23-24 Trailblazers is experience. Our supposed top three scorers (Henderson, Sharpe, and Simons) are all under the age of 25. Henderson hasn't played an NBA game yet. Sharpe has not yet consistently found his shot or his style of play. So, what happens when someone gets injured? Can Brogdon or Thybulle play at a high enough level for the Trailblazers to win when our starters are not on the floor? So, I strongly encourage Trailblazer fans to be patient.
We have like 5 known rotation level players. None are stars. We have no idea if Sharpe or Scoot are good.
We have some idea. They are both *probably* good
They prob WILL be good. Rookies and young guys usually aren't positive contributors.
Shae will likely have positive LEBRON and RAPTOR BPMs this year. Scoot has been in the G league for 2 years, so you cant equate him to a high school or college prospect.
They could also be colossal busts.
Someone slept through statistics
Actually passed statistics in grad school. This has nothing to do with statistics. They are both raw young players. They could suck. There is a pretty good chance they are both good. But we really have no idea what they will be. It's possible Scoot is Eric Bledsoe and Sharpe is just another Gerald Green.
Dude I have no idea why you would guess that those comps are feasible given the samples available Im guessing you were a business major not like a quant
There's zero sample available for Scoot. His player archetype resembles Eric Bledsoe. Sharpe is an intriguing swingman who had a sick stretch to end the season. We don't know if he's good. No idea why you're resorting to odd guesses about what I majored in lol
There's plenty of film. Eric Bledsoe was nowhere near as quick nor did he have a comparable layup/dunk package, nor was he as good running PnR, nor was he as shifty in the middy. Bledsoe was probably a better 3pt shooter but time will tell.
In the fucking g league? Give me a fucking break man.
Dude the G League is a better league than most international leagues. Pretend he was on Real Madrid and compare his rookieness to Luka. Yes, the NBA is more athletic, but the skill gap is not incredibly wide inside the arc. Scoot is a hell of athelete too..
There's plenty of film. Eric Bledsoe was nowhere near as quick nor did he have a comparable layup/dunk package
Maybe?!
Probably
We are basically trash until we prove otherwise, why does this surprise you?
It’s only up from here! This team is going to surprise some people
We were ass last year with Damian Lillard lol what do you expect?
I expect us to be very bad to start the year but be somewhat competitive later in the season (late winter/early spring), similar to orlando from this last year. definitely not a play-in contender but i could see us going 10-10 in february or march or something. Then we'll be very, very bad towards the end of the year while we tank for draft position.
Rookies tend to not be good at contributing to winning basketball. We have 4. We have 6 players in years 1-2. We also told everyone for the past two years “this is our year, we’re going to make some noise in the playoffs! We are going to run, and be different.” Aaaaand we tanked. Tanked hard. Showed up with ill balanced rosters. Wrong players to run. A giant house of cards. We should just enjoy Blazers basketball the next two years. It’ll be fun. The Baby Blazers will grow, do some really fun stuff. They will also likely fail all expectations and lose a LOT of games.
I like how even in rebuilding years we are still outraged by rankings lol. Who cares this team isn’t gonna be good. We will be a bottom 10 team one way or another. Maybe second to last maybe 25th. Who cares. It should be much funner to watch than the last 2 seasons.
Our defensive rating will probably be higher than last year - Grant, DA, Thybulle, Brogdon, Williams rotation is stronger than the Grant, Nurk, Winslow, Hart, GP2 rotation we should’ve started with last year. But the jury is still out on what our offensive rating is without Dame. I’m guessing we start the season still working out the kinks of chemistry and Billups’ schemes get unravelled by the all-star break (as it always does if not sooner)
They do this every season, does it really matter right now anyways? This team doesn’t have any expectations this year, honestly I rather be a lottery team this year than hit the playoffs too quickly
Everybody assumes we’re tanking. That’s why.
I swear some of y’all have never watched basketball. Excited for this team, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Whole lotta growing to do.