Portland's off season last season was lived with euphoria: after all,
the team had the rookie of year, Brandon Roy, and the number one choice
in the draft: Greg Oden. All of a sudden, all that euphoria disappeared
when Oden got injured and missed the whole season and very few expected
that the team without him would still reach a .500 record, in a
conference where the Warriors with a 48-34 record couldn't reach a
postseason spot.
The Trail Blazers had one of the best winning streaks last season,
with 13 wins in a row in December (12-1 ATS) and they had the right to
have their own spotlight. The main reason for that was the duo Nate
McMillan and Kevin Pritchard, who built a young team with a lot of
character and which promises to be a championship contender in the
future. Pritchard took the risk of trading their "best" player Zach
Randolph to the Knicks and one year later, we can say this was an
excellent choice and probably if the Celtics hadn't won the title,
Pritchard would have won the "Manager of the Year" award.
Nate McMillan is one of the most underrated coaches on the league
and very few remember he was the coach of Seattle in the 2004-2005
season, where the team finished the season with a 52-30 record and
coincidence or not, this was the last season the Sonics had a positive
record and reached the playoffs. McMillan went 212-183 in Seattle and
maybe if he continued with the Sonics, the team wouldn't have moved to
Oklahoma. After leaving the Sonics, McMillan moved to Portland and this
will be his 4th season with the team, where the Blazers have been
improving season after season with him: 21, 32 and last season 41 wins.
It's pretty obvious his work at Portland has been very good and also
McMillan was part of the staff of Team USA in the Olympics, which
showed a lot of chemistry.
After this presentation, there is just one obstacle, which may
prevent this team from improving even more: injuries! If the team
doesn't get massacred by injuries, the Trail Blazers will be one of the
youngest, most athletic and complete of the whole league and they will
certainly fight for a playoff spot. The problem is that Oden has never
played a single game on the league, we don't know how the recovery of
Brandon Roy has been lately and most recently PF Channing Frye had
surgery and he will be out for 8 to 10 weeks.
Before I start analyzing the roster of the Blazers, I have to say
again that they have one of the deepest roster in the league. If
McMillan pretends to play on a faster pace with a run and gun style in
one game and then on the following game, he wants the team to play on a
typical half court game, Portland has enough solutions on the roster to
do it.
In the point guard position, the starter will be Steve Blake, who
was another great deal Pritchard made last season. More than his
numbers (8.5 ppg and 5.1 apg), Blake was a leader on the field, helping
Roy in controlling the game. He is also an excellent defender and the
fact he is a very useful player on the roster will never be in doubt
this season. Jerryd Bayless will be Blake's backup and he is a player
for the future, as Pritchard sent Brandon Rush, Jarrett Jack and Josh
McRoberts to Indiana, in order to get him (the Blazers also got Ike
Diogu). Bayless showed in college that he is a player with several
offensive solutions, as he finished last season with 19.7 ppg and 4apg,
while playing for the Arizona Wildcats. His dribbling abilities and
quickness will make him a very serious offense threat and he is a good
complement for Blake, as Portland has good solutions with these two in
the PG position for any type of game.
Brandon Roy will be the SG of the team and naturally the leader of
the Blazers. His great performances last season gave him a ticket to
the All-Star game, as he finished the season with 19.1 ppg, 4.7 rpg and
5.8 apg, excellent numbers, but which don't show the real importance of
Roy on this team. He is an all-around player, who is capable of doing
well any task in the field and if he is physically at 100%, then there
is no motives why he shouldn't have another great season.
Rudy Fernandez will join the Blazers this season and this is
fantastic news for them. Maybe a couple of months ago, very few people
in the United States knew that Rudy even existed, but in the Olympics
final between Spain and the US, Rudy scored 22 points in 18 minutes and
had an amazing dunk on Howard's face. He finished his last season in
Spain with 21.2 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 4.1 apg and 2.2 steals per game, while
winning one national and one international trophy for his team. He was
also considered the best player playing in Europe last season.
With Rudy, the team gains another dimension, fortunately for the
team, McMillan knows very well the abilities of Rudy, at least he has
already said that being on the bench in the Olympics final helped him
in evaluating his new player. Rudy abdicated of many millions of euros
that he was receiving in Spain, in order to follow his dream of playing
on the NBA, even if this means he will be receiving much less in
Portland. His versatility and athleticism make him a player who can
adapt to any kind of system.
Travis Outlaw will be the team's 6th player and last season he was
the responsible for many miraculous recoveries of the Blazers and a
decisive player in the 4th quarter. He had 13.3 ppg and 4.6 rpg last
season and his role promises to be once again a contender for the Sixth
Man of the Year. The starter at SF will be Martell Webster, who comes
from a career year last season, with 10.7 ppg, 3.9 rpg and 1.2 apg -
all of them career highs. Webster is an hard-working player and he will
be very useful to the team, being a good complement to Outlaw, making
this team very interesting at the SF position.
The frontcourt of the team will depend a lot from the impact Oden
can have, but don't think the team's frontcourt is weak without Oden,
as that's not true at all! LaMarcus Aldridge was an huge surprise last
season, while being one of the players who most improved since his
rookie season. Aldridge went from 9.0 ppg to 17.8 ppg, almost the
double! Besides that, he had 7.6 rpg (5.0 rpg as a rookie) and he is a
player with a good mid range shot, capable of creating problems to any
defense. As Fyre will be out at the beginning of the season, it will be
Ike Diogu who will have the role of being Aldridge's backup in the
team. I think Diogu is the kind of player who was misused in the teams
where he played and who has potential to be useful in every team.
When we talk about Portland was capable of doing last season,
nobody refers the center Joel Przybilla, who is extremely unfair to
him, as Przybilla was the team's best defender, finishing the season
with 4.8 ppg and 8.4 rpg. He finished the season in 4th in the whole
league in terms of rebounds per 48 minutes with 12.0, which shows how
dominant he can be in the paint. Hardly we can find another player who
averaged 8.4 rpg with just 23.6 minutes per game!
This team has everything to be a contender for a playoff place and
just the injuries look to be an obstacle for them this season. However,
the team will need to enter in great style on the season, as they will
play 10 of their first 15 games on the road, with 12 of those games
being against other teams of the Western conference.
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