The last time the Blazers looked this promising, LaMarcus Aldridge was just beginning to posterize Texas teenagers and a Lithuanian giant with a funny name was the team’s most exciting player.
Blazer fans have a lot to be optimistic about this year. For the first time since that fateful 1999-2000 season, (defined by the gut-wrenching image of the Kobe to Shaq one-handed alley-oop) this team feels like it has the perfect mix of chemistry, personnel and drive to make some serious noise come playoff time.
With that said, there remain plenty of questions that need answers before the spirit of ’77 can return to Portland once again.
1. Road Warriors?
Traditionally, Portland has not been a great road team. Despite their 48 victories last year, Portland only won 18 games away from the cozy confines of the Rose Garden.
With a 6 game road trip coming up, followed by a 7 game East Coast swing in March, the Blazers can ill afford to repeat the lackluster performances of last year’s road games.
Portland has already beaten OKC on the road, indicating that this year might be different, but followed that impressive win with a performance in Phoenix that made Blaze the Trail Cat consider setting himself ablaze. Will the Blazers’ weary legs hold up during extended trips and back-to-back games?
2. Great Oden’s Raven?
The news that Greg Oden’s original $8.8 million qualifying offer plummeted to $1.5 million after his physical speaks loud and clear. There’s a better chance that Kim Kardashian and Chris Humphries will get remarried than Oden seeing playing time this season.
Even if Oden eventually exchanges his Big & Tall suit for a black and red jersey, it’s hard to see him playing enough minutes to make a significant impact on this team.
Crazier things have happened though, like Shawn Bradley playing in the NBA for 12 years, so it’s important for the coaching staff to have some sort of plan in place should Greg return to the lineup.
3. The Best of the Oldies?
The last time Kurt Thomas and Marcus Camby played together, they went to the Finals with the Knicks in another lockout-shortened season.
Could this intriguing factoid be an omen for this season? Possibly, but keep in mind that their finals appearance was in 1999.
1999, you know the year when Pokémon ruled the earth and Harry Potter was just starting his freshman year at Hogwarts. All of this is to say Thomas and Camby are really old.
Can a team win a championship touting a center tandem with a combined age of 76? So far the answer appears to be yes, but as the season continues you have to think that the geriatric status of these two wily veterans will play a more significant role.
4. Closing Time?
It’s clear that the Blazers are LaMarcus’ team, but a team’s best player does not always equal the best option when it comes down to crunch time. LaMarcus has shown he can hit the big shots and is often unguardable for extended stretches, but at some point this season someone else is going to have to step up in the closing seconds of the game.
Time and again, predictability dooms a team’s chances of taking over in the 4th quarter (just look at LeBron circa 2011 Finals) and the Blazers are no exception to this rule.
When Brandon Roy was the go to guy, the Blazers had a bad tendency to stand around and watch their star try and win games single-handedly. This trend cannot continue if the team wants to go beyond their annual one and done playoff visit. Whether Jamal Crawford, Wesley Matthews, Nicholas Batum, or Gerald Wallace will transform into Mr. Clutch has yet to be determined.
5. GM _____________?
Lost in the early season success of the team is the fact that the Blazers still do not have a permanent General Manager. Clearly Chad Buchanan would love to remove the interim qualifier from his title, but just a guess that he’s not holding his breath.
So far, the lack of a true GM has not negatively impacted the Blazers. The Crawford signing was about the best the team could hope for given the hectic conditions of the free agency period.
As the trade deadline approaches it will be interesting to see the front office’s ability to work the phones and potentially make a deal that can help the team achieve contender status for the home stretch of the season.
6. The Missing Piece?
Speaking of personnel moves, another legitimate question is whether this team even needs to change up the roster. Is this a team that the front office feels can go all the way or is there one more piece that must be added?
On paper, there are only 8 guys on the team that you can rely on to produce night in and night out. Whether or not an 8-man rotation can withstand the brutal nature of the condensed season remains to be seen.
7. McMillan doing his best Chip Kelly Impression?
Fast is not a word that most people associate with the Blazers–until this year. The Blazers have skyrocketed from dead last in pace of play last year to third this season (as of Sunday).
You have to hand it to McMillan for his willingness to completely change his coaching philosophy and strategy. By taking a page out of the Popovich and D’Antoni playbook, he has not only made the Blazers exponentially more watchable, but has deftly integrated a new system that matches his roster’s strengths.
The question is whether McMillan’s new approach will hold up over the course of the season or if at some point he will be tempted to revert back to the glacial offense of years past.
8. Point Break?
One of the weaknesses that may plague the Blazers later in the season is the lack of a reliable backup point guard for Raymond Felton.
McMillian has shown a reluctance to give Nolan Smith or Armon Johnson any of those backup minutes thus far and instead has handed the reins to Jamal Crawford, who has performed admirably at times, but is not a pure point guard.
Crawford has a bad case of Kobeitis–if he touches the ball, he’s going to shoot it. The Blazers brought him here to score, but what happens if Felton goes down? Can the team depend on Crawford to quarterback the offense?
9. Sonic Youth?
One of the reasons that many fans are so high on this team is the amount of combined experience this year’s crop of Blazers bring to the table. There’s no doubt that this is a roster full of been-there-done-that players, but due to the truncated season it is likely that the young guns are going to have to play an important role at some point.
Can Nolan Smith be the PG of the future? Will Elliot Smith turn his scary athleticism into tangible results? And most importantly will Patty Mills make a triumphant return after being exiled from China?
10. Will the First Curse Burst?
All of these issues pale in comparison to the one question that will determine whether the 2012 season is a successful one: Will the Blazers get past the first round?
If you’re a Blazer fan, you should no longer be satisfied with just reaching the playoffs. Since that 2000 Western Conference Finals collapse, Portland has endured an era filled with Jail Blazers, rebuilding movements, microfracture surgeries and untimely retirements. Yet somehow, the Blazers have emerged from all of that with an impressive and talented roster that can compete with any team in the league.
The time has arrived for the Blazers to do some damage in the playoffs. No more excuses, no more underachieving and no more first round exits.
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