No self-respecting fan wants to hear that their team should pack it in. And yet that is exactly what will best benefit Portland's beloved Trail Blazers.
With 10 games left to play, and trailing five games behind the #8 seeded Los Angeles Lakers, things look bleak to say the least for the Portland Trail Blazers and their collective playoff hopes.
Six of the 10 remaining games are on the road, where the Blazers are just 9-23 this season, leaving the odds incredibly against them. And that's just fine.
The Blazers are clearly in rebuilding mode, they should not be concentrated on or concerned with playoff aspirations, realistic or not. Less than a year ago, they began a process to cut/retire two of their three previous cornerstone players, then drafted two highly touted rookies to effectively replace them on the team.
They took action, they began the rebuilding cycle. They hired a new GM and a new head coach. They have stayed relatively albeit rightfully quiet in free agency and trades, and now the cycle is churning along, perhaps faster than expected, but not fast by normal standards.
This team has over-achieved, no doubt about that. However, they find themselves needing a plus-five game surge and swing on the Lakers within ten games in order to achieve their goal of a postseason berth. That is unrealistic in great years, let alone in down years.
And yet Blazers fans aplenty are deluding themselves in to believing that the team is in danger of missing the playoffs. Playoffs? Somewhere, somewhere out there, Jim Mora is face-palming and trying to avoid a stroke. Playoffs?
The Blazers are not in danger of missing the playoffs. They are out of the playoffs. Perhaps not mathematically eliminated, not yet anyway, but this is just not a playoff team.
And that is a good thing.
Yes, the team making the playoffs and even winning a playoff series would be tremendous, but highly unlikely. As unlikely as winning the NBA Championship, which they have yet to do. Alright, they did get that lone title back in 1977, which few if any of you reading this were alive to see, so let's stop clinging to that.
This team is not a playoff or a championship team, they are a rebuilding team. And in order to keep rebuilding, which they sorely need to do, the Blazers need another high draft pick, and they need it this season. They are currently the twelfth-worst team in the league, which will help them retain their first round pick, which goes to Charlotte as a result of the 2011 Gerald Wallace trade, that is unless the Blazers are in the top-12 picks.
This is a team lacking depth at the two and three. Meyers Leonard has shown flashes at the five, but nothing more, and JJ Hickson simply cannot be considered the answer at center. The guy is a double-double machine but lacks the height and length to compete with and contain the elite centers in the league, which is why Leonard was brought in.
The Blazers need to think and act long-term. The best thing for this team is confidence, but getting a playoff spot that will not help them out beyond this season is not the greatest of plans or intentions. They should not tank, but there is an extreme difference between quitting on the season and letting their younger players get extra playing time down the stretch.
Pack it in Blazers, more depth and a lot of talent has never been a thorn for a professional sports franchise in the past, and you would be wise to continue to build a talented and well rounded roster that can compete with the elite teams.
Average teams worry about getting in to the playoffs.
Elite teams worry about contending in the second, third, and god-willing, fourth round once they get there.
Let's not be average, let's be elite, Portland. It's not Portland-weird, but it wouldn't be a bad thing, either.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
