A) Brandon Roy SG- Court general, couldnt ask for a better leader. B) LaMarcus Aldrige PF- Extremely talented PF/SF mix, injuries held him back in 06' but he burst on the seen in 07'. C) Greg Oden- C No 1 overall pick born to be a superstar, and he'll have grey hair by the time he's 22. Those are the big 3, and now for this years draft.... D) Jerryd Bayless- PG (trade from IND) Just 1 month ago everyone thought this guy was a top 5 talent, they were making comparisons to Gilbert Arenas (without the mouth). But of course typical pre draft scrutiny and overanlyzation dropped this guy to 11. E) Nicolas Batum- PF Elite athlete, polished shooter, think Tracy McGrady clone. Now right there you have a starting lineup for the record books. Its time to jump on the bandwagon.
Oh yea they have a load of talent they've done a great job of rebuilding that team, and a little luck doesn't hurt either.
They have a lot of talent but odds are they won't be able to afford to keep it all together and are too inexperienced at make a serious championship run at the moment.
All they have to do is focus around Roy and Oden and they'll be successfull for the next 10yrs. Or they could choose 3 or 4 core players to build around, and the rest will end up being scrubs. Either way its not like all of a sudden they'll be cleaned out by free agency, sure they'll lose a few good role players like Outlaw or Webster, but its not the end of the world.
They won't be able to retain Oden, Aldridge, Bayless and Roy. They will probably be able to retain three of those guys and will have to let their quality role players go for cheaper ones. Also Oden is coming off an injury and hasn't played a lick of NBA basketball. Too early to call him a superstar, especially since his game is pretty one-dimensional (ie. needs work on offense).
As many teams have proved before, in the NBA you only need 2 or 3 dominant players and a few more decent role players to win rings. Its not like football or baseball, and thats why basketball is so boring in comparison.
My point is that the talent they have stockpiled doesn't matter as they won't be able to retain all of it, neither will they win a championship within the next few years before those contracts end. That's all.
As a resident of the northwest I've been watching this team for the last few years. I will go on record saying they will make the playoffs this year. The Blazers have a lot of cap space and should be able to retain the core of these players. Even if they don't they should be an immediate presence in the west. Oden should be ready, the Blazers haven't wanted to rush him back considering the lessons they learned with Sam Bowie and more recently Amare Stoudamire. It was rumored that Blazer's management caught him playing at a 24 Hour Fitness in the Portland area. Lamarcus has a good mid/long-range jumper that spreads the defense out nicely around the paint, this will release pressure from Oden on the inside and creates a nice dump-off option in the case of double teams. Not to mention that the front court bench is solid, with Pryzbilla and Channing Frye coming off the bench. Travis Outlaw shined at various points throughout this past year, hitting tons of clutch shots and scoring in droves. He is a veritable offensive threat and should, in my opinion, start consistantly over Martell Webster. Everybody knows about BRoy and Bayless should only help Roy's play. Bayless has that nice jumper but isn't quite the distributing Pointguard that Augustine is. Even without decent PG play this year, the Blazers will still be decent. Hopefully as Bayless/Sergio develop the Blazers will push the ball a little more. The Blazers are poised for success. Look for another year of steady improvement and hopefully a 50 win year.
I've been on the Blazers wagon since the early 80's, of course the only title they have won came a year before my birth, glad to see you put it out like this though, we got an exciting future.
Yea definitely, Blazers basketball is at fever pitch in the Northwest. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/rookies/rankings 2 of the top 3 rookies this year. (including Oden.) Bayless is ranked number 12 or so.
