I used to live with a Thunder fan. Growing up I was a blazers fan who thought “fuck the sonics”. Growing up he was an adopted sonics fan who was overjoyed when they became the Thunder.
That 2019 series was among the most fun I’ve ever had
Lakers of the east
Obligatory Fuck the lakers, fuck the warriors, tuck the Celtics, fuck the heat.
Rest of the league I don’t care
Currently my non-Portland teams I have decided I will also support this season are the Bucks, Timberwolves, and Kings.
Why do I feel like it’s gunna be one of those Dame games where he scores 9 points in the first half and it’s super close and then he just decides he’d like to win and scores 30 in the second half
Jazz are even worse than us at turnovers
This doesn’t have anything to do with the question
I’m actually not sure if they will figure it out that much.
Like, I think they will probably finish higher than us. But Curry and Paul are old. Green and Thompson are looking pretty washed.
I feel like between our tank and their… flop? We could be looking at multiple 1st rounds next year. So maybe we will have the pieces to build a contender in 2028
The fact that Sharpe frequently out-rebounds grant just bothers me.
I like our young core, but it’s also more of the same old. Portland has almost always has develop our own talent because it’s hard for us to attract stars. Like if you look at the list of players who have been all-stars who have played for the blazers in the last 30 years, by far most were drafted by the blazers/traded for very early in their career. The two most notable exceptions are probably Rasheed Wallace and Carmelo Anthony (who’s peak playing years were after or before they played ok Portland).
The result is we often put together really solid, promising teams that just lack that X-factor to take us past the first round in a play-off series.
I like Camara/Thybulle/Ayton/Walker, but I think most of those players’ ceiling is “good 6th man or 4th option starter” type players.
Sharpe and Scoot might have the most explosive potential of our young players, but it’s hard to say if they will ever turn into the kind of player you need to go deep into the playoffs. And realistically, they BOTH need to be all-star caliber players.
So, basically, I’m optimistic about us looking better in the future, but I’m also trying to be realistic about our ceiling.