After a slow start in their first four games of the season, the Blazers have been red hot. Not to jinx them, but they are still undefeated at home and against the Eastern Conference. While some of the young talent on this team might hit a bit of a wall come late January, right now they look ready to win the next seven NBA championships.
Okay; that might be putting it a little strongly. However, I think this team is the real deal. If you have been to ESPN.com's NBA page recently, you'll notice this team from the Northwest is finally getting some national press:
Blazers are #4 in Marc Stein's Power rankings & in the Hollinger Power Rankings
Hollinger's Playoff Odds have them at 100% to make the playoffs and 25% to make the Finals
Among all NBA rookies, Rudy Fernandez Ranks #4 and Greg Oden is #5. Nicolas Batum is playing great as a starter and unfairly ranked in the 20's.
Why have the Blazers played so well through their tough early schedule? My answer: Brandon Roy is an unselfish-much-improved-ridiculously-good closer, THE BENCH, ball handling, and the three-pointer. When you take a look at the numbers and compare this team to other teams around the league, what you will see is that when the Blazers aren't playing well, the three-pointer keeps them in games and then Brandon Roy (Western Conference Player of the Week) puts the team on his back and goes nuts in the second half. When the team is playing well, the bench dominates the other team and the Blazer starters play under 30 minutes, leaving them plenty rested (which is very important when your schedule is this tough).
Why are the Blazers playing better than last year? Didn't they have a deep bench and Brandon Roy all year? Yes. But there has been a huge upgrade at 3-point and ball handling. Travis Outlaw and Steve Blake have improved their three point shooting (and Blake is playing more aggressively). They also added more 3-point fire power with Rudy Fernandez and Nicolas Batum. Another benefit of their improved 3-point play is that making 3s early also spreads the floor for Roy to take it to the bucket. Roy is becoming one of the best in traffic. Blake and Roy are taking care of the ball better than ever too. Not turning the ball over is decreasing the easy buckets for other teams and keeping the Blazers from getting in holes, allowing them to play from the lead more often.
If I told all of this to Nate McMillan, he would say: No. It's defense, stupid. Well he wouldn't say stupid because he is too classy. But he would insist that their D is the reason for their success. And he would be right :-) That's why he's the coach and I'm an idiot sitting on a couch yelling at my TV. Their full court press and their trap has really allowed them to control the pace of the game, create turnovers, and get other teams into bad shot clock situations. But, I like offense!
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You forgot about Joel Przybilla! He’s been playing great and I think he keeps them in a lot of games by playing so consistently. I’m hoping Travis Outlaw can find some of those 4th quarters like he had last year. Those were fun to watch! When does Martell Webster come back? Won’t that make them even better?
ReplyDeleteHenry from TrueHoop thinks Joel is in the running for sixth man of the year right now (of course, too early to tell).
ReplyDeleteIf "the Thrilla" keeps playing like this, he has a decent shot at 6th man. Especially if the Blazers finish in the top 4 in the West.
ReplyDeleteOriginally, Webster was going to try to come back for tomorrow night's game against the Celtics. Unfortunately, it looks like he is going to wait a little longer and come back after the 5 game road trip (which ends this Sunday with a 10am Pacific tip at Toronto).