tlongII
10-15-2008, 03:42 PM
http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/8678104/Trail-Blazers-are-back-and-so-are-the-fans
Just consider for a moment an NBA team that hasn't added any significant free agents, didn't trade for any veteran stars, and has missed the playoffs five years in a row with higher expectations than the Portland Trail Blazers.
There is so much faith in the architecture of general manager Kevin Pritchard and coaching of Nate McMillan around this cadre of youth led by Brandon Roy, Greg Oden, LaMarcus Aldridge and Rudy Fernandez, that anything less than a 45-50 win season will be a disappointment for the revitalized Blazers fans and national media.
The transition has been so dramatic from the disastrous run of Steve Patterson and John Nash promising and failing to reconstruct the team that was in the playoffs 22 consecutive season, that they are back in sellout crowd mode. After averaging a sellout for virtually all 22 of those seasons, they dropped from the 19.000-20,000 average to the 15,000-16,000 until last season when the Rose Garden reverted to a raucous 19,550 per game.
Indeed, they were nearly all the way back.
This season, the love affair with the new breed should reach another level. The surprise of last season was accomplishing what they did without Oden, the No. 1 overall pick of the 2007 draft and a defensively dominant 7-footer. His microfracture knee surgery that kept him out all of his rookie year termed a success, McMillan now has the big kid to play next to the offensively gifted Aldridge at 6-11, along with a great floor leader in Roy -- rookie of the year in 2007 and an All-Star in 2008, who led the team to a surprising 41-41 mark last season.
But that's only part of it. They bought Fernandez from Phoenix after the 2007 draft and coaxed him into coming over after tearing up the Euroleague and shining in the Olympics for Spain. His shooting range and athleticism really filled a need for the Blazers, not to mention the typical draft day shenanigans by Pritchard that allowed him to add Jerryd Bayless, the star guard from Arizona, to the mix.
Oh sure, young 7-footer Channing Frye, a part of the mix up front had ankle surgery in early September and just returned this week. Ditto for starting point guard Steve Blake, his malady being a strained hamstring. And then there's Martell Webster, the young, sweet-shooting small forward, out for a couple of months with a broken foot. That's not to mention that first Oden, and then Fernandez suffered ankle sprains.
But realistically, the injuries have simplified things for McMillan a little bit considering how much young talent has to be developed. Since he prefers to keep explosive scoring small forward Travis Outlaw as his sixth man, the latest unexpected development has been the play of 19-year-old Nicolas Batum next to Oden and Aldridge up front.
Pritchard and McMillan initially believed Batum, a long and slim defensive-oriented player, would require some seasoning and would stay in his native France for a couple of years. But after his performance in the summer league and his improved offensive play -- plus McMillan is defensively inclined anyway -- they have reconsidered all the way into letting him run with the first unit for a while to see how he fits in the preseason. It's just another feather in the cap of Pritchard, who has now purchased late first-round draft picks in three consecutive years -- slick point guard Sergio Rodriguez, Fernandez and now Batum -- to add impressive talent and depth with the three players. And Fernandez is the oldest at 23.
In fact, only Blake, at 28, and sturdy 29-year-old backup center Joel Przybilla are significant contributors older than 25. It's that kind of youth that makes them all the more exciting, and yet makes you wonder about how such a precocious group will handle the pressure of the lofty prospects.
They are as divergent as the spectacular 29-point win over Sacramento in their preseason opener, to the subsequent 15-point loss to Golden State in a mess of turnovers. Both games at the Rose Garden, it shows how vulnerable they can be -- presuming you believe preseason games are a measure of anything.
Most importantly, the love affair has been rekindled. As the only game in town, the fans went from being embarrassed by the "Jail Blazers" moniker in their final winning seasons to complete apathy in the wake of horrible trades and bad contracts of the ill-fated Patterson/Nash era for the worst run in franchise history.
And now the fans are back in droves, with the primary concerns being the long-term health of Oden's knee and the knee and foot of Roy. But that may just be looking for problems, considering their youth.
In fact, the biggest issue facing McMillan right now appears to be how to establish a rotation and still develop all these players in the process. He can go huge, with Oden, Aldridge and even the agile 7-foot Frye at small forward once he gets back into condition. Or go small, with Aldridge at center, with the likes of Outlaw, Fernandez, Bayless and Roy. They've got two full starting units worth of players.
So what's the problem? They still have to learn how to win, consistently, all the way through April, which is what the hard-bitten McMillan was coaching last season. With so little experience, it's too early to be thinking along the lines of hardware, or make them a lock to be in the playoffs. But they're close, amazingly close, to the point where basketball in the Rose City may very well be back in full bloom this spring -- the first spring in a long time.
Just consider for a moment an NBA team that hasn't added any significant free agents, didn't trade for any veteran stars, and has missed the playoffs five years in a row with higher expectations than the Portland Trail Blazers.
There is so much faith in the architecture of general manager Kevin Pritchard and coaching of Nate McMillan around this cadre of youth led by Brandon Roy, Greg Oden, LaMarcus Aldridge and Rudy Fernandez, that anything less than a 45-50 win season will be a disappointment for the revitalized Blazers fans and national media.
The transition has been so dramatic from the disastrous run of Steve Patterson and John Nash promising and failing to reconstruct the team that was in the playoffs 22 consecutive season, that they are back in sellout crowd mode. After averaging a sellout for virtually all 22 of those seasons, they dropped from the 19.000-20,000 average to the 15,000-16,000 until last season when the Rose Garden reverted to a raucous 19,550 per game.
Indeed, they were nearly all the way back.
This season, the love affair with the new breed should reach another level. The surprise of last season was accomplishing what they did without Oden, the No. 1 overall pick of the 2007 draft and a defensively dominant 7-footer. His microfracture knee surgery that kept him out all of his rookie year termed a success, McMillan now has the big kid to play next to the offensively gifted Aldridge at 6-11, along with a great floor leader in Roy -- rookie of the year in 2007 and an All-Star in 2008, who led the team to a surprising 41-41 mark last season.
But that's only part of it. They bought Fernandez from Phoenix after the 2007 draft and coaxed him into coming over after tearing up the Euroleague and shining in the Olympics for Spain. His shooting range and athleticism really filled a need for the Blazers, not to mention the typical draft day shenanigans by Pritchard that allowed him to add Jerryd Bayless, the star guard from Arizona, to the mix.
Oh sure, young 7-footer Channing Frye, a part of the mix up front had ankle surgery in early September and just returned this week. Ditto for starting point guard Steve Blake, his malady being a strained hamstring. And then there's Martell Webster, the young, sweet-shooting small forward, out for a couple of months with a broken foot. That's not to mention that first Oden, and then Fernandez suffered ankle sprains.
But realistically, the injuries have simplified things for McMillan a little bit considering how much young talent has to be developed. Since he prefers to keep explosive scoring small forward Travis Outlaw as his sixth man, the latest unexpected development has been the play of 19-year-old Nicolas Batum next to Oden and Aldridge up front.
Pritchard and McMillan initially believed Batum, a long and slim defensive-oriented player, would require some seasoning and would stay in his native France for a couple of years. But after his performance in the summer league and his improved offensive play -- plus McMillan is defensively inclined anyway -- they have reconsidered all the way into letting him run with the first unit for a while to see how he fits in the preseason. It's just another feather in the cap of Pritchard, who has now purchased late first-round draft picks in three consecutive years -- slick point guard Sergio Rodriguez, Fernandez and now Batum -- to add impressive talent and depth with the three players. And Fernandez is the oldest at 23.
In fact, only Blake, at 28, and sturdy 29-year-old backup center Joel Przybilla are significant contributors older than 25. It's that kind of youth that makes them all the more exciting, and yet makes you wonder about how such a precocious group will handle the pressure of the lofty prospects.
They are as divergent as the spectacular 29-point win over Sacramento in their preseason opener, to the subsequent 15-point loss to Golden State in a mess of turnovers. Both games at the Rose Garden, it shows how vulnerable they can be -- presuming you believe preseason games are a measure of anything.
Most importantly, the love affair has been rekindled. As the only game in town, the fans went from being embarrassed by the "Jail Blazers" moniker in their final winning seasons to complete apathy in the wake of horrible trades and bad contracts of the ill-fated Patterson/Nash era for the worst run in franchise history.
And now the fans are back in droves, with the primary concerns being the long-term health of Oden's knee and the knee and foot of Roy. But that may just be looking for problems, considering their youth.
In fact, the biggest issue facing McMillan right now appears to be how to establish a rotation and still develop all these players in the process. He can go huge, with Oden, Aldridge and even the agile 7-foot Frye at small forward once he gets back into condition. Or go small, with Aldridge at center, with the likes of Outlaw, Fernandez, Bayless and Roy. They've got two full starting units worth of players.
So what's the problem? They still have to learn how to win, consistently, all the way through April, which is what the hard-bitten McMillan was coaching last season. With so little experience, it's too early to be thinking along the lines of hardware, or make them a lock to be in the playoffs. But they're close, amazingly close, to the point where basketball in the Rose City may very well be back in full bloom this spring -- the first spring in a long time.