The Trailblazers have come out of the gates hotter than probably anyone outside of Portland was expecting. They are currently standing atop the Western conference at 16 and 3, a half game ahead of conference champs San Antonio. Many have looked at the hot start as an early season flash in the pan and that the season will eventually level out for the squad, but here we are nearly a quarter of the way through and the Blazers are still standing strong. Portland has handled some of the leagues premier teams; San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Indiana and Golden State to name a few and half of their wins have come from the road. At some point, if you haven't already, you have to take this team as seriously as everyone in Portland does.
The Trailblazers are the only major professional sports team in a city with dreary weather, money to spend, loads of enthusiasm and lots of young people. Much is said about the importance of sports in the northeast, cities like Boston, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, cities where people are holed up for long stretches of winter and find some of their only solace in their teams, but Portland is right there with them just on an opposite coast. Only that Portland's fans don't have the luxury of dispersing their emotional ebb and flow over multiple franchises, the Blazers are it. Portland is a basketball city and the Blazers are their team.
A franchise that has seen it's share of success over the years, from Walton to Drexler to the teams in the late nineties and early 00's. But along with their successes has come a fair share of heartbreak, Walton's injuries and departure, Drexler heading to Houston, The Jailblazers era that saw a team just riding the crest of much on court success while achieving plenty of notoriety off the court, on to the tragedies of both all-star Brandon Roy and 2008 overall first pick Greg Oden both having their careers cut short by horribly debilitating leg injuries. It seemed a franchise doomed to dwell in basketball purgatory with a fanbase seemingly ready to accept the bad as long as their was some good.
There is finally plenty of good, with fairly new GM Neil Olshey who helped dig the Clippers franchise out of the ultimate basketball purgatory, new coach Terry Stotts, all-star power forward LaMarcus Aldridge, 2013 unanimous rookie of the year winner Damian Lillard and a great cast of players around them rip city is up and running. But is this team as good as their early season start would suggest?
Aldridge is the real deal, an all-star the last two years (a sure in for this year's team as well) and being named to all NBA third team in 2011, Aldridge as accepted his spot at the helm of this franchise. In a win over the Thunder earlier this week Aldridge pulled in a career high 38 pts on 60% shooting from the floor, with 13 rebounds and 5 assists. With a five game stretch in November that saw Aldridge get five consecutive double-doubles he's averaging 23.5 ppg and just under 10 boards per game. At 28 years old, just entering into his prime, and a contract keeping him in place through next season, as well as expressing a desire to stay in Portland, he will be the key for the Blazers now and moving forward.
Other key pieces for the team Damian Lillard, Wesley Matthews, and Nicolas Batum have given the support to Aldridge to help take the franchise to the next level. Lillard, having stayed in college all four years, has come into the league fearless. In only his second year he's averaging over 20 ppg, with almost 7 attempts from outside per game (hitting 39.7%) and almost 6 assists per game. Wes Matthews has led the league in shooting so far, hitting 50% of his 5.5 three point attempts per game and 53.4% from inside, averaging 16.4 ppg. Nicolas Batum who is coming off a career year has also been hitting a high percentage from outside, 40% on 5.3 attempts per game. Batum is also shooting 46.2% from the rest of the floor. Having multiple viable offensive option has helped disperse the pressure from Aldridge and keep defenses honest when playing the Blazers. It will be interesting to see how well they can keep up their ability to hit shots as scouting reports catch up to them over the course of the season.
One of the knocks on the Blazers so far has been an easy schedule has resulted in their impressive record. While many optimists will point to big wins against the league's elite teams, the Pacers, Spurs, Thunder and a win in Oakland, also a devout basketball city, over the Warriors, the schedule is a relevant point. The Blazers rank 6th in the league when it comes to number of times they play an opponent on the second night of a road back-to-back game (17 games), they rank 6th in total number of games in which they are playing an opponent on the second night of a back-to-back home or away (23 games) and they rank third in number of times they play an opponent in the last game of a 4 games in five nights stretch (4 games). The home wins against the Pacers, Spurs and Thunder were the second night of road back-to-backs for all teams, also included in this category is the Bulls loss in Portland in which Derrick Rose suffered his season ending meniscus tear.
Perhaps it is Portland's geographic remoteness, with Sacramento or Denver often times being the first game of opponents back to back sequence, that allows them to see so many opponents stretched thin. Coming into the former Rose Garden (will anyone refer to it as the Moda Center this season? Probably not) with such a devout rabid fanbase on little sleep and weary legs is definitely a disadvantage for opponents, factor in the Blazers play thus far and it would seem an insurmountable task to leave with a win, just ask Paul George.
The Blazers lost both of their contests in Phoenix, a team that despite a better than expected start was a team that was wholeheartedly gunning for the league's worst record, and almost lost a close third meeting at home against the Suns. The Blazers also don't have much support coming off the bench. Mo Williams, in his 12th season and has been buried in Utah and Los Angeles the past two seasons, has provided their only real reliable bench scoring. As the season trudges on and teams learn more about this Blazers team Portland could see a leveling off and face real trouble in a playoff series against some of the west's deeper, more postseason savvy squads.
So the Blazers may be as good as it would seem, or at least as their starters and schedule allow, but it seems like an unsustainable run for the duration of the season, much less the playoffs. The Blazers are great, and it's great to see them overcome much of the loss they've seen in the past few years, but they probably have a few more pieces to add and more to develop before they can seriously contend in the west. With youth on their side and most of their roster locked in through next season the Blazers will have time to grow and make moves to get them to the league's upper echelon of teams, meeting their fanbase's perception of them as well as giving the city something it probably very much deserves.
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