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Both Portland and LA appear to have championship windows that are open for the next several years. Discuss how these teams matchup over the next few years and predict how far they can / will go.

*NO HOMERISM PLEASE*

Lineups for next year as of now

LA Lakers
Fisher: 33 - Solid vet who can be deadly from 3
Bryant: 29 - Top 1-2 player in the league
Odom: 28 - Big SF, plays like a PF
Gasol - 27 - Good high post scorer / rebounder
Bynum - 20 - Has been solid this year, unknown ceiling

Portland Trailblazers
Roy: 23 - Do it all player, team leader
Fernandez: 22 - Best player in Europe
Outlaw: 23 - More of a thin PF, slow learning curve, clutch
Aldridge: 22 - Flashes of brilliance, inconsistant, high post scorer
Oden: 20 - Most hyped big man since Duncan, yet to play due to knee injury

Now, I know that both teams have a lot of vocal posters on these boards (myself included), but try to keep this as unbiased as possible.

Lakers will be better than Portland as long as Bynum is still played.

You can't even compare Portland's future line-up to LAL's. It's not even close unless you want to get overly hypothetical about Portland's talent. Not a single person in the universe has seen Greg Oden play against NBA talent.

i don't agree with your assertion that both teams have a championship window open for the next several years. portland may open their window in several years, but as of now its closed shut. the lakers are title contenders right now for i'd say the next 4 years at least. i won't go over 4 because 4 yrs ago the lakers were in the finals with payton/kobe/malone/shaq. a lot can change in that span of time.

i don't think this is going to be a rivalry, at least not in the form of roy/LA/oden vs bryant/gasol/bynum

I see the hope for lack of homerism was futile

farzi wrote:I see the hope for lack of homerism was futile

farzi wrote:I see the hope for lack of homerism was futile

u started your post by saying that the blazers championship window is open. you really think they're capable of winning the title right now? or even next yr?

dcash4 wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



u started your post by saying that the blazers championship window is open. you really think they're capable of winning the title right now? or even next yr?

They're a fringe playoff team this year. Next year you add the most hyped big man in a decade, and the best player overseas. Saying they have a possible title run in them is no more ludicrous than other posters saying that Bynum + Gasol would be the best froncourt ever, while they have yet to even play one second on the court together.

farzi wrote:I see the hope for lack of homerism was futile

Farzi, your post may have been in Farsi. Portland ain't be gottin no window. They just have hocakes and activator spray and Winky Dinky dogs.

farzi wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



They're a fringe playoff team this year. Next year you add the most hyped big man in a decade, and the best player overseas. Saying they have a possible title run in them is no more ludicrous than other posters saying that Bynum + Gasol would be the best froncourt ever, while they have yet to even play one second on the court together.

don't set your standards too high

saying your post is no worse than one of the worst posts ever is quite the accomplishment.

I find it amusing that last year the Lakers barely played above .500 ball last year and won 42 games. Bynum looked lost more often than not and the team was a dysfunctional mess chemistry wise. Kobe wanted out only a few months a ago. Now they add a 33 year-old retread in Derek Fisher and a soft flopper with an injury history in Pau Gasol. All of a sudden we're supposed to annoint them a shoe-in for a Championship? They're good but they're not that good.

Portland has shown a lot of spunk but talking about future championships is very premature.

Village Idiot wrote:I find it amusing that last year the Lakers barely played above .500 ball last year and won 42 games. Bynum looked lost more often than not and the team was a dysfunctional mess chemistry wise. Kobe wanted out only a few months a ago. Now they add a 33 year-old retread in Derek Fisher and a soft flopper with an injury history in Pau Gasol. All of a sudden we're supposed to annoint them a shoe-in for a Championship? They're good but they're not that good.

Portland has shown a lot of spunk but talking about future championships is very premature.

no, you're not suppose to anoint them a shoe-in but did u sleep through the first part of this season? why the heck are u talking about how bynum looked last yr? did u see him THIS year? did u see the lakers THIS yr, you know, the team with the best record in the west through 35 games before bynum went down? i mean, wow, talk about living in the past.

Currently the Lakers won't even have home-court advantage in the playoffs. That is the present reality. Harsh, huh?

The Lakers have a nice looking crew. Things happen fast in this league as my previous post indicated. Half a year ago Kobe wanted out of Dodge and the Lakers looked to be in bad shape. Injuries happen, players develop.

Both the Lakers and Blazers have exceeded expecatations this season. That, my Mr. Cash, is the reality.

Village Idiot wrote:Currently the Lakers won't even have home-court advantage in the playoffs. That is the present reality. Harsh, huh?

The Lakers have a nice looking crew. Things happen fast in this league as my previous post indicated. Half a year ago Kobe wanted out of Dodge and the Lakers looked to be in bad shape. Injuries happen, players develop.

Both the Lakers and Blazers have exceeded expecatations this season. That, my Mr. Cash, is the reality.

do u have a point that i'm missing? are u saying the lakers aren't championship contenders? if thats what you're saying i think there is A LOT of people from all fan bases that will disagree with you. if you're saying they are then there is no argument.

seems like your only point is that the lakers weren't expected to contend when the season started, which of course no one disagrees with or wants to talk about.

I wouldn't hand the Lakers the championship yet...
It looks great on paper but we've yet to see how Bynum will look upon his return. If he can play at the same level they are definitely contenders, but again it has yet to be seen how he meshes with Gasol on the floor.

Village Idiot wrote:Currently the Lakers won't even have home-court advantage in the playoffs. That is the present reality. Harsh, huh?

The Lakers have a nice looking crew. Things happen fast in this league as my previous post indicated. Half a year ago Kobe wanted out of Dodge and the Lakers looked to be in bad shape. Injuries happen, players develop.

Both the Lakers and Blazers have exceeded expecatations this season. That, my Mr. Cash, is the reality.

The problem with your "reality" and "expectations" is they weren't based on sound basketball analysis... like every sportswriter picking Houston to be near the top of the division. The Lakers were predicted to do badly because of chemistry issues that people just assumed would happen then people started feeding on the hype; witness Ric Bucher saying he'd give away his house if Kobe played a single game in a Laker uniform this year.

Sound basketball analysis says that the Lakers were 26-13 last season before the wave of injuries (although Kwame, Vlad, and Mihm were already hurt). Take the same team plus Kobe minus 20lbs, Lamar recovered from his son's death, steady improvement from all the recent draft picks, and another year in the offense... now assuming they stay reasonably healthy does it make sense that a team like that wouldn't make the playoffs as most people suggested?
Now replace Smush with Fisher, a guy that has been proven to stretch defenses, knows the offense like the back of his hand, and has the absolute trust of Kobe (they were drafted in the same year).

Hate to break it to you but the media either overhypes or overhates us in order to attract more viewers. We are the leagues most popular team (notice that we've played on X-Mas day for the last 9 years) and every sportswriter knows they can make their living by writing shocking stuff about us. In short, don't listen to the media when it comes to the Lakers.

Check page 1 for solid early season analysis and page 2 for something more current:
http://forums.lakersground.net/viewtopi ... sc&start=0

Wait, Bgil wrote a long winded post about how amazing the Lakers are this year, but didn't respond to the topic at hand. Well, I for one, am completely shocked.

U-Borat wrote:Portland aren't anything resembling contenders for another 2 years.

Read the first poll option

dcash4 wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



do u have a point that i'm missing? are u saying the lakers aren't championship contenders? if thats what you're saying i think there is A LOT of people from all fan bases that will disagree with you. if you're saying they are then there is no argument.

seems like your only point is that the lakers weren't expected to contend when the season started, which of course no one disagrees with or wants to talk about.

My point is that without homecourt advantage in every single series you're going to have a real hard time winning a championship. The West is a tough mofo this year.

The Lakers are good but they're not obviously and significantly better than everybody else.

This post is a joke.

Portland = Potential
Lakers = Proven Stars

Chicago had great potential, but they are back to square 1.