I won't specify where, but it was made amongst respect-deserving and competitive colleagues:
I understand where you guys are coming from with the youth comments, but realize Roy and Aldridge are more mature than many NBA players. Their superior education and high level of college talent, not to mention their successful first year campaigns and various other factors, such as upbringing and natural & earned intelligence attribute to this. Also, anyone whose kept and open mind to Oden can tell he's an old soul, wise beyond his years.
Today's NBA is full of underdeveloped talent with greedy immature minds. In my view, despite lesser physical abilities, the Tim Duncan's and Brandon Roy's (comparing their personalities as well) will almost always defeat the Iversons, TMacs, KGs and other super talents with lesser mental development. Just about every Blazer fits this more mature mold, they remind me of an old school team.
What is wrong with the NBA is what the Blazers aren't, it's what the Pistons, Spurs and Nash aren't. What's wrong with the NBA is a lack of education, discipline, fundamentals, unselfishness and hard work. These five qualities just happen to be key components to just about every champion to date. With the greater stratification of these qualities, it means more and more of what I will call the TD (Tim Duncan) factor will have importance.
What I'm getting at is the Blazers youth factor is overrated, as well as the competition level below this top tier of timeless players like TD and Nash.
This is certainly just another opinion of many, but I feel it helps explain the degradation of quality and popularity of the league. Teams like Toronto and San Antonio are also helping turn this trend around by bringing in educated and/or more fundamentally sound players from abroad and within. I've had the chance to speak with someone I'll describe as "being close to the NBA". He estimates the league will be 40% European / non-American with in a decade due to their superior fundamentals, discipline, team concept and overall maturity.
"Bird is back", and he's going to be black, and brown, yellow, white, purple and everything in between.
Other quotes I'm going to pound my chest over:
Well this certainly is no average young team. Roy and Aldridge are more mature than most NBA players. I expect Portland to finish no lower than second in the Northwest.
Not so comprehensive, but an encouraging anecdote for Portland: THE ISIAH TRADE EFFECT
1. Suns trade Stephon Marbury/Penny Hardaway for expiring contracts, 1st round pick and cash.
EFFECT: 29-53 record in '03-'04 --------------------> 62-20 record in '04-'05
2. Bulls trade Jamal Crawford/Jerome Williams for expiring contracts.
EFFECT: 23-59 record in '03-'04 --------------------> 47-35 record in '04-'05
3. Rockets trade Mo Taylor for Moochie Norris/Vin Baker and 2nd round pick.
EFFECT: 51-31 record, winning most games and going furthest in playoffs (7 games in the 1st round) in 7 seasons
4. Spurs trade Malik Rose and 1st round pick for Nazr Mohammed.
EFFECT: 59-23 record and winning the NBA championship
5. Suns trade Quentin Richardson and 1st round pick for Kurt Thomas.
EFFECT: 54-28 record w/o Amare, going furthest in playoffs (6 games in the Conference Finals) in 13 seasons
6. Bulls trade Eddy Curry/Antonio Davis for Tim Thomas/Michael Sweetney, and 2 1st round picks (one swap, both ended up in lottery)
EFFECT: 41-41 record, equaling previous season's playoff run (6 games in the 1st round) and 49-33 record in following season, going furthest in playoffs (6 games in 2nd round)
7. Magic trade Steve Francis for Penny Hardaway/Trevor Ariza.
EFFECT: 36-46 record in '05-'06 --------------------> 40-42 record in '06-'07
8. Raptors trade Jalen Rose and 1st round pick for Antonio Davis.
EFFECT: 27-55 record in '05-'06 --------------------> 47-35 record in '06-'07
9. Blazers trade Zach Randolph/Fred Jones/Dan Dickau for Steve Francis/Channing Frye.
EFFECT: 32-50 record in '06-07 ---------------------> ??????????????????
The majority of Isiah's trades allowed the opposing teams to dispose of their unwanted malcontents and to acquire the cap space, draft picks and better team chemistry to actively remodel their rosters for the better. In all of the cases, the opposing team enjoyed immediate success afterwards in the form of a improved regular season record or greater playoff success. Next season and the future ahead bodes extremely well for you guys now that you'll have been blessed by the Isiah Trade Effect.
poster 1 on Sat Jul 14, 2007 wrote:This is probably stating the obvious, but I think the question to ask here is ... will Brandon Roy be a "special" NBA player or just medium-good? His rookie numbers compare favorably with DWade, who then exploded in Year 2 and beyond. Personally, I'm not sure if Roy has the makings of a superstar, but he's a good kid (like DWade), an explosive combo-guard type somewhat in the DWade mold, he has a reasonably efficient fantasy game that would lend itself to elite status if he emerges into a true star, which I get the sense Portland would like to see happen. I'd need to know if Roy intends on breaking into superstar status before I could venture a guess at what his numbers will be. Kinda like it would've been helpful to know last offseason that Kevin Martin and Luol Deng were working out like madmen totally focused on having monster breakout seasons.poster 2 wrote:I think Roy will be a very good NBA pro but I don't ever see him breaking out and becoming a superstar. Coming out of Washington he was tabbed as a good at everything but not great at anything type of guy who was very NBA-ready. Last year he showed that he obviously was NBA ready, but to me he does not seem like the kind of player that is going to take over games and propel his team to the upper echelon. I would predict him to be in the borderline all-star pantheon like a Josh Howard or Rip Hamilton.
Luckily chances are one of Aldridge and Oden will be a cornerstone franchise player, so Roy is exactly what he needs to be.
me on Sun Jul 15, 2007 wrote:I like the Howard and Rip comparisons, but I see a guy more consistent than Howard and more versatile and talented than Rip. I don't see DWade type stardom in him, but more of "Tim Duncan" at SG. Not that he'll be as valuable or dominant as TD, it's more so in the way he does it. Fundamentals, brains, attitude, teamwork and skills over athleticism, fancy stats and spectacular dunks.
Until we develop or bring in a better point man (specifically in the transition/fast break) and establish a quality shooting wing, I think Roy's stats will more reflect the under 20 points per game predictions in this thread. Once we get good at running, I do see multiple 20+pts, 5+ ast and 5+ reb type years with good efficiency. This should take 2-4 years.
Unless we get James Jones and Blake now ! hahahahaha
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