The Blazers are more talented than the Rockets

You can say that, and it's true to an extent. Aldridge, Oden, and Outlaw got alot of foul shots during the regular season, but none of them are getting to the line at the same rate during this series. Outlaw in particular must be a disappointment. But the Blazers were hitting their jump shots last night. They shot alot better than the Rockets did.

To me, we're winning because we're cleaning up on the boards. The Blazers were statistically the best rebounding team, by far, in the regular season, by rebound differential. The Rockets were 4th. But in this series, the Blazers have gotten their butts handed to them on the glass. And it's mainly because Pryzbilla / Oden averaged 16 rebounds a game between them during the regular season, and less than 12 in this series. Yao is just kicking their butts on the glass, and the rest of the team is joining in.

 

What??? Athleticism does NOT = talent. They are more athletic but after 1-2 more games we'll know who is clearly better. (It's not the Blazers.)

And this Roy alone gives them more talent than us is ridiculous. Yea he's so talented we're playing him straight up while Portland is sending the whole team on Yao. Don't get me wrong Roy is an extremely gifted player, but he's not up there yet.

Give them a year or two and yea they will be better, but so will we. We'll also have $20m+ to spend very soon too. Rockets, Lakers, Portland will be the top teams in the West for the next few years.

 

Point well taken and no denying that Roy and Aldridge can get even better. But other than those two and to some extent Outlaw, I don't see anyone else getting significantly better than what they are right now. Yes not even Oden coz of his injuries.

The OP it seems just started following the Blazers coz they are playing the Rockets in this series. His thread title obviously means Blazers currently have a better roster than Rockets which I feel couldn't be further from the truth. And if he means by the future, it is very subjected and again as I pointed out, even then I only see significant improvements for Roy and Aldridge. Heck in the future we might get someone to replace TMac who would make us even better.

 

OMR...

Me and some of my buddies were sitting around talking about the same thing as we were watching the game last night. The last two games the Rockets have won on the books (which matters most) but they have not beat the Blazers; the Blazers have beating them selves.

This team is way ahead of schedule know one was expecting them to make the playoffs this year, everyone (analyst) were looking at next year or the year after. This team is young, talented and they have a very good coach.

The Rockets have potentially created a BEAST for next year, by showing them how to play with poise, confidence and control.

The Rockets need to close this series out quickly, the last thing you want is for this team to gain that confidence that they can come back and win the series.

 

To say a four point Blazer win in game 2 was "handily" is crazy. They never led by more than 8. I know what you are thinking, too..."If it wasn't for a bunch of 3s late, we lose by more". I could use that when I bring up game 3 because that's what POR did.

 

First, they did not beat us handily in Portland. If I recall correctly, we were down only 1 with 3 minutes left. We ended up losing by 4 four points on a night where Roy had to score 42 points. As good as Roy is, he is not going to score 42 points for them every night.

Portland will never go anywhere unless they find a post game. You can just see this from quarter to quarter. There are quarters where all their jump shots are falling and they look title contenders and there are quarters will nothing will go in. That is the problem with a jump shooting team, you will never have consistency.

Btw... I have to admit that Roy is better offensively but he isnt anywhere the passer that I originally thought. How weird! And there is no way he is comparable to Wade OMR.......

 

Yao
Dwight
Gasol (center, PF...depends on the night and lineup, I guess)
Bynum
Okur
Kaman
Biedrins
Okafur
Bogut
Nene
Brook Lopez
Chandler
Big Z
Camby

I'm sure you can nitpick on some of those. But then, I think it is also fair to consider a Kendrick Perkins, and even the Dalembert's and Dampier's of the world, where you start gettign at centers who are definitely serviceable, and don't make a lot of huge mistakes, grab their boards, get some blocks, etc., but nothing special...which is exactly what Pryzbilla is and always will be, and for now, is all Oden gives you, too.

And not to pick on your thread, but the whole premise is kind of dumb. The Rockets aren't just 5-2 against the Blazers this year, they're 9-2 in the last two years. Will the results be different next year? I don't know...I don't care. The Rockets could be NBA champs next year, or bottom dwellars....who the heck knows.

What about the young and inexperienced argument? 4 of our key players are young and inexperienced. Brooks, Wafer, Landry, Lowry.

What about the position by position argument? Even if that was the basis for winning games, I don't think the Blazers win there either. Brooks/Lowry are better than Blake/fill in the blank. Roy is better than Artest. Shane is better than Batum. Wafer and Fernandez are about equal. Yao is better than Pryzbilla, Oden, or both combined. Landry really doesn't have a counterpart to even compare against - Frye barely plays, Oden is really a center, Outlaw is really a SF, though both have played PF. I'd call the Landry vs. Outlaw/Oden comparison equal as far as PF production is concerned.

Outlaw vs. whoever on Houston (I guess Shane again) is really where Portland should have another advantage, and the only major one where they are underperforming...so if Outlaw plays better, than yes, the series is likely different. But you can play the what-if game all day long...Artest is amazingly shooting worse than he did in the regular season, taking some dumb shots, getting beat on defense, and the one awesome part of his game during the regular season, three-point shooting, has also failed him. He's rebounding less, his steals are down, he has no blocks, his turnovers are up...the only stat that is better for him vs. regular season is assists, which are slightly up. If Artest was just giving you his regular season performance, the series would likely be over.

Then you get to what, imo, is the key matchup of the series. Aldridge vs. Scola. And even I'll admit Aldridge is and should be better. But even before the series started, giving the Blazers a significant advantage in this area made little sense to me. Scola is a more efficient player and was a better rebounder in the regular season. And he has been in the playoffs. He's scoring more ppg at a much higher FG% - not a suprise, though...Yao has such a one on one advantage he is getting a lot of open looks, and Aldridge, as is HIS game, is shooting jumpers - granted he shot at a better FG clip during the season, but still below 50%, for a 6'11 PF. Scola is grabbing fewer boards, but is being more productive on a per minute basis - again not a surprise...Scola was way more productive rebounding during the regular season. In the series, Scola is turning the ball over less, has more assists...they both suck at FT's. Aldridge has been impressive in one area that has been unexpected...weak side shot blocking.

I guess it's just easy to forget how good Scola really is. He's like our Ginobili. I think if and when they get to the Lakers, his size will be exposed even more, but this guy is a former MVP of a pretty good basketball league. And this is the first playoffs where Yao and him are together. Heck, this is really the first season they've played together - remember, last year Yao went down around the time Scola was inserted into the starting lineup. So the two are still getting used to playing together, especially as they see different types of defenses.

Anyway, what I'm saying is that there is basically no argument in which the Blazers are the "better team", or "more talented" team.

 

This just isn't true... They won by 4 in a game that the Rockets were in until the end. And if Yao would have gotten the same calls that he received last night, this series would have been a sweep.

The Rockets are up 3-1 in the series and have only lost 2 out of the 7 games that we've played them in this year. One of which was the game with Roy's miracle shot.

Of course the games are gonna be closer now that the Playoff's have arrived... But how does that make Portland better?

Heart doesn't guarantee anything... Like Floyd Mayweather said. "Heart will get your @ss kicked."

 

My feeling is that if both teams stay pat and then meet gain next playoffs Portland will dominate.

As for closing it out. The longer this drags out the more pressure they're under to get out of the first round. I agree, finish them.

 

James White and Wafer are way more athletic then Roy. Does that make them more "talented?" Absolutely not. Portland is better team in most scenarios, it is just they match up horribly to the Rockets. Our strengths happen to be their weaknesses and their strengths are NOT our weaknesses. It also doesn't help that everyone that matters on their team right now is healthy, where as the Rox have a 20+ million dollar dead weight.

Truth is, Portland is a young team and they can only get better. Roy will be as good as DWade soon as they have very similar playing styles. Oden is a guaranteed 20-10 player once he gets a couple of seasons under his belt (barring injuries of course) and Aldridge plays like Chris Webber. They also have a great clutch shooter in Rudy. Portland is able to go big AND small as well as spread the court out easily.

Fortunately for us though, we got two amazing perimeter defenders, a bunch scrappy hard nosed veterans, quite a few bundles of electricities coming off the bench, a future solid point guard, and one of the best centers currently in the NBA. Come 2010 we also get to wipe our dead weight off the books and hopefully pick up Joe Johnson as well. It is not as if the future looks bleak for the Rox either!

 

True. It seemed everyone forgot we lost 23ML. on book, and as all know the Blazers are the most talented young team in the league.

 

What is the basis of this argument? I'm at a loss for understanding this?

The Rockets have so many ways they can, should, have and might play better, and are still winning 3-1...???

What are you people smoking?

 

i agree with you. i don't think we've played our A game yet. brooks going off in game one and the blazers playing like **** contributed to the blowout. if we run our game plan to perfection, there's no way they can stay with us.

 

To say they're a better team is ridiculous. Are they more talented? Maybe more athletic, but I'd not necessarily say more talented, and even if so, we have 1/4 of our payroll sitting on the bench. If we play them again in 2 years, when they are more experienced (which is the excuse everyone's using), I bet you we'll have that 20 mil replaced by players also, which will make us better also.

Portland is not going deep until they get real post presence. If they want to wait for Oden to develop into a post player, they'll be waiting a looong time.

 

Agreed....but when you're constantly shooting from the outside, that plays into rebounding. and we had some fortuitous bounces last night, as well!

 

Also, dont forget that Artest is having a miserable offensive series. If he were doing what he was in the 2nd half of the season, this series might already be over, and we would not look less talented...

 

if the blazers have a legit interior offense, then they'd be very scary for years to come. but until then, they're just another team.

i don't know for sure about they have more talent than we do. each of us could have different ways to evaluate talent. but i go back and check the winning formula in the playoffs -

talent
experience (incl. the coaching staff)
grit
smarts
luck

i don't see in which area they clearly have an upper hand. 4-5 matchup is usually the hottest contested series.

 

Great post! If the Blazers remain put with this team, they will make the playoffs every year for the next 5+ years, barring injuries, of course. Roy will continue to improve and will very likely be a top 5 NBA player in the next year or two (maybe he already is?). If Oden ever pans out to be a top 5 center and a few veterans are added to the bench (say a Billups-type point guard), the rest of the league will be in trouble. Not so sure I would like to face them in the playoffs next year.

 

Brooks is a perfect example? Is anyone surprised he's played great in Portland and not in Houston? No, because he's almost the most inexperienced guy in the series. Greg Oden aside, responsibility relative to experience Brooks is at the bottom end. The kid barely played last year, was a backup PG most of this year, and then was given the reigns to a team 2/3 of the way through the season - a team that can't afford to lose in the first round again.

Aaron has basically always played better in Portland in his NBA career...he still feels more comfortable there.

Imagine an AB with another 2 years of starting PG experience under his belt.

I just think the premise of this thread is idiotic.