9. Portland Trailblazers

“With the first pick in the 2007 NBA Draft the Portland Trailblazers select…”

           Imagine if that sentence had ended with Kevin Durant. A Brandon Roy, Kevin Durant, LaMarcus Aldridge big three might rival the one in Miami, if not be the better option to build a franchise around since Durant is only 21, Aldridge may be better than Bosh, and Brandon Roy is the third best shooting guard in the league. But instead they chose Greg Oden who has now only played 82 games in his 3 year career. The Trailblazers should learn to adopt the Pistons mentality after the Darko experiment (they could’ve had Wade, Melo, or Bosh at the two spot) and just try not to think of what could have been.

The Trailblazers are still toward the top of the Western Conference and actually have the best chance of anyone out West to knock out the Lakers, but will most likely exit the playoffs long before having that chance. Let me try to explain:

           Portland has a superstar shooting guard to go against Kobe in Brandon Roy. They have a top tier power forward to battle Pau Gasol. They have Greg Oden, who I think will finally put together a full season as a solid Center, Marcus Camby, an always reliable power forward, and Joel Przybilla, a Martin Gortat type of solid backup center, who will all together provide the depth at the post to handle Gasol, Bynum, Odom. Throw in Andre Miller who outshines Derek Fisher at point guard and the Trailblazers could really challenge L.A. in a seven game series. Problem is, this same recipe puts them at risk against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Dallas Mavericks, and even the Denver Nuggets. They have no one to guard Durant, Dirk Nowitzki, or Carmelo Anthony. Expand to Eastern Conference and there’s no one on the Trailblazers to guard LeBron. This is a weird position to be in because the Trailblazers would honestly generate more hype by being an 8 seed and pushing the Lakers to 7 games rather than being a 5 seed and losing to a Thunder or Mavericks team in 6. This team overachieved to 50 wins last year with all of their injuries included, let’s see what they can do this year with everyone, in theory, back.

Point Guard

            Andre Miller dropped 50 in a game last year. I think Andre Miller is a top 15 point guard in the NBA.

Shooting Guard

            Kobe. D-Wade. Brandon Roy. The gap between 1 and 2 is shrinking as is the gap between 2 and 3. Career average: 20.2 ppg, 5.0 apg, 4.6 rpg. If you haven’t seen much of him play, stay up late for the second game on a TNT night and enjoy this top level player.

Small Forward

            Travis Outlaw is better than we give him credit for. Eh, but at the same time no one has ever really talked about Travis Outlaw.

Power Forward

            LaMarcus Aldridge has shined without having a healthy Center to do the brute work for him. Think of Aldridge like Pau Gasol, both become much better when they’re allowed to play power forward rather than center.

Center

            Houston Rockets fans are ok with drafting Hakeem in front of Michael Jordan. Portland fans are still agonizing the choice of Sam Bowie over both MJ and Hakeem. Greg Oden over Kevin Durant will fall somewhere in between.

Verdict

            Trailblazers will win about 50-53 games next season and be the 4 or 5 seed out West. If they can get into the second round, watch out for a very intriguing series against L.A.