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Tittle says it all. I think we are we have better post players a better point guard but they have better wings and a better bench, but since we are going to play our starters more it shouldn't matter.

Well the Blazers were better than us last year and probably improved more than us during the off-season so I'll say they are barring some sort of miraculous fitting of JO into our system and he makes our team scary.

no. the blazers were better than the raptors last season and their additions are better.

oden, fernandez, bayless > joneal, jawai and losing ford.

I did not think they were better than us last year, what didn't we go 1-1 against them?

I don't buy into hype and potential.

they were better than us last year, really? can we please stop with this blazer nut hugging, its so annoying. We underachieved last year by atleast 5-6 games and i don't even have to get into the injuries. The blazers on the other hand had one good month with a 10 game win streak which is a classic sign of over achieving coming from a mediocre team. Having said that, they might be a better team than us after all right now

Meh, i wish i could say otherwise but yeah... i do actually think that they are better than us *on paper* this year...

They had a better record while playing stiffer competition...the stats don't lie. You can say whatever you want about overachieving and underachieving but they were better than us.

hard to say.

I think I'd give them a slight edge.

we got more chances to make the playoffs, but head to head, i think they got a slight advantage

We are only better if Bargnani proves himself and can get at least 15 points off good shooting. And if our bench isn't full of a bunch of stffs.

Haha, I'm pretty sure that's not the "only" way we can be better. You seem to enjoy making very bold and unfonded statements...

But to answer your question, on paper, I think the Blazers are the better team.

Yes we are. How can you say an unproven Rudy Fernandez, Oden, and Bayless are making the Blazers better than us. Bosh is a better leader than Brandon Roy and Jose is beasting on their point guards.

so many unknowns for both teams.

I think the Raptors would beat the Blazers in a best of 7. I am not as high on the blazers as most. The Raptors have the better point guard and the better big men IMO and I think that would push them over the edge. I think the Blazers are going to run into some trouble down the road having too may options if that makes any sense. They kind of remind me of a younger version of their team when they had Stodimire,Wells,Pippen,Oneal,Sheed,Sabonis ect. If they can keep their team chemisty they will be better then the Raptors in a few years but right now I like the Raps.

Those are fair arguments. I can understand why some people think we're better than the Blazers. It's true that there are a lot of unknowns, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

They had the same 41-41 record as us playing in the WEST. Their roster is loaded with potential and they've added Oden, Bayless and Fernandez to their roster. I'd say they're better than us.

NikeAir wrote:Tittle says it all. I think we are we have better post players a better point guard but they have better wings and a better bench, but since we are going to play our starters more it shouldn't matter.

Is Roy really better than Calderon?

Bosh let Aldridge abuse him last year, not sure why. Hopefully having JO here gets him to start playing some consistent defense. If Bosh does that we should be better THIS year. As for the year after that, probably not.

Hard to imagine Oden having a bigger impact than a healthy JO, but if you believe in the hype than maybe he will.

Roy's season was definitely exaggerated (Dunleavy had just as good a season), but he's still going to get better and should help take his team somewhere. Now that GS should suck and that Denver lost Camby, reaching the playoffs in the West will probably be no more difficult than making it in the East. Both conferences should have 7 good teams with a clear drop after that

If we had anywhere NEAR the talent that Portland has, we would be E-orgasming everywhere.

They are simply oozing with talent it's ridiculous. If we snatch ANY one of their young talents and have them on our team, we would be much more competitive. (ala. Fernandez, Outlaw, Bayless, Oden, Roy) and Portland has all of them.


Not saying they are a better team than us, since they have a lot of talent that is unproven at the moment. But assuming they live up to most of the hype, they are definitely miles ahead compared to us. And all it took was 2 DRAFTS, and they hit the jackpot on both. Shows how important drafts can be if know how to rebuild, it doesn't take too long.