Our regular season record does not matter

[Sinobas]

During the regular season, we get caught up in jockeying for position, and home court advantage, but in the west, it's like so what? There isn't much difference between teams 2-8, and in the Blazers case we match up well against LA.

So who cares whether we are the 1st seed or the 8th seed team? If our goal this year was to make it to the WCF and take on the defending champs, why not cut right to the chase and do it in the 1st round?

If the Blazers happen to miss the playoffs this year, Nate McMoron will be fired, and KP will realize that he needs to change his recipe. So a positive will come of that.

All that matters, is that we are playing good basketball at the end of the season. Maybe getting Batum back will help, maybe the guys will eventually find their groove and figure out how to play, who knows. In the playoffs, everything starts over anyway.

[Tim Lehrbach]

As a fan, I want to see great basketball and lots of it. There is no sentiment I hate more than "the regular season doesn't matter". For me, being a great team for a whole 82 game season is just as meaningful as being a great team in the playoffs.

[BlazersRizing]

while I do agree, a bad season will give KP a wake up call and maybe he will stop overpricing his own players..

it'd be nice to at least make the 2nd round of the playoffs.. 8th seed wouldn't make that possible... and it would also give the team an excuse because people would say "well it was the Lakers" and give em a pass. so thatd be worst case scenario.

[Sinobas]

No fan likes to see their team lose, I"m just saying, as long as the Blazers can pick it up towards the end of the season, the games we're losing right now won't matter much. Most teams go through sub-par streches.

This is not like the NFL, where dropping a few games can put you out of the playoffs. And where 1st round byes are at stake etc.

[rasta_marley]

I strongly disagree with this heading the regular season matters alot particulary for a team that still has alot to prove I would much rather be western conference champs and then lose to the lakers (hate to say it but dont think were quite ready to beat them though I would LOVE to be wrong) then lose in the first round to the lakers. It's all about respect! Plus if we ended up playing denver would much rather have homecourt.

[SabasRevenge!]

I totally disagree with the sentiment that the regular season doesn't matter. Teams with HCA win a vast majority of series. Higher seeded teams advance further in the playoffs. We want to win at least a playoff series and advance far in the playoffs, no?

The games we're losing right now matter. Three teams were tied with 54 wins and Denver won the division with the same record as us, receiving a 2nd seed rather than a 4th seed. Our margin of error was zero last season. If Blake hits a free throw against the Clippers or if Posey hits a free throw in the finale for the Hornets, we end up with the 2nd seed, facing (and likely beating) the Hornets in the 1st round. We may have then played the Mavs in the semi's and the Lakers in the WCF. We gave the Lakers a ton of problems last year and while we may not have beaten them in the playoffs, getting to the second round or WCF would have been huge. There's also the chance that we beat them in the WCF and go to the finals.

The sentiment that the regular season doesn't matter is BS.

[mojomarc]

I firmly believe in the concept that practice makes perfect. The regular season is practice for the playoffs. As Sabas stated, teams with higher seeds win more often in the playoffs, so there must be something to teams that play better in the regular season being more effective in the playoffs. Plus, saying that "all that matters is making the playoffs, it doesn't matter the quality of your play to get there" is sort of like the arguments last year that our offense was efficient so that it must be a good offense, only to watch our offense that was efficient because we were a good offensive rebounding team in the regular season but absolutely had to depend upon that rebounding because we couldn't hit the first shot blow up in the first round of the playoffs. It's an argument that just doesn't hold water for me in the least.

[Bonzi]

We'll just add this to the list of things that don't matter:

Size
Appearance
What you Know
Restraining Orders
Regular Season record

[flitz]

I would like to see the team to bring a lot of confidence with them to the playoffs resulting from a strong regular season rather then barely making the playoffs at all and hoping that the 'real Blazer performances' develop then.