Taming the "Blazer Myopia" in Portland

If you're any kind of NBA fan - especially during the last couple of years - then you've undoubtedly heard about it by now.

The Portland Trail Blazers are the team of the future.

You've seen them go all out on draft day with trade after trade. You've heard about their new cutting-edge general manager, Kevin Pritchard.

You know about Brandon Roy, Portland's first All-Star since Rasheed Wallace and the 2007 Rookie of the Year. You know about their fate of winning the 2007 draft lottery and landing much-hyped center Greg Oden with the first pick.

And you know about their head coach, Nate McMillan, who has excelled in bringing together a young core that was once locked in the basement of the entire NBA.

Now, the nickname of the "Rose City" fits Portland to a tee. The outlook for the next several seasons - not just next year - is beyond rosy. Ask most Blazer fans today about the team's championship aspirations for the next decade, and the question with them won't be about "if." It will be about "how many?"

And all you can do is sigh - and wonder what in the heck has led to such ridiculously optimistic premonition.

This "Era of Good Feelings" was supposed to have started in Portland by now. The Blazers were supposed to have been what the Hornets were in '08. It was Portland, and not New Orleans, that was supposed to have won over 50 games, their division crown, and take San Antonio to seven games in the Western Conference semifinals. And it was the Blazers who were supposed to have acquired that "one last missing piece" (like James Posey) this offseason to help make them a legitimate NBA heavyweight for next season.

That was before Greg Oden missed his entire rookie season after undergoing a microfracture knee surgery.

That was before a promising season that was headed for a playoff berth and included a 13-game winning streak ended with a 41-41 finish and nine games out of the eighth seed.

And that was before Oden himself waffled back and forth when asked about the status of his knee - 85 percent, 95 percent, 75 percent, 100 percent? - before questioning when it would be before he'd be 100 percent healthy.

When looking at the Blazers, you can't ignore this simple fact: Nobody has seen this team play together even once yet. Nobody has seen Oden play a single game in an NBA uniform. Who knows how long it will be before anyone sees him play a game at 100 percent health in an NBA uniform? And when it comes to Oden, Blazer fans will point at the 2007 NCAA national championship game when Oden abused Florida's interior for 25 points and 12 boards.

One game does not a career make, and if anyone wants to point to Oden's college prowess as a reason for his NBA success, mention the fact that he missed a good portion of his freshman year after surgically repairing a ligament in his right wrist. To some, being such a force despite such injury concerns may be a good sign and reason to wonder "what if," but coming off a microfracture surgery is far different than repairing a ligament in the right wrist.

Roy may be a feel-good story of his own, but his All-Star selection was inexplicable. It can even be argued that Roy's inclusion in the All-Star Game was more about the novelty of having him and the Blazers represented instead of having the better player selected. Golden State's Baron Davis had Roy cleaned up and down the stats board at the All-Star break and after the final horn sounded on the season. To boot, Davis' Warriors were seven games better at 48-34 and two games out of the West's final playoff spot while Roy's Blazers floundered to a .500 finish.

"Inexplicable" is the only word to describe what the coaches were thinking in February.

On top of all that, Roy is a guy who may be a lot closer to his ceiling than most players who just completed their second year in the league after having spent four years at Washington. His surgically-repaired knee was the reason he fell as far as he did in the '06 draft. A heel injury forced him to miss 24 games during his rookie year, and the 57 games he played in during the 2006-07 were the second-fewest to be played by a Rookie of the Year winner. Portland may want to think about these things before putting so much stock into Roy.

LaMarcus Aldridge has also been a solid contributor to the franchise since being drafted alongside Roy in 2006, but for a seven-footer, Aldridge has been remarkably soft and subpar on the boards. His 17.8 points per game may draw eyeballs, but what about his 48.4 percent shooting despite being 6'11"? What about his 7.6 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game?

Small forwards and players under 6'11" were able to hit the glass more efficiently in 2007-08, a season that saw Aldridge rank 29th in the league in boards despite playing nearly 35 minutes a game. Guards and perimeter-oriented players like Chris Paul, Andre Miller, Rajon Rondo, Monta Ellis, Jose Calderon, Deron Williams, and Steve Nash had better field goal percentages despite being over half a foot shorter than Aldridge.

Yet, this is the team that should be feared by all for the next decade?

Sentiments like these are good to have when you've seen the team play together for an entire season (see: Hornets fan). They're not good to have when your franchise cornerstones are all injury threats (see: Rockets fan). But regardless of what happens in 2008-09, Portland fans would be doing themselves a huge favor by following Greg Oden's rehab process: Take it one step and one day at a time.