Portland Trail Blazers: Slivers of Hope from a Disappointing Season

By and large, the 2011-12 NBA season was extremely disappointing for the players and fans of the Portland Trail Blazers.  No one really knew what to expect from this team coming into the lockout-shortened schedule, but I think few would have predicted the type of collapse that this team has undergone over the past two months.

After starting out the season 7-2 and generating some discussions about being a possible championship contender, the Blazers quickly ended that talk by delivering a series of abysmal road performances.

At some point, the players began tuning out coach Nate McMillan, and that's when the season truly began to fall apart.  Now, the team finds itself mathematically eliminated from the playoffs for the first time in four seasons, with plenty of time to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it before next year.

We can try and place blame all we want, but the truth is that no one could have foreseen a season like this unfolding.  After plenty of talk about Brandon Roy being healthy, no one saw him abruptly retiring before even playing one game this season.  Much has been made of Greg Oden's injury issues, but I think very few expected the Blazers to give up on that experiment midseason after such a significant investment of time, money and energy.

Maybe it was Nate McMillan's unwillingness to stick with an uptempo style, or his penchant for not giving guys like Luke Babbitt a chance to succeed.  Maybe it's owner Paul Allen, who seems less and less interested in putting a successful basketball team out on the court.  It could also be attributed to the unexpectedly poor play of starting point guard Raymond Felton, who single-handedly lost multiple games this season with terrible decision making at the end of games.

The point is, it could be a lot of things.  However, there's little to be gained from spending more time putting blame on one party or another for what essentially amounts to a lost season.  The Blazers are in a good place going into this offseason, and if they play it right, will have a chance to compete right away in 2012-13.

The young guys have actually turned out to be better than expected in some cases, and the Blazers have a good core moving forward.  In addition to LaMarcus Aldridge, Nicolas Batum (assuming they don't let him leave) and Wesley Matthews, Elliot Williams showed a lot of promise before going down with a shoulder injury a few weeks ago.

Luke Babbitt, who I think most fans had written off as a huge bust until very recently, has had his dominant shooting stroke from college resurface with the confidence of his coaches and his increased role on the team.  Nolan Smith also has promise, and the recent and surprising addition of J.J. Hickson looks like it will be a huge boon for this team going forward.

The three biggest areas the Blazers need to address during the offseason will be point guard, center and bench depth.  This coming draft day may be one of the biggest in the history of the franchise.  The Blazers, with a little luck, can end up with two picks in the draft lottery.  

In addition, they will have enough cap space to chase after someone like Deron Williams, who could very well see a pairing with LaMarcus Aldridge as enough motivation to come to Oregon.  A lot of people have said that he won't go back to a small market again, but I don't think he's one who necessarily needs the big-market attention.  If he is, then he will likely stay with the New Jersey Nets.

Whether the Blazers can land Williams or not, they have a lot to look forward to next season.  For a fan like myself, it's thoughts like that which help me realize that I, too, have a lot to be excited about.