Portland Trail Blazers: Realistic Expectations for This Season?

The new season has started and although it should feel different, it almost feels the same as last year!

We started off in our usual form in the pre-season losing backup center Jeff Pendergraph for the season which ultimately led to him being waived. He was a solid contributor and tough personality whenever on the court so it was sad to see his season end this way.

Next in line was our replacement for the replacement backup center. Fabricio Oberto, who had just joined the Trail Blazers a few days after Pendergraph went down, retired due to a heart condition!

Next came by far the most devastating blow to our high hopes and expectations for this great group. Brandon Roy was having trouble with his knees which have already had multiple surgeries performed on them.

This is especially devastating if you consider that Roy's extension kicks in this year and it runs for five long years. If there is any serious problem with his knees and he does indeed lose his speed because of it, we could end up with our own Michael Redd.

So far, no clear solution has been found for Roy's knee problems which makes it difficult to predict when he will return.

I'm sure you are all aware of the next injury I'm going to be talking about. It's a very familiar sight for Trail Blazer fans by now, Greg Oden going down with a season ending injury.

This time, it happened without him playing a single game this season. It happened during rehab which means that Greg Oden will have played a total of 82 games in his first four seasons in the league.

Hey, the next season might be shortened with a lockout, so that figure doesn't look to be improving very soon.

Their is some rare good news though. Joel Przybilla, who also went down last year, might be coming back against New Orleans at home.

That will add some muscle to the Blazer frontcourt and should lessen the burden on LaMarcus Aldridge. So far this season, he has been our starting power forward, backup center and first option on offense when Roy hasn't been able to play.

So now that us Trail Blazer fans know the situation so far, what should we expect the team to do this season?

I think that we shouldn't place our expectations too high because they might just come crashing down unless Nicolas Batum, LaMarcus Aldridge and Wesley Matthews keep up the good play they have been showing this year.

Andre Miller will also have to keep motoring along at his current pace as he is averaging an impressive 14 points and seven assists so far this season.

Brandon Roy shouldn't be expected to have a career year since he should concentrate on keeping those knees healthy for the four years left on his contract after this season.

I think that Trail Blazer fans should be satisfied with another 50 win season and not pay attention to what seed we get in the playoffs.

With the experience and talent we have on this roster, we can pull off an upset in the first round without homecourt advantage.

But that is as far as I see us going this season, the second round. We probably aren't capable of competing with the Lakers as we lost some of our size when Oden and Pendergraph went down.

Hopefully you guys agree with me and don't expect too much from this group especially if they don't have Brandon Roy.