[Romerowned]

33-49 record last year. 13-2 this year. Only team to beat San Antonio so far. Wtf is going on this year.

[totallypsycho]

they finally got a shotblocking center in robin lopez and solid bench scoring. i expected them to be a playoff team this year but not to make this big of a jump. when the mccollum kid comes back watch out

[Seto]

Overachieving. They have a good chance to be a 6-8 seed though. Think Warriors last year.

Also they weren't as bad as their record showed last year. They lost like 10 or 12 in a row to end the season and 3 of their starters were out during that period.

[mtofell]

Seto nailed it.... kind of.

The lack of a center and a bench were absolutely the problems last year. Overachieving this year? To some degree I'll say yes but they are a good team. Without being too much of a homer (I'm a life long Portland resident) I'll say they are a 4 or 5 seed.

The "gods" of the west have some problems.

SA - old but still plenty worthy
OKC - okay, these guys are good
LAC - good but with problems. Teams with good defensive bigs crush them. The "punk" factor is high. Will they keep listening to Doc?
GSW - Curry's health? great team but not invincible. Bogut's health?
HOU - good but Harden is hurt a lot so far and will D Howard continue to be happy?

So, there are 5. Chances are one will fall off and Portland is already ahead of 4 of them.

Others:

MIN - About equal to the Blazers IMO (ironically Adelman is coach)
DAL, DEN, MEM, NOH?? Dallas is probably the best of the bunch but their best asset is a washed up Dirk. MEM just lost Gasol. DEN is overachieving this year - losing George Karl kills them. NOH are young and inexperienced.

I just can't see the Blazers finishing below 6 at the worst unless they just crumble. And quite possibly much higher.

RIP CITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mtofell]

oops... duplicate. How do you delete a post anyway?

[PerfectGrape]

Easy schedule so far

[SteveKerrsJunk]

Overachieving and just chucking 3s and hitting. A good D will shut them down but a lot of those guys have played together for a few years now..maybe now that the pressure is off they'll finally do something with all that talent.

[NYC_StudMuffin]

Are you kidding me? This is an elite team ! They have 2 all stars on that team! Last time I checked , if you have 2 all stars on a solid team, you are not overachieving so stop with the hate . They are a easily a top 3 team in the west. Morons. Watch the game and examine it instead of talking out your stinkin asses

[mtofell]

Easy schedule so far

They gave SA their only loss

[Reign Man]

Easy schedule so far

only team to beat San Antonio so far this year was Portland so give them some credit

[SteveKerrsJunk]

Are you kidding me? This is an elite team ! They have 2 all stars on that team! Last time I checked , if you have 2 all stars on a solid team, you are not overachieving so stop with the hate . They are a easily a top 3 team in the west. Morons. Watch the game and examine it instead of talking out your stinkin asses

Easily a top 3 team in the west? Lets not get carried away now. Thunder, Spurs, and Warriors would all beat them in a 7 game series and you're kidding yourself if you think otherwise.

[Rustyglobes]

They actually have a bench this year and not a power forward playing as the centre. They are very well balanced side that's for sure