You know, there was something kind of charming when Henry would do his "blog bets" in the past, back when the Blazers were, you know, terrible. You just kind of got the sense he was a guy living in Jersey trying to find excuses keep up on his Rip City roots.
Now? Be warned.
When Henry comes calling and says he wants to do a blog bet, where he writes about team X on your blog if they beat the spread you have to write about the Blazers on his blog if the Brandon Roys beat the spread, it comes off like a guy trying to dodge a morning's work. (Editor's note: very perceptive!)
Fortunately, writing about the Blazers being good is hardly heavy lifting. I mean, Henry does it all the time. (Editor's note: but so much less than I could.)
First some quantifiable stuff: The Blazers are young, really young, and yet they are a remarkably efficient team. They shoot 46.35 percent from the floor, good for 10th in the Association; they're deadly from deep, connecting on 37 percent of their three-pointers (fifth); they're 12th in true shooting percentage (54.3) and 10th in effective field goal percentage.
These would be more than respectable numbers for an experienced team with 400 or 500 games under their collective belts. For the youngest team in the NBA? A group with an average age of 23.7? It's nothing short of remarkable.
Consider the clubs ahead of them in effective field goal percentage: In order it's
Phoenix, Boston, San Antonio, Orlando, Memphis (um, John, John Hollinger? Memphis is really screwing up my point here, so unless you can explain, I'm just going to ignore them), Los Angeles, Utah, Dallas, Detroit ... that's pretty good company. (Editor's note: I have no idea what's going on in that photo. Post-game interpretive dance?)
Naturally a young team can be expected to struggle defensively, and the Blazers do, but they're not horrible, they're not Memphis (okay, it makes sense now). Portland is 21st in the league in defensive efficiency, allowing 104.9 points per 100 possessions, but you get a sense that number should have a bullet beside it, at least based on their fourth quarter squeeze of the Raptors last night. And yes, that was Portland's ninth straight.
Meanwhile, my spidey sense tells me this is an area that Greg Oden might help with if and when he finds his way out from the weight room where, presumably, he's training hard to send shots back to 20th row, instead of just the 10th.
But as the buzz builds in Portland and around the NBA it will likely be the less quantifiable stuff that will have Henry mounting his own blog bet winning streak. Winning is a habit, best learned early. And right now the youngest team in the NBA is learning that Nate McMillan can coach, Brandon Roy is the kind of all business, team-first, win-first leader that they can depend on, LaMarcus Aldridge is a talent mature beyond his years and all those other pieces they've had rattling around can play, and play really well.
And (inevitable salary cap disclaimer coming) while normal franchises (Chicago!) might worry about how to pay all their young guys at once, Blazers fans can likely rest easy knowing that Uncle Paul could sell a few of his guitars to cover some luxury tax bills if it means he can keep his club together. All this and I hear Petteri Koponen is tearing it up in Europe. (Editor's note: and Rudy Fernandez)
H
