Remember when the Portland Trail Blazers were being hailed as a dynastic team with young super star Brandon Roy as the centerpiece, Lamarcus Aldridge as an All-Star sidekick, one of the most hyped draft picks of the decade in Greg Oden as the defensive stalwart down low and tons of young talent they could develop?
The Blazers have won 50 games in back to back seasons for the first time since 2001. They held homecourt advantage in the playoffs in 2009. But, they lost both playoffs series in six games (to teams that took the eventual champions to seven games).
The blueprint was there for Portland to be a dynastic team, but things do not always go according to plan. Lamarcus Aldridge hasn't even made an All-Star team yet. Greg Oden has been infected with the Portland lottery pick injury virus. The surrounding young talent has not blossomed like expected (particularly Rudy Fernandez, who seems to be on his way out of Portland sooner rather than later). Last year, the whole team was bitten by a historically bad injury bug (losing Oden and Pryzbilla to season ending knee injuries, Roy missing or being not fully healthy for almost the entire second half of the yea ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Alex Tichenor
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