How good will the Portland Trailblazers be this year?

last year i think they shocked everybody with how well their season turned out, without their number 1 pick greg oden. Now, Oden will be joining them with a team that includes brandon roy, jarret jack, lamarcus aldridge, martell webster and their pick of jerryd bayless. So with all this in mind, where do you see the trailblazers?|||They are still young keep that in mind, they have a great future, but that will only happen if their young talents mature, which I don't think will happen in one or two seasons.





I think they will get the 8th spot in the West and gain some playoff experience with each other to better prepare them for the future, but as of now they have very little chemistry playing together and none playoff experience, so it's hard to see them make a serious threat in the West that is so packed.





But making the playoff should be a pretty good improvement.|||Pretty damn good. definitely in the top 5. but some people say they might not even make it because you never know if Greg Oden will be officially good or not, a lot of players that come out off different countries dont always end up as good as they were in another country. but i think he will do a good job :) Lakers can take them! it is so on at the end of the month!|||44-38 I really don't see how adding a bunch of rookies makes them that much better from last year. |||7th or 8th seed. Along with the Hawks and Nets, this team has a bright future ahead of them.|||They will be the true surprise team of the league. They will upset one of the big three in the playoffs...i.e. lakers, Rockets, or hornets.|||Jarrett Jack is on the Pacers. He is their 6th man and backup PG to TJ Ford.





Anyways, time and time again I say the Blazers are a talented young team, but will not be in the playoffs and would have a much tougher time this year than last year. I would be surprised if they finished .500 as the West has improved believe it or not. The Warriors are the same they got equal value in Maggette to Davis, Clippers got equal value in B. Davis, Camby, and R. Davis, Nuggets got Balkman and Patterson, and the T-Wolves can finish better this year than the Blazers.





I am reminded of the Corey Maggette, Elton Brand, Quentin Richardson, Darius Miles, Keyon Dooling, and Jeff McInnis Clippers when I think of the Blazers. They had a young and talented team and they surprised many by finishing above .500. Just, like the Blazers of 08. The next year the Clippers had virtually the same team and sucked once again. This will happen with the Blazers they have talent, but are young and will revert back to losing. 07 was a fluke.|||The Blazers are going to be a playoff team this year. Depending on what seed they get( I see them finishing in sixth place ), they'll advance into the second round of the playoffs. Their team defense will improve with Oden healthy and Bayless gives them another threat offensively in the backcourt. What helps is what the team did last year and learning from that experience. Carry it over to this season and you have a winning team.|||I say they at least make the playoffs this year. They have their Big 3, plus the unknown factors in Rudy Fernandez and rookie Jerryd Bayless. I do think they'll miss the outside shot of James Jones, but I think they'll be fine if they play better defense.





I'd make them a sleeper pick to make the conference championship if they were in the Eastern conference since that conference is pretty weak (they had 2 sub-.500 teams in the playoffs last year!!!). But since that can't be, they'll have to learn to battle the heavyweights in the western conference.