The Portland Trail Blazers: The New Phoenix Suns

[An article I published on BlazersEdge that I thought many of us Bright Siders would appreciate it.]

Yes, you read that right.  The Portland Trail Blazers, though entirely different than the Suns, are essentially the 7SOL Era Phoenix Suns v. 2.0.  Allow me, a humble Suns fan, fellow SBNation devotee, (Bright Side of the Sun), and basketball fanatic, to address questions you may already have brewing:

"The Trail Blazers are last in offensive pace, whereas the Suns are among the leaders of that pack.  How can this be?"; "The Trail Blazers are stacked with young talent, and the Suns are relying on a few aging (which is debatable) veterans for success...where's your argument?"; "The Trail Blazers have not made the same terrible mistakes that the Phoenix Suns' front office have made over the past years, as far as draft day deals are concerned.  How do you figure?"

Answers to these questions (and more) after the jump.

First, let's get to the answers of the few hypothetical questions I posed earlier.

Here's the thing: There is just about nothing in common between these two teams, as far as a basketball playing sense is concerned.  Allow me to cite John Hollinger's Team Statistics to help back up this point.

Offensive Pace

Phoenix: 98.0 (4th); Portland: 90.0 (30th)

Rebounding Rate (RR)

Phoenix: 49.1 (21st); Portland: 53.4 (1st)

Offensive Efficiency (Off Eff) [Number of points scored per 100 possessions]

Phoenix: 112.1 (1st); Portland: 106.1 (12th)

Defensive Efficiency (Def Eff) [Number of points allowed per 100 possessions]

Phoenix: 107.6 (24th); Portland: 100.7 (8th)

Bottom line: The Suns are a faster, more efficient offensive team than the Blazers, but the Blazers play a slower pace, rebound the ball, and defend much better than the Suns do.

So what in the world is this guy trying to say?  How are the Trail Blazers so similar to the Phoenix Suns?

It all boils down to one word: Injuries.

The Phoenix Suns, during their "Seven Seconds or Less" glory years, were a perennial prediction to make a run at the NBA title.  They topped the power rankings of sites like ESPN, Yahoo! Sports, and other sports media outlets.  They were one of the most exciting teams to watch in the entire league, thanks to one man: Steve Nash.  Not to mention his formidable supporting cast in Shawn Marion and Amar'e Stoudemire.  When this team was clicking, it was nigh impossible to stop them.  Yet, for some reason, this team always seemed to hit a road bump in their quest for the coveted Larry O'Brien trophy.

We all remember the Suns team of 2004-2005.  It was the maiden voyage of the D'Antoni/Nash led Suns, where the Suns wound up with a 62-20 record and the number one seed in the West.  We had everything falling our way and we looked poised to make a serious run, but the Suns had the injury to Joe Johnson.  He had to have orbital surgery and wear a face mask to the rest of the playoffs.  The result?  The Suns got trounced in the Western Conference Finals by San Antonio, 4-1.

The next year, the Suns had a tough break early in the season.  Amar'e went down just 3 games into the season and had to have the ever dreaded microfracture surgery.  In his absence, though, this team had a new resilience, and each and every player stepped up to the plate.  The Suns ended with a 54-28 record and the number three seed in the playoffs.  The Suns then, once again, made it to the Western Conference Finals, but didn't have enough left in the tank (and were missing our top scorer in Stoudemire) to bang with the red hot Mavericks, and were beat 4-2.

From there, the Suns had several other bad breaks.  Once again gaining the top seed in the 2006-2007 season, the Suns had the ridiculous hip check from Robert Horry on Steve Nash.  The momentum was beginning to head toward the Suns, but the Spurs caught a huge break when Amar'e Stoudemire and Boris Diaw were suspended for the next game.  Many will say that the 2006-2007 season was the end of the 7SOL Suns team, as right before the All Star Break in 2008, the Suns traded a disgruntled Shawn Marion for Shaquille O'Neal, to try and get them over the proverbial hump in the playoffs.  In game one of that series, Tim Duncan hit a 3 pointer at the end of the second overtime, and the Spurs never looked back.

Now, I know the Blazers don't have quite the playoff history that the Suns have had, but you've got to wonder just when this team of ridiculous young talent will finally be touted as a serious contender for the NBA Championship.  Every year has gotten better for them, but inevitably, someone gets injured and things begin to fall a little.  This year, Outlaw and Batum are out for a lot of the season, both players who played a significant role in the offense.  Then Oden gets injured again...right when he was beginning to prove everyone wrong about him not being able to stay on the court and contribute.

Now, I'm not going to blame it on bad luck, and there's no telling what the future holds, but I'm here to say this: Dear Portland fans, welcome to the world of bad breaks.  Sincerely, Phoenix Suns fans.