Someone asked me a deceptively simple question over the weekend: "Bottom line, where are the Blazers now?" Talking in person I had to answer fairly simply. Sadly, I had to go with some variation of "not where they want to be".
The Portland Trail Blazers are a car trying to crest a hill after they've lost their engine. They've been coasting up the incline for a couple years now. At first it seemed inconceivable that they'd not make it, as the momentum was overwhelming when the motor blew. But it wasn't clear from the mid-point how long and steep that hill would become. They lost some momentum in 2009-10 but the twin tragedies of Greg Oden's microfracture surgery and Brandon Roy's knees in 2010-11 finally sapped the last of the forward motion from them. They're all out of untapped promise and they still haven't hit the top. Unable to turn over the engine even now, they're just plain stuck.
Some would point to Gerald Wallace as new momentum but he's less of a replacement engine and more of a wedge under the back tire, preventing the team from rolling backwards at a precipitous rate. So too the development of LaMarcus Aldridge. He's not enough to get the car going again. He's the dude they sent out back to push. Together they've saved the team from doom but further progress towards the summit isn't coming via the status quo. Maybe you'll get a few feet and a new place to stick the wedge, but that's it.
The front-office chaos doesn't help matters. The franchise is fresh out of innovative mechanics. It feels like six guys are staring at a lifted hood, scratching their chins and going, "Huh." Maybe there's a mechanical wiz in the bunch already but nobody's bringing out the tools. It may be that the whole engine needs replaced anyway...not possible stalled in the road on a hill.
所以…what we're hoping for here is a miracle, a reprieve. For the immediate future they're going to keep turning the ignition, hoping something catchesthistime in the form of Roy or Oden. The car is gassed, ready to go, and plenty quick. If the cylinders did fire it could easily catch up to the competition, most of which isn't that far over the hill anyway. Heck, if they could even limp the car to the top the downhill run might provide enough momentum even if the engine still had a tick.
不过，我会对你诚实。运动中不会发生太多。迟到，早期出口，伤害和混合和看似随机的牛奶......这些并不少见。你只是没有听到很多血腥细节，因为这些细节是在击中国家舞台之前跛行的团队。当发生这种情况，特许经营通常不会成功。在一定程度上没有更多的赌博。你已经让你的最后一个大举动，起草了你的最后一个潜在的奇迹，穿过你最后一个人的衣服，以归咎于责任。总之，燃烧器坐在这座山上之间的决定，直到每个人都放弃并回家或前往最近的车库，不幸的是，就在他们开始的地方。我认为这一点有可能在这一点上是90％。
Nevertheless the other 10% is probably worth trying yet. That car still looks sweet even standing still. The proper course of action right now is some intermediate tinkering (a.k.a. kicking the tires and jiggling the wires under the hood) and hoping that the engine will turn over finally.
Just don't hold your breath.
--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)
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