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Take note of this, and file it away for the end of the season: NBA "expert" Kenny Smith looks at the 2-9 teams in the West in this video report, and projects the team who'll be looking in from the outside come playoff time...Portland? His view is that while several other teams have troubles right now, they'll get healthy/find their identity/discover their stars again and make the dance, but the Blazers are just too inconsistent. Oden is "still a year away from being a prime time player," which is probably true as far as it goes--but I think it vastly underestimates Oden's ability to impact games by the end of the season, even against more dominant bigs. Still no respect, and I suppose until you've proven yourself it's rational to suggest that they might be the team to crumble. But we've played half a season now, and ranking systems like Hollinger and Stein both have the Blaze currently at #9. Hollinger has Portland ahead of EVERY other team in the West except the Lakers, Nuggets and Hornets; Stein has the Spurs and Suns ahead. And is Kenny aware of the fact that the Blazers' strength of schedule so far is .521%, the best of Hollinger's top 15? Does he know that the next 10 games for Portland include two against the Clips, two against the Oklahoma City Hopelesses, and one each against Memphis and Golden State? That's the caliber of team they're going to be seeing disproportionately down the stretch. So rock on, Kenny Smith. We'll see you back in April, and check out how you down.
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