Congratulations Portland Trail Blazers on a great season. You overachieved, brought the city to hysteria not seen since the early 90s and created a solid foundation on which to work on. Now get over it.
It's time to start looking towards next year. The Blazers, if they keep their roster intact, are a lock for the playoffs for the next decade. But is that what management wants? To be the Utah Jazz? I don't think so. It's seriously time to consider making this team into a title contender. Barring a miracle draft pick in the next few years, their needs to be some roster shake-up, otherwise the Blazers will be piddling around third or fourth best in the west for years to come.
First, let's look up what makes a championship team. Over the past 20 years, there has been a pretty simple formula to great teams: You have you have your 'Big 3'-a guard, a wing, and a post, surround them with a few shooters and some defensive stoppers and you got yourself a title (This excludes the 2003-2004 Pistons, because the Lakers self-destructed in that series and any Shaq-led team because all the centers sucked in the early 2000s). Seriously look back at the past winners: 2007-2008 Celtics (Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett), The Spurs dynasty (Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli, Timmy Duncan), The Bulls dynasty (MJ, Scottie Pippen, Toni Kukoc/Horace Grant), The mid-90s Rockets (Kenny 'I'm Barkley's Bitch' Smith, Clyde Drexler and Hakeem). Let's add in the team that will win it this year, The Cavs (Mo Williams, Lebron, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas). All those teams had great shooters and defensive stoppers. This is the blueprint and Portland needs to get on board.
