| Youth Best Served with Veteran Leadership Authored by Billy Ray - March 25, 2005 - 10:32 pm
Fans wanted to see it, and management needed to have it, but there are some dangers associated with the Blazers new youth movement. Namely complacency with losses.
The Blazers are getting a glimpse of some of those dangers first hand with a string of losses that have the team reeling, the Blazers are 1-11 since Mo Cheeks’ ouster as head coach. Sprinkled into 11 losses were some huge blowout losses such as a 21 point loss to Memphis March 14th, followed by a 31 point tarnishing by the Rockets on March 16th.
While the losses don’t matter, the culture of the team does. As the Blazers start mounting losses, in turn is the possibility of accepting those losses.
Accepting losses is not something that the Blazers want to instill in their young players. Many of the young players on the Blazers came into the NBA from winning high school, college, or foreign programs. But as losses mount the memories of those wins become more and more distant. The problem then lies in the possibility of the memory of those wins not being lost, but instead forgetting how to get there.
Young teams aren’t expected to win; they are expected to take some lumps. That is exactly what this current Blazer team is being dealt: lumps. But how many lumps can a team take before they stop feeling the pain of losses, instead growing immune to pain of loss and accepting it as an everyday—or most day—outcome?
That is exactly what the Trail Blazers are trying to avoid. Having young exciting players won’t mean much if the team can’t win. By finding a more veteran mix the Blazers will find more ways to stay in games and have a chance at a win at the end. The more opportunities that the Blazers have to play a competitive game the less likely the young players will lose the will to win.
As it stands Portland is going to go into next season as a team stacked with youth. Sebastian Telfair will most likely start, and Viktor Khyrapa and Travis Outlaw will both challenge for the starting small forward position. Throw in a young center in Joel Przybilla and most likely Zach Randolph who will ring in at 24 years of age and the Blazers will have a lot of youth starting.
No matter how this Blazer team is analyzed, dissected or scouted the same conclusion can be easily reached: youth is being served. But as the Blazers are quickly realizing, youth is best served with some veterans on the side.
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