Wait now over for Blazers

Portland's Brandon Roy mugs it up for the cameras. (Associated Press)

PORTLAND — Brandon Roy can sense a fresh attitude.

When Portland Trail Blazers training camp opened in previous years, the All-Star guard always found the team in waiting mode.

Waiting for young players to grow up.

Waiting for No. 1 overall draft pick Greg Oden to recover from surgery.

Waiting for players to embrace their roles, learn how to win and flesh out their full potential.

But this time Roy noticed early on that his teammates were done waiting.

Oden is now healthy, with scars from his microfracture surgery that are barely visible.

The year-long wait for Spanish standout Rudy Fernandez — fresh off an Olympic silver medal run — has ended.

The young players feel like established veterans.

And now, they’re ready to start winning.

“We just feel like it’s realistic,” Roy said. “We’re looking forward to playing the Lakers. We’re looking forward to playing San Antonio. Because we feel we have a good team and we can give those teams a run. And we no longer want to play those teams well. We feel like we should win those games.”

It did not take much convincing to make the Blazers believe that a return to the postseason for the first time in six years was possible. They simply used the same math used by fans and media members — many of whom have already penciled the Blazers into the postseason.

The logic: Last year’s team went 41-41, and several offseason acquisitions helped shore up that team’s weaknesses.

Adding the 7-foot Oden is expected to improve Portland’s weak rebounding. Fernandez and rookie Jerryd Bayless provide guards who can create offense through dribble penetration, bringing a new dimension to a team that was often limited to jump shots last year. And forward Ike Diogu, acquired in a draft-day trade with Indiana, brings a power presence to the low post.

The combination provides a better balance on the floor than recent Blazers teams, with multiple offensive options and imposing defensive presences. And players felt it also wiped out many of the old excuses for why they were not ready to win.

“We feel like those expectations are right,” Aldridge said. “We feel like we should go to the playoffs. ... Having Brandon, an All-Star, and Greg — a potential All-Star — and Rudy, a phenomenal player, we look good.”

The future is so optimistic that players easily brushed off the few questions the Blazers face.

For instance, Portland’s average age is only 23.9 years — younger even than last year’s team, which had the youngest roster in franchise history. But try bringing it up, and players point out the extensive experience the young players have garnered. And indeed, seven of the 11 Blazers age 25 or younger have at least two years of pro experience.

“We’re young in age, but in experience we’re not,” Roy said. “We’ve got some years under our belt now.”

They also must adjust to the addition of five new players, including four rookies. That means getting comfortable with new rotations and combinations — the challenge that Roy said will be the most important adjustment they need to make in the preseason. But at the same time, the opening day starting lineup could return four regulars from last year — Roy, Aldridge, Steve Blake and Martell Webster.

It puts the Blazers in an unfamiliar, but welcome, position. They have more reasons to believe they can win now than excuses for why they can not.

“I think that’s a realistic expectation for us to really strive for,” Blake said. “And I think we all realize it’s realistic, so we’re working that much harder.”