Brian Hendrickson: Blazers still not satisfied

PORTLAND — Even after a 38-point win, sensational performances by the reserves and a rare fourth quarter in which Brandon Roy could kick his feet up and relax, part of the Portland Trail Blazers guard remained unimpressed.

Yes, it was the latest bright spot in a month of exceeded expectations.

Yes, the Blazers were playing exceptionally well.

And yes, you would have been a fool to think they would be 10-6 at this point of the season considering the schedule with which the NBA stuck them to start the year.

Roy understood those positives.

Yet he still was not satisfied.

“I still don’t think we’re as good as we’re going to be,” he said after the Blazers’ rout of Miami on Wednesday. “We’ve blown them out, but I still don’t think we’re as good as we’re gonna be.”

And that is a point that, in the midst of this impressive start, has been easy to overlook.

The Blazers are winning despite facing the toughest five-game start to a season in league history. They are winning despite playing consecutive games at home only twice in the season’s first month. And they’re winning while rookie center Greg Oden is still finding his comfort zone, Rudy Fernandez continues adjusting to the NBA, and part of their pillar of leadership, LaMarcus Aldridge, has battled a horrific slump.

The Blazers are 10-6 — tied for the fifth-best record in the West, and as of Thursday were a half game out of the Northwest Division lead.

And yet, all those areas are still expected to improve.

Some would call it over-achieving, and it would be easy to think that way. Because if you kept your expectations to a reasonable level when the season started, a .500 record would have sounded like an exceptional start against this schedule. And if anyone had the nerve to suggest Portland would be 10-6, you probably would have figured Oden would be dominating and Fernandez would be lighting up the scoreboard.

A reasonable person would suggest the Blazers would be completely healthy if they were 10-6. And they would probably figure their execution on both ends was smooth and near flawless.

And that is what makes this season so remarkable, and makes Roy believe their potential remains untapped.

Because the Blazers have won despite losing Oden to a foot injury. They have won while Fernandez, for all his highlight-reel plays, has shot just 43 percent from the field — far below his expected capability. And they have won with incumbent starter Martell Webster sidelined with a broken foot, and Aldridge battling his slump for half of the opening schedule.

Despite those disadvantages, Wednesday’s victory over Miami clinched a winning month of November — just their third winning month in the last four years. And the Blazers did it despite playing nine of their 14 games away from the Rose Garden’s friendly confines.

And all those problem areas should soon start fading away.

When Portland returns from its upcoming five-game road trip, better than one-third of its road schedule will be complete.

Eleven of the next 14 games will be at home.

Oden should start finding his rhythm as a starter.

Fernandez should become even more effective.

Webster will be back, and Aldridge’s slump could be a distant memory.

The combination points to big things. And Roy can see it coming together.

Wednesday’s 38-point win? It was great. But consider what was missing, and Roy believes the season’s potential can be even greater.

“This isn’t our team,” he said. “We’ve still got a lot of room to grow.”

Brian Hendrickson is the Trail Blazers beat writer for The Columbian. Contact him at (360) 735-4528 or brian.hendrickson@columbian.com. Read his Blazers Banter blog at columbian.com/sports/blazerbanter.