The Portland Trail Blazers’ 2009-10 season was preceded by the failed pursuit of free agents Hedo Turkoglu and Paul Millsap.
It ended with a first-round playoff loss to the Phoenix Suns.
But in between the initial failure and a second consecutive early postseason exit was progress.
Progress in the face of adversity and challenges. Fifty wins and the sixth seed in the Western Conference playoffs despite 311 games missed due to injury.
Blazers such as Nicolas Batum and Martell Webster took major steps forward, adding important new facets to their game. Meanwhile, franchise cornerstones Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge continued their development, balancing increased expectations with bigger roles and larger numbers.
In the process, a Blazers team that spent the past two seasons being defined by its young potential evolved into one known more for its veteran-guided ability to persevere through drama, chaos and misfortune.
Moreover, the injuries that plagued Portland in 2009-10 — consistently thinning out the team’s loaded roster and at times limiting forward movement — also established the Blazers (50-32) as a squad that is physically and mentally tougher than the one that entered the season.
“That allowed us to rally behind what we had in each other, and to be a 50-win team,” Webster said. “Us showing how we played through adversity has really given us an identity that we won’t back down to anybody. And I definitely tip my hat to my teammates, because we did a great job this year.”
But while Portland’s ability to persevere through unplanned change showed off the team’s strong heart and soul, it also masked questions that remain unanswered as the summer leading up to 2010-11 approaches.
Greg Oden’s future, Roy’s health and Aldridge’s reliability as a No. 2 offensive option top the list. But issues such as the progress and long-term viability of former first-round draft picks Jerryd Bayless and Rudy Fernandez are near the forefront.
As is the fact that the Blazers will likely enter next season with a frontcourt — Oden, Aldridge, Marcus Camby, Joel Przybilla, Jeff Pendergraph, Dante Cunningham — so loaded that playing time and player happiness will almost certainly demand as much initial attention as on-the-court roles.
Factor in that the status of general manager Kevin Pritchard is still undecided, and the scene surrounding the 2010-11 Blazers could be eerily similar to the one that surrounded the 2009-10 team when training camp begins in October.
“I’m a firm believer that you add the best human beings with the best talent, and then their talent will rise to the top,” Pritchard said in April. “And that’s the coach’s opportunity. And Nate is fantastic — look what he’s done with this team.”
Looking back
McMillan accomplished a great deal with the Blazers in 2009-10.
While Portland dealt with an uncanny, often surreal run of injuries, the team’s fifth-year coach managed to steer the ship straight and forward all season.
A third-place finish in NBA coach-of-the-year voting affirmed McMillan’s accomplishments. But words of praise from Pritchard, several key Blazers and fellow coaches said more.
While Roy often paid tribute during the season to McMillan’s steady, even hand, Webster said after the season was complete that Portland still believed in and listened to the advice, strategies and life lessons McMillan constantly offered.
“Nate has done a better job than anybody in our league,” Boston coach Doc Rivers said in February.
And doing a better job often meant doing more with less.
Accounted in the 311 regular-season games missed due to injury were significant stretches during which everyone from Roy to ex-Blazer Travis Outlaw was forced to watch from the sideline. In addition, Oden and Przybilla suffered season-ending knee injuries, while eight Portland players missed at least 17 games.
Following the Blazers’ 99-90 defeat to Phoenix in Game 6 on Thursday at the Rose Garden — a loss that gave the Suns a 4-2 series victory and ended Portland’s year — Roy acknowledged that his team’s season was ultimately defined more by games missed than points scored or victories recorded.
“When you’re healthy, you’re able to get into a rhythm, and you know what you’ve got,” Roy said. “We were never really able to get there this year.”
As a result, the Blazers were unable to reach the team’s preseason goals: the Northwest Division title and a spot in the Western Conference finals.
But Portland definitely did not back down from its problems.
Webster, Batum, Aldridge, Camby and Juwan Howard all made major in-season adjustments, positively adapting and reacting on the fly. Meanwhile, rookies Cunningham and Pendergraph accepted unexpected challenges and thrived to the surprise of many.
But it was Andre Miller who eventually came to represent the iron will of a Blazers team that simply refused to quit.
The free-agent acquisition started slow and spent the first three months of the season quietly expressing frustration and disappointment with his new role on his new team. Yet a heated verbal confrontation Jan. 7 between Miller and McMillan during practice ended up bringing out the best in the veteran guard.
Miller finished the season leading the Blazers in assists (5.4 average) and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.5), tied for first in games played (82) and steals (1.1), and ranked third in points (14.0).
Miller said Portland has what it needs to take the next step. Next season, the Blazers just need a little luck.
“I think we have all the pieces. It’s just the pieces were injured a little bit this year,” Miller said. “We’ve got guys at every position that can play — durable, versatile. Just one of those years where (we) had some bumps and bruises.”
Looking ahead
The Blazers unquestionably have versatility in regard to roster pieces. Heading into an offseason in which Portland is not expected to make a huge splash in an abnormally loaded free-agent market, the team runs four deep at point guard and power forward.
The Blazers will also likely have three legitimate starting centers — Oden, Camby, Przybilla — on their roster when training camp opens next season.
“To be and play at the highest level, you have to have size,” Pritchard said in April. “And if we’re going to look to compete with the best in the West, we’ve got to have big guys that can compete night in and night out on an 82-game basis and be healthy.”
Smaller roster changes will almost certainly be made, though.
Roy said Thursday he would like Portland to add a perimeter shooter and continue to move the team’s offense toward the low block.
And while a league source said the Blazers will likely use their mid-level exception to acquire a reliable lesser-priced free agent, the team could also engage in a package deal that exchanges a wealth of youth for proven star power.
But hypothetical roster moves, Fernandez’s uncertain future, Roy’s recurring knee problems, the possible return of Przybilla and the development of key young reserves such as Bayless currently pale in comparison to the two biggest issues Portland faces this summer: Oden’s health and Pritchard’s fate.
The latter will likely be further explored Monday, when Pritchard and McMillan are scheduled to meet with the media.
Pritchard’s status has been uncertain since mid-March, when the unexpected firing of Tom Penn, former vice president of basketball operations, ignited a rumor-fed fire of theories and accusations.
Blazers owner Paul Allen issued a bland three-paragraph statement March 25 that mildly supported Pritchard. Allen has not publicly spoken about Pritchard’s future since.
Meanwhile, Pritchard — the premier architect who helped rebuild the Blazers in recent years from a running joke into a potential powerhouse — spent the final month of the season focusing on Portland’s playoff run and securing Camby to a two-year contract extension.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t have the long-term future in my sights,” Pritchard said in April. “Every day I’m planning. I’m looking at modeling out different things. I’m looking (at) who might be available; who is available; how does that person fit. We talk about that every day, every single day.”
Yet the uncertainty regarding Pritchard’s future is nothing when the mystery that is Oden is brought into the picture.
The No. 1 overall pick of the 2007 NBA Draft came into 2009-10 preaching a new mantra, one brimming with confidence, focus and overwhelming power.
For the first 21 games of the season, Oden delivered. Playing the best basketball of his young career, the 22-year-old averaged 11.1 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.2 blocks, while shooting 60.5 percent from the field.
And when Oden poured in a career-high 24 points on 7-of-8 shooting while grabbing 12 rebounds and recording two blocks in just 27 minutes Nov. 23 during a blowout home victory over Chicago, potential appeared to have become reality.
Then Dec. 5 happened. Oden fractured his left patella in a home game against Houston, suffering his second major injury in three seasons, and proceeded to miss the remainder of the year.
What followed only added drama and intrigue to Oden’s already-cloudy aura.
Private nude photos of Oden surfaced Jan. 26 on the internet. A soft-spoken, confessional Oden quieted the uproar during an ensuing press conference. But while the stigma of Oden’s embarrassment quickly evaporated, questions about his future as a reliable, dependable force in an unforgiving league have not.
This was abundantly clear Thursday, during the the build up to Game 6 against the Suns. While the Blazers mentally and physically prepared to attempt to extend their season, a heavy-faced Oden answered queries about his rehabilitation.
Appearing much older than his young age, the player drafted one pick before Oklahoma City star forward Kevin Durant — who led the NBA in average scoring this season — confirmed what many had long thought: Oden’s almost unnatural athleticism and muscular power are still a mystery, three years into his NBA career.
“My agent and myself, we’re all looking at different things that I can do,” Oden said. “Because it’s about time for me to figure out what the heck’s going on with my body and get this all taken care of.”
Which leaves the Blazers in almost exactly the same spot the team was when the 2009-10 season began.
Portland is older, wiser and more experienced. The Blazers have proven they can overcome almost any obstacle placed in their path, and can outmaneuver and shake off adversity as well as any team in the league.
But Oden, the one player who could possibly turn Portland from an annual playoff contender into an NBA champion, is still a question mark.
“For us ever to be that special team, we’re going to have to him. There’s no doubt about it,” Pritchard said in April. “Does it mean we can’t do it with other players? No. It’s possible. But our best chances are for Greg to be healthy and playing (like his) last 20 games of this year. Because when he played, he was really special.”
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