The Portland Trailblazers, Brandon Roy, and All About Getting Better

The Portland Trailblazers have redefined themselves as a team in recent years.  Gone is the exceptionally talented but very undisciplined and self destructive Jail-Blazers teams of the late 90's. 

Today the Trailblazers still have exceptional amounts of talent but they also have a team of disciplined and dedicated young men with a common goal in mind; To win!  And leading that team is their All-Star shooting guard and arguably one of the very best players in the NBA, Brandon Roy. 

Brandon won the league's rookie of the year award in his first season and has only gotten better each additional year.  Now at the beginning of his fifth season, this team leader has already been working hard in the off-season to take the Trailblazers even further into the playoffs this year.  His determination and hard work are the example of the work ethic needed for a great player to become a legendary player.

Brandon Roy is dedicated to becoming one of the elite players in the league.  His focus and hard work in the off season bodes well for a young team that is still improving under the exceptional tutelage of Coach Nate McMillan. 

One of the keys for the upcoming season will be maintaining the health and preventing injuries sustained by players on the team.  Last year, after the beginning of a very promising season, injuries sidelined many key players at crucial points in the last half of the season, including for Brandon Roy at times.  While the Blazers still made the playoffs, despite those decimating injuries, they fell short of their potential.  If Brandon Roy has anything to say about it, the 2010-2011 season will be different.

The other key will be ensuring that center Greg Oden also is healthy and able to play an entire season.  While undeniably a great guy with much raw talent, Oden has yet to play a full season without injury.  (Meanwhile Kevin Durant, whom the Blazers opted not to draft in favor of the constantly injured Oden, has flourished in his first years in the league for the Oklahoma City Thunder and has reached the threshold of all-star status.) 

One hopes that Oden will reach his potential this season and prove that the Blazers chose wisely in that draft rather than raising the specter of ghosts from the past when the team chose a short lived player by the name of Sam Bowie instead of some slightly better known player named Michael Jordan.

Roy and Oden are two key ingredients to a successful Trailblazers' season.  Roy has done his part to be ready and to get better.  We will see if his teammate Oden is able to carry his share of the 82 game regular season burden this year as well.

See Brandon Roy's off-season work out here.