Yes, it has come, the moment you've all been waiting for, the return of the jscot Stupid Sched Projections (c)!  Be still, my beating heart!

All experienced Bedgers know that the methodology of these projections is completely suspect, generating numbers that no one could intelligently accept as indicative of anything.  But they are OUR numbers, and we love them.  That's just the way we roll.

Rookie Bedgers may not know about the projections.  Never fear, jscot is here, and I will explain them after the jump.

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Gather round, children, and I'll tell you a story.  I need to warn you, though, it's a sad story, one in which the bad guys get away with some very bad things.

Long ago, in a land far away, there was a basketball team.  Their fans loved them, and neighboring fans hated them, which is as it should be.  They won some games, they lost some games.  They even won a championship once.

One day, there was a very rich and evil man, who had some very rich and evil friends, and they decided to kidnap this team, and take it away to their home.  But as rich and evil people do, they didn't use guns to steal the team, they used lawyers and lots of money and lied about "good faith efforts" and all that stuff.  If you don't understand how that works, it's ok.  I hope you'll never be rich and evil (we'd settle for rich and good, though, wouldn't we?), so you won't need to know about that stuff.

Anyway, it worked.  They stole the team, but in their hurry to get it away from town, they forgot to take the team name with them.  

This created a problem for these rich and evil men, though.  The team used to be called the Supersonics, which is a kind of jet airplane which goes really, really fast.  These men thought it was good that they used to be called the Supersonics, because they made the team go off to their own city really fast.  But now, what would they call their new team, the one they had stolen?

They racked their brains for a solution, and one day, they were sitting around the table, and one of them said, "Hey, if a Supersonic is flying away from Seattle really fast on its way to Oklahoma, doesn't it make a loud noise in the sky?"  The others said, "That's it!  We'll call our team that loud noise in the sky!"

Now, children, you should know that the loud noise in the sky is called a sonic boom.  But the rich and evil men apparently didn't know that there was more than one kind of loud noise in the sky -- and they called their team the "Blunder".

This Sched Ahead edition, for the first time, includes a team from OKC, hereafter known as the "Blunder", as a potential playoff contender. 

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Dear Blazer Braintrust,

It's me again.  I haven't written to you in a few weeks, but I'm noticing a minor groundswell of opinion among Blazer fans, and thought perhaps it out to be mentioned.  Perhaps you've noticed it.

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[Ed. Note:  Lakers fans and Blazers fans do not get along. Of course, for Lakers fans, being hated by fans of other teams is nothing new. It's also understandable that fans of other teams get burned out by the more classless of Lakers fans. I don't buy the idea that there is a higher percentage of classless morons in our ranks than in the ranks of any other fanbase — there's more of them overall, just because there's more of US overall. But I'd argue that the percentage of classless fans to classy fans is no different in the Lakers' fanbase than anywhere else.

Case in point: Here, in the SB Nation blog network, Blazers Edge has the most classless, trollish fans out in the SBN NBA community. We get bombarded with them, from time to time, and we're not the only ones. But that's simply because there are more "BEdgers" than anyone else. More people, more total morons — that doesn't mean there's a higher percentage.

In any case, we don't get along with very many "BEdgers," and they DEFINITELY don't like us. Which makes what jscot has to say here truly remarkable. Would that we should have more "Can't we all just get along?" moments, like these. I've gone on for too much already — I'll let jscot take it from here.]

As a Trailblazer fan since 1970, one who liked West but hated Wilt, Kareem, Magic, and everyone who came after, I never thought I'd join a Lakers' blog to make a comment.  Well, I might have, but it would be a comment that would get me banned for life.

Do you sense a "But..." coming? Click the jump...

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No giving up, we go on.  We may not be able to get a high seed after all, but this team can still grab a playoff spot, and scare some teams.  We saw what happens when players like Miller and Roy get aggressive and take it to the opponent, when role players like Bayless come in and attack the hoop, when stand-up guys like Przybilla step into the gap and do a job.  So press on, and see what happens.

So here's our weekly look at the schedule imbalances among the Western contenders.

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Just a quick note to say that we, your fans, are right behind you.

Everything hurts right now, but Blazer fans have never been fair weather fans.  You're going to have to pull together as a team, dig deep, and work a lot harder.  Life is like that sometimes. 

Everyone knows what kind of basketball players you guys are, but this is your chance to show them what kind of men you are, what you are made of down deep inside.  Most Blazer fans already know, but the rest of the world doesn't.  You get to show them.  It is in adversity that strength shines through, and this season just became a lot more about character than about talent.  The league and the city will see your quality now.

We don't care about wins right now.  All we care about is going out there as a team and fighting the best you can.  You'll win more than people think, and you'll help Greg keep his head up.  He deserves to have his team stand up for him now, his team and his fans.  But most of all, you will be able to stand proud knowing you've done all you can, and we'll be right behind you.

We're with you all the way.

SUMMARY INFO

This weekly schedule analysis is based on four categories of games:

1. Home games against sub .500 teams.  Cream Puff Home.
2. Home games against winning teams (I'm including teams right at .500 in this category).  Jawbreaker Home.
3. Road games at losing teams.  Banana Peel Road.
4. Road games at winning teams.  Rocky Road.

A general formula for success in the NBA is to win almost all of Cat 1 (Cream Puff Home), a majority of Cat 2 (Jawbreaker Home) and Cat 3 (Banana Peel Road), and win some in Cat 4 (Rocky Road).  The contenders may win more than half of their Cat 4 games.

Back to Backs (hereafter BtoB) are also tracked so as to provide further data on schedule difficulty.

Last week's update

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SUMMARY INFO

This weekly schedule analysis is based on four categories of games:

1. Home games against sub .500 teams.  Cream Puff Home.
2. Home games against winning teams (I'm including teams right at .500 in this category).  Jawbreaker Home.
3. Road games at losing teams.  Banana Peel Road.
4. Road games at winning teams.  Rocky Road.

A general formula for success in the NBA is to win almost all of Cat 1 (Cream Puff Home), a majority of Cat 2 (Jawbreaker Home) and Cat 3 (Banana Peel Road), and win some in Cat 4 (Rocky Road).  The contenders may win more than half of their Cat 4 games.

Back to Backs (hereafter BtoB) are also tracked so as to provide further data on schedule difficulty.

Last week's update

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I have been very optimistic about the prospects of Jerryd Bayless as a combo guard who could serve as our PG of the future. 

I have been very cautious about playing Jerryd a lot right now, because he hasn't really looked at ease in the PG role.

I'm ready to put all of those aside for the moment and suggest that this next game, against the Warriors, is a great game for Bayless, just as he is, to play some significant minutes.  Why, you ask?  Follow my logic and tell me if it makes sense to you.

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SUMMARY INFO

This weekly schedule analysis is based on four categories of games:

1. Home games against sub .500 teams.  Cream Puff Home.
2. Home games against winning teams (I'm including teams right at .500 in this category).  Jawbreaker Home.
3. Road games at losing teams.  Banana Peel Road.
4. Road games at winning teams.  Rocky Road.

A general formula for success in the NBA is to win almost all of Cat 1 (Cream Puff Home), a majority of Cat 2 (Jawbreaker Home) and Cat 3 (Banana Peel Road), and win some in Cat 4 (Rocky Road).  The contenders may win more than half of their Cat 4 games.

Back to Backs (hereafter BtoB) are also tracked so as to provide further data on schedule difficulty.

Last week's update

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