No one's suggesting an NBA championship, but there are some amusing similarites between the Trail Blazers of today and the team that won it all 30 years ago.

By Wayne Thompson
TrailBlazers.com
Rip City Magazine

As you ponder the start of this new season, no doubt with cautious optimism, you probably won't suspect that the 2006 Trail Blazers have anything in common with the champion Blazers of 1976.

Just one year removed from being the worst team in the NBA, this year's Blazers bear an eerie resemblance to Portland's Cinderella team of '76. Young and inexperienced and new to one another -- that's the common link.

But the comparisons don't end there. Consider this:

Thirty years ago, the Trail Blazers assembled for fall training camp with their future a big unknown. Entering their seventh year as a franchise, the Blazers had never had a post-season NBA appearance, or a winning season for that matter.

Included in this group were seven new players and a new coach, Jack Ramsay. Two of the players (Wally Walker and Johnny Davis) were rookies just out of college; two others (Maurice Lucas and Dave Twardzik) were making their NBA debuts after spending a few years in the rival American Basketball Association.

Technically, they were NBA rookies, too.

Another rookie was backup center Robin Jones, an undrafted free agent who spent a year playing in Europe. Two of the new additions (Corky Calhoun and Herm Gilliam) were veterans in the middle of their careers and were acquired by the Blazers in the off-season.

Add to that mix Lionel Hollins and Bob Gross, who were entering just their second season in the league, and you can see that the Portland roster in the fall of '76 had very little professional playing experience.

But they did have youth on their side.

They also had street cred: Six of them were first round picks in the NBA draft; under today's system, five of them (Bill Walton, Corky Calhoun, Lionel Hollins, Wally Walker and Herm Gilliam) would have been lottery picks.

The 1976-77 Trail Blazers were the youngest team in the NBA, their 12-man roster averaging just 24.3 years of age.

They won 37 games the year before, but had traded away their stars Geoff Petrie and Sidney Wicks in order to change the team's direction and get younger.

If all of this sounds familiar 30 years later, it's because this season's Trail Blazer edition has a similar MO.

Check this out:

Eight of the 15 players on Portland's 2006 roster are new to the team. Two others, Jarrett Jack and Martell Webster, have only played one season of professional basketball. The Blazer coach, Nate McMillan, is in his second year with the team.

Thirteen of the 15 Trail Blazers are first round draft picks, six of them (LaMarcus Aldridge, Darius Miles, Raef LaFrentz, Martell Webster, Brandon Roy and Joel Przybilla) are lottery picks.

The average age of Portland's roster entering the season is 24.5 years, second youngest in the league.

The current Blazers are bigger than the 1976-77 team and, arguably, better perimeter shooters.

For comparison sake, the 2006 Blazers are much bigger than the champs with four players (Raef LaFrentz, Jamaal McGloire, LaMarcus Aldridge and Joel Przybilla) at 6-foot-11 or taller, and three others (Darius Miles, Zach Randolph and Travis Outlaw) at 6-foot-9. The 1976 Blazers had Bill Walton at 6-foot-11 and two others (Maurice Lucas and Robin Jones) at 6-foot-9, albeit Lloyd Neal played bigger than his 6-foot-8-inch frame would suggest.

Perimeter shooting differences between these two teams pose a harder case to make because the eras in which each team played is so different. But for someone who has seen both teams close up and personal, it is difficult to imagine that Lionel Hollins, Bob Gross, Larry Steele, Dave Twardzik, Lloyd Neal and Maurice Lucas were better outside shooters than Martell Webster, Brandon Roy, Jarrett Jack, Zach Randolph, Sergio Rodriguez, Ime Udoka, Dan Dickau or Raef LaFrentz.

Clearly the styles of the two teams are vastly different. The championship 1976 squad was much quicker (See Hollins, Gross, Steele and Johnny Davis run) and they employed pressing defenses that forced opponent turnovers and rushed foes into bad shooting percentages.

The 1976 team also earned critical praise from basketball writers and coaches nationally for its superior basketball I.Q. as a unit. That translated to outstanding ball movement, superb player movement in the half-court offense, extreme selfless play by every member, and a starting unit made up of people who could have run the club like a point guard.

Those Blazers of '76, along with the champion New York Knicks of 1970 and 1973, have generally been hailed as the best passing teams in NBA history.

What made the Blazers so stellar in the passing game was Bill Walton, arguably the best passing center of all-time. He was surrounded by players like Gross, Hollins, Lucas, Davis, Steele, Neal and Gilliam who knew how to get to the open spots on the court. The team's overall quickness, court vision, screen setting and ability to find and hit the open man compensated for its lack of size.

This is not to say that the Blazers of '76 lacked muscle or grit. Yes, they were primarily a finesse team, but they had their enforcer in all-star Maurice Lucas and muscle in his backup, Lloyd Neal. Lucas was an intimidator and with him on the court, no one messed with the more fragile and injury-prone Walton..

At 6-foot-1, Dave Twardzik, with his twisting drives to the hoop, seemed to take on the world -- the bigger the foe, the harder he would fall after a shot, only to get back up and do it again. His game was grit and bear it.

Part of Portland's success as a championship team had much to do with its architect -- player personnel director Stu Inman. He was a brilliant judge of not only basketball talent, but also of the kind of character strengths it takes to build a team with good chemistry.

In Larry Colton's marvelous book, "Idol Time," detailing the lives, tastes and dreams of the 1976-78 Portland Trailblazers and those of their many fans who initiated the social phenomenon in Portland known as Blazermania, Inman's innate contributions to the team were revealed.

In an anecdote discussing how the Blazers came to sign Twardzik after his ABA Virginia Squires folded, Colton wrote the following:

"All of the players except Gilliam, (Jones) and Calhoun came to the team via player drafts, Inman's responsibility. In the case of Twardzik, when he became available, Ramsay asked Inman, 'Is he fast?' Inman replied, 'No.' Is he a leaper?' 'No,' Inman answered. 'Is he a great ballhandler?' 'No.' 'Is he a scorer?' 'No,' again. 'Then why should we get him?' Ramsay wanted to know. 'Just take my word for it, Jack, you'll love him.'" Twardzik was signed and Ramsay loved him.

The 2006 Blazer team architects, when compared to Inman and 1976-77 team general manager Harry Glickman, have placed a similar emphasis on team character and the subtle things about players that could improve team chemistry and team play.

Blazer owner Paul Allen, president and general manager Steve Patterson and assistant general manager Kevin Pritchard have made it clear that raw talent alone doesn't carry the day in their judgments about players. They, too, are striving for improved team chemistry, good character among players off and on the court, as well as finding players willing to sacrifice individual honors for the good of the team.

It remains to be seen if or how soon this works out. One thing we do know in hindsight: All 12 members of the championship squad knew how to play the game. Fast-forward 30 years from 1976, and current Blazer fans aren't sure what to expect in terms of team style, basketball I.Q. and productivity. And it's still to be determined how many players on Portland's 2006 roster will learn how to play the game the right way.

What is known is that this current team seems to have a willingness to share the ball, spread the court and look for the open man. It has done so in spurts in the pre-season games.

With its superior size compared to most of its Western Conference opponents, the Blazers no doubt will be pounding the ball into the post to gain match-up advantages more often than the '76 team did, with Lucas and Walton as their only effective weapons on the block.

Zach Randolph is a more gifted offensive player in the paint than most Blazers in recent memory and Jamaal Magloire, LaMarcus Aldridge, Darius Miles and Travis Outlaw have solid post-up games, too.

For that matter, so does Brandon Roy, whose 6-foot-6 inch frame and exceptional wingspan gives him an edge over many of the league's average-size shooting guards.

The comparison between these teams may look strikingly similar on paper, but it suffers in a reality check. The 1976-77 Blazers had two rising super stars in Bill Walton and Maurice Lucas to lean on, as they recorded their first winning season and their only NBA championship. The 2006 Blazers look very promising, but have yet to prove themselves. Enough said, perhaps.

But it should be noted that the championship team, under Coach Jack Ramsay, recorded a 12-win improvement over the '75-'76 squad, finishing the regular season with 46 wins.

So while nobody, not even the most optimistic of Blazer fans, would predict that the current Blazers will make the playoffs, let alone win an NBA championship this year, a 12-win improvement over last season's 21-61 record clearly would seem to be in reach.

That's not a goal or an expectation, it's just a reminder of what can be accomplished when you bring new guns to town, get everybody reading in unison from the same testament, let alone the same page, and play selflessly as a team.

So no matter how close the personnel comparisons may seem to be over these past 30 years between the Blazers of today and the Blazers of yesteryear, it's clear that Portland's championship team had something that few other Portland teams possessed: Remarkable team unity rarely seen at the pro level.

This is what Trail Blazer Coach McMillan means when he preaches ball movement, self-sacrifice, sharing the spotlight and committing to a cause that results in playing and winning as a team.

So a new season begins and curious fans, throughout Oregon, Southwest Washington and beyond, would agree that the Blazer brain trust has laid a good foundation for the future. And while the early results are encouraging, Blazer fans are anxious to see which team will show up -- the one with the spirit of '76, or something else.

Wayne Thompson was The Oregonian's Blazers beat writer from 1970-73 and sports editor from 1977-1979. You can email Wayne at mlou4jazz@aol.com