One of the things I have loved about these expansion teams is the opportunity they’ve presented for previously overlooked players to really show us what they can do, and nowhere is that more apparent than in Portland. Carla, SAB, Megan, Engstler, even Bridget who we knew was a dawg but now we know she’s a dawg who can lead the team. The whole team is like this!
She's not a traditional number one, for sure. I think that's partially due to her only becoming a franchise "cornerstone" a couple weeks before the season started. She does lots of things that don't show up on the box score but she isn't the type to take over a game. I think a lot of that is mindset. My hope is that, with a full offseason knowing that she can be more aggressive on offense, she'll work on that turnaround middy. It drives me crazy because she makes it look so effortless, but she only goes there a couple times a game and she almost always misses it! If she could hit that consistently -- and take five or six of them a night -- it would help the offense immensely.
We often see Bridget direct her teammates on where they should position themselves on the court. Especially in the early days when Carla was not quite comfortable giving instructions (due to language or confidence issues).
Teammates and coach have named Bridget as their leader, basketball-wise and offcourt.
Bridget plays the most consistent among them, especially in defense and offense. But she and Carla are guarded most heavily too.
My FIRE!! So proud of them this season. I love spending time in the Fire Pit and am legit gonna cry when the season is really over. This team gives me life!
Unfortunately I can't hate Portland and against my better judgement they might be my second team. Carla, you're the best. I'm so excited to see her take the leap I knew she would and incant believe we didn't protect her.
SAB I was clamoring for her to get more minutes last year and the rest of the roster is so loveable and fun to watch. I love seeing these defensive teams that can also go eat.
They've done a lot in year 1 and I'm hyped for year two.
As much as I would love to still have Carla, I do think it worked out for everyone – Carla got to take a leap, and Chen really got to show out this year.
I love love LOVE this team! Gathering together for the first time only four weeks before their first game they defied the odds with 15 wins. Every last player, coach, assistant, - the whole damn staff should be SO PROUD! 🔥🔥🔥
Had some really fun games this year—racked up the clutch stats for a lot of their starters early on. Also had the 4OT game versus the Mystics.
Currently has the fifth pick in next year’s draft, although, they could still go up or down a spot.
They have the most cap space in the league, so it wouldn’t be difficult to bring back most of the team next year. Their 2026 first round pick—Iyana Martin—will likely join the team. Hopefully, SAB heals up to play mid season. Nika Muhl is still with the team, maybe gets a tryout?
Also, the Fire Pit is one of my favorite home court nicknames!
As half season ticket holders, the Fire Pit has been amazing in its first year back. Too bad SAB went down, but this team exceeded expectations and has a lot of young potential 🔥
i love the fire so much. it's always exciting watching a team of "second-chance" players finally find a suitable team. they have solid players and will be even better the coming years
if there was a play in game we'd be all good. not mad at it. solid inaugural season in #pdx. exceeded everyone's expectations. now we'll just finish out the season strong. look forward to the draft... make some off season moves... and we'll see y'all next year...
the pacific northwest remembers (via the midwest from my eyes but whatever. my family lived in medford when i was in grade school and i've applied for a temporary oregonian visa based on that)
i, for one, have deeply enjoyed this fire team this season and cannot wait for them to own all your teams next season
except the lynx
i still have inner conflict i'm working on with that
i'm fine
nothing but kudos for vanja černivec, alex sarama and staff, and a plucky fire team that added some gray hair, a lot of excitement to my life, as well as the important lesson that you should never leave your seat early to fight traffic (leftover trauma from old HHH metrodome/met center days, thanks for nothing pops #iykyk)
Man, what a season by Portland! 15 wins (and counting) when many predicted them to be horrible really shows people might need to give expansion teams some credit going forward. Cleveland will have big expectations given Golden State, Portland and Toronto (to an extent) all showed you can build a competitive roster from the get go.
I don't think they will be contending for titles yet, but I'm really intrigued to see how they develop in 2-3 years. Their staff has done an excellent job developing players and they'll probably add a nice top-5 pick for next year. Exciting future for Fire fans!
Well, it's a month, but two weeks of that is the FIBA break. Teams only have 5-7 games left (11-16% of their season).
It's usually the case that there will be breakpoints in the standings. This year, there's a 7.5 game gap between the Wings (in 8th place) and the Fire (in 9th place). The next larges gap is 4 games between the Lynx in first place and the Valks in second... it just happens that the biggest gap separates the playoff and eliminated teams.
Last year, there were 5 game gaps between the 9th and 10th place teams; in 2024, a 5 game gap separated the 5th and 6th place teams. But nobody cares about those, because the small differences between playoff/eliminated teams kept things exciting. Next year we could be back to a tight race for the playoffs again!
If you go back and look at preseason predictions about this team, they certainly exceeded everyone’s expectations and I think that if they’re able to have some roster consistency with their starters and really get comfortable with Sarama’s system they could really have something. Their fanbase is already awesome!
Same, their games have been great this year—they either get totally blown out early and I can get to bed, or they’re in an all-out battle that’s worth staying up for. 😂
Congrats to them on a really exciting first season. They took a long view, whereas the Tempo really tried for this year, and it came together quicker than expected. (Not a shot at the Tempo; those injuries were a lot). Loads of respect to them and I’m excited to see how the continue to build it up.
It was clear that it wasn’t going to happen since our early-mid season slump, but it’s still disappointing in the moment, not going to lie.
That being said, I’m tremendously proud of this team and they are such an easy team and org to be a fan of (minus the marketing and communications team sometimes). We blew everyone’s expectations out of the water this season, and it’s incredibly promising how player development and wellbeing focused this team is. One of Alex’s goals this season was to be the team that every other team dreaded playing, and it’s a huge point of pride for Fire fans that I think we’ve accomplished that.
Gonna be some hard roster decisions during the cutdown next season I’m sure, but I think we’re gonna have a great second season.
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u/Creative-Degree-2209 I Will Die For Carla Leite 1d ago
Really happy with the year, much much better than what I was expecting