With players like forwards Rasheed Wallace, 23, and Brian Grant, 25; and shooting guard Isaiah Rider, 26, in the Blazers' starting lineup, potential is an oft-uttered word in Portland. And that's before you even mention star of the future Jermaine O'Neal, the team's second-year backup center who'll be just 19 this season. Portland could well field the youngest team in the league in 1997-98.

This team's youth (and inexperience) is apparent even without looking up the players' birth dates. The Blazers won 49 games last season and reached the playoffs, but dropped their first-round series to the Lakers in four games. "I thought we could have gone a lot further," says point guard Kenny Anderson, who at 27 qualifies as a grizzled veteran on the Blazers. "We have to get more serious as a group."

Anderson wasn't the only one who thought the team could have achieved more. Although Portland reached the playoffs for the 15th straight season— the longest current streak in the NBA—the team directed third-year coach P.J. Carlesimo to hit the road. (He took Interstate 5 down to California to assume the helm of the Warriors.)

Dunleavy was out of coaching last year, serving as Milwaukee's general manager after four years in the dual role of Bucks coach and G.M. This year will be the first time since the '91-92 season, when he was with the Lakers, that he has concentrated solely on coaching. "I've always loved being on the floor," he says. "The hands-on, teaching part of the job is what I do best and enjoy the most."

Several other teams were interested in Dunleavy, but Portland's youth was a major drawing point. "We have some very talented players who are young, who need to work through some things, mainly maturity-wise," Dunleavy says. "We have somewhat of a scary team. We could be really good when we're going on all cylinders, but we could make mistakes."

Dunleavy says he's concerned by the loss of two veterans, backup Chris Dudley (who was expected to go to New York in a three-way deal that would net the Blazers a future first-round pick) and starting power forward Clifford Robinson (who signed with Phoenix as a free agent). Grant, who played his first three seasons in Sacramento, was the most important off-season acquisition, but the Blazers think they'll also be getting something new out of their "old" center, Arvydas Sabonis. The 7'3" Lithuanian, who will turn 33 this season, took the full summer off for the first time in four years (he had played in international competitions in other years) and should be fresher than he's been in his two previous seasons with Portland. "I'd be surprised and disappointed if he doesn't have a good, consistent year," says assistant general manager Jim Paxson. "The skills he has never go away. I look for him to be a guy to give us a terrific 26 to 28 minutes."

Wallace will fill some of the other minutes in the middle—particularly when Dunleavy wants to run and press, which he plans to do regularly. Providing backup help inside will be Iowa State product Kelvin Cato, a 1997 first-rounder. The other significant newcomer is backup point guard John Crotty, a free agent who played in Miami last season.

Dunleavy has both plenty to do and plenty to work with as he tries to bring stability to a team that used 13 different starting lineups last season. "I think a realistic goal is the 45- to 50-win range," Paxson says. "I'd like to see us make the playoffs and get out of the first round, give our guys the experience at the next level, in the conference semifinals at least."

That's a realistic goal for the near term, but when it comes to visions of titles, Dunleavy knows he's better off being farsighted. "The real vision for us in the next couple of years is to get our guys headed in the direction we want to go," he says, "so we can focus on how we want to play, learn to play that way, improve that way and then be pretty dominant that way. You focus and keep working, and if you're relentless, sooner or later you get there."

—Dana Gelin