Preseason: Portland vs Utah 6:00pm

[Matt800]

Mario is looking good as a shooter.

He seems inconsistent to me, like Layman or Aminu. But hopefully he can shoot what Aminu did or better, about 35% from 3.

[zzaj]

Still a little worried about Whiteside's fit. I just don't really see natural chemistry.

Mario's shot is so compact and consistent looking...if the ball actually goes in consistently like it did tonight, then that will be a great thing for the Blazers.

As a team, the Blazers have a long way to go offensively and especially defensively. I feel like I wouldn't be shocked to see the Blazers at 7-13 after the first 20 games.

[BlazersBroncos]

I really cant stand Hassan's body language. He just doesn't ever seem truly dialed in. This idea that a select few have that he is a long term fit, and not a Band-Aid, is truly mistaken.

Mario looked good. He is still inconsistent but he is very poised on offense. Watching him vs Bazemore on that side is light night and day. One methodical the other rushing. I think its reasonable to add him in to the select few guys (Others being Simons and Zach) that could take a jump and improve this team from last season. The others are who they are IMO (Being Hassan, Baze, Tolliver, Hood, etc).

We really have no defensive chemistry and having so many mediocre defenders, you need a great system and guys who trust each other to succeed. That's nowhere close right now but can develop over the season.

Zach looked great. He is taking that jump this season. No doubt about it IMO.

I think that playoff Hood may have been a mirage. He seems to be the same guy he was once we traded for him, a mediocre 6th man or great 7th man who can score at a meh rate on iso's, and takes far too many long 2's (One reason he was great vs Denver was his post-up ISO's. Havent seen those in PS, he has been doing a lot of dribble-dribble-dribble-long-off-balanced-2pt-shot)

I am confident that Simons can get us points this season, which is huge considering he is so young. He has potential to be a 20ppg easily. But will he give up just as many? His smooth offensive game, where he just naturally and without effort at times can score, doesn't mesh well with the necessary defensive mindset of high effort. He needs to learn that, but again he is a child and that can develop.

Overall, its going to be up and down for at least the first 1-4th of the season. There will be growing pains but I don't think its accurate to say this team isn't as talented as last season. They have more talent, its just meshing and developing chemistry. We did trade a good deal of defensive talent for offensive talent, and IMO the increased tempo shows that the coaching staff understands this. We need to run teams off the floor to make up for our defensive mediocracy. The slow down tempo we previously played with worked when we had defenders like Mo and Aminu, with Nurk, and a team overall that played years together and had good defensive chemistry to make up for individual players abilities on that end.

Still, I am stoked to watch what is actually a really young team fight and develop. Simons, Zach and Mario in particular I am excited to watch. Man, if Mario can get consistency in that shot he could be our SF of-the-future. That would be so great.

[Shem]

Watch on YouTube

[Matt800]

It is nice to see that they won a game that was somewhat like a regular season game against a team a lot of people consider a championship contender. If Portland continues to show they can win games, then that's all they really need regardless of how messy it may look at times.

Hopefully whiteside will get healthy soon and get a rhythm. He hasn't been bad considering he's been injured, unable to practice with the team, and doesn't have his explosiveness or timing. Maybe Skal will show something good if he gets that playing time while Whiteside is out.

[monopoman]

I have been impressed with a number of Blazers so far:

Mario (Solid play in pre-season seems to be a reasonably talented passer and can hit a shot, we will see how he looks 20+ games in though.)

Collins (Playing very well overall his offensive game is really coming along still able to make solid defensive plays at times and really has a good understanding of where to be.)

Simons (Very nice offensive game from him even if he is not a great defender just having a guy off the bench you can rely on to get buckets is huge.)

[GEE]

I really cant stand Hassan's body language. He just doesn't ever seem truly dialed in. This idea that a select few have that he is a long term fit, and not a Band-Aid, is truly mistaken.

Mario looked good. He is still inconsistent but he is very poised on offense. Watching him vs Bazemore on that side is light night and day. One methodical the other rushing. I think its reasonable to add him in to the select few guys (Others being Simons and Zach) that could take a jump and improve this team from last season. The others are who they are IMO (Being Hassan, Baze, Tolliver, Hood, etc).

We really have no defensive chemistry and having so many mediocre defenders, you need a great system and guys who trust each other to succeed. That's nowhere close right now but can develop over the season.

Zach looked great. He is taking that jump this season. No doubt about it IMO.

I think that playoff Hood may have been a mirage. He seems to be the same guy he was once we traded for him, a mediocre 6th man or great 7th man who can score at a meh rate on iso's, and takes far too many long 2's (One reason he was great vs Denver was his post-up ISO's. Havent seen those in PS, he has been doing a lot of dribble-dribble-dribble-long-off-balanced-2pt-shot)

I am confident that Simons can get us points this season, which is huge considering he is so young. He has potential to be a 20ppg easily. But will he give up just as many? His smooth offensive game, where he just naturally and without effort at times can score, doesn't mesh well with the necessary defensive mindset of high effort. He needs to learn that, but again he is a child and that can develop.

Overall, its going to be up and down for at least the first 1-4th of the season. There will be growing pains but I don't think its accurate to say this team isn't as talented as last season. They have more talent, its just meshing and developing chemistry. We did trade a good deal of defensive talent for offensive talent, and IMO the increased tempo shows that the coaching staff understands this. We need to run teams off the floor to make up for our defensive mediocracy. The slow down tempo we previously played with worked when we had defenders like Mo and Aminu, with Nurk, and a team overall that played years together and had good defensive chemistry to make up for individual players abilities on that end.

Still, I am stoked to watch what is actually a really young team fight and develop. Simons, Zach and Mario in particular I am excited to watch. Man, if Mario can get consistency in that shot he could be our SF of-the-future. That would be so great.

Get out of my head Bronco! Kidding of course. Great analysis IMO.