LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE: Game 1 Portland vs Sacramento

[Roy The Natural]

Nurkic was close to unplayable offensively for large stretches.

I deleted the rest of your post because I agree with it - especially the part about the bench. Much better ball movement and defense than last year's bench. Glad to see that.

Nurk still misses the occasional shot he should make, but overall he had a really solid game. He scored as many points as Dame (20), but did it on 10 FGA vs. 24 FGA for Dame. It was a very efficient 20 points for Nurk. He shot better from 2, 3 and the FT line than Dame with a TS% of .756. I don't expect that level of offensive efficiency from Nurk on a nightly basis, but if he can give you a reasonably efficient 15 - 16 ppg as a 4th option, that would be huge for this team.

He also pulled down 14 reb in 28 minutes and made some big hustle plays in the 4th quarter. Overall, I thought Nurk's play was one of the high points of the night.

I thought the bench played well as a unit and I saw a lot of good things individually. It was nice to see the ball movement from the bench and I really liked seeing Simons scoring in the paint and being more than just a spot up shooter. Nance and Zeller only combined for 3 assists, but I liked the way they kept the ball moving on offense. Quite a contrast to the ball stopping 2nd unit we had last year.

I think Nurkic finished the game really well. But, he was pretty awful on offense in the first half. Though, pretty much all the starters were awful all-around in much of the first half.

[Wizenheimer]

about Dame:

remember last pre-season how Stotts talked about having a different defense last year and after he implemented the defense he essentially abandoned it in game 1 because it wasn't working? How the 'plan' quickly gave way to the reality?

well, during the pre-season Billups talked a lot about how the Blazers were going to run a lot more off-ball action for Dame; how the offense was going to create shot opportunities for Dame. Billups also talked about playing Dame fewer minutes this year

that was the plan. The first game reality however was that while the Blazers took the ball out of Dame's hands more, they didn't create any offense for him. He only had one assisted basket and that was on that scramble play at the end of the game that was more accidental than anything else. Dame had to create all of his own offense. And, he had to do it while playing 40 minutes

funny how Billups seems to have the same bias toward experience and veteran players that Stotts had; that almost every NBA coach has.

Dame had an off-night shooting; it happens. What also seems to happen, a lot, is that when Dame has a bad night shooting, Portland loses.

******************************************************************************

the bench did well last night (but was outscored by 8) and Nas and Simons looked solid, at least on offense. Nance was kind of meh. RoCo seemed to think Barnes was Harkless and didn't need to be covered, while Barnes seemed to think he was Reggie Miller.
Last year's abysmal defense gave up 116.0 points/100-possessions; last night Blazers gave up 118.3....work in progress, I hope

[DusterBuster]

funny how Billups seems to have the same bias toward experience and veteran players that Stotts had; that almost every NBA coach has.

Not disagreeing here, just elaborating on this point. This is something I always thought was a funny critique people had about Stotts. He had his flaws, most were valid, but his preference for veterans was not. Literally every coach in the history of the NBA prefers veterans over rookies / early year guys. That only changes when those rookie deal guys actually start producing at a higher level than a veteran that they can't justify not playing the young guy anymore. Literally this is how it has worked for every NBA coach throughout time and I don't see any reason why that would change now.

[Sinobas]

If you lose by 3 to a playoff team when Dame going 0-9 and someone on the other team going 8-11 from 3, it's just one of those bad shooting nights. But it's hard to take much solice in losing at home to the Kings on opening night.

The biggest bright side of the game was Little and Zeller.

[BNM]

If you lose by 3 to a playoff team when Dame going 0-9 and someone on the other team going 8-11 from 3, it's just one of those bad shooting nights. But it's hard to take much solice in losing at home to the Kings on opening night.

The biggest bright side of the game was Little and Zeller.

The Kings might actually sneak into the playoffs this year via the play in game. If not this year, possibly next - they are still a very young team. After a decade and a half being a laughing stock, I actually respect where SAC is going. They managed to not screw up the draft two years in a row. Haliburton was a steal at 12 last year and Mitchell might be an even bigger steal at 9 this year.

They have a very solid 4-man guard rotation with Fox, Haliburton, Hield and Mitchell. I like Hield much better in the 6th man role than as a starter. Harrison Barnes is a sold veteran 3 and D stretch 4 and Richaun Holmes is a criminally underrated starting center. They added some depth up front with Tristan Thompson.

Yeah, I'll still be disappointed if POR doesn't win the season series and finish ahead of SAC in the standings, but losing an occasional close game to them isn't nearly the humiliation it has been for the last several years.

[Case2012]

Avery Bradley would've been a good vet pick up, certainly over McLemore. Cousins, Glen Robinson, Isiah Thomas, are all still available. Those would be my 3 end of the bench back ups over Blevins, McLemore, and elleby any day. Eventually nurk, and or Zeller will be injured and we'll need a back up center. I think cousins still has something in the tank, he just has had the worst luck ever. Robinson is a reliable shooter and has real wing size. Isiah is a bucket deserves another shot, same as cousins. I think we'll miss Melo and his shot creation, clutch shots, and locker room presence too.


Dame/ Ant/ Thomas
CJ/ Bradley
Powell/ Nas/ Snell/ Robinson
Roco/ Nance/ Melo
Nurk/ Zeller/ Cousins

That roster would've been easy to assemble. All vets, with big game experience. Easily better than what we have now. Granted those guys would only play if there were serious injuries or during blow outs but having them in the locker room at this point in their careers would be great.

[Pattycakes]

Avery Bradley would've been a good vet pick up, certainly over McLemore. Cousins, Glen Robinson, Isiah Thomas, are all still available. Those would be my 3 end of the bench back ups over Blevins, McLemore, and elleby any day. Eventually nurk, and or Zeller will be injured and we'll need a back up center. I think cousins still has something in the tank, he just has had the worst luck ever. Robinson is a reliable shooter and has real wing size. Isiah is a bucket deserves another shot, same as cousins. I think we'll miss Melo and his shot creation, clutch shots, and locker room presence too.


Dame/ Ant/ Thomas
CJ/ Bradley
Powell/ Nas/ Snell/ Robinson
Roco/ Nance/ Melo
Nurk/ Zeller/ Cousins

That roster would've been easy to assemble. All vets, with big game experience. Easily better than what we have now. Granted those guys would only play if there were serious injuries or during blow outs but having them in the locker room at this point in their careers would be great.

Bradley is probably the least unplayable of said washed vets, but even then “easily better” is a very subjective statement here. Basically swapping dirt for bark and acting like it’s gold.

[Case2012]

Avery Bradley would've been a good vet pick up, certainly over McLemore. Cousins, Glen Robinson, Isiah Thomas, are all still available. Those would be my 3 end of the bench back ups over Blevins, McLemore, and elleby any day. Eventually nurk, and or Zeller will be injured and we'll need a back up center. I think cousins still has something in the tank, he just has had the worst luck ever. Robinson is a reliable shooter and has real wing size. Isiah is a bucket deserves another shot, same as cousins. I think we'll miss Melo and his shot creation, clutch shots, and locker room presence too.


Dame/ Ant/ Thomas
CJ/ Bradley
Powell/ Nas/ Snell/ Robinson
Roco/ Nance/ Melo
Nurk/ Zeller/ Cousins

That roster would've been easy to assemble. All vets, with big game experience. Easily better than what we have now. Granted those guys would only play if there were serious injuries or during blow outs but having them in the locker room at this point in their careers would be great.

Bradley is probably the least unplayable of said washed vets, but even then “easily better” is a very subjective statement here. Basically swapping dirt for bark and acting like it’s gold.

I didn't say gold, I said easily better. It's a preference to having a known quantity of former all stars vs second round picks that probably won't even be in the league in 2 years. Also, locker room presence and experience is an intangible that's invaluable.