GreenRiddler wrote:I don't wanna hear anyone talk about this backcourt again we have some of the best defense vs top 10 offenses in this league. Once Aminu is back and we can get Harkless' mins down to 0 we be a great offenssive team again too. Dame and CJ should be all-stars if we are a top 4 team in the west.
GreenRiddler wrote:Seriously though I got more than a fair share of helpings for people who said we would never get anywhere with this backourt on defense.
first off...you need to define "anywhere". If the
anywhere Portland gets is season after season of 40-50 wins and 1st round exits that's really not something to
'crow' about
as for the rest, well, you may be getting way too far over your skis....as in it's still real early.
Those offensive and defensive ratings can change a lot over the course of a season. Last season, about 20 games in, IIRC, Portland was 2nd in offensive rating but ended up out of the top-10 in 11th. Much depends on the schedule of course, and as mentioned, Portland has had a SOS that ranks dead last in the league to this point. That SOS will change of course; last season, Portland's SOS ended up 9th in the league. The difference between 30th and 9th is certain to change those offensive and defensive ratings quite a bit. Also, only 21 games into the year, two or three real lopsided games can still be able to skew results. I think the Blazers are still getting some skew in their ratings statistically from the first 2 games of the year
and, it's probably worthwhile not to focus too heavily on either one rating or the other. What matters more is net rating...the differential between the two. Last season, Portland's net rating was -0.5. This season, their net rating is +4.6. I forget who it was but one of these analytic's bloggers posted some data about net-rating = won/loss record. It went something like [+/- 1.0 net rating = right about a .500 record (39-43 wins)]. IIRC, a [+/- 5.0 net rating = +/- .500 + 10 wins]. I'm not sure if that makes any sense because of how I've written it. But with a +4.6 net rating, he'd predict about 49-53 wins for Portland, and right now, they are on schedule for 51.
so, you might want to track that differential as the season goes on
as for your assertion that
"we have some of the best defense vs top 10 offenses in this league", that's worth examining. So far, of the top-10 offenses, Portland has only played 5 of 21 games against them, and 3 of those games at home (24% of games when you'd expect about 33% of games):
* Indiana in game 2 when they were without Myles Turner and it was only the 2nd games for Oladipo and Sabonis. Portlamd lost 2 at home to LAC and Toronto (by 14), while beating Denver. And they beat Washington on the road when they were without John Wall
so, that's not as impressive as you seem to make it. Now, if you wanted to expand it to the top 15 teams in offensive rating then you could add 2 games against Brooklyn, one of which when they were missing their best player and leading scorer. A home game against the Pelicans when they were missing Anthony Davis. And of course last night against the Knicks when they were missing Enes Kanter
but teams ranking 11-15 in offensive efficiency probably shouldn't be considered top offenses
so again, I think it's premature to congratulate Portland for having a top-3 defense. Certainly the eyeball test says the Blazers are much improved defensively. There's more effort and focus at that end of the court. How much of that is sustainable as the schedule levels out is the bigger question
