Game 54: Portland vs Detroit 4:00pm SNW

[Brandon-Clyde]

man, Nurk is frustrating, at times looks so good then at times so bad

Portland really needs to bring in a good big man's coach

I don't know what any coach can do to make him start hitting layups more often.

He is 5-10 on the game. If we can get him to learn how to finish properly he would be a good 3rd option. Plus it would not only be for Nurkic as Swanigan and Collins could also benefit from some good coaching

[Brandon-Clyde]

Aminu 3-9
Napier 3-9
CJ 2-9
8-27 combined
Ouch

Collins is 1-6.

I give him a bit of a pass as a rookie who not much is expected of at this stage but yeah 1-6 certainly doesn't help

[DusterBuster]

Yeah.... if we could trade for Jordan or Dwight, that'd be ggggrrrrreeeeeeaaaaatttttt..... /officespace

[Brandon-Clyde]

The at least she looks good(unlike the Blazer performance tonight) GLB pic

Spoiler:

[d-train]

I hope its time to give Biggie his turn at some minutes.

[Roy The Natural]

This incarnation of the Blazers has to be one of the worst teams around the rim I've ever seen. The vast majority of the team has no idea how to finish around the rim whatsoever... do they even drill contact layups?....

[Pattycakes]

Bit of a pathetic effort. This team lacks heart and hustle on so many levels.

[d-train]

Blazers need playmaking and leadership.

[Roy The Natural]

Bit of a pathetic effort. This team lacks heart and hustle on so many levels.

Absolutely.... they are in such a horrible spot going forward. They routinely beat the powderpuffs of the league, and just get demolished by the top 10-12 teams (when healthy). Yet they keep on missing the boat on moving a player like CJ for someone who will have more impact. I like CJ... but honestly, scoring guards are fairly easy to find these days, and they need help in other areas far more than they need CJs tunnel visioned, at times fantastic, and at time crippling, play.

It's aggravating because this team is like a poor man's Hawks of a decade or so ago. I guess I would say that they're basically the Iguodala era 76ers.... there's literally no point to this team, they're just fodder... with bad contracts and players who are showing minimal to no improvement from year to year.

[zzaj]

18 assists on 94 shots vs. 36 assists on 87 shots and 39%/30% vs. 50%/50%. Pretty easy to see why the Blazers lost.

This heavy ISO Blazer system isn't working consistently and hasn't really worked in a long time. I stand firm in my belief that Stotts isn't getting the most of his players and that those players are generally overrated to begin with.

[Wizenheimer]

Blazers sure were an easy out tonight....no fight at all

[Roy The Natural]

18 assists on 94 shots vs. 36 assists on 87 shots and 39%/30% vs. 50%/50%. Pretty easy to see why the Blazers lost.

This heavy ISO Blazer system isn't working consistently and hasn't really worked in a long time. I stand firm in my belief that Stotts isn't getting the most of his players and that those players are generally overrated to begin with.

+10000000000000000000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CJ and Nurk can be the most frustrating because of expectations.

With CJ, I get aggravated because he basically acts like Jamal Crawford out there, and ISO dribbles in place to chuck up contested jumpers... I mean it's great when he's on, but it's team killing when he's off. I feel like his game has trended in this direction since he became a starter. I feel like an opportunity was missed to turn him into a more well rounded offensive player. He was never going to be a true point guard, but the guy doesn't even use his screens half the time and does almost nothing to make players around him better. He NEVER looks to pass when driving, and isn't a good enough finisher to attack this way.

Nurk.... I don't know man, I've soured quite a bit on the guy... his finishing is just not NBA level at all, and we now see the downsides of irrational confidence with low skill level. You've got about a 50/50 shot of the backup bigs outplaying the starting frontcourt. Nurk comes off like a bonehead many times, and unmotivated a large portion of times as well. He doesn't hustle nearly enough, and it's especially frustrating because hustling/motivated Nurk, despite his finishing issues, is a damn fine player.

Outside of Lillard and Collins (the rookie pass), the whole team is pretty infuriating.

Aminu's a moron who's supposed to be a defensive specialist but doesn't bring defense every night (like tonight, he was just horrific). Harkless just totally **** the bed this season. He's a player who pouts and becomes disengaged when things aren't working out for him, and he's really not good enough whatsoever to get away with pouting. Connaughton is blue collar and does a lot of little things well, but he's got such a low ceiling as a player that he's not really worth caring about.....

Ehhhh... I could go on, but this team just isn't fun. It's a chore, and the majority of players on the team seem like they've added pretty much nothing to their repetoire over the past couple of years. At some point, the fact that nearly every player on the team doesn't bring energy into their specific role has to fall on the staff, and the team plays sloppy almost perpetually has to fall on the staff right!?

[Wizenheimer]

by the way in the last 2 games, Dame & CJ have combined for 77 points on 74 shots. Not going to win many games when the two best players go chuck-crazy like that

[Roy The Natural]

by the way in the last 2 games, Dame & CJ have combined for 77 points on 74 shots. Not going to win many games when the two best players go chuck-crazy like that

Ehhhh... I can give Lillard a bit of a pass, just because he actually runs the offense and still provides other players good looks when his offense isn't churning. It's CJ who becomes the issue, because he stalls any sort of flow in the offense when he starts forcing the issue, and really stinks at getting others involved. Either he's gotten notably worse at setting teammates up, or he's just slowly become more unwilling to pass. Neither of these is a positive trait for a player with a pretty high usage.

[PDXKnight]

Bad game...

[d-train]

by the way in the last 2 games, Dame & CJ have combined for 77 points on 74 shots. Not going to win many games when the two best players go chuck-crazy like that

Doesn't leave much candy for the teammates.

[zzaj]

by the way in the last 2 games, Dame & CJ have combined for 77 points on 74 shots. Not going to win many games when the two best players go chuck-crazy like that

Ehhhh... I can give Lillard a bit of a pass, just because he actually runs the offense and still provides other players good looks when his offense isn't churning. It's CJ who becomes the issue, because he stalls any sort of flow in the offense when he starts forcing the issue, and really stinks at getting others involved. Either he's gotten notably worse at setting teammates up, or he's just slowly become more unwilling to pass. Neither of these is a positive trait for a player with a pretty high usage.

This is the reason why Stotts' system will never work consistently. It relies too heavily on efficient scoring from the starting backcourt. On nights when that backcourt isn't efficient, either the players aren't feeling "it" or like most nights the team has been well scouted, the Blazers have a very small window (forgive me for borrowing your metaphor, Wiz) to eek out a win.

Good systems are able to adjust slightly if an opposing team overplays the perimeter or sags back and clogs up the middle. The Blazers simply can't make that adjustment. When teams defend the perimeter there isn't enough inside scoring from the Blazer bigs to offset the defense and keep opposing teams honest defensively. Instead, it mostly turns into high PnR and ISO which half the time results in a bad shot. Good offensive systems keep defenses off balance and scrambling, and the Blazers are just getting more and more scouted...the window is getting smaller.

It seems like the organization has built itself a house of small windows--small windows of opportunity to better itself because of it's poor salary management and small windows of opportunity to generate wins on the court, that starts with it's 1-way backcourt.

[thanks again for letting me pound that metaphor to death]

[Downtown]

I'm on vacation in Palm Springs and haven't watched any of the road games. It's a disappointment after thinking they were turning a corner with some solid home wins only to see them get outplayed.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised since the whole season up to now has been a one step forward one step back kind. Disappointed is the word about how I feel.

And I don't believe there's a trade in the near future from management that's going to change that. The problem if a trade does happen that's all about the cap then you know their one true star player won't be happy since it likely won't be bringing in better talent, just a better contract.

[d-train]

The Blazers need leadership and playmaking. We aren't getting this covered by our backcourt so it has to come from someone else. Most likely place would be a wing player. Turner was probably supposed to be the answer but how long are we going to wait. Nurk doesn't look like he can be a great playmaking center and nothing from the PF either.

[Epicurus]

The handwriting is on the wall--the Blazers will not win another game this season. After 5 and half seasons the Stotts' system has been well scouted and won't work anymore, if it ever did (i.e., the Blazers would have won 5 NBA championships and be a strong bet for the 6th except for the Stotts' system). I mean what coach in his right mind would attempt to build his system upon his two best offensive players. A good offensive system would make sure that more shots are available to far lesser offensive players, as that would completely surprised the opponents and their scouting reports. Also how can a coach expect 7fters to make shots within the restricted area without the services of a big man coach? Layups and putbacks are very complex, requiring specialized coaching.