Game 15: Portland vs Minnesota 5:00pm SNW

[Wizenheimer]

16 assists vs 18 turnovers will be a loss 9.7 times out of 10

I sure hope Portland's hot streak this season didn't come over the first 13 games

[monopoman]

16 assists vs 18 turnovers will be a loss 9.7 times out of 10

I sure hope Portland's hot streak this season didn't come over the first 13 games

Well ever since LMA left we have been a much better team post all-star break so the fact that we are even 10-5 is a good sign for this early season. **** last year we had one of our best post all-star break in a long time with that 13 game win streak. Also before this 2 game losing streak, we had a better record on the road vs. at home and odds were that was not going to last.

[Moonbeam]

Lillard needs to come out of the little slump he is in. But the power of those Prince-inspired jerseys was the real culprit.

[The Sebastian Express]

Oh. I just saw that the Timberwolves are 7-1 at home (0-8 on the road). I don't feel so bad anymore. Just a bad game. **** happens.

[Dzon Dilindzer]

awful game for portland, if we dont win against new york and washington, this road trip gonna be disaster... lets win those two and hope for a win against milwaukee or golden state without steph curry

nurk was having a really good first half on both ends and was clearly our best player, shooting 5/6, had 13 pts and dont know how much rebounds, but in the 3rd quarter i saw only one play for nurk... i really dont understand that, its not the first time it happens nor will be the last and thats bad coaching, thats on terry stotts, why does he have to ride or die with dame and cj mccollum?!

i wonder if terry stotts is aware that nurk is our second best player this season and that he deserves to be treated that way... his fga should be up to 15, 11 fga is not enough considering how good he plays

fact that cj mccollum has 6 fga more than nurk is killing me...

[Epicurus]

awful game for portland, if we dont win against new york and washington, this road trip gonna be disaster... lets win those two and hope for a win against milwaukee or golden state without steph curry

nurk was having a really good first half on both ends and was clearly our best player, shooting 5/6, had 13 pts and dont know how much rebounds, but in the 3rd quarter i saw only one play for nurk... i really dont understand that, its not the first time it happens nor will be the last and thats bad coaching, thats on terry stotts, why does he have to ride or die with dame and cj mccollum?!

i wonder if terry stotts is aware that nurk is our second best player this season and that he deserves to be treated that way... his fga should be up to 15, 11 fga is not enough considering how good he plays

fact that cj mccollum has 6 fga more than nurk is killing me...

Yea, why didn't Stotts change to a pivot scripted game based on Nurk's 1st half performance? I mean just because that wasn't in the preps or perhaps even in the playbook, why not change channels during the game, rather than do what coaches do during games, fine tune the game plan?

Yes, Nurk is the Second Coming of George Mikan!!!!

[monopoman]

Oh. I just saw that the Timberwolves are 7-1 at home (0-8 on the road). I don't feel so bad anymore. Just a bad game. **** happens.

Yep If you saw my post earlier the Wolves won 30 games at home last year and only 17 on the road giving them one of the worst road records of the top 8 teams and one of the best at home. For some reason there team performs MUCH better at home..

[Fitz303]

I've long supported CJ on this team, but I am done with it. I appreciate his talent, and his confidence, but if he's not on fire, his game is a net negative for this team.

CJ McCollum is 34th in the NBA in USG% (Min 250 mp)
Out of those 34, he's 32nd in Ast%.. That's not even just guards. That's all positions!

That is HORRIFIC

Out of the top 50 in USG%, CJ McCollum is 41st in AST%. He has become a black hole that Zach Randolph would be proud of. In fact, Zach had a higher ast% than CJ this year, in his last year with Portland.

I am ready for this back court experiment to be over. I've seen enough of his dribble, dribble, shake left, shake right, step back, shoot, garbage.... Pass the damn ball or go find another team. Much of this stems from yesterday when I watched him wave teammates off, go one on one with KAT, only to jack up a contested mid range jumper... This ends my rant on this loss

[Wizenheimer]

I've long supported CJ on this team, but I am done with it. I appreciate his talent, and his confidence, but if he's not on fire, his game is a net negative for this team.

CJ McCollum is 34th in the NBA in USG% (Min 250 mp)
Out of those 34, he's 32nd in Ast%.. That's not even just guards. That's all positions!

That is HORRIFIC

Out of the top 50 in USG%, CJ McCollum is 41st in AST%. He has become a black hole that Zach Randolph would be proud of. In fact, Zach had a higher ast% than CJ this year, in his last year with Portland.

I am ready for this back court experiment to be over. I've seen enough of his dribble, dribble, shake left, shake right, step back, shoot, garbage.... Pass the damn ball or go find another team. Much of this stems from yesterday when I watched him wave teammates off, go one on one with KAT, only to jack up a contested mid range jumper... This ends my rant on this loss

I was ready for the experiment to end more than 2 years ago, for a variety of reasons, the one you just highlighted among them

the problem is this issue has been trending the wrong way since the experiment started. I posted it before, but again, CJ's assist/36 numbers since he became the starter:

2015-16 - 4.4
2016-17 - 3.7
2017-18 - 3.3
2018-19 - 2.8

and, his assist rates:

2015-16 - 21.6
2016-17 - 18.0
2017-18 - 15.8
2018-19 - 12.5

there's a thread on the GB right now about Donovan Mitchell being a black-hole-chucker, but he's averaging 4.3 assists/36 compared to CJ's 2.8; and he's posting a 21.1% assist rate compared to CJ's 12.5%. If Mitchell is a black hole, what does that make CJ?

now, I don't think all of it is his fault. Stotts could rein in CJ's worst tendencies. It may also be that the drop in numbers this season is due to Turner assuming a bigger role in facilitation offence

I posted a thread at the end of last season about CJ possibly being a ball hog. I got a lot of grief about it but the numbers showed a few things. One thing they showed is that CJ simply isn't that good at one-on-one and iso basketball, Some people here have been giving him lots of credit for creating his own offense. But the truth is he's only average, at best, with the ball in his hands. And another thing the numbers showed is that when CJ gets the ball, he holds it longer, per possession, than just about every other player in the league, and he dribbles it more than any other player. That wouldn't be so bad if he was bringing teammates along and setting them up off his dribble, but he just doesn't do that. Dame can put the team on his shoulders and carry them to wins, even when he's not shooting well. CJ simply can't, his shoulders are way too narrow

[Epicurus]

Yes, his assist rate is declining. Yet so is his turnover rate. Personally I think McC is not a talented passer (it is a skill and for some a gift). Thus I prefer him not passing off ceteris paribus.

[monopoman]

He really needs to control the excessive dribbling though, I don't have a problem with a guy being score first but he needs to speed up his progression and understand how to maximize his abilities better.

I don't expect 5 assists a game out of CJ but if he is going to control the ball that much he needs to add something else to his game. It seems that CJ is so one dimensional that at this point most teams know how to really limit his game.