Game 63: Portland vs Memphis 5:00pm SNW

[Wizenheimer]

What a post poor finish. All this talk about how deep the Blazers bench is now, but they're actually not that good. Sure, Hood had 27 last game, but 1 good game every 7 outings, or however long he's been here. Turner looked really rusty, Curry couldn't hit anything. If the Blazers expect to di anything in the playoffs, the bench needs to come through.

a bench can help, but what wins in the playoffs is players 1-4, not players 6-9

Blazers still have the same problem: if an opponent sells out to stop Dame, they take away Portland's best scorer AND the only guy capable of running the offense with any consistency. It's a great 2-for-1 strategy. Dame's problem in the playoffs isn't that he's a bad player or a choker; it's that he doesn't have a teammate like Lebron or Durant or Harden or Paul George or Chris Paul or Dirk or Tim Duncan or DWade. He doesn't even have a Manu or a Tony Parker or a Kyrie or a Bosh. Which means Portland doesn't have anybody close to good enough to make teams pay for selling out to stop Lillard.

[GEE]

What a post poor finish. All this talk about how deep the Blazers bench is now, but they're actually not that good. Sure, Hood had 27 last game, but 1 good game every 7 outings, or however long he's been here. Turner looked really rusty, Curry couldn't hit anything. If the Blazers expect to di anything in the playoffs, the bench needs to come through.

I have to disagree with ya here a little DVM.

I do think this squad is deep enough with wings, guards and bigs to compete with anyone in this league: Guards-Dame/CJ/Turner/Curry____ Wings-Mo/Aminu/Layman/Hood ____ Bigs-Nurk/The Turk/Collins. I've said before that I'm OK with Stotts "experimenting" a bit, cause he really needs to figure out how to get the best out of 11 players, that should all contribute in the playoffs. Traditional thinking says trim it down to 8 or 9, but I think since we don't have the top end talent, we should try to do it with depth. Not confident Terry will figure it out though. Maybe???

Where I agree is with Turner. He looked really bad, but I expected some rust as well. He really never shook it off either, having only played 10 min. I hope it's just rust, and that knee isn't hurting him. He's really important to our 2nd squad, which Stotts totally screwed up tonight IMO.

[monopoman]

Here is why I think Conley is a blazer killer look at his career highs he has career highs in Rebounds+Points+Assists against the Blazers.

https://basketball.realgm.com/player/Mike-Conley/Bests/33

Not in the same game obviously but he sure seems to get up and motivated to play the Blazers for some reason.

[Epicurus]

Offensive failure: Offensive rebounding, particularly Nurkic, and turnovers. Defensive failure: Name it after the first quarter (actually after first two-thirds of it).

[DaVoiceMaster]

What a post poor finish. All this talk about how deep the Blazers bench is now, but they're actually not that good. Sure, Hood had 27 last game, but 1 good game every 7 outings, or however long he's been here. Turner looked really rusty, Curry couldn't hit anything. If the Blazers expect to di anything in the playoffs, the bench needs to come through.

I have to disagree with ya here a little DVM.

I do think this squad is deep enough with wings, guards and bigs to compete with anyone in this league: Guards-Dame/CJ/Turner/Curry____ Wings-Mo/Aminu/Layman/Hood ____ Bigs-Nurk/The Turk/Collins. I've said before that I'm OK with Stotts "experimenting" a bit, cause he really needs to figure out how to get the best out of 11 players, that should all contribute in the playoffs. Traditional thinking says trim it down to 8 or 9, but I think since we don't have the top end talent, we should try to do it with depth. Not confident Terry will figure it out though. Maybe???

Where I agree is with Turner. He looked really bad, but I expected some rust as well. He really never shook it off either, having only played 10 min. I hope it's just rust, and that knee isn't hurting him. He's really important to our 2nd squad, which Stotts totally screwed up tonight IMO.

They all look bad. All this talk about Hood and the guy has had 1 good game. Curry's game has deteriorated since Hood joined the team. Layman hasn't done much lately either. I still think the key to Layman is getting him an easy bucket or two right at the rim. Then he starts hitting his shots. If he just comes in and starts firing away, he wont hit anything. Kanter has even cooled down a bit since those first 2 games.