Russ has got to be the most frustrating player I’ve ever watched. I have no personal vendetta against him. I just grow tired of watching inefficient, low bbiq.
Knrstz wrote:Russ has got to be the most frustrating player I’ve ever watched. I have no personal vendetta against him. I just grow tired of watching inefficient, low bbiq.
Coaching doesn't help. I get tired of watching everyone stand around in the same spot.
Osirus89 wrote:Now they have to beat Houston on Tuesday or they are just about out of the playoffs.
LAC plays Minny so when they lose to Houston they have a chance to hold onto the 8 spot. The Clippers have a rough schedule the rest of the way so OKC could hold on to the 8th spot until Utah takes it from them which might be until the end of the month.
So the West this year has two elite teams and about 8 above average teams. Right now Portland sits at 3rd in the West. No way in hell anyone can convince me that they don't suck compared to 3rd place teams in the West over the last 10-15 years. I know they very well may end up finishing 6-8 in the West, but they have to be the worst team to sit at 3rd place in the West this late in the season in the last 12-15 years.
QPR wrote:Does Donovan survive missing the playoffs, given the Roberson injury?
I think there will be some blood required for missing the playoffs. I'm not sure if it will be Donovan. It could be Presti, which would result in a new GM replacing Donovan. I realize a lot of people think Presti is safe and untouchable, but I'm not convinced ownership will find the results acceptable with this tax bill and what would be required next year to keep together a team that missed the playoffs. Keep in mind that Roberson probably won't be back until after the season starts and given the injury is unlikely to be the same player.
fileman3 wrote:Definitely didn't expect this team to play like this when the trades to get Russ some help happened
I honestly believe the team played with a ho hum regular season attitude for a majority of the season. When you add in the time it takes for them to get used to playing together they really shot themselves in the foot. So many of the losses in the season had no business taking place (@Pistons, @Magic, @Mavs, Nets in Mexico City, @Kings, Home vs. Hornets, @Knicks, Home vs. Mavs, @Suns, Home against Lakers).
They shouldn’t have won all those, but so many of those losses are inexcusable. Just winning 4-5 of those and they are comfortably in 3rd place.
Roberson injury messed things up a ton, but there is really no excuse for them not to be in 3rd place.
My only goal for the remainder of the season (and offseason) is figure out a way to re-sign George.
Dn4sty wrote:My only goal for the remainder of the season (and offseason) is figure out a way to re-sign George.
The best chance for that is to lose out and hope they get lucky with the ping pong balls and either PG thinks a top 3 rookie pick is enough help or they can flip that for a veteran that adds some quality depth. Making the playoffs and going home after 4 or 5 games does nothing to make a case for PG. They need more talent and getting Doncic, Bamba or Bagley would be a big boost. Even as rookies one of them could easily be the best player off the bench for OKC next year.
As many flaws as Carmelo has... if he sits this team just doesnt have enough firepower. Its that simple. Westbrook and George have to play perfectly in order to win and we have seen plenty of instances of them both underperforming all season for that to be reliable.
Frustrating loss. I thought our defense was OK most of the time. Kinda fell off a cliff in the 2nd quarter, but we recovered nicely. Giving up 14 offensive rebounds for 15 second chance points while only getting 8 second chance points ourselves is just bad defense though. Grab two or three of those boards and we probably win.
Offensively, it was just too 'constricted'. Way too much standing around, way too slow a pace. It's insane that 60+ games into the season we still don't have any real offensive flow to our game. It comes and goes throughout games, but it's mostly just the result of 'coincidences' and not the result of gameplanning and strategy.
George missing half of the 4th quarter is just mind-boggling. I don't know what Donovan is thinking, but in these kind of games, you want to have a strong finish to end the game. Instead we're out there playing both Huestis and Felton for extended stretches.
Russ was out of control. Portland always gets to hammer the **** out of us and Russ does not respond well to that.
Finally, George basically never touching the ball once he came in in the 4th is just horrible coaching. We ran plays for Grant in the corner twice in a row and George just stood out there and watched. Inexcusable.
QPR wrote:Does Donovan survive missing the playoffs, given the Roberson injury?
I think there will be some blood required for missing the playoffs. I'm not sure if it will be Donovan. It could be Presti, which would result in a new GM replacing Donovan. I realize a lot of people think Presti is safe and untouchable, but I'm not convinced ownership will find the results acceptable with this tax bill and what would be required next year to keep together a team that missed the playoffs. Keep in mind that Roberson probably won't be back until after the season starts and given the injury is unlikely to be the same player.
Getting rid of both of those guys would be a great offseason. Unless we hire even greater idiots.
This is the most pissed I’ve been about a loss in weeks. I really thought that we would play much better with Melo out of the lineup. Maybe that would lead to Patterson playing more minutes with the starters. Obviously as much as Melo has been a disappointment he isn’t the main reason for the team’s lack of success.
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