Game 39: Portland vs Toronto 12:30pm Root,Root+

[zzaj]

This is one of those games where, if you just glance at the boxscore it looks like the Blazers win easily…

But then you realize the Blazers have 2 winners and a bunch of Stat getters.

I could actually see Lillard requesting a trade now that he passed Clyde. I’ve never been a fan of the Billups signing…you can’t just “make” players better defensively…I stood up for Stotts for years—he would be doing a better job with this roster.

Buuuuut, things go up and down over the course of the season. Let’s hope the Blazers get hot at the right time and carry that momentum into the POs.

[monopoman]

Blaming the Blazers starters when the bench actually turned the ball over more than they scored points. **** if the bench pitch in for even 15 points in this game they might pull out the W.

The starters also mostly forced to play over 40 minutes in this game, the lowest minutes of the 5 starters was Nurk at 38 in this game. It's pretty obvious Billups has 0 confidence in this bench unit and thus why they barely play. We are missing some guys off the bench obviously, but that does not solve everything.

[Norm2953]

That extension Dame signed is going to make it difficult to "blow it up" unless the Blazers do something
stupid like trade for Westbrook.

[Pattycakes]

It’s pretty obvious looking at the bench what the problem is. Sharpe/Keon/Jabari should be our garbage time guys, not the ones we count on. They’re babies still. That’s the dilemma this roster needs massive improvement upon.

[GEE]

I will continue to place the blame for losing GAMES at the top. Management is the real issue, from Jody down to Cronin. The Vulcans still seem more focused on MAKING MONEY over winning a championship.

Blame the coach... blame the bench, but what I see as the problem is that it's the same play with new supporting actors. In this game we had more turnovers (a season high btw) than assists, and our alleged playmakers (or PGs) in Dame and Simons took most of the shots. It's just a losing recipe that I believe Chauncey wants to change, but I think there's some serious pushback, and a conflict of interests at the highest levels.

Dame and Simons isn't working, just like it didn't with CJ, and for those old enough to remember, has always sucked since trying it with Juan Dixon and Steve Blake. We are almost halfway through the season now. The fix is debatable, but signing Lillard to that extension, I think, locked us into the treadmill for 4 more years. It seems obvious to me that winning is secondary to getting paid with this franchise and was decided as the priority by both Jody and Dame. But go on blaming the bench players (who barely played and took just a handful of shots) and the coaching staff if you want, because there's no way Dame deserves even an ounce of blame for this teams failures because he's the greatest player Portland has ever seen, right?

So now what... Blow it up? What exactly does that look like? Let me guess... trade everyone but Dame!

The treadmill continues.

[Case2012]

I wonder what kind of package we could get for Simons and Nurkic along with our picks either after it's conveyed or the protections removed?

Simons doesn't do anything other than shoot, and he's streaky at best. He's still young so I would sell high for another forward or a hybrid center.

Simons for Randle and a pick interests me still. Grant would be better as a 3 and Randle is built like brick building. Adding a cheap veteran center like Drummond wouldn't be too difficult either should Chicago blow it up and Drummond has shown he's productive with minutes, and he's a much better rebounder than Nurkic.

Dame/Payton
Hart/ Sharpe
Grant/Winslow
Randle/Watford
Nurkic/Drummond

We could still use a scorer off the bench though which is obviously a major issue but we get bigger, we rebound better, Hart and Grant move to their more natural positions while improving defensively.

[DaVoiceMaster]

The officiating was horrid. How any of them could call a tip ball when no one was within 5 feet when Siakam threw the ball out of bounds. That would be #1 in Shaqtin a fool. Regardless of how many fouls FVV got called for, how many did he actually have. Holy hell that guy gets away with a lot.

Toronto has a lot of size. I'd still like to see some type of Simons & Hart trade for Siakam, even if he did cheap shot Lillard by grabbing his foot. Make it happen!!!

Grant and Simons disappear way too often.

[BlazersBroncos]

The fast start was fueled in many ways by Grant looking like a true #2 option and it appears he has returned to earth. He was never as consistent as he played when we were good early this year, and now that he has reverted to his inconsistencies its not looking good.

The thing that really stinks is that I dont see many avenues to improve. I mean, we have 1 more win than OKC right now. And they are missing Chet. Its hard to get excited for this team right now. Its hard to point at a guy and say, if he played to his potential we would be good. The starters are all playing about how I would expect, and its not enough, even taking into account the poor bench, its not enough.

[JasonStern]

Feels like this will be the off season we finally blow it up...

Doubt it, but the Blazers are in a good position to do so if they wanted to. Simons/Sharpe plus whatever you can get for Dame, Grant, Nurk, etc. is a great start to a rebuild.