Norman Powell: Losing Paul George is addition by subtraction. Update: Norm: Everybody now is coachable

[Lalouie]

Their offense tanked as expected, but they have been an absolute terror on defense...
Ty Lue should be in COY talks...

That's exactly what I expected. Bottom 10 offense, top 5 defense basically. It's better to be a scrappy, competitive defensive minded team than a good offense that cant defend IMO. I think it gives you a lower ceiling, BUT a higher floor. You're in a lot more games that you shouldn't be in. On the flip side of that they lack the offensive stars to close games out, so what's happened in a few losses is they build leads with monster defensive stretches... can't hit a shot and give up 15+ point leads in 4th quarters to lose close games.

bad D makes every opposing player an allstar

good D has a twofold effect on both sides.
just having good O is one-sided,,,means you have to outscore everyone all the time

especially i think players hate being harassed. they prefer the unencumbered 3. that puts them in a bad mental state.
schools hated playing howland's bruins so we had the games won before we stepped onto the court. but as it happened when we faced an very good athletic team, we got beat. not enuf O........jmho

[Myth]

It frustrates me to see all the players the Blazers chose to ship out instead of Simons. Mostly 2-way players or close to it.

[OkcSinceSGA]

It frustrates me to see all the players the Blazers chose to ship out instead of Simons. Mostly 2-way players or close to it.

You guys don’t even have a player left from that trade right?

[ItsDanger]

Clips are playing like teams did years ago. This isn't my turn your, turn offense of today's NBA. Players are playing their roles.

[Clemenza]

They've been beating up on bad teams so credit to them. Don't think they've won against any actual good teams except Orlando. Their offense is bottom 10 and Harden is clearly washed so they're still going nowhere but their defense and Norman Powell have been better than I thought. Get back to me after these next 7 games.

Not true. They beat GS twice when they had the best record in the west and Denver twice. They’ve played the 5th most difficult schedule so far in SOS. Harden is “clearly washed” yet is climbing fast in EPM and is ahead of guys like Anthony Edwards, Booker etc lol.

GSW had a hot start but that doesn't mean they're good. They won't make the playoffs. Denver is mid. They've lost to every legit team they’ve faced, sometimes twice already. Since they were 6-7 they've fattened up on Utah, GSW, Sac, Philly, Washington and Portland...you think that's a difficult schedule? Harden is by far at career low efficiency and doubled his turnovers from last year with the same assists. Like I said, bump this thread after their next 7 games and we'll talk.

There's parity in the league so you can do this goal post moving all season long with nearly every team. Look at the west standings, only two teams are completely out of it.

[OkcSinceSGA]

Clips are playing like teams did years ago. This isn't my turn your, turn offense of today's NBA. Players are playing their roles.

I’m very happy to see so much parity right now. Yes you have teams a tier above like OKC, Boston, Cleveland.. but the next group is like 10 teams of similar caliber. The only thing I want now is parity of playstyle. Take away paint violations, Euro goaltending rules and physicality. Then we will have a lot more variety in offenses and defenses.

Title favorites- locks for top seeding: Thunder, Celtics, Cavs.

Second tier teams fighting for basically 2-10 play in.

Nuggets
Lakers
Clippers
Warriors
Suns
Grizzlies
Spurs
Wolves
Kings
Magic
Knicks
Bucks
Hawks


Only 3 bad teams in the entire west lol. In the west it means like 3 of those teams out west don't get into the playoffs. My guess is Kings, Clippers (unless they get Kawhi sooner than later they probably drop off seeding wise), Spurs are the odd man out. If Kawhi comes back in next 10-15 games the Clips take the Wolves spot.

[ken6199]

Some chef make a few awesome signature dishes and the reputation carries along their entire career, some are able to cook with all kinds of ingredients in any type of cuisines. If PG is the former, then JH is for sure the latter which explains him never missing a playoff in his entire career - closest being that toxic 2016 Rockets team where we ended up having Marcus Thorton and Michael Beasley avg 20 mpg for us.

You can make your own choice which chef you like better. A night out with your loved one on a good day, or that restaurant around the corner where you take your family to on a regular basis. My choice is pretty clear.

[ryguy613]

I would be shocked if they aren’t a top 5-7 defense this year.

Dunn, Batum, DJJ, Mann, Zubac, Kawhi isn’t giving you a bottom 10 defense lol.

Bet... lets go my dude.

Not looking good for you 25% of the way in. Kawhi just started ramping up some, so that won’t hurt.

shouldve put money on it when i offered. i think theyll probably fall off over the course of the season but yeah, the perimeter defense has been solid so far. I knew that Jones was going to be a good pickup, but I must admit that Dunn surprised me a bit.

As for Kawhi... i mean the words "ramping up" are doing some heavy lifting. no return date mentioned. with Kawhi he's always "progressing nicely" and "will be back soon". im not saying he wont be back, but do i trust that hes on his way? hard to trust that knowing his history. i hope he does though.

[Myth]

It frustrates me to see all the players the Blazers chose to ship out instead of Simons. Mostly 2-way players or close to it.

You guys don’t even have a player left from that trade right?

The Powell/Covington trade was more about making cap space to sign Jerami Grant, who we obviously still have. But if traded Simons instead we still could have had Grant. More egregious was trading Hart though. Hart was a perfect compliment to this team. Play him at SG (instead of SF as we did) so his defense could compensate for Lillard, and his rebounding compensated for Grant’s poor rebounding. I believe trading Hart was the true beginning of the end of the Lillard days.

[ryguy613]

It frustrates me to see all the players the Blazers chose to ship out instead of Simons. Mostly 2-way players or close to it.

You guys don’t even have a player left from that trade right?

The Powell/Covington trade was more about making cap space to sign Jerami Grant, who we obviously still have. But if traded Simons instead we still could have had Grant. More egregious was trading Hart though. Hart was a perfect compliment to this team. Play him at SG (instead of SF as we did) so his defense could compensate for Lillard, and his rebounding compensated for Grant’s poor rebounding. I believe trading Hart was the true beginning of the end of the Lillard days.

I still dont understand signing Grant, or why hes even on the team at this point. i dont really understand almost all of the blazers moves in recent years. sometimes it just seems like theyre making moves just to make moves.

[HardenGoat]

Kawhi is the key. Harden will get you to the post season. Especially with a defensive minded team that is fully bought in like he has right now. It was the same thing in Philly with him although the offense was very Embiid centric during Docs MVP assignment. As for the Sixers this year again Embiid’s health is the key assuming PG can get fully healthy. Imagine any team with their top player not healthy in the post season. They too would be falling short.

[Scalabrine]

He's not wrong. Last year in LA he took 11.4 fga per game and that was the fewest he'd taken since his 3rd year when he was coming off the bench in OKC. It was also his second lowest usg% of his career (also when he was in OKC coming off the bench). Career low free throw rate too and career high 3pt rate.

His TS% was just the same as it's always been, so it's reasonable to imagine that with a different shot diet, where he's getting into the paint and drawing more fouls, with a higher usage%, that he should be putting up much better numbers than he was last year. Weather that means more wins for the Clippers is a different thing, I think the West is much stronger, and the Clippers just lack some of the talent that the rest of the team has.

The RealGM Survivor Poll has them as the consensus 13th seed, and thats where I view them. Harden may put up some great numbers doing it, but I don't see it leading to success unless Kawhi plays 65+ games.

13th is insane. Even if Kawhi misses 50+ games they are a 35 win team. I don’t think people quite realize how good this depth and defense can be. I have the Clippers between 42-48 wins and 6-8 seed. Bookmark this now. Remember when people called OKC at 45 wins I said 55+. The prior year most had OKC at bottom of conference and I rightly predicted .500 or better.

Looks like I somehow undersold them because my prediction was WITH Kawhi. Not him missing 20 something games that could easy go to 30-40 to start the year. 14-9 now. 5th in power rankings. Norm Powell has outplayed PG by a lot and been a star.

Yep, they've been a gritty defensive team and that should keep them in any game. I still see them dropping down in teh standings. They are only 2.5 games out of the 12 seed.

[ejftw]

13th is insane. Even if Kawhi misses 50+ games they are a 35 win team. I don’t think people quite realize how good this depth and defense can be. I have the Clippers between 42-48 wins and 6-8 seed. Bookmark this now. Remember when people called OKC at 45 wins I said 55+. The prior year most had OKC at bottom of conference and I rightly predicted .500 or better.

Looks like I somehow undersold them because my prediction was WITH Kawhi. Not him missing 20 something games that could easy go to 30-40 to start the year. 14-9 now. 5th in power rankings. Norm Powell has outplayed PG by a lot and been a star.

Yep, they've been a gritty defensive team and that should keep them in any game. I still see them dropping down in teh standings. They are only 2.5 games out of the 12 seed.

Two after this shellacking.

But also 2 from the second seed.

[SweaterBae]

You guys don’t even have a player left from that trade right?

The Powell/Covington trade was more about making cap space to sign Jerami Grant, who we obviously still have. But if traded Simons instead we still could have had Grant. More egregious was trading Hart though. Hart was a perfect compliment to this team. Play him at SG (instead of SF as we did) so his defense could compensate for Lillard, and his rebounding compensated for Grant’s poor rebounding. I believe trading Hart was the true beginning of the end of the Lillard days.

Sometimes it just seems like theyre making moves just to make moves.

Because that's exactly what they're doing as they are run by a person just treading water until the market is right to sell. It is the illusion of trying.

[Myth]

You guys don’t even have a player left from that trade right?

The Powell/Covington trade was more about making cap space to sign Jerami Grant, who we obviously still have. But if traded Simons instead we still could have had Grant. More egregious was trading Hart though. Hart was a perfect compliment to this team. Play him at SG (instead of SF as we did) so his defense could compensate for Lillard, and his rebounding compensated for Grant’s poor rebounding. I believe trading Hart was the true beginning of the end of the Lillard days.

I still dont understand signing Grant, or why hes even on the team at this point. i dont really understand almost all of the blazers moves in recent years. sometimes it just seems like theyre making moves just to make moves.

Yeah, many of them are baffling. I always thought we could have got more for Powell/Covington than expirings and Keon Johnson. I was ok with the CJ McCollum trade that happened about the same time though. Many Blazers fans wanted the organization to back out of the Jerami Grant decision once Lillard demanded a trade, though for professionalism sake, most also get why they didn't. But the most confusing moves to me are the ones they didn't make. Why are we holding onto vets that aren't known for leadership? Grant and Simons in particular should have been moved sooner, but Cronin overreached with patience and now their value is diminishing. I was ok not moving Ayton until we knew Clingan wasn't a bust, and now with Robert Williams also playing well, it is very much time to trade Ayton (or Williams but I prefer it is Ayton that goes for contract, minutes, and leadership sake).

[OkcSinceSGA]

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Damn Norm isn’t done with PG lol.

[Mavrelous]

I think Norm doesn't like PG13 but I'm not sure...

[OkcSinceSGA]

I think Norm doesn't like PG13 but I'm not sure...

PG is a guy who would make a terrible play like dribble the ball off his foot, then yell at a teammate for not cutting lol. Montrezl Harrell in an interview this year said he regrets how it ended in LA, and that it came from PG. Basically he called PG’s effort out and PG didn’t take it well and escalated it.

https://www.si.com/nba/clippers/news/former-la-clippers-player-reveals-heated-exchange-with-paul-george-01j2exdwq2vs

The mental breakdown of the bubble

[OkcSinceSGA]

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Norm is not having it haha

[OkcSinceSGA]

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If he were in the East, he'd likely be a first-time all-star at 31 years old. He wasn't kidding with his comments about PG. Clippers most impressive win of the year probably and they get Kawhi back next week.