Preseason Game 1 thread: Por vs Den

[monopoman]

Simons was born to shoot the ball it looks so good going out of his hands and he has such confidence as a shooter.

[d-train]

Simons was born to shoot the ball it looks so good going out of his hands and he has such confidence as a shooter.

Yeah, confidence is not a problem.

[Shem]

Bazemore has 7 steals so far.

[d-train]

Nuggets have so many good players.

[d-train]

Bazemore has 7 steals so far.

I didn't notice that.

[d-train]

I notice our bench is going toe to toe with the Nuggets. There's not a deeper team than the Nuggets.

[d-train]

If Simons missed 20 in row, he wouldn't hesitate to shoot 10 more.

[d-train]

I notice Collins has 0 blocks but I count 3 times his rim protection forced misses.

[d-train]

Little is making some plays in rat ball.

[d-train]

fight for freedom stand with Hong Kong

[Matt800]

Didn't see the game but from the highlights it looks like this will be a very different team. It looks like they might have a higher ceiling than last year, but I could also see some of the little things that guys did last year not being there this season. Will be interesting to see if they can put it together fast enough to be better than last season.

[BlazersBroncos]

Loved what I saw from Mario. He would be transformative if he actually played to his potential here. We have been looking for a SF since Batum left and he has all the tools to be a starting caliber player in this league. His role this season may be the bench unit ballhandler, but if he can build on that we could have a starter in 20/21 and he would only be 25 still. I think he looked more natural with the ball in his hands than ET ever did, but time will tell if that was a fluke.

Anyone else think Moses is worth a 2-way contract. He had awkward moments but he is tremendously agile for his size. He gets so low for a 7'1-7'2 player and didn't seem outmanned on switches. I may be biases as I made a few post about him during draft season and thought he was worth a R2 flyer, but IMO he could develop into a serviceable backup C or at least that 3rd big, Salah Merji type big.

Simons didn't seem to command the offense very well. IMO Mario looked much better. If we want to maximize his current skillset, he should be playing a SG type role where we just run him around screens. His body hasn't filled enough (Albeit he sorta looked taller) to finish in the paint and he still looks lost on defense. But that jumper. Man. He is going to be a designated shooter with a long career and that's if you cut his development off at this moment. Realistically he likely develops much more. But ATM he is only a shooter and his role should reflect that. Then again, only one game.

Little looked much, much better than in the SL. His form has always been better than his shooting numbers and IMO he looked good on the FT line. He was sagged off by his man on offense and a rotation caliber wing would have made the guy pay, so he clearly isn't comfortable shooting long balls during play yet. But that and-1 showed his unteachable athletic gifts and looked like an all-star type move. Fingers crossed for Crash V2 (Albeit he simply isn't as athletic as Wallace, much better shooter at the same point in career though)

Zach looked good in 1st half and his defense is tremendous. Forced it in the 2nd half when he was playing as a higher offensive option, its clear that he is a role player / utility guy who is going to get hustle buckets and 3PT shots and IDK if he ever becomes more than that. And IMO that's fine as long as he is playing elite defense and working on improving his rebounding.

Skal showed his nice offensive talents but still doesn't seem to score in the 'flow' of the game. Gary looked horrible and I just have not bought into him. Tolliver looked old. I don't really have much to say about the other starters as we clearly were playing them to keep in shape rather than win.

[Wizenheimer]

I tend to think the 1st pre-season game is always pretty meaningless in terms of indicators. Not much more meaning than a summer league game

that said and with it in mind, some things I noted:

* Blazers had 7 players with more FGA's than points, 5 of them scheduled to be rotation players. That's not going to win many games

* Blazers had 19 assists and 22 turnovers....yuck

* Hezonja looked 'good' dribbling and passing around the perimeter. That's pretty easy though, and it's not the role he's supposed to fill. He'll turn 25 this season and he's already played in 277 games; and his assist/turnover ratio is 1.1. Last night, 2 assists and 3 turnovers. Last season, Turner was at a 2.4 assist/turnover mark. That's about where you want a backup facilitator to be (Steve Blake was at 2.77 his last year in Portland) Considering that Hezonja has been a lousy shooter over those 277 games, and his assist/turnover ratio is so bad, I'm still real skeptical about him filling the role that Olshey keeps talking about

* I'm also skeptical that Zach is going to be an upgrade over Aminu. They are both wildly inconsistent on offense. Aminu was a better defender, and he's certainly more versatile defensively. Aminu could switch onto SF's and SG's and do a credible to good job on defense. Zach guarding Kawhi or Lebron or PG 13? yikes!

* Skal looked better than Tolliver

* never been impressed by Trent. Last night didn't help

[zzaj]

Finally got around to watching...and yes, I take all preseason games with a grain of salt.

The big standout to me is that I see the continuity that the team had been building on both ends of the floor the past few years looks almost entirely gone.

If last night was any indication, the combination of lots of new players in the system, likely small system tweaks and a complete lack of actual ball handlers/facilitators on the team, will mean the Blazers will be near the top of the league in turnovers. With fast break points against reflecting accordingly. That is not a good sign.

I was pretty unimpressed with Whiteside. I never realized how TERRIBLE he is at boxing out. And as Shem (I think it was) said, he looks much more ground-bound than I remember him.

I liked Bazemore's defensive BBIQ, and he's more mobile than Turner and capable of hitting a 3pter now and again.

Collins looked basically the same to me, as did Simons...although Collins looked a little less hesitant to shoot.

It's early. I don't really want to judge anything until after Christmas...but IMO, the past few seasons the Blazers have threaded the success needle because of continuity and one of Lillard/Mccollum handling the scoring load, game after game. The former is likely gone, and the latter might have to be even more pronounced. The eye of the needle may have just gotten a bit smaller this season.

[Dame Lizard]

Acknowledging it was just the first preseason game, I also was a bit underwhelmed by Whiteside. I think he's a tremendous talent, but reflecting on our backcourt, I'm not sure he'll get the service he needs for us to get the most out of him.

Whiteside seems like the player who would thrive playing with a Chris Paul or Rondo style player. Our backcourt pairing is quite the opposite.

Hopefully our playmakers can develop some real on-court chemistry with Hassan.

[HoopsFanAZ]

The Eye Test:

Hezonja has game. This is his best chance to be an NBA player.
Simons is being hyped but looks like he can live up to it.
Tolliver and Bazemore are vets who will make basketball plays at both ends. Bazemore as a 1-year rental who will take a significant pay cut (about 1/2) next summer. Tolliver will always find a home -- and I hope Portland is it.
I like Hood in the starting line-up.
The best thing about Whiteside is that he isn't Meyers Leonard and will play D significantly better than Kanter. Having bigs who block shots and protect the paint is a good thing.

I'm glad Olshey brought in the new guys ... and that MLEC, MHEC, and ETEC (and even Chief) are playing elsewhere.

[Shem]

I was pretty unimpressed with Whiteside. I never realized how TERRIBLE he is at boxing out. And as Shem (I think it was) said, he looks much more ground-bound than I remember him.

I was saying he looked uncomfortable in the pick 'n roll.

[d-train]

I wasn't impressed or unimpressed with anything. It was just 1 game that didn't even count. Neither team played their best players. It was fun to watch a new group of players. What matters is how good we are in April. It's all about Lillard and CJ learning how to use our supporting players and our supporting players knowing what to do. Nothing great happens now.

In the big picture, the very best teams in the west are unlikely to win as many games as Blazers won last season. The east has only 2 teams as good as the top 7 teams in the west. The really tough wins this regular season are against the competition in the west. The math dictates that only 2 or 3 teams in the west will win as many games a Blazers won last year. Success in the west is not going to look like total domination.

I am encouraged by our team but nothing can be confirmed. We have 4 months of basketball to play just to see what we have.

[monopoman]

Pre-season mean jack **** for a team like the Blazers or Nuggets this is the time when the bad teams try to prove something. I also think our shooting made this game very difficult to win there was a lid on it from 3 going to be tough to win any games when you are hitting like 20% of your 30 three point attempts in the modern NBA.

Denver shot better and that was the major difference in the game especially in a game where both teams are either not playing their best players or they barely see the court.

It's way too early to start labeling people bad shooters on this team because of this game especially in a game where EVERYONE was missing for the most part. **** even our best shooters have nights where it just isn't working especially early in the season like this.

[LordRiley]

Finally got around to watching...and yes, I take all preseason games with a grain of salt.

The big standout to me is that I see the continuity that the team had been building on both ends of the floor the past few years looks almost entirely gone.

If last night was any indication, the combination of lots of new players in the system, likely small system tweaks and a complete lack of actual ball handlers/facilitators on the team, will mean the Blazers will be near the top of the league in turnovers. With fast break points against reflecting accordingly. That is not a good sign.

I was pretty unimpressed with Whiteside. I never realized how TERRIBLE he is at boxing out. And as Shem (I think it was) said, he looks much more ground-bound than I remember him.

I liked Bazemore's defensive BBIQ, and he's more mobile than Turner and capable of hitting a 3pter now and again.

Collins looked basically the same to me, as did Simons...although Collins looked a little less hesitant to shoot.

It's early. I don't really want to judge anything until after Christmas...but IMO, the past few seasons the Blazers have threaded the success needle because of continuity and one of Lillard/Mccollum handling the scoring load, game after game. The former is likely gone, and the latter might have to be even more pronounced. The eye of the needle may have just gotten a bit smaller this season.

Lmao at being unimpressed by a someone playing 12 minutes in a meaningless game and not even playing hard, while being limited by an ankle injury. Yeah ok.