Game 37 Portland vs Miami 3:00pm SNW

[Brandon-Clyde]

2nd quarter GLB pic

Spoiler:

[d-train]

Miami is so ridiculously well coached. Everyone is on a string on defense. They run constant actions on offense. The difference in discipline and scheme is just stark between these 2 teams.

So, you think if Lillard were on the Heat, they would reel him in and not give him a green light.

[Roy The Natural]

Miami is so ridiculously well coached. Everyone is on a string on defense. They run constant actions on offense. The difference in discipline and scheme is just stark between these 2 teams.

Who did better last season? Trade coaches, same result.

I didn't like our stagnant offense last year either. Miami has overachieved in each of it's last 3 years. Last years Miami team didn't have the talent to play .500 ball. They did anyways.

[Roy The Natural]

Miami is so ridiculously well coached. Everyone is on a string on defense. They run constant actions on offense. The difference in discipline and scheme is just stark between these 2 teams.

So, you think if Lillard were on the Heat, they would reel him in and not give him a green light.

I think if Spo was coaching the Blazers. The Blazers would play a much better brand of basketball and generate better looks for players not named Lillard/McCollum. It may not help them win with their current injuries.

[d-train]

Miami is so ridiculously well coached. Everyone is on a string on defense. They run constant actions on offense. The difference in discipline and scheme is just stark between these 2 teams.

So, you think if Lillard were on the Heat, they would reel him in and not give him a green light.

I think if Spo was coaching the Blazers. The Blazers would play a much better brand of basketball and generate better looks for players not named Lillard/McCollum. It may not help them win with their current injuries.

I think Lillard is Lillard regardless who has his ass sitting on the bench. I'm not saying Lillard isn't great. Lillard has his pluses and minuses. His minuses don't go away because of who is sitting on the bench.

[Roy The Natural]

So, you think if Lillard were on the Heat, they would reel him in and not give him a green light.

I think if Spo was coaching the Blazers. The Blazers would play a much better brand of basketball and generate better looks for players not named Lillard/McCollum. It may not help them win with their current injuries.

I think Lillard is Lillard regardless who has his ass sitting on the bench. I'm not saying Lillard isn't great. Lillard has his pluses and minuses. His minuses don't go away because of who is sitting on the bench.

I don't think Lillard is the problem. Lillard is good enough to play the way he does, and does enough to get others involved. The problem is that the Blazers have players like CJ, Bazemore, Whiteside, and Melo who also don't move the ball. There is no ball movements on the team, there is no structure in place to encourage or increase ball movement.

People will tell you assists don't correlate to good offense, and that may be true. But good looks correlate to good offense, and the Blazers suck at getting them. Far too much of Portland's offense comes after players not named Lillard have dribbled the air out of the ball.

[Brandon-Clyde]

Would Miami be looking as good as they are against a healthy Blazer squad? I think not

[Epicurus]

Miami is so ridiculously well coached. Everyone is on a string on defense. They run constant actions on offense. The difference in discipline and scheme is just stark between these 2 teams.

Who did better last season? Trade coaches, same result.

I didn't like our stagnant offense last year either. Miami has overachieved in each of it's last 3 years. Last years Miami team didn't have the talent to play .500 ball. They did anyways.

What a fine display of selectivity. Last year's "stagnant offense" was third (maybe even second, can't recall). Actually last year Miami was under .500, despite such world class coaching.

[d-train]

Melo has a matchup but nobody is setting him up. Our team doesn't do that for anyone. It's not the coach. It's our playmakers.

[d-train]

I think if Spo was coaching the Blazers. The Blazers would play a much better brand of basketball and generate better looks for players not named Lillard/McCollum. It may not help them win with their current injuries.

I think Lillard is Lillard regardless who has his ass sitting on the bench. I'm not saying Lillard isn't great. Lillard has his pluses and minuses. His minuses don't go away because of who is sitting on the bench.

I don't think Lillard is the problem. Lillard is good enough to play the way he does, and does enough to get others involved. The problem is that the Blazers have players like CJ, Bazemore, Whiteside, and Melo who also don't move the ball. There is no ball movements on the team, there is no structure in place to encourage or increase ball movement.

People will tell you assists don't correlate to good offense, and that may be true. But good looks correlate to good offense, and the Blazers suck at getting them. Far too much of Portland's offense comes after players not named Lillard have dribbled the air out of the ball.

They're not supposed to move without the ball. They are supposed to position themselves to make lanes for Lillard. Lillard is supposed to make the defense pay by finding the open player when the defense cheats. It's not the offense every team plays but its the offense any team with Lillard as their playmaker would play. And, most of our defensive problems are a direct result of poor shot selection. That's another 'player' problem.

I do agree Lillard isn't the problem. Lillard proved we can win if we surround him with players that are threats on their own and we can get the ball off the boards.

Edit: Again, it's not about who has their ass sitting on the bench.

[Epicurus]

shot quality 0.536 0.501
eFG% 0.736 0.397

One team is shooting well above shot quality. the other team is shooting well below shot quality. Yet a certain poster who is only here when Blazers are doing poorly wishes to reduce the only difference to shot quality.

[red_power]

I always thought Meyers' defensive awareness and quickness is as bad as you could possibly expect it to see from an NBA player, but Whiteside makes a serious bid to prove me wrong.

[Epicurus]

I always thought Meyers' defensive awareness and quickness is as bad as you could possibly expect it to see from an NBA player, but Whiteside makes a serious bid to prove me wrong.

On the other hand, Whiteside has to do too much, given the limited help; that was not true for Meyers.

[Roy The Natural]

I think Lillard is Lillard regardless who has his ass sitting on the bench. I'm not saying Lillard isn't great. Lillard has his pluses and minuses. His minuses don't go away because of who is sitting on the bench.

I don't think Lillard is the problem. Lillard is good enough to play the way he does, and does enough to get others involved. The problem is that the Blazers have players like CJ, Bazemore, Whiteside, and Melo who also don't move the ball. There is no ball movements on the team, there is no structure in place to encourage or increase ball movement.

People will tell you assists don't correlate to good offense, and that may be true. But good looks correlate to good offense, and the Blazers suck at getting them. Far too much of Portland's offense comes after players not named Lillard have dribbled the air out of the ball.

There not supposed to move without the ball. They are supposed to position themselves to make lanes for Lillard. Lillard is supposed to make the defense pay by finding the open player when the defense cheats. It's not the offense every team plays but its the offense any team with Lillard as their playmaker would play. And, most of our defensive problems are a direct result of poor shot selection. That's another 'player' problem.

I do agree Lillard isn't the problem. Lillard proved we can win if we surround him with players that are threats on their own and we can get the ball off the boards.

Edit: Again, it's not about who has their ass sitting on the bench.

It's not just that. Bazemore is out of control half the time. While Whiteside is efficient from the field, he doesn't help his teammates at all and makes terrible decisions regularly. CJ spends a large percentage of his time on the floor being a blackhole. I get that the team looked a lot better when it had players who were playing within a defined role much better. But with a team looking as bad as Portland has for basically the entire year, the reality that nothing has changed, and many of the teams players STILL aren't playing within a fitting role has to fall to some degree on coaching.

Bazemore is unbelievably abysmal from within 16 feet. He's still taking about 50% of his shots from within 16 feet. There's no excuse for Bazemore to regularly be putting the ball on the floor and attacking on offense. But here he is, still doing it in January. There has to be some accountability for players doing this type of stuff regularly.

Remember when we'd all roll our eyes at Aminu's 2-3 bad possessions a game where he would try to do way too much and play outside of his role. Bazemore spends about 50% of posessions where he touches the ball doing that. It hasn't improved at all as the season has progressed.

[Roy The Natural]

Would Miami be looking as good as they are against a healthy Blazer squad? I think not

Probably not. But I'm not even hating on the Blazers for getting beat up. I'm hating on them for the same boring **** we've seen from them all year. Horrible defense, that goes beyond just lacking talent on that end, and well into lacking discipline and communication. And an offense that is just a bunch of of your turn/my turn and just god awful decisions. I have no problem with Lillard's my turning, it's when the scrubs start doing it that it's aggravating. It seems to me that the scrubs do it because when Portland's main attack starts faltering, there is no backup plan, or strategy to get decent looks.

I know that the injuries and players that Portland trots out there have a major say in why Portland sucks so bad. But I also see a team that has been utterly undisciplined all year long on both sides of the ball.

[d-train]

I don't think Lillard is the problem. Lillard is good enough to play the way he does, and does enough to get others involved. The problem is that the Blazers have players like CJ, Bazemore, Whiteside, and Melo who also don't move the ball. There is no ball movements on the team, there is no structure in place to encourage or increase ball movement.

People will tell you assists don't correlate to good offense, and that may be true. But good looks correlate to good offense, and the Blazers suck at getting them. Far too much of Portland's offense comes after players not named Lillard have dribbled the air out of the ball.

There not supposed to move without the ball. They are supposed to position themselves to make lanes for Lillard. Lillard is supposed to make the defense pay by finding the open player when the defense cheats. It's not the offense every team plays but its the offense any team with Lillard as their playmaker would play. And, most of our defensive problems are a direct result of poor shot selection. That's another 'player' problem.

I do agree Lillard isn't the problem. Lillard proved we can win if we surround him with players that are threats on their own and we can get the ball off the boards.

Edit: Again, it's not about who has their ass sitting on the bench.

It's not just that. Bazemore is out of control half the time. While Whiteside is efficient from the field, he doesn't help his teammates at all and makes terrible decisions regularly. CJ spends a large percentage of his time on the floor being a blackhole. I get that the team looked a lot better when it had players who were playing within a defined role much better. But with a team looking as bad as Portland has for basically the entire year, the reality that nothing has changed, and many of the teams players STILL aren't playing within a fitting role has to fall to some degree on coaching.

Bazemore is unbelievably abysmal from within 16 feet. He's still taking about 50% of his shots from within 16 feet. There's no excuse for Bazemore to regularly be putting the ball on the floor and attacking on offense. But here he is, still doing it in January. There has to be some accountability for players doing this type of stuff regularly.

Remember when we'd all roll our eyes at Aminu's 2-3 bad possessions a game where he would try to do way too much and play outside of his role. Bazemore spends about 50% of posessions where he touches the ball doing that. It hasn't improved at all as the season has progressed.

You are right the Blazers are losing. Your analysis of why they are losing is terrible.

[Pure_Basketball]

Would Miami be looking as good as they are against a healthy Blazer squad? I think not

Miami don't have Jimmy Butler or Justise Winslow

[Brandon-Clyde]

3rd quarter GLB pic

Spoiler:

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

[Epicurus]

On offense undisciplined teams are NOT so low in turnovers. On defense I am not sure what discipine can be applied to guards who historically have not, and probably, can not adequately stay in front of their man, nor with a backine, including reserves, with one adequate defender with size.

When the ball goes into the basket and the opponent don't shot far beyond their shot quality, then things look more disciplined. Today ain't one of those games. So potshots are available, and will be taken by axe grinders.

[Brandon-Clyde]

Would Miami be looking as good as they are against a healthy Blazer squad? I think not

Miami don't have Jimmy Butler or Justise Winslow

From the opening night roster alone Portland is minus CJ McCollum, Zach Collins, Rodney Hood and Skal Labisierre and throw in Jusuf Nurkic who has been out all season. Portland currently has one player above 6'9" who has played regular minutes this season. Do nyou really want to compare injury situations?