Preseason Game Tonight!!!

GEE · Post #1 » by **GEE** » Tue Oct 5, 2021 12:25 am

Warriors vs Blazers
NBATV @ 7PM PST

15 days until the season starts...

:eyebrows:

Post #2 » by **DeBlazerRiddem** » Tue Oct 5, 2021 1:54 am

Whoooo go Blazers! So glad basketball is back.

Not expecting much tonight from the starters though, usually the first game or two is usually letting camp invites standout before they are cut. Maybe Norm and Nurk get a little extra run to show how they can take a bigger role offensively but most importantly I hope Ant and Nas are given free reign over the second unit (with Nance?).

DusterBuster · Post #3 » by **DusterBuster** » Tue Oct 5, 2021 2:00 am

It’s hard for my brain to process that the off-season is over. I feel like last season just ended.

Post #4 » by **DeBlazerRiddem** » Tue Oct 5, 2021 2:13 am

Who would have guessed that our very first shot was a dribble-dribble pull up long two from CJ. *yawn*

GEE · Post #5 » by **GEE** » Tue Oct 5, 2021 2:22 am

Hoping to see something different... some improvement... some change.

Guess I shouldn't get my hopes too high. I really doubt there will be much, if any.

Roy The Natural · Post #6 » by **Roy The Natural** » Tue Oct 5, 2021 2:30 am

Lots of rust out there. But overall the offense looks much more satisfying.

Roy The Natural · Post #7 » by **Roy The Natural** » Tue Oct 5, 2021 2:50 am

Nassir Little needs to play more 3&D... the guy can't dribble.

Myth · Post #8 » by **Myth** » Tue Oct 5, 2021 3:43 am

Zeller already injured.

Luckily just his nose.

Post #9 » by **DeBlazerRiddem** » Tue Oct 5, 2021 4:23 am

Myth wrote:Zeller already injured.

Luckily just his nose.

Haha of course. At least there are worse options than Chriss out there.

Blevins doesn't deserve to be anywhere near this roster. Same with Smith and Elleby IMO.

Epicurus · Post #10 » by **Epicurus** » Tue Oct 5, 2021 4:32 am

Roy The Natural wrote:Lots of rust out there. But overall the offense looks much more satisfying.

Nothing more satisfying offensively than 26 turnovers, even more so when 17 of them were live ball ones.

Case2012 · Post #11 » by **Case2012** » Tue Oct 5, 2021 4:42 am

Elleby and Blevins are not basketball players, at least in the NBA that is. Those are valuable roster spots… Smith jr I like, and thought he was one of the only bright spots.

Nothing else really impressed me or made me feel Lillard got the upgrades he needed, but it was a preseason game so… Hopefully Billups figures out hope to coach soon.

BTW, Otto porter jr on the minimum to play for GS just isn’t fair. Our wing rotation would be elite if we could’ve have grabbed him and I know he took less money to play there but I want to irrationally blame Olshey for failing to get him. I think we talked to him as well but I’m not sure.

Case2012 · Post #12 » by **Case2012** » Tue Oct 5, 2021 5:07 am

I would happily take 5 or 6 vet minimum guys in their 30’s over watford, brown, Nas, blevins, and Simons. We could have traded these guys for future picks and freed up cap space to go grab a few more vets. Sure they’re young and athletic but they just don’t have enough experience or most importantly bbiq RIGHT NOW. That 4th qtr was painful to watch. Sure 4 of those guys aren’t gonna see the floor ever but if we have injuries, which we always do, i would rather have proven vets that can step in and do what they do. Olshey has no idea what’s he’s doing and watching him say for the 5th year in row how this is the deepest we’ve ever been made me swallow my own vomit. Seeing GS out there with Porter jr and Bradley in garbage minutes was especially painful. RIGHT NOW is when we need proven vets not young guys that we have to pray are going to take some insane step forward based on potential. I still can’t believe we didn’t even call Melo.. He could’ve been helpful recruiting, instead we look even worse as an organization than we did before. Again, preseason with a new coach, but we all know how this is gonna go I think.

Post #13 » by **DeBlazerRiddem** » Tue Oct 5, 2021 5:13 am

Nance was a bit disappointing tonight as well, I wonder if he is one of those types of players that just looks better starting for whatever reason. I liked CJ with the early sub out and come back with the bench but Nassir is not there yet so I would slot Nance into that role instead. Ant looked decent enough, I swear he had at least one or two turnovers that didn't make it into the stat sheet for whatever reason.

Our bench is, predictably, very bad. Our starters can score but also give up major buckets. I am not seeing any huge difference from last years team. I suppose that's to be expected when the biggest move we made was changing the coach.

kumquat · Post #14 » by **kumquat** » Tue Oct 5, 2021 6:34 am

Same old Blazers. Nothing new here. No new defenseive schemes. No new style of play.

Roy The Natural · Post #15 » by **Roy The Natural** » Tue Oct 5, 2021 8:48 am

Epicurus wrote:
Roy The Natural wrote:Lots of rust out there. But overall the offense looks much more satisfying.
Nothing more satisfying offensively than 26 turnovers, even more so when 17 of them were live ball ones.

Meh... It's game 1 of the preseason. I thought the Blazers generated a ton of good looks early, and we're actually just getting burned by Poole hurting absurd shots. Things fell apart later a bit, but I was happy with the offense early. Lots more movement and I could see this offense being better for the team in the long run.

No sense in overreacting to the results. It's the process that matters. This is a healthier offense for the team as the season progresses, if it can be run effectively. I saw nothing from the primary rotation players that indicated it couldn't.

BlazersBroncos · Post #16 » by **BlazersBroncos** » Tue Oct 5, 2021 4:53 pm

I thought Ant passed better than he usually does but in terms of the overall ingredients, its the same stale cake.

Matt800 · Post #17 » by **Matt800** » Wed Oct 6, 2021 8:39 am

They made a lot of mistakes but they were definitely trying new things. I think the ceiling on the bench is a lot higher now. When the main bench guys came in Golden State didn't immediately go on a huge run as we would expect from last season's bench. They played terrible compared to what they likely could but still it was better defense than last season's bench.

Nas definitely looked bad but it was nice to hear Billups and Lillard talking about it after the game saying he has looked really good lately and just rushed it in the game trying to show everything right away. So hopefully he will find his pace and actually be good.

I only saw Simons hit 2 3s and didn't see his misses, but his makes were so clean. Looks like he could continue being an elite shooter.

GEE · Post #18 » by **GEE** » Thu Oct 7, 2021 12:16 am

My expectations, considering it's the first game of the year, were low so I feel similar to most others here, and I didn't see a big difference out there either. The core players' games looked about the same, just a bit rusty. The additions looked quite unimpressive. Kudos to ANT for looking like he took yet another step toward being a solid piece off the bench. Kid just keeps getting better, and IMO might have the best overall, true PG skills of anyone on this team.

Game planning by Chauncy was difficult to understand, but seeing the starting lineup was about all I needed to see. Looked very loosey-goosey out there; Like AAU or an AS game. Only real improvement I noticed was better protection of the corners on D. But I also noticed Nurkic trying to play D near the top of the key, essentially setting screens for the other team. This is something that will keep him forever in foul trouble. And there ain't much in the form of talent after him, so there's that.

Overall.... It looks like rinse and repeat. I've no real faith in Cauncey being the cure at this point.

Epicurus · Post #19 » by **Epicurus** » Thu Oct 7, 2021 1:52 am

Roy The Natural wrote:
Epicurus wrote:
Roy The Natural wrote:Lots of rust out there. But overall the offense looks much more satisfying.
Nothing more satisfying offensively than 26 turnovers, even more so when 17 of them were live ball ones.

Meh... It's game 1 of the preseason. I thought the Blazers generated a ton of good looks early, and we're actually just getting burned by Poole hurting absurd shots. Things fell apart later a bit, but I was happy with the offense early. Lots more movement and I could see this offense being better for the team in the long run.

No sense in overreacting to the results. It's the process that matters. This is a healthier offense for the team as the season progresses, if it can be run effectively. I saw nothing from the primary rotation players that indicated it couldn't.

So you see this season's offense being better than last season's 2nd ranked offense. We'll see if more movement so translates into such a result.

Roy The Natural · Post #20 » by **Roy The Natural** » Thu Oct 7, 2021 2:02 am

Epicurus wrote:
Roy The Natural wrote:
Epicurus wrote:Nothing more satisfying offensively than 26 turnovers, even more so when 17 of them were live ball ones.

Meh... It's game 1 of the preseason. I thought the Blazers generated a ton of good looks early, and we're actually just getting burned by Poole hurting absurd shots. Things fell apart later a bit, but I was happy with the offense early. Lots more movement and I could see this offense being better for the team in the long run.

No sense in overreacting to the results. It's the process that matters. This is a healthier offense for the team as the season progresses, if it can be run effectively. I saw nothing from the primary rotation players that indicated it couldn't.
So you see this season's offense being better than last season's 2nd ranked offense. We'll see if more movement so translates into such a result.

I see it as a significantly better offense come playoffs if that is to happen. After a half decade, I'm not concerned with a good regular season offense that falls apart come playoffs. In ready for something that effectively scales.

I'd also argue that it's extremely unrealistic to expect that the Blazers new offense would come anywhere near 26 tov a game with a more passing oriented offense. We're most likely looking at going from 11.1 tov/g to something like 13.5 tov/g while dramatically increasing our assists and more importantly conserving the energy of the guards.