Game 4: Portland vs Memphis 7:00pm Root/ESPN

[Dame Lizard]

Ant is looking very good this season. I'm quite surprised about Dame - a lot of his misses (in the first three games anyway) were pretty bad misses (i.e. bricks/a couple of airballs).

The fact we're 2-2 despite Dame playing horrendous makes me pretty contempt with our season's start.

[Sinobas]

The energy and defense off the bench is much improved thanks to Little, Zeller and Nance. Simons has been very good as well.

[Blazinaway]

It is starting to look like Roco is falling off a cliff like Gerald Wallace did when he got into his early 30's, I hope this is a slow start like Dame's but he has looked awful while Nance has played really well

[BlazersBroncos]

Nice to see a game where all the bench guys played well. If Simons keeps playing like a true 6th man, this team is much more dangerous. He has been tremendous so far this year.

Its bananaas that Simons is only 22. Feel like we have been waiting on him for a decade. Love seeing him breakout. A guy off the bench that can get 15ppg is just a game changer for us. Puts us in a position to not need Dame and CJ to have 'on' games to beat good teams, as Simons can step in and score when one is off IMO.

RoCo looks washed, but its 4 games. Although I will say he seemed to be slowing down last year as well. Nance looks much better, but we need RoCo to be a playable defender at SF/PF since Nance is more of a true PF that can get a few C minutes.

Larry was for sure worth that FRP. He is a ideal role player for a team that already has high usage offensive players like PDX.

If Nassir can give us 9/5/1/1/1 on 40% 3PT shooting, thats huge as well. Really hope he and Simons can keep it up, they are good kids you want to see succeed.

Being 2-2 when Dame is 33% / 17% is something that bodes well IMO. Not to mention w/ Norm out.

Hard to watch CJ play like this and think we should move him for Simmons. He wasnt great when he came back last year, but he is starting the season just like he did early last season when not coming off injury. Just unstoppable on offense.

[Sinobas]

It is starting to look like Roco is falling off a cliff like Gerald Wallace did when he got into his early 30's, I hope this is a slow start like Dame's but he has looked awful while Nance has played really well

Little and Nance look much better

[PDXKnight]

It is starting to look like Roco is falling off a cliff like Gerald Wallace did when he got into his early 30's, I hope this is a slow start like Dame's but he has looked awful while Nance has played really well

It’s 4 games in and hes started seasons slowly fairly often here and with other teams, nothing to worry about.

It’d be nice if little continues his play, maybe that’d make it easier to manage potentially losing cov in the off season if he costs much?

[Case2012]

Roco needs to get his **** together. Cant shoot, horrible defense and a walking turnover so far. I would start Nance for a while and give him a reality check, I mean he's in a contract year, what is he doing? Painful.

[Roy The Natural]

It is starting to look like Roco is falling off a cliff like Gerald Wallace did when he got into his early 30's, I hope this is a slow start like Dame's but he has looked awful while Nance has played really well

It’s 4 games in and hes started seasons slowly fairly often here and with other teams, nothing to worry about.

It’d be nice if little continues his play, maybe that’d make it easier to manage potentially losing cov in the off season if he costs much?

Yea... I'm not super concerned about RoCo. Unlike Wallace, he was never reliant on high level athleticism to be the player he's been. RoCo has always been a smart defender who basically camps at the arc on offense. He's definitely had some trouble defensively to start the season, but it doesn't seem to so much be him "losing it" as much as he looks like he's kind of lost/trying to figure things out in the new defense. I'm sure he'll be fine. He was horrendous to start last year as well.

[JasonStern]

Surprised nobody has hyped Greg Brown III. Still a ways away from being a meaningful contributor, but the guy's athleticism is unquestionable.

Elleby, though.. Ugh. Hope there's a lot of promise shown in practice that just isn't translating to garbage minutes.

[monopoman]

It is starting to look like Roco is falling off a cliff like Gerald Wallace did when he got into his early 30's, I hope this is a slow start like Dame's but he has looked awful while Nance has played really well

It’s 4 games in and hes started seasons slowly fairly often here and with other teams, nothing to worry about.

It’d be nice if little continues his play, maybe that’d make it easier to manage potentially losing cov in the off season if he costs much?

Yea... I'm not super concerned about RoCo. Unlike Wallace, he was never reliant on high level athleticism to be the player he's been. RoCo has always been a smart defender who basically camps at the arc on offense. He's definitely had some trouble defensively to start the season, but it doesn't seem to so much be him "losing it" as much as he looks like he's kind of lost/trying to figure things out in the new defense. I'm sure he'll be fine. He was horrendous to start last year as well.

He also didn't sacrifice the body trying to make plays like Crash did, that man treated every game like it was game 7 in the playoffs in his younger days. Crash might be the most reckless player the NBA has ever seen, or at least he is in the conversation.

Dennis Smith Jr. was a great pickup for this team also, this guy is averaging 4.3 assists in 18 minutes per game to start the season very nice, especially since he isn't a primary ball handler all the time he is on the court.

[Wizenheimer]

He also didn't sacrifice the body trying to make plays like Crash did, that man treated every game like it was game 7 in the playoffs in his younger days. Crash might be the most reckless player the NBA has ever seen, or at least he is in the conversation.

Dennis Smith Jr. was a great pickup for this team also, this guy is averaging 4.3 assists in 18 minutes per game to start the season very nice, especially since he isn't a primary ball handler all the time he is on the court.

he's getting touches though. He's averaging 2.13/minute

touches/minute:

Dame 2.27
Smith 2.13
Nurkic 2.10
CJ 1.93
Simons 1.69
Powell 1.07

passes/minute:

Smith 1.72
Nurkic 1.58
Dame 1.46
CJ 1.14
Simons 1.13
Powell 0.61

assist points created/minute:

Dame.683
Smith .588
CJ .246
Simons .222
Nurkic .171
Powell .021

it's n surprise that an actual PG shows well in these types of numbers. I'd bet that Stotts would have loved to have an actual backup PG over the last 6 seasons