I would be the first person to call out the coach if I thought there was something to be done, but what could he do right now? Nobody is hitting shots. They're missing wide open shots. There's nothing the coach can do about that. I liked him putting Harkless on Paul. I liked him putting Dame on Moute. I thought Aminu and Harkless did a good job containing Griffin in this game. I liked him putting Kaman in there for spurts to change things up. The problem right now is that our guards are horrible defenders. The problem right now is that CJ doesn't have the length to bother Redick. He's too short. Aminu is playing like crap. Dame is playing like crap. CJ is playing like crap. Hendo is playing like crap. Crabbe is..... is Crabbe even playing right now? The only guys who are doing anything right now are Harkless and Plumlee. So unless Stotts has some kind of miracle drug that can get guys to hit shots, I'm not sure what else he can do.
We couldn't shoot last night and were still within 6 going to the 4th quarter on the road. The scheme was working wonderfully to have us in that position. We have less talent than the Clippers, so if we're not on our game, there's no game plan in the world that can overcome the difference.
I am not the biggest Stotts fan and I have to agree. He made the proper adjustments last night which resulted in open shots on offense and limited DAJ and Blake on offense. It seems so obvious, but if you don't hit open shots, you won't win. We could have had John Wooden or Phil Jackson last night coaching us and it wouldn't have made a difference. Hopefully returning home results in more confidence and more buckets!
Almost everything the Clippers do on offense seems easy. Almost everything the Blazers do on offense seems awkward and difficult. We are being outplayed on both sides of the ball. A big part of the reason is that the Clippers have the beef down low and the Blazers don't. The only thing you can try to do to fix that situation is hit outside shots to stop the collapse when a player drives in the paint. We aren't hitting those shots. We have been exposed. We need some physical players down low. Ed Davis kind of fits the bill, Plumlee is occasionally serviceable, but there can be no doubt that we are seriously outmanned in the front court. Something to address in the offseason.
I posted this in another thread, but the only move I could see is shifting CJ to the bench and starting either Crabbe or Hendo at shooting guard. Redick has been killing us early in the game and I think the length of Crabbe/Hendo could make a huge difference. Maybe not get in a hole early.
That might help on the defensive end, but they couldnt make shots either, so that wont help our offfense unless they start making shots.
Right now I would take that help on the defensive end, because at least it would be a positive. Maybe starting would actually get Crabbe or Hendo in a rhythm? CJ has been abysmal on both ends, so I would gladly take "better on defense and possibly better on offense."
I agree that the decisions he made were good (but obvious). But his Xs/Os and overall system won't cut it - it's too elementary and has very little structure. He thinks any open shot is a good shot, and that's bullshit - an open shot is a good starting point to put pressure on the defense. After Game 1 I suggested that rather than letting Aminu jack every open shot he's given, that he should instead take one or two aggressive dribbles towards the basket and make LAC commit to defending him, at which point someone else will be open. That's the starting point to a good offensive possession. It happened ONCE last night and resulted in an open 3 from CJ - which he made. But it was the result of players freelancing, and so we never did it again because it wasn't something that's been drilled into them.
How do you know that's not what Stotts told him to do? In the end you can tell players to do something, but they have to actually go out and do it.
Because all evidence points to Stotts telling Aminu to shoot when he's open. If that's not the case, then Stotts isn't holding Aminu accountable.
Well if he's telling him to shoot when he's open, it's because Aminu shot 36% from three this season. That's not a bad number. It's not like it's Plumlee jacking up threes because he's open. Also, I'd like to point out that Aminu shot 63.6% from three in the playoffs last year for Dallas. The guy can shoot threes. He just isn't making them right now. He's shooting 20% from three. That's 16% worse than his season average.
After the game last night someone who doesn't follow basketball that much asked me how they should change up their strategy for the next game and I honestly couldn't think of anything because the strategy is sound, the players just need to play better, as stupid as that sounds.
Stotts has been good; the problems we have are from the roster. The difficult thing is there aren't any easy fixes. Our guards have been seriously outplayed and it does raise some long term questions with them. Dame would return the most in a trade but it doesn't seem possible we can trade our leader even if it helps the team the most on the court. If we had Meyers playing it would help open the offense; but then are we going to carry three centers who all want and deserve minutes?
Yeah the strategy is "we need the exact same players, but with more experience so they're less nervous, and optionally 1" of height and 10lbs more muscle."
Trade CJ. It makes the most sense. He's undersized for a shooting guard. He's getting abused by Redick. He needs the ball in his hands. Trade him to some team that thinks he can play point guard and call it a day.
