I've long been under the belief that the Blazers will not go very far with a Dame/CJ back court the way they play right now. Tonight there were more prime examples of why. Portland made this game close with Curry sitting out but in the end, Dame couldn't even get a shot off in about the last 5 minutes because....Klay Thompson. But that wasn't the reason. Two prime examples occurred near the middle of the 2nd quarter, both involving Noah Vonleh. In the first, there was a switch out high and Noah promptly took the 6'7", stick figure Livingston right to the rim and waited for a pass....that never came. Instead he watched a number of dribbles and then a contested, step-back jumper that missed. Just a trip or two later, Vonleh set multiple screens as the Blazer guards ran the weave. Finally there was a mix up and Vonleh rolled to the basket completely free of a defender anywhere near him. Did he get an immediate pass to him for an easy dunk? Yeah, you would think but he didn't even get a look. Instead, it was another contested, missed jumper and Golden State was off to the races. The same thing happened with Mo' Harkless and Allen Crabbe. Granted, both Dame/CJ are good enough they make their fair share of contested shots but that's not the point. Even if those go it, it wasn't good basketball. Twice in a row, a teammate had a much easier shot or uncontested shot and didn't get so much as a look. As good of scorers as Dame/CJ are, between the lack of them being very poor defenders and not finding open teammates time after time, limits the ability of this team in the long term unless things change. Also, even when they do pass to a player besides themselves, that play often hasn't had a shot in quite some time even if they were open and have no rhythm or much confidence. They have some nice wins over good teams lately but in the Celtics win it was a once-a-month performance from Leonard and in the Grizzlies win, it took two '3's from Aminu who hadn't hit two '3's in a game in almost a month. Tonight Biebs was a complete no-show and Aminu had more air-balls from '3' (2) than makes (1). Counting on either of those two things seems optimistic at best. Somehow they need more consistent performances out of guys not getting consistent touches....a tough ask.
Cj package for butler or cousins please. The warriors went through the same damn thing with curry and monta ellis. We have to trade one, lillard will never be traded for multiple reasons.... so its cj that has to go. Just make sure its for a better 2 way player.
Tw0-way is the key. If it was just one of Dame/CJ that was such a poor defender, you could hide them like the Warriors to with Curry. But since it's both of them and that is the first line of defense, it puts the Blazer bigs who also aren't very good in a very tough position.
This organization is hell-bent on keeping them together. Right now is the best time to trade them, I'm not sure either of their stocks could go any higher.
No we don't need to trade our best player (CJ). Bad idea. He's much much much better than Monta Ellis was, by the way. Guys, we basically won tonight. Ever since the lineup change, we have been GREAT. We'll lose some games along the way, of course, but we'll most of our remaining games. I believe that to be true.
Yeah. The makeup of this team means that two shoot first point guards that can't play D.... It just isn't going to work. Hopefully, Olshey realizes this sooner rather than later. Of course, his job might depend on it.
If Turner hit the shot, would you be saying all of this tonight. We can't overhaul our team every time we lose.
I'm sorry, and I don't mean this personally, but this post is kinda dumb. You know how many times CJ or Dame throws the ball inside just to have the big men turn down close shots to kick it out to someone like Aminu on the arc? These bigs turn down so many shots, and many times they may be open, but CJ or Dame doesn't have a window to pass them the ball. You need a window to deliver the ball. There was a couple times where big men were open and CJ and Dame turned the ball over trying to force a pass through a window that wasn't there. Why wasn't the window there? Because Turner and Aminu were in the game meaning that they packed the defense because neither of them are much of a threat from the arc. So the solution is to get shooters to open up the court, and thus, open up passing lanes. Everyone loves to blame CJ and Dame for everything, but there's multiple parts to every play that you have to look at.
Yeah, it's getting kind of ridiculous where we lose by 2 against Golden State and somebody points out a play or two in the first half and says something like "That's why those two aren't gonna work."
Because Butler is better, I love CJ but Butler's defense would help this team more than CJ's offense.
I've been saying it since it became obvious. That's not an overhaul, just a change in the makeup of the team. But what we got is what we got! We have to deal with a severely limited means of obtaining players any way.
That's an awful trade for us, as well as the Cavs. We'd have even worse role players when ours are already not getting it done. We'd also have less assets to get those role players.
Butler's worse offensively, and he wouldn't be able to handle the attention that CJ gets every game. We'd have worse role players and one less shooter. We'd have less assets to fix that problem. That's an awful trade. We need to improve our role players, not trade CJ. Lets stop with this ridiculous crap... I thought we got past the constant trade one of Dame or CJ, and now because we lost by 2 to Golden State, it's starting to ramp up again.
Defense gets a lot better and we could still move some package of Plumlee/Davis/Vonleh/Leonard for shooting. Probably Plumlee because he is up for a huge deal.
Lol. Neither of them play defense. And we lost by 2 while they didnt even have curry. Not really something to brag out.
Look. We lost tonight because the Warriors manage to pick up Durant without giving up the star players they already have. Durant replaced Harrison Barnes on a team that went 73-9. You need at LEAST three star players to compete in this league. Which MEANS we need to add another star while KEEPING CJ and Dame. Easier said than done. But that is Neil's task and he knows it. Plumlee, Crabbe, and Harkless are having great years. If you can parlay one, two, or all three of them into an All Star, you do it and then fill in the gaps like the 2007-08 Celtics did. Get those three stars and then work out the rest. CJ/Dame/Cousins is a contender but Dame/Cousins isn't. We need all three. Butler/CJ/Dame is a fringe contender if you keep Plumlee. Dame/Butler isn't.
