Yeah, I know that's the question you asked, but I was answering a more relevant one, using a much larger sample size than 5 games.
Also, I'm not a big fan of trading CJ or Dame. My preference is to have a solid starting SG and to play CJ a ton of minutes off the bench. As great as CJ is, we really need a scorer off the bench, and he'd still be a huge contributor and worth his contract. From my years watching the Bulls, they had Ben Gordon who was a smallish SG. He won 6MOY coming off the bench. The Bulls did start him after a few years, but they had him as 6th man for two reasons: they didn't want a midget back court, and they loved his offense added to the 2nd unit. I see CJ in that role, just better than BG. A lot better. Our 2nd unit has been frequently crushed by other teams. Whether we play CJ or Dame with those 2nd unit guys, either has already played a lot of minutes. A fresh CJ with the 2nd team would make a huge difference. I see CJ easily getting 32-36 minutes per game, and finishing games. Finishing games is what counts, IMO. Vonleh is a starter...
How much of that corresponds with going to a general bench lineup? We've seen the team play as good or better during the couple stretches when Dame was out. We haven't seen how the team does with Dame but not CJ (since he became a starter). It's rare for both guys to have a hot game simultaneously. The eye test suggests that one of them is nearly as good as both.
Just another example of why I don't think this works. Even if the Blazers come back in the 2nd half (which they should) this has been an embarrassment. Until a couple of nights ago, Yogi Ferrell's career high was 13 points. He had 17 points with 5 minutes to go in the 1st half. And again the missed opportunities to start a game. There was a switch and Vonleh (who had 4 of their first 10 points) had pinned 5' 10" Yogi Ferrell under the basket. Did they throw it into him for an easy dunk? Heck no. It's just the mentality and the way they run their offense. They didn't even look at the HUGE mismatch....and Vonleh was scoring when Dame/CJ hadn't even scored yet. Guess I need to be resigned to that is just how they play.
It is quite sad that neither of our two best players see it. However, they can be taught to see it. A coach that cares about it would have them making that pass.
lol, the team has been mostly bad all year. We were "supposed to win this game because it was at home" people say. I never count any game as a win, because this team can't decide when the fuck to play an actual 48 minute game.
^^^^Okay, it's the lowest % Dame has shot from '3' in his entire NBA career. I'm not down on Dame.....he is having to carry a lot and this offense is not designed to get easy looks. Dame/CJ take a lot of very tough shots after running around in the weave for seemingly miles. But we are over half a season in and the very poor shooting from '3' continues. Up until a couple of games ago, he was trailing Mo Harkless in 3-pt%. That right there is reason to at least be able to at least question.
But that's not ideal for a max player. Also the SSSG would only allow CJ to get Crabbe type minutes. I'd take a SSPF and a solid 3&DSG. Crabbe has 3s (NOTHING else) and no D.
While I agree with the OPs premise, and, most of what has been said in this thread, and dream of a great 3 guard rotation. I believe we can make bigger leaps by improving the weakest positions rather than pecking away at improving our strongest. I'm going to suggest a different approach to improve the team. Make a list of the positions in order from weakest to strongest. Q, Which position is our weakest? I would say PF. Goal, find a way to improve PF until it is no longer the weakest. Then start to work on improving the next weakest position, which is either SF or C. Always work on improving your weakest position. If we had a quality starting caliber PF that was both our 3rd scoring threat and a good defender, both Dames and CJs game would improve, or at least make life easier for them which should improve their efficiency.
And in the last three minutes of games when, with tired legs, they are expected to make clutch shots under heavy pressure.
Oh it's a coaching problem, but it's a player problem too. We don't have the chemistry we did last year. There is no trust. Players are not believing in themselves or each other. Dame and CJ are both great offensive tools, but they lack defense, and have become complacent next to each other, there needs to be hunger, a desire to win, and I'm just not seeing that.
Turner in place of McCollum sounds like a nightmare for spacing. Also, what's supposed to be the intended purpose of putting McCollum on the bench? If you still intend to play him the same number of minutes, you don't need to bench him to split him and Lillard up as much as possible. If you intend to play him fewer minutes, that'll just make the team even worse.
So, as I said, if the idea is to split them up while still preserving all of McCollum's minutes, you can do that without benching McCollum. If the idea is to actually reduce McCollum's minutes--that's just going to make a team worse, getting fewer minutes from one of their best players, bad defense or not.
The idea with this roster is to maximize defensive and offensive production without losing a step....Dame is clearly tired at the end of games from fighting through double teams so he's been getting more and more of his points early with fresh legs....CJ seems to be morphing into a closer...they can play exactly the same minutes ...just in different roles...teams have game planned for our guards all season...having backcourt length early can keep a team on it's heels...tire them out for a change. I think splitting them also lights a fire under other players who need to pick up some scoring and be double digit scorers consistently....Turner had 24 last night as a starter
Possibly. It would also likely strangle the offense early, leading to slow starts. Without McCollum, the team is going to have almost no shooting outside of Lillard, which means Lillard is going to have a defender glued to his chest with the rest of the defense camped out in the paint.
