We lost to a team with 3 all-stars? What? People just making stuff up to defend Stotts. They had 3 all-stars (in reality, they had 2 and 1 was injured). We overachieved. They were a bad matchup. Our roster sucks even though were one piece away. We've gotten better (When Playoffs matter and we've gotta swept 2 years in a row after making playoffs). No one wants to discuss schemes, our lack of ball movement, his untimely timeouts, our lack of action towards the basket, or anything basketball wise. It's always cliche defenses.
We need a coach who can bench CJ, when he goes rogue. I doubt we can trade him for anything valuable.
AD, Rondo, and Jrue have all been All Stars. Rondo has won championships a championship and probably has more playoff experience than anybody in the playoffs. The offensive schemes worked. The Blazers got a TON of open looks in this series, and when they made them they were competitive. You're whining about stuff you can't control, and you'll never be able to control. When we missed those shots the Pelicans were able to up the pace of the game which hurt our defense and we didn't have enough shot makers to spread the floor enough to get back in it. It was a bad matchup with a team that should have finished ahead of us. This team should have swept us in the regular season, and would have if not for injuries to Davis in 2 games.
You mean improving every season? Yeah, that's how this works... last season we added a center. In the off-season we added a rookie who is a year or two away from being a great stretch 4. We have to address one starting position and fill in the bench now... sure, you hope to get lucky and land the next Anthony Davis or have Paul George fall into your lap, but otherwise you just make improvements where you can. The way for Portland to build a perennial power is by promoting stability, great atmosphere, and care for our players. We have no other advantages. That's what Terry Stotts and Neil Olshey are doing. And it's been working.
Give it another month and most of us will calm down and probably realize Olshey is right. Where were all these complaints two weeks ago? His presser yesterday pissed me off but I admit it was mostly emotional. The team did improve this year, they just ran into a horrible matchup and our X factor was either limited or completely missing. You can bring up NO missing Cousins but there can be an argument made they play better without him. They definitely play better without him against Portland. You can’t say the same about Harkless. Everything says we were a better team with him on the floor. Doesn’t mean things should stay the same, but the issues are fixable. We need to upgrade the bench and make more passes.
You saved me having to write a similar post this morning. I’ve stayed pretty much off of the board since the series ended, partly to avoid posting something stupid while my emotions were still raw and mostly to avoid reading all of the vitriol by people overreacting to the sweep. With a few deep breaths under my belt, I remain convinced that there was exactly one team in the league that could have pulled off shutting down Dame as effectively as he was in this series. We just had the misfortune of having to play the Pelicans. As good defensively as the Warriors were last year, Dame and CJ put up big numbers against them. The Rockets aren’t a threat to shut down our backcourt. So the largest part of how bad the Blazers looked is attributable to the unique skills of AD and Holiday. Do you make drastic changes because the Blazers drew them in the first round instead of beating OKC? Olshey is right to say that overreacting on the basis of that series and overlooking the positives of the season is not the way to go. The team needs some upgrades, but not necessarily dynamite. The problem with the perennial tankers around here is that you can’t fight their imaginations. In their minds the rebuild will always result in getting a better coach and GM and every trade or draft pick will be a success. It’s like Paul Simon said in Kodachrome, “If you got all the girls I knew when I was single, and brought them all together for one night, they’d never match my sweet little imagination, and everything thing looks worse” if we don’t blow everything up an start over again.
Aren't we the second youngest team in the NBA? Don't young teams get older? As we age, don't most of us get wiser? Why wouldn't this team get better?
I agree. But Harkless has emotional and durability issues. Man I love that guy, but he's also not the best shooter and sometimes has trouble keeping his head in the game. But when he's on we're far and away better. I wonder if there isn't something going on behind the scenes there... if there wasn't something wrong I have no doubt Stotts would be playing him.
I think he was sulking earlier in the season, but to his credit he manned up, apologized to the team, and eventually regained his spot. That’s maturation. Sometimes we forget these are still young human beings.
And this is critical. Those other guys have got to hit those shots to space the floor. Especially if the refs aren't calling fouls. This isn't on Stotts. This is a young team 1 player away, and missing shots in the playoffs. Young teams don't win much in the playoffs. It doesn't mean we shouldn't try, but the fact that we're getting home court advantage with this young team is a credit to Stotts coaching. If they don't produce in the playoffs like they did in the regular season they are just doing what most young players do. And that puts a lot of pressure on Dame and CJ against the best defenses who have time to gameplan for them.
