Which is More Significant: Finishing 3rd in the West or the Playoff Sweep?

I don't disagree with a lot of that. I don't think Terry and his staff did a good job of adjusting to what the Pelicans were doing, but in their defense, it's pretty tough to completely redesign an offense in the middle of a playoff series. I also think that the Pelicans saw a weakness in the Blazers' lack of consistent shooters and knew that it was better to have the likes of Ed Davis or Zach Collins taking a shot than Damian Lillard.

 

I agree with your analysis 100%. What makes me so pessimistic about the future is how god awful Collins has been on offense across the board. If the days of one way specialists are done like you say (and I agree they are) Collins likely is not the future for us up front.

 

It only came off the p&r though. When Lillard isolated against Jrue or Rondo he got an easy look.
I remember getting animated about this in game 3&4.

Stotts was so focused on running his game plan of hoping AD was too tired in the 4th to make plays. That he forgot his job is to make your best players job easier.
Yes the roster didn't have the shooting reqyired to stop the pelicans from loading up on the p&r. So maybe go away from that and run iso or action off the ball
Nards sets giant screens. Let him lay some wood on Jrue &Rondo setting off the ball screens.
But ffs stop playing to the Pelicans strength. Stop playing to the strength of the best p&r big in the game today.

Stotts was out coached.
And that's coming from someone who believes Stotts is the best coach Portland has had since adelman

 

I think between Collins, Biggy and Meyers we'll make up for Ed's numbers. Collins just had his nose broken before summer league...I think it probably hurt him all through the series. Coaches said he didn't miss many shots in scrimmages before the nose pizza...he shoots with confidence. He did that in college as well. Kid knows how to play....Biggy has a nose for rebounds and sets solid screens...can shoot as well. Meyers will rebound and get you some buckets...I think we'll survive Ed being in Brooklyn

 

Collins has a good shot and some good low post moves. My concern is he seems to have hands of stone when it comes to catching a pass. I'm hoping that was due to the mask in summer league screwing with his vision, combined with things happening too fast for him during his rookie year (i.e. trying to start his move before actually catching the ball). I hope as the game slows down for him and the nerves subside, he'll do a better job of catching the damn ball.

Meyer's for all his many other faults, actually has great hands for a big man. He really is an enigma. So many physical gifts, so little feel for the game.

BNM

 

The guy still can't legally buy beer. Too soon to give up on him.

He seems like a natural and very fluid with great instincts and timing on defense. On offense, he still seems like a total spazz. The game hasn't slowed down for him yet on that end. He seems to panic at the mere thought of catching the ball. Hopefully, that will change, because he has elite defensive skills, which is very rare in a 20-year old big man.

BNM

 

Agreed, but my concern is with depth. Replacing Ed with a more well rounded player makes sense. Replacing him with no one does not.

One slight nitpick... it IS Davis's fault. Most everyone needs to be able to shoot in the modern NBA. Instead of gaining 20 lbs. of muscle in the offseason, he should have concentrated on improving his shot.

 

I agree. Any team in the West that can win 49 like we did last year, is pretty commendable.
And if we hit 50 this year (I'm going w/51) that will be even more impressive.

 

Of course teams have matchups that are tougher for them than others. The Blazers matched up well with the Warriors (won 2 out of 3 games) and the Thunder (swept them) last season. The Pelicans just happen to have players that we don't match up well with. Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday are really good defenders and scorers and that combination just happened to be the Blazers' version of kryptonite. That said, I agree completely with BNM and others that Stotts played into that problem by not adjusting well to what the Pelicans were doing.

Look, the Blazers are three years into a major retooling of their roster. I think we're all in agreement that Olshey screwed up the Summer of 2016 with the bloated contracts that he handed out to the wrong guys. There are holes in this roster that no amount of coaching will fix. Olshey did his best this summer to patch the deficiencies the Pelicans exploited by bringing in young three point shooters and elevating Collins's role in the front line roster because he's a better scorer than Ed Davis was. It would have been nice to see the Blazers find an established guy or two to address those problems, but that's just not reality when your salary cap is weighed down with ET's, Meyers's, and Harkless's contracts.

 

We drafted two replacements last summer. We held onto Ed long enough to make sure at least one of them can (hopefully) replace him.

He did shoot a career high on FT%, but it was still not good and was on a career low number of attempts per game. It's bad enough when you can't shoot from beyond 3 feet, but it's even worse when you can't make the opposition pay for fouling you within 3 feet either.

I liked Ed, but he would have been much more valuable if he could have kept opposing defenses honest. Ed was in POR for three full seasons and his average made FG distance was 2.3 feet.

BNM

 

It's important that we made the playoffs but with that said, a season that ends in the playoffs should be judged by the playoffs. We got swept in the first round. That's as bad as it could get. While I don't think the team needs to overreact and blow the roster up, it should take a long hard look at it's roster and try to make the team more ready to contend in the playoffs. The truth is our two best players are redundant and the only way to change that is to trade one of them. I'd try to get the best value for CJ. I don't think Neil is going to do that, so we'll have another year of Dame and CJ pounding the rock, another year of shots late in the shot clock and another year of very few assists. I do think we'll also have another year in which the team makes the playoffs. That being said we will ultimately get let down again because playoff success is the ruler and we won't measure up to what we want, which is wins in the playoffs.

 

You aren't going to get many assists when your best scorers are at the guard spots and everyone else is pretty much meh. That's why the Rockets averaged less than two more assists per game than the Blazers. By record and by the fact that they were ready to eliminate the Warriors until Chris Paul went down, the Rockets were the best team in the league last year.

 

So you are in the camp of keeping Dame and CJ together?

 

I'm in the camp of being okay with trading CJ, but only for equivalent value at a position of need. Frankly, I think this whole discussion of Dame and CJ is bass-ackwards. I don't believe in the notion of deciding who you want to get rid of and then looking for a deal. I think you should target who you want to get and then put together an offer that will entice the other team to make the deal. Find a quality PF or SF, or another All-Star caliber SG that you think is better than CJ, and then see if the Blazers have the right components to offer that will make the trade possible.

 

He was the best defender in summer league, and showed he showed he still needed more strength to post up effectively. And now you're off the "hype train"? Goodness gracious.

 

Yeah, they always pick the top seed. How stupid were they? That doesn't mean anything dude. Didn't mean anything when eberyone picked us to lose to the Rockets or Clippers.

 

No other team thought that we wouldn't be able to adjust to such a sellout trap.

 

Nobody's doing that, but if you can use losing a few games down the stretch as a positive because we still made the playoffs, then similar one-sided logic would say that the 13 game winning streak is a negative because we barely made playoffs. It's a point about how silly it is to use the fact thatg "we lost a couple games down the stretch" as a positive.

 

Maybe, but you also have to trust that your big can cover enough territory quickly enough to get back to his man if Dame tosses the ball to them. Davis is quick enough. Not many other guys are.

 

Some players are good shooters some players just aren’t. You gotta make the most of the gifts you’re given which ed has done in spades so I have zero blame for him not being able to develop a consistent jumper.

Blake griffin is a great example of developing a shot from nothing and it not really helping him much. Most would say he should shoot less from midrange and out not more.