If I'm being honest.... yes..... if Meyers can fare better defending Jokic, then I would rather see him out there. Right now our best hope is that Kanter can try to play Jokic 1 to 1. He can't defend him, so he has to basically equal his scoring and rebounding. If there was a way to slow Jokic down, either with Meyers or Zach, I would do it.
Meyers might be able to defend Jokic better than Kanter does, but the overall head-to-head production gulf would likely not be any less.
Meyers has a way of getting under people's skin. We saw it against Boogie multiple times. I'd be curious to see how he does against Jokic.
See this is where I think dismissing the refs impact on game 1 based on FT attempts isn't telling the whole story. When Jokic gets irritated he initiates contact and flails around like he got punched. The refs fall for it, a lot. So instead of Meyers getting under his skin they'll simply get into the bonus early each quarter and get easy points that way.
at PF Stotts has Aminu and Zach; at C he has Kanter, then Meyers and Zach. Those are just weak options. Blame the GM that left Stotts with those options. Portland could have Ed Davis and Noah Vonleh....but 2016
FTs aren't the real issue. The issue is that Jokic and the Blazer bigs are being judged by different standards. If "X" amount of contact is legal for Jokic, then it should be legal for everyone.
tough call. I'd probably rather have Nurkic and Davis than Nurkic and Kanter, but without Nurkic, Kanter's offense has been crucial I'd rather have Kanter and Davis than Kanter and Meyers, but yeah, having Davis would have likely meant not signing Kanter, although it's good to have bigs to close the season. But swear to god, 7 years of Meyers is about 5 years to long and I fear it will be 8 years...and if Olshey is still GM next summer, maybe 10 or 11 for these playoffs, Vonleh would be better than either Zach or Skal
I'm not trying to give Olshey a pass but... In 2015 he made a move to get Afflalo to add depth to a talented roster and Wes went down in a game in which we were winning our 5th straight, 4 of which were against West playoff teams. Then Afflalo hurts his shoulder and wasn't the same either. This year he makes some moves at the deadline and then adds Kanter in the buyout market. Nurk goes down in a game where we were winning our 4th straight (and went on to win 6 straight) and had been playing well since the All-Star break. Kanter ironically suffers a shoulder injury too. Both cases the injuries took place after the trade deadline in which Olshey had made moves to add depth to the very same position that became the problem. I don't know if I can knock Olshey too much for this one. Injuries happen but Kanter has played really well for us. Going into the post season with a big rotation of Nurk, Kanter, Aminu, and Collins is pretty solid. Leonard and Skal in theory shouldn't have even have been needed. It sucks that the Blazers two best chances at a deep run under Olshey both coincided with a devastating injury. Ultimately Olshey will get blamed for that but I don't think he deserves to be bashed for something out of his control. I'm not saying he deserves any sort of extra praise but most teams struggle with depth issues when they lose their 2nd best player.
Sit down and lemme tell y'all a story. Decades ago I coached 7th and 8th graders. There was this one kid who at 6'3 towered over everyone. He was the leagues Wilt Chamberlain. He was dominating my team of pipsqueaks. So I made an adjustment. I took the smallest kid I had and told him just to get right in the big kids chest. Be a pest and just rattle him. (like beverley v durant). We came back won the game and Wilt wasn't much of a factor.... I was reminded of that in Game 1 where I kept screaming " why is Seth guarding Jokic?"..." why is CJ guarding Jokic?".. Now I realize it was the result of a switch but you know what? Jokic never scored on them. I'm guessing Nicola Jokic is more talented than the "Wilt kid" of decades ago, but maybe put a smaller on him and use your size elsewhere.
your post kind of confirms what I was replying too and the context...which was a post blaming Stotts for who he "chose" to guard Millsap and Jokic with. Stotts uses the tools he has which was the point of my post. In his toolbox Stotts has two 'project' big men, one in his 7th season and one in his 2nd season. Neither have proven ready for any significant & dependable contribution in the current playoffs; they don't help Lillard's prime. That is not the fault of Stotts. And at PF, Stotts essentially has Aminu and Zach. That's a weak rotation against any physical PF's. Harkless, Layman, and Skal don't make it better. Again, not the fault of Stotts now, Denver, with Millsap, might be one of those playoff teams that can expose Portland's vulnerability at PF. OKC couldn't do it with Grant and Morris. Utah probably could with Favors. Aminu vs Aldridge might be a mismatch. Aminu vs Draymond Green is more even. Houston with Tucker and Faried is good for Aminu, but not for Zach
We drafted Zach SPECIFICALLY for his defense. Let the kid play and figure it out. It's not like he could do any worse. Mo fouled out for pete's sake.
How many teams have a better backup center than Kanter? What coaches have great options when their starter goes down?
Not lazy. I could point out 20 BS calls to you if I wanted. The refs were awful in game 1. I'd love to hear you tell Dame how they werent.
yep...he got calls in the 4th, but he was getting the same kind of physical contact on his drives in the 1st 3 quarters
Eh........ a lot of those calls were when we were still in the mix. It was actually pretty huge to get those calls because that's points on the board with the clock stopped.
