Mario Hezonja is between Nurk and Skal. ( Nurk will be 25 this August, Mario will be 25 next February, and Skal will be 24 next March) You never know. He could turn it around.
You know what's really funny about this? He blocked me because I questioned this post of his: Normally, you'd be right there putting these types of posts in their proper place. Where were you at this time?
While this is a good point, I think there's also the element of Portland playing a somewhat unconventional "drop" defense, where the center concedes open long 2's and 3's, but clogs the rim. It's designed around guards fighting through screens and running their asses off, and not putting your big in a place where he draws ticky-tack fouls. This is directly counter to the general NBA trend of "switchable" bigs who help in contesting threes. We just don't ask that of our centers hardly ever. We ran this defense with Plumlee too. Plumlee is always remembered for getting us Nurkic (and a pick!), but we acquired him for Rhonae Holland Jefferson and Steve Blake. Nobody wanted him. Ed Davis benefited as well, and it was basically the only way you can even keep Leonard on the court. What is the recurring theme here? 2000's style big centers can still stay on the court in Portland even in crunch time. (And use their time here to convince other teams they can work for them too!) Big guys set big screens, setting up Dame's offense, and big guys can guard the rim, making up for penetration we concede with our small back court. Just watch Boston. My guess is a lot of Celtics fans are going to pull their hair out when Kanter suddenly isn't any good at defense anymore again, when the reality is he needs the right defense around him (Portland's) and he's perfectly capable. But if you try to plug him into Horford's old role, jesus. They are fucked. I can't wait to see how Meyers Leonard is an utter defensive disaster in Miami. Portland (rightly) has a reputation for resurrecting careers. A lot of that, I think, is the example of professionalism Dame and CJ set, and obviously some great shooting coaching. But I think Stotts' drop defensive scheme does a lot to make Portland a place where big centers can find new life. People who are skeptical of the Whiteside trade are missing both components of what Portland does well at the center position--dropping defense and raising professionalism.
Well that is a twist. I understood he was part of the Whiteside deal but as long as he is satisfied and a millionaire, I'm ok with that. Thanks DD
Parallel lines with Nurkic and Whiteside perception before joining the Blazers: -"Lazy". -"Not a team player". -"Bad attitude". -"Can be good defensively, but he's not actually effective". -"Not good enough to be a starter" . -"You're excited now, you'll understand how bad he is after a few weeks!". *In both cases, players were ecstatic to pack their bags and come to Portland. I'm really interested to see if our system and culture are strong enough to deal with this "headcase" as well.
Something else to consider: He's also playing for a big contract next year. Even if the Blazer culture isn't strong enough to change him, he has self-motivation to go out there and ball out.
Stotts seems very good with the players....almost sometimes to an enabling fault (CJ). However, it does seem reasonable to at least question the actual coaching acumen when the designed game plan of Game 1 in a series it to let some bricklayer name Steph Curry shoot as many wide-open '3's as possible.
To his credit he changed the scheme, but I still cant believe that he thought that, that was a good idea to begin with lol.
Palm Beach Post columnist Tom D'Angelo on 620am this morning absolutely trashing Whiteside. "He was lazy, he's immature, he only cares about his stats, Heat fans are going to boo him mercilessly, they'd have given him away for nothing..." Also saying that there's a chance that we could get peak Whiteside for 4 months, maybe if he holds a grudge against Miami and wants to show them what they're missing. Specifically told stories about Hassan checking stat sheets after losses and coming out saying "I did my job".
and that's the kind of player that seems to workout here. Heard the same story about Nurkic. The beauty is, he's an expiring deal if it doesn't work out as the positives far out weigh the negatives.
Yeah, I don't really expect a whole lot of objective analysis coming out of the city from which a disgruntled star is reclaimed. I honestly was surprised though at the level of vitriol coming from this particular journalist.
