Game Thread GAME# 7: BLAZERS @ WARRIORS - NOVEMBER 4, 2019 - MONDAY, 7:30 PM, NBATV & NBCSNW

If Pau was brought in to be effectively a mentor/template for Zach, that makes sense. But then I don't see why you sign Tolliver. They needed to sign a reserve big who you could be confident could play and not kill you.

 

With respect, there needs to be some perspective here. Hood was on a disjointed Cleveland team and he didn't fit there, which is why he was "wildly inconsistent". Since he's been here, he's been nothing but a joy. In my mind anyways.

 

Hood was a quality starter in Utah and got lost in LeBron’s shadow in Cleveland. He’s definitely an upgrade over Aminu and hardly substandard. He would have definitely made more than the MLE this season but he chose to take a pay cut and come back to Portland.

This roster had no excuse, even with all of the injuries, to lose to that roster the Warriors had.

 

I was hoping we'd win so I could see all the Stotts fans come in and give him credit for the comeback win. I'll have to wait for the next one...

 

Agreed on the Cleveland part, but we need to be honest and say if 29 other NBA teams thought he was a stud SF, Cleveland would've got a lot better offers. Even if you take Hood at his word he could've got more money than the MLE this summer, it's hard to believe it was much more. This really speaks to the value the rest of the league gives him.

I really like Hood off the bench as a spark plug for the nights he is feeling it. However, my entire point in this thread is that when you start guys like Hood (and worse), you are going to lose games you shouldn't lose. I'm not saying Hood is trash, but he's not a solid starting SF either.

 

This Portland team would beat this GS taem in a series, I think we all agree on that. When you throw out random rosters in November and think upsets like this don't happen, you haven't been watching the NBA long enough. Tonight wasn't the first time an 11pt home underdog won and I'd bet it will happen again this season!

It was frustrating to watch. Stotts, Olshey, the players, the injuries, they're all to blame.

 

They aren’t really out there to be signed though. Can’t think of many quality bigs signed for minimum deal last offseason that would have considered us.

 

Especially with NBA refs betting on those bets and gifting 36 free throws to our 14 lol.

 

The worst part of this night is we are once again part of Warrior trivia. As in who did the Warriors get their first win at Chase stadium against. lol fuck them

 

Got back from the game, what a ride.

Chase Center is amazing. Of course, it's brand new, but there were a ton of empty seats. Understandable, but the arena is genuinely miles better than Oracle.

Unfortunately, that was the highlight of my experience. The Blazers came out with no effort and basically expecting the Warriors to roll over. That got settled quick.

Some observations:

Dame played really well offensively. Defensively, he mailed it in. He basically wasn't trying on defense in the first three quarters. Despite that, he's the only guy that I could say played well overall.

Hassan Whiteside is not the problem, but he's definitely not the answer. Put him in any sort of movement on defense and he's like a fish out of water. He never gets back in transition. When he only has to stay in one position to defend a shot he's quite good. But my main problem is that the Blazers look so bad offensively when he's in the game. Particularly Dame just looks like he's struggling to get to his spots. Hassan is such a slow roller and Dame is so explosive the combination doesn't seem to work. Interestingly enough, the CJ/Whiteside pick and roll looked good a few times, maybe because both guys move at the same slow pace. Might try to exploit that bit more. Really though, Hassan is a backup center on a championship team....

Speaking of CJ, what the fuck is going on? My friend, who doesn't really watch the Blazers basically said during the game "I never knew CJ was such a ballhog". The Warriors treated him like Dame and blitzed him with two guys all night. Seems teams are now actively taking away his midrange jumper, and CJ is responding by making awful attempts at the rim and jacking up contested 3s. Good god.

This Warriors G-League team passes better than us. Why does our team never pass the ball? In the 4th quarter when the Blazers were playing full court press the Warriors group broke the pressure with no problem. Watching the Blazers try to break full court press is an exercise in trying not to gouge your eyes out.

The irony with Stotts's offense is that he empowers guys to be creators, but doesn't put them in position to do so. For better or worse this is what we're stuck with. There's no point firing him now as there's no way someone can come in and install a new offense/defense in the middle of the season.

 

I’ll be honest, I’m not sure Mario/Tolliver/Baze/Whiteside

is better than

Hark/Chief/ET/Kanter/Nards/Curry

it might be lateral with less chemistry at best. The Zach injury is huge.

 

Yup. But not only that, they are simply worse players.

Average of advanced stats BPM / RPM for that past 3 seasons.
Aminu +1.0
Harkless +0.8
Bazemore -0.8
Hood -2.0
Hezonja -3.7

Each +1 point translates about 1.5 wins per season over an average player. So Amin & Harkless +3 wins. BHH -8 wins.

 

because the season didn't end at 55 games. It was 98 games long and the games that really mattered were in the last 45, not the first 50. Kanter was around for those games. He was talent on last year's team

it's not better (even when you add Gasol and Little). It might not be worse, but it's not better. And as you said, chemistry is an issue. Aminu & Harkless spent 4 years playing in Portland. Meyers spent 7. Turner 3. They were all flawed players, just like the new ones, but multiple seasons playing with Dame/CJ in the Stotts offense builds chemistry. This year's unit has a real steep hill to climb to reach anywhere close to the synergy last year's team had

and any discussion about talent has to include the absence of Nurkic.

 

Thats a tough loss my friends

 

And the loss of Collins.

 

I don't think this was intended, but this point might be the most valuable to those who are melting down 7 games in: It's probably far too early to come up with conclusions at this point, myself included.

 

#45Wins

 

The question is:

Was this game entertaining?

 

What? Were you not entertained? Its just one game

 

Actually we have a big that's playing excellent basketball right now and he only played 15 minutes.