maybe what makes me question that is both Nurkic and Zach were healthy and playing in the Pelicans series when the Pels did the stop-Dame thing, and swept the Blazers. It didn't make a dent. Now, that season's Nurkic wasn't last season's Nurkic. and Zach was a rookie, but they both played and combined for 41 minutes a game. What Portland needs, IMO, is somebody who can come out to the perimeter when Dame is doubled, receive the outlet pass, and then turn and consistently run the offense while getting players into sets and open looks. That takes ball-handling and much of it will be around the edges. Neither Nurk or Zach can do that. Not every opponent will be able to blitz Dame as successfully as The Warriors and the Pels did. Denver tried hard to do it last year but they just didn't have the defenders the other two teams did, and in the case of game 7, CJ was really hot for a change. It would be interesting to see Nurkic and Zach healthy in a series against a team that does the stop-Dame strategy. Be nice to test the theory sooner rather that later. By sooner, I mean while Dame is still in his best prime years. Next April would be the best time
I think if you factor in the new shooters we have now compared to ET Mo and Chief....we should make teams pay for trapping our guard....Melo can help with that...Ant hopefully and Rodney....against the Pelicans they pretty much made Chief and Mo our offense....nobody guarded them at all....they will guard Melo and Ant or Hood.....Tolliver they won't...they don't even attempt to defend his shot so far...as to our perimeter defense....it's why I started the Andre Iguodala thread
Not to shit on Dame, but top players in this league punish the other team for doubling up on them. I think size plays a big role in this as well. Players like Lebron or Kawai or Harden seem to handle that type of pressure better. Stotts seeing the exact same thing happening 7 times in a raw and not responding doesn't help things either.
For the record, Harden has been crying lately about how it's unfair he's getting double teamed so much.
This is going to sound crazy but Melo actually is a good solution to this problem. He's been setting decent picks and is a capable enough ball handler and shot creator to make it work. The problem is it creates other issues on the other end of the floor though.
He actually may be the best passer we have once he gets some chemistry...his passes so far have some zip on them and he doesn't seem to telegraph them like CJ does.
Whiteside was pretty decent on the PnR in Miami.....when someone would actually throw him a lob pass! That part of his game has completely disappeared since coming to Portland. Since he is the same player and Portland has been at or near dead last in assists for years under Stotts, I don't think that is a Whiteside issue.
Whiteside mentioned himself that he and Dame haven't developed that chemistry yet...he missed training camp and he just hasn't set good solid screens all season in my view.....Tolliver sets way better screens than Hassan so far and Dame and Hassan have fumbled away a few attempts at pick and rolls so far...I think it's chemistry....I've seen Dame call him out on the sidelines a couple of times and not looking very happy when doing it...Nurk seems to get in his ear when he's coming out of the game. Pau seems to have taken Skal on as a student on the sidelines. Dames passes were to quick for his reactions....then when Dame slowed it down, they'd turn it over
Agreed that they don't have chemistry, but Dame is still throwing pocket bounce passes to Hassan like he did with Nurk. Whiteside is much more of an elevated player going to the rim. Dame needs to figure that out.
I don't think Dame trusts his own alley oop pass at this point...it's been ugly so far...best alley oop pass I've seen this season came from Baze.
Agreed....which is a little bit disappointing from someone as talented as Dame is. They aren't that hard...but maybe Dame never played with anyone who could jump at Weber St. Then again, there were a lot of opportunities to lob to Jake....but Dame rarely did and it wasn't off a PnR.
speaking of lob passes...remember when the Blazers had Andre Miller, Marcus Camby, and Rudy Fernandez on the team?...then added Gerald Wallace at the trade deadline? That was fun
Batum could throw a lob but Andre Miller is one of the best to ever chuck one up there in my view....Camby was our best lob passer in the lockout season...
IIRC, Miller's lobs were always on target, and he could throw them accurately from 30'. And yeah, Batum did it a few times as well. lobs were one of the high points of that season. The low point was knowing that Brandon Roy's knees were failing. We did get a little bit of a Roy flashback in the playoffs against the Mavs though. Roy leading that epic comeback:
Dame needs to start playing defense, and even more importantly: pass the fucking ball. If there's anyone on the team i would trade right now it is Lillard, he's the reason we're in the bottom of the league assist-wise, moving the ball wise, I'm sorry Dame youre not Iverson, not even Brandon Roy.
Dame is averaging 7.2 assists a game so far this season....he's not the problem there ..he averaged 6.4 dimes leading up to this season...big improvement..he's a way better defender this season than he's ever been. Every aspect of his game is up in stats 15 games in except for a small dip in 3pt percentage
He dribbles the entire possesion than either shoots the ball or finds the open man but there's absolutely no ball movement, the game he didn't play againsst the Bucks we had a season high in assists. yeah, his assists are up because it's either his shot or the player's he passed the ball to. I want to see the ball move in other players' hands
Terrible take. Another terrible take. Dame is not the problem... His assists would even be higher if more shots were made...... Terrible take coming from a guy who is a fan of someone who never averaged more than 6.9 ast a game in a season.
