I guess my question is: when you go to work, do you want to feel hopeful that eventually you'll get out of it with better employees, policies, procedures, and productivity? Or just stay the course and not really try to attain anything? One breeds hope, the other breeds apathy. Its kind of a shitty analogy, i understand... But im talking about the root, not the branches.
I totally agree, I mean I still have hope they turn it around. I still believe they'll end up being a playoff team, and IF Nurk / Zach are even healthy this year (I don't think they will be), they'll be a heck of a team come playoff time.
I'm with them.....making the WCF for the first time in 2 decades is something to be proud of.....I'm not watering that down...Dame said his legs were gone in the finals and this year he'd be better prepared for a long post season run...to me, the guys have been very transparent about the process
Road games are never an excuse. Didnt people say that road games build chemistry? Guess thats a lie with all the bad losses. Anyway, we will agree to disagree.
with a brand new roster and instant injury to one of your best bigs….Zach...who actually knew the plays, we've been playing 3rd stringers and rookies....Nas would have never played if Zach were healthy. Melo was just picked up.....we won 4 road games early. The Spurs return the same core and have not been better than us at all. We've also been right there in some losses, just unable to finish games strong. I think the panic is exaggerated...at one point we had Dame Zach Nurk Pau and Whiteside injured with Rodney playing through back spasms....this early stretch has a silver lining in that Nas and Trent are getting to learn how to play at this level...our bench will be better in the long run for our early struggles...Nas and Melo are going to help us a lot more than Tolliver and Hezonja
The thing with the Blazers right now to me is there is hope. We can complain about certain entities all we want, but the 2nd best player is hurt, there are young unproven guys like Little, Simons, Skal who show flashes, that's the hope. We also have maybe the best player in the history of the franchise hitting his prime. There are definitely things I'd change or want to be changed, and there are definitely really frustrating aspects to the team right now, but I don't think it's hopeless. Now I don't feel nearly as strongly about Stotts as some here, though I'm not a Stotts fan, I don't think he's a championship level coach, but I don't think his presence makes me feel hopeless about their chances either.
Here's the problem with what's going on. If I made that post that @riverman said but said Stotts supporters were all a certain way then I'd have people like @CupWizier on my case about my posting style and being a bully. I even had @Wade Garrett complain to the mods about me for asking him why it was okay for him to criticize Whiteside when a few minutes earlier told people to chill out on criticisms and the negative stuff because it made him not want to participate in the forum. Then a game or two later actually had posts that were obviously aimed at me doing the same thing he complained about. I chose not to respond out of respect to the head honcho asking me to avoid him. @TorturedBlazerFan When someone makes a post calling out a specific group they are starting something. They can argue it's unintentional but then why make the post at all? The facts are this: Riverman said Stotts detractors want that to happen. I responded that was false because I don't want that. The only "personal" part about that is using myself to disprove his statement. He said I was taking it personal and it wasn't directed at him but that his statement wasn't false. If I doubled down like that I would expect there to be blow back my way too. We can all, including myself, do a better job of simply saying in those situations that whoever said it didn't mean to include everyone in those situations. So now we have Cup coming at me in a conversation that's not even about him and bringing Bones into the conversation, yet we're the ones ruining the forum? It's so damn hypocritical. All I said was that his statement was false and it was.
The Blazers could look back on the road trip and early road losses and say that it was an important time for them to bond. I heard Melo say he took them out on a players-only dinner at one point. Just because the results weren't immediate didn't mean it couldn't have helped.
dude....just don't like the post ….you've made this an epic defensive double standard from a post I made answering someone else's question that really wasn't a reply to you at all....I've fixed that post to address your point and tried to be civil while doing it.....you insulted me twice about it ...I was answering rasta's question and you're taking that personally...it's not personal..and I'll post anything I want anytime I want concerning the topic at hand....it's ok to disagree...you inserted yourself into that reply identifying with some "group"......fine...I can deal with that but you don't get to question why I post opinions anymore than I get to question your views I might happen to disagree with.....I don't point out my disagreements in your podcast comment sections because I respect your right to your opinion but honestly....I could take issue with several sticking points..they don't outweigh the points I agree with either. I think you're being thin skinned about this...I'd be happy to answer this with you via pm mode and spare the forum the long winded version
@riverman I have an honest question: Do you not view us as Stotts detractors? I'm curious. I figured you did.