Game Thread PLAYOFFS: ROUND 1, GAME 3: LAKERS @ BLAZERS - AUGUST 22, 2020 - SATURDAY, 5:30, ABC

We ran offense through Nurk tonight. Unless we got home a dunk by pulling over a defender, he mostly flipped up weak shots that didn't go in. A steady diet of that and we would've scored about 60 points.

Just having Kuzma come in over Mario would give us so much more options offensively. Howard could probably play more than 10 minutes without getting 4 fouls like Wenyen. Caruso sucks, but he didn't go 0-4 with 3 of those being good looks, like Ant. Morris would provide a tough 3-4 defender that we don'to have on this roster. I don't LOVE any of those guys, but they have proven to be far more valuable than guys like Mario.

Our history of developing players is pretty darn good if you ask me. We found ways to get produtivity out of a handful of 2nd round picks or guys that other teams didn't want.

Our offense is a lot more than high PnR. We run zipper action, flares, weaves, DHO's, and sets through our bigs at the elbow. Surely you hear all the other coaches and national commentators and even some players talk about how our offense is very effective at utilizing the skillset of the players on our roster. Offense doesn't succeed over half the time, so I suppose it's easy to notice a lot of failtures one you watch one team a lot more than others.

 

This! Yet, I just responded to someone else who thinks we have as much depth or more than the Lakers. I mean, I love our own guys, but this team's bench is much closer to a G-League team than an NBA team.

 

I agree, an upgrade is always ideal. I think some people (not you), think getting rid of someone who hasn't checked all the boxes will more likely than not result in an automatic upgrade. The reality is, especially with our cap situation, we're not in a great position to get rid of C+/B- minus players and be confident who we get to replace them will be an upgrade. B- players are getting $10+ million a year, and we don't have that.

Same goes with getting rid of a coach because he's not top 5 or top 10. The odds of us landing a top 5 coach is very slim and the odds of us downgrading is probably higher than upgrading to a top 5 coach.

I don't think people realize we're only a couple of really dumb moves from being the Suns or the Kings. Once you get in that territory, and if you don't have a blank check owner like Paul Allen, it might be hard to get out of that territory for many years.[/QUOTE]

 

That defense is pretty damn impressive. Houston couldn't hold us like that. Boston couldn't hold us like that. They are rebounding like no one else. They have a really tough team actually and if they get past us they will still be the favorites in the West. The Clippers could beat them but they will beat every other team in the West and likely everyone in the East. That D is no joke. Having Lebron, AD, McGee, Howard rebounding for you is no joke. LeBron and AD can both do so many things, that's the best tandem in the NBA. Then they have two guys who protect the paint and love to dunk it. Then they have shooters who make wide open shots. We still have a chance against them but their D is going to give us real problems and our D gives no one any problems. The fact is, if they can get our offense to play out of sorts, speed us up, make us rush our shots when no one else has been able to... why won't they be able to do that to every offense they face? Give the Lakers some credit. Our guys could play better but the Lakers are the #1 seed in the West for a reason.

 

(not that it matters, but just because I like 'what if's', and even though it pisses some people off)

speaking of a major talent deficit on the bench, that 2017 draft. What if instead of Zach and Swanigan, Portland had

John Collins, and Og Anunoby (or Jarret Allen), and Kyle Kuzma (or Derreck White or Josh Hart)

or Bam Adebayo and Kyle Kuzma

or Donovan Mitchell and Kyle Kuzma (Mitchell is averaging 36 - 5 - 5 with a .749 TS% and a PER of 40.3 these playoffs)

one draft sure could have solved Portland's depth problems

 

-Dwight is the same role as Whiteside and whiteside is just flat out better at this point.
-Trent is the same role as Kuzma and I would argue Trent contributes about the same offensively, but Is better defensively.
-Caruso is trash, but at least he can get them into offensive sets. Nobody on the blazers besides Dame seems capable of that,
-Hezonja is probably the worst wing in the playoffs, but both he and Gabriel are only playing because our starting 3 and 4 are out and hood was lost early in the season. Most teams don’t go 10 deep in the playoffs. Ariza was the guy to play stretch 3/4 in playoffs along with Melo.
-Melo and Nurkic are also much better than the lakers third or fourth option.
- Simons is more talented than every guard on the lakers, but we have not developed him or put him in spots to succeed .
- in regards to development, the only thing terry seems to develop is spot shooters.

Tonight’s game was about execution down the stretch. We were in position to win it, but Everytime it was a 1 or 2 possession game, we would take a terrible shot or turn it over. The lakers would take an uncontested shot, a layup or get to the foul line.

In terms of sets, while I agree those are in the playbook, it is very rare we call anything besides high PnR down the stretch. It would be nice if Terry would do his job and call a play that isn’t going to force us to get the ball out of our best player’s hands or forces him to take a highly contested, difficult shot.

 

That post hurts because it's so true.

 

You like our talent way more than I do and any other GM in the league does either. So we just won't be able to agree on that.

Have you seen our efficency when we run PnR with Dame and how it compares to the other sets? Over the past few years, our PnR efficiency with Dame/Nurk is near elite in terms of points per possession. We run other sets, but when it's winning time, we often like to have the ball in the hands of our best player, who has proven time and time again he can beat teams that are better than us.

The Lakers got uncontested shots because they have two 1st team NBA players, #1 picks, including a multiple MVP, neither of whom we have ANYONE to match up with. No matter who we put on LeBron or AD, they're going to have a size or speed mismatch. We rely on two 6'2" guards that have to make plays around multiple defenders taller than them. That's a big big difference in the types of options you have.

 

We blew that draft big time. There was guys all over the range we had. Then we trade two picks to pick 10 and waste it on the wrong Collins.

 

Everyone I have ever known who had the chance to meet Mo Cheeks thought he was a great guy. I'm sure Dame would have loved him too.

 

I see KFC Eric ain't even posting on this thread. Like i said. If the Blazers somehow come back in this series (Which i absolutely hope they do) i will post for all to read what a "SuperFan" he is and how i am so very glad to be wrong.

 

we have LOL and ROTFLMA....we need some abbreviation to designate "I'm kind of chuckling right now"...I'd use it here

yeah, it's over the top when somebody decides they can define being as fan as 'me-good-fan-you-bad-fan'....there's no right and wrong to being a fan unless you're setting other peoples' cars on fire or deliberately dumping cheap beer on the clown in front of you

KFC got carried away when he tried to define correct fandom while babbling about a notebook with quitter's names. That was definitely a WTF moment

but it was also a game thread moment and being fans, posting in game threads sometimes means emotion is doing a tap-dance on reason's head. I think you need to make allowances for excessive hyperbole. Shit, I certainly have launched some hyperbolic missiles in game threads, although it's usually at players or coaches or officials or Reggie Miller.

 

I totally agree. Maybe he could have also made "Allowances" for me saying some things i was feeling in the game thread also? We won't mention the fact that what i mentioned was not "Tap dancing on reason's head" at all.

 

I think I get where you're going, so I'll use that to launch my own little rant

Dame may be my favorite Blazer ever, and I've been a Blazer fan since before Bill Walton was drafted

but Dame is not the GM and he's not the coach. It always irritates me when we start talking about changing coaches or trading players and somebody tries to kill the discussion by saying whatever move being discussed would piss off Dame. Yeah, you need to try and keep the best player happy, but you also have to guard against his happiness holding the franchise hostage

Lebron has received lots of justified criticisms when he's leveraged his power to force his teams into making bad moves. That's been selfishness beating out due diligence and common sense. Dame's motives may be based on loyalty to teammates or to the coach, but ultimately, he could be using his power to force the team into bad moves, or prevent it from making good ones. The result from those "good motives" can be the same as from the "bad motives" of Lebron. And that's a team getting stuck into a non-contender position. A treadmill in purgatory.

Trading CJ for Paul George may have pissed Dame off initially, but it would have very likely made Portland better immediately and given them better options going forward. Moving on from Stotts may piss Dame off, but it also may bring in a coach who can devise better X's and O's, and motivate differently. Sure, any move can fail, but quickly failing gives you a chance for quicker recovery. That could easily be better than slow, mild, long term failure that eats away Dame's prime....and that sure looks like the track Portland is on

 

Jordan loved Doug Collins before Phil Jackson. Just saying.

 

I had blazers getting swept. But in 5 is close enough.

 

for sure....and Dame was really good friends with Mason Plumlee and hated to see him traded. Now, he's a good friend of Nurkic and Portland is better

 

It would be nice to see them bounce back and win game 4 don't ya think?

 

I was hoping the Blazers could some how work a deal to get Plumlee back. They could use him in this series big time.

 

I liked Mason Plumlee, but he has flaws for sure. I do think he'd be a better backup C than Whiteside, but the Blazers have very little flexibility after the Dame and CJ extensions