The team has a lot of talent. They are not playing up to their potential. What do you do to fix this team? Is it something simple like cutting Melo? Is it something more complicated like a trade? Fire Stotts? Who do you replace him with? What would be your moves to turn around this season and not waste another year of Dame's prime?
Trade Zach Collins and Ant Simons to OKC for George Hill if we're serious about a playoff campaign. Hill allows Dame and CJ to play offf the ball, his size is a good match with either of them and he can defend well. It solves a lot of the Dame trapping issues we see.
Not sure I agree with your initial premise here. The team has talent. I'm not sure that it's "a lot" of talent. Definitely not anywhere near being title contenders. Stotts is A problem, but not THE problem. IMO, it starts higher up at the Owner / President / GM level. I'm not sure Allen/McGowen care enough to rock the boat. The Blazers are generally competitive (~0.500 winning) and they are fine with that. I think Olshey has a lot of autonomy and likes his freedom, with very little pressure. However, when he is pushed by the media - he bristles and becomes very condescending. Basically, this comes down to everyone being a bit too comfortable with where the team is at.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/POR/2021/on-off/ Look at these on/off numbers and tell me what stands out. Fucking cut Melo first. I want the Terry/CJ/Dame/Olshey core broken up in some way but the low hanging fruit is to send Melo to a fucking retirement home.
step 1: fire Olshey AND Stotts step 2: waive Melo step 3: shop CJ hard and, I agree with Tester...not only does the team not have lots of talent, some of the important talent is wasted in the systems
Here is my swing for the fences, no holds barred, feelings be damned redemption tour. Trade CJ/Collins/Ant for Harden. Cut Melo. Fire Stotts. I don't care who they use in the interim. Hire Becky Hammon in the offseason (fuck it, let's do this.) Although another guy that I would sure love to get would be Siakam. The Raptors look worse than us, and Siakam isn't earning his paycheck up there. He and CJ have the same contract basically. Dame GTJ Siakam RoCo Nurk That's a really damn good team.
Sending Melo to China should be priority number one. Is it any co-incidence that the best game we've played all season was the ONE game where Carmelo didn't play? I just want to see 10 games with this team without Melo on it. Just give me 10 games. I'll even be okay with Terry staying for those 10 games.
I don't think this team is that talented. Dame is great, a true superstar. Trent is a really good supporting player. McCollum is high-variance supporting player--sometimes he gets incredibly hot and can carry, other times his offense isn't worth his defense. After that...I mean, Nurkic has his moments. Covington can be a high-level supporting player even if he hasn't been yet for Portland. Everyone else is filler or projection. My "big swing" would be to find a replacement for Olshey and let the new GM figure out what to do at head coach. I don't know who I'd replace Olshey with, though. I'm not paid to know. I'm also on the Cut Melo Express.
I thought all of this was being talked about in the "Fire Stotts" "Trade CJ" "Trade for Harden" "Nurk Sucks" "This is the worst Team..." " Play Giles" and every game thread? As well as the "Trade" Thread and the Around the NBA thread.
A lot of it hinges on Nurk. He has to be that 20/10 force that he’s always been. Play Trent 25+ minutes every game. And FFS — BENCH Simons for the foreseeable future
the people that were saying the team had a ton of talent are really quiet right now that silence has been filled in by those who not only questioned the level of talent but questioned if the additions fit with the coach, the systems, and the roster
Last nights game hit different. I’m tired of seeing the team look content with a bullshit loss like last night. SOMEBODY disagree on the floor, show some life, clap your hands, DO SOMETHING. We loaf everywhere. We smile like nothings wrong. Stotts finally called the team out(in a nice way). I honestly think it’s time for a head coaching change. I can’t explain what we’re seeing. It’s the same no matter the personnel. We made a great playoff run two years ago but other than that, the last 4-5 years have looks exactly the same. I’m growing really tired of it. SOMEONE IN A BLAZER JERSEY GET FUCKING MAD
I'm not quiet. This team has a ton of talent and a terrible coach. I'm guessing you're only basing that off of here
The problem is the coaching and the fact that the two most talented players don't work well together but still have huge man crushes on each other.
