What is the core issue with this team?

I think Dame has shown that he can carry a team, at least a certain distance. So why is it that we so often look so bad, and are currently being embarrassed by the genuinely good teams? It's easy to say "the coach!" or "the GM!" - I want something more specific. And I'm going to say (as many have) that it's Olshey's love affair with CJ. CJ has rewarded him by being better in the NBA that perhaps could ever have been expected, even given Lehigh's historic defeat of Duke. And he's genuinely elite at creating (and making) his own shot for somebody who's a SG in a relatively unathletic PG's body. But YOU CAN'T HAVE TWO SMALL NON-DEFENDING GUARDS AS YOUR TWO BEST PLAYERS. It just has never been done (at least since the time when EVERY guard was a small non-defender). It's bad enough having to compensate for Dame's defensive problems, let alone Dame's AND CJ's.

Now, the optimist might look at the acquisition of Powell and say - Olshey has finally realized this, and is auditioning CJ's replacement. But is Powell that much better? He draws more fouls and he plays SLIGHTLY better defense, and he's more athletic, but on the down side, he's been more injury prone in his career, and he's gonna want a huge pay raise. And if CJ could keep up his performance from the beginning of the year, he's better than Powell even given Powell's D.

I think the best case Portland team, assuming Lillard remains our cornerstone, is something like the Larry Brown Sixers' team that reached the finals. It was built round a small, high volume scoring guard, who was actually a good deal less efficient than Dame. But it was defensively ELITE otherwise, and it's just enraging that we seem to ignore that. I really do believe that Stotts is a very good coach (oh look, I just lost everybody) who finds creative ways to maximize the DEEPLY FLAWED players he's given. I defy the best defensive coach in history to do much with this bunch. You'd have to completely bench Kanter and Carmelo, and then you'd probably be losing games 85-80 instead of 130-110. Better margin, but ugly, and still losing. And the "good defense" would probably just be incredibly slow pace to minimize errors.

So, the question remains - does Olshey have to go before CJ goes? And then: would Jody ever get rid of Olshey?

 

From a "human standpoint" Dame is everything you can ask from a Franchise Player, his loyalty is absolutely admirable.

Unfortunately his loyalty to Stotts and CJ will kill all his chances of winning a Championship in Portland.

 

The most important ingredients for championship teams in the recent nba seems to be having very good forwards that are both offensively and defensively dominant and the blazers do not have that.

Lebron, kl and durant are the recent obvious examples, and even the first warriors championship had a dominant draymond on defense with a dominant point forward role on offense.

 

I have no idea why Neil has been so stubbornly steadfast on keeping on with this Dame/CJ foundation. It's like he thinks it's our version of the Splash Bros, but neither Dame nor CJ play like Curry or Thompson. Our guys are iso scorers and Curry/Thompson are excellent running of screens.

 

Stubbornness from not only Stotts, but Olshey.

It was clear that we needed another ball handler in the offseason. Did Olshey get one? Nope, because “our backup point guards are CJ and Simons,” as if that’s a reasonable justification.

It was also clear very early that Kanter and Melo would never work together. Now Zachs setback didn’t help, but Olshey should’ve brought in a defensive minded big the minute that setback happened. John Henson for example was there for the taking.

As for Stotts, his stubbornness is more obvious and I don’t need to type it all out again.

 

Trading GTJ for Powell will hopefully get Neil fired.

GTJ is going to blow up for Toronto and Norm will leave in the offseason with nothing to show for it.

 

Covering drunk friend at work every day.

 

I wonder if the ownership recognize the frustration of a large part from the Fanbase, and even if they recognize it, i'm not sure that they care about and do something. But something is different this season, we haven't seen this much frustration from the Fans on Social Media, i just hope changes are coming in the offseason

 

They're going to get a nice wakeup call here in the next month. We were able to coast against bad competition for most of the season, but the end of the season is going to be brutal.

There are really only a handful of cupcake opponents left on our schedule. Detroit, Houston, Cleveland.... but the rest of those games could very easily be losses for us. We might drop out of the playoffs entirely.

 

core issue = Stolshey

 

This is a really good question. Salutes to the thread-maker for bringing this up. I've been thinking about this a lot myself.

A lot of good points have been already made -- roster imbalance, lack of additional all-stars, etc.

To me, those are surface-level issues. The root of the problem feels like a lack of discipline and accountability from this team and coaching staff.

Take last night's Jazz game for example: Nurkic, already playing with two fouls, stops a fast break out of frustration and picked up his third while in the second quarter.

Let's go back to the Pacers game: Nurkic, a game prior, was talking with media about how the coaches don't want him to reach on defense as it leads to foul trouble. Yet, in the first-half, he reaches in on defense, but this time it led to a broken wrist.

I know both of these examples were Nurk-centric, and I'm not trying to isolate him in this thread, but it shows a lack of discipline on his part and a lack of accountability by the coaching staff. The staff allows bad behavior on the court to take place and does nothing of substance to put a stop to it. No one gets benched. No one loses opportunities on offense. Do you think Pop or Phil would put up with plays like that?

Back to the Jazz. There's no way they should be 10+ games ahead of us in the standings. You can't tell me their roster is significantly better than outs. Yet, they've blown us out by 20 twice already this year. Why? They play sound basketball. Phoenix does too. All of the elite teams do. When I watch other top teams play, rarely am I left scratching my head at their shot attempts compared to the Blazers hoisting up quick, contested jumpers on the regular because "we want to shoot more 3's this season."

The defense has been dissected every which way, so I'm not even going to bother.

I think the inconsistent effort (and play) is a bi-product of a lack of accountability and discipline.

For these Blazers to turn it around they need a new voice in the locker room and sidelines, a new decision-maker in the front office who can assess this team with fresh eyes, and a championship-caliber veteran whose been there before and can command respect.

 

the same Gary Trent you were trashing on here consistently? That Gary Trent? Btw Trent is shooting 6-30 in his last two games. I’m sure you wouldn’t have said anything about that if he were still here.

 

The core issue is that Dame/CJ does not work. The foundation of this team was built on sand.

Neither one of them play defense.

Neither one of them run off screens.

We built our team around two iso oriented guards, which leads to a lot of ball stopping and over dribbling. It's easy to stop and extremely boring to watch. It doesn't help that Stotts is garbage. It doesn't help that Neil doesn't seem to understand how to build a winner. But the foundation is already weak so it doesn't really matter what else we do.

 

Wait what....... ?

How was I trashing him? Are you talking about how his defense is overrated? I wanted to trade him because I knew we weren't going to re-sign him.

 

I like this schedule tbh, enough of those weak ass opponents, i wanna see the Blazers play against playoff competition. Only these games tell us where the Blazers really stands

 

This is a bit of an oversimplification but, looking at the roster, the Blazers are height- and strength-deficient at every position except center...and they often go small there as well because of injuries, fouls, or an intentional decision to play small ball. Seems like something of a core issue to me in a conference stacked with talented, bigger players.

 

Exactly. So why is it an issue if the Blazers ultimately let Powell walk with nothing in return?

 

The core issue is that this roster is not built to win a championship. Every championship team int he last 30 years has had an all-star of above average height. Every finals team in the last 19 years has had an all-starof above average height. Most these teams have multiple all-stars and one of them is almost always a two-way player.

We attempted to properly build a realistic championship roster in 06-07, but injures got us (no guarantee it would would've won anyway). The plan we're on now, while not impossible, is incredibly unlikely.

We need two all-stars, one of which is above average height and can play defense. That's the core you build around.