Sure, if that's what it is. But it's unlikely that that's what it is. considering they only reached this level through dedication and hard work. People always rage that bad teams "lack heart" and "don't care" and "have checked out" and it's almost always wrong. It feels better to vent about moral failings than about players just not being good enough.
The problem is that uncertainty and confusion often look exactly like lack of effort--you can't show effort if you don't know know what to do. If they looked like this under Stotts, or any long-time coach, it would be one thing--but we know that Billups has installed an entirely new system that they're struggling with. Why would we jump straight to "formerly dedicated athletes just all stopped caring overnight" instead of "athletes familiar with one system are struggling with knowing where to be in brand new system?" The second seems far more likely. It's not like this is a group of famous malcontents.
Ok, I just don’t agree. I might give someone that excuse offensively. Not on defense. Ever. I don’t think any new scheme is so complex that pros can’t figure it out and even if it’s still confusing to them, effort would still be apparent. I think each guy occasionally has played hard, but I haven’t seen the team played hard consistently.
Gotta say this season has been the most depressing for a while. Really great that we realize we need to rebuild just as the value of all our assets goes in the shitter. But I guess that's kind of how it works. Meanwhile I can't even enjoy football, because key Leeds players keep getting injured. AND I've finished bingeing Squid Game...
It harkens back to when we detonated the team in 2011. That was the last time that I completely checked out on the team. We need to hit the reset button on a massive level. We don't have PA around anymore to tear things down. I don't know why people are surprised by this though. This was a very clear end of the road for a team that treadmilled for so long. Eventually people get frustrated with never gaining any traction. Or people who don't really pull their weight at work. Eventually people start to ask questions and throw a spotlight on that person. Neil and Stotts were exposed finally, but unfortunately it's like people are waking up from a nice dream and are seeing the world as it is.
I guess this is the right thread to drop this in? I think it’s worth a read: https://ziller.substack.com/p/keep-portland-absurd
https://theathletic.com/podcast/8-the-nba-show/?episode=586 Quick said expect big changes in a major way. They want to get more bigger/long/more athletic/switchable guys. They will explore CJ trades. They might need to even explore Dame trades considering how poor ticket sales have been-- team has gotten very stale. Also, Chauncey is very safe and they're fully committed to him. I mean... water is wet.
Explore Dame trades??? Sounds like the product not doing well was the main catalyst for ousting Olshey. He's responsible for the stale product.
Blowing it up doesn’t make sense if you don’t even attempt a retool first. And no I don’t mean trading Roco or other role players. CJ goes and then you evaluate until the end of the season, at least.
In the off-season he said we HAVE to trade CJ, and that never happened. Sounds like his opinion, maybe influenced by Olshey. Also, I don't think it's an uncommon opinion that the Blazers should trade Dame. There's even a contingent of Blazer fans that agree. But it's still just an opinion.
The fans that do show up are lifeless - no enthusiasm whatsoever. This is 100% on Neil and the mediocre product that he built and stubbornly held onto for an entire decade.
What they need to do is send CJ’s ass to the bench. Whatever you can get for Roco, Nurk one of Nas/Ant, and picks. whatevrr we get for CJ won’t be as valuable as him in a vacuum, so might as well just bite the value bullet and have a way overpaid 6th man
I think we can get a sixth man and probably some cap relief for CJ and that's on the low end of what we could get for him. So, no I would never want us to just bring him off the bench for as few minutes as you'd have to play him in order for the defensive liability that he and Dame are together and the offensive stagnation they cause not to hurt the flow of what I'm hoping this team could have. Especially at 31, 33 and then 36M... that's a terrible value. Trade him for the best value you can get for him even though it will be less value than his play in a vacuum due to fucking Neil overpaying him. We have to get value for him and we have to get out from under what the Dame/CJ back court does to our defense and the disruption it would cause to what I hope will one day be a cohesive offense. Oh but I do agree with you that we have to move RoCo and Nurk as well. Bobby Marks from ESPN had a video last week or early this week "Fixing the Blazers". He discussed very thoughtfully the fact that for sure we can get value back for RoCo and Nurk and that we need to. He then for half a second said that CJ still has good value but that because Dame has the greatest value it is time to trade Dame. He went on and on with his horrible take that we should trade Dame away, leaving the fact that he feels CJ has good value burried.
An average of 2000 seats are empty for Blazer games… The only time Moda had energy was for the Laker game — where it was 50/50 Blazer/Laker fans
