Game Thread 2022-23 Game #35 - BLAZERS @ WARRIORS - DECEMBER 30, 2022 - FRIDAY - 7:00 PM (PDT) ROOT

This thread sucks. Lol!

 

Can a mod please change dudes name to AldoNeedsNewSchtikTrapani?

 

1. Doesn't seem likely, but it's December. We've looked very good at times and very bad in others. The loss last night wasn't a physical problem as much as a mental one.
2. Neither is Red Auerbach or Gregg Popovich, but I think, for whatever warts and growing pains Billups has, he's still a better HC than Stotts, who, BTW, I think still would be a very good offensive-minded assistant.
3. Highly unlikely, but, again, there's a lot of time for him to move into the top four or five. One could just as easily point out how many posters here were just the opposite, saying Sharpe wouldn't be a contributor at all. He's already exceeded their expectations by a great deal.
4. Fairly accurate. Consider the defense under Stotts basically was to lull other teams into getting into shooting contests with the Blazers and counting on our better offensive players ultimately to beat them in non-defensive games.

In any event, there's still a lot of season left. We've seen examples of both extremes. Claiming we really can make conclusions now, as emotional as a lot of us might feel, really isn't true. In May, we'll see what we really are and aren't.

 

Narrator: "He didn't and we did"

 

It was the right call, I see

 

Positives: we played well in the third quarter as well as the second quarter? Now we just need the first and the fourth.

 

Klay was pre-injury, but hasn't returned to that level yet....unless he is playing against the Blazers' defense. His efficiency and defense have declined quite a bit.
Poole plays perhaps less defense than our backcourt.....which is a staggering thought.
Green is still very good defensively, but has lost a step and his shooting has been abysmal the last 4 years.

Wiggins could have easily been the Finals MVP last year. He is now their most versatile defender (defense means something outside of Portland) and he was shooting 45% from '3' before his injury. Can score, rebound and defend while getting almost 20 ppg.

 

IDK?
Kinda seems like he's pretty much back. He's scoring 19 instead of 20-21 a game but now he also is sharing the load with Poole.
Minutes per game are down to 31.5 instead of 34 so that might be the drop in scoring as well?
He's attempting more 3's this year at 10 instead of 7 or 8. That would explain the drop in percentages. His overall EFG is down .04%. (That's 4 one hundredths of a point from 18-19).
Total rebounding is essentially the same at 3.8
Assists, Steals, Blocks are all about the same as pre injury.
His three point percentage is a bit lower but like i said he is shooting more.

Bottom line that is Klay Thompson out there with three rings. This "Pre-Injury" tag everyone is throwing at him is a mirage. That dude worked his ass off and is back. Now I'm betting we will indeed see a drop off sooner than later now after dealing with those injuries but that just doesn't seem to be the case right now?

 

He had an awful start to the season and is steadily working his way back, but a lot of people made up their minds early and can't acknowledge that.

 

couldn't watch the game but it looks like I missed what was good to miss....there should be a joke about blazer shooting somewhere in that

didn't read this game thread either but I'll just assume Meltdowns-R-Us

 

he's only 60 games back after missing 2 seasons with a torn ACL and a torn Achilles, back-to-back, and he's turning 33 in about 6 weeks. Pretty impressive he's doing what he's doing after that double-disaster. It's almost certain he'll never be the player he was, but considering what he was, it's too early to write him off

 

Big swings can result in some big misses! All good!

 

2. Fair to like Billups better than Stotts. Tough to make a realy strong case one is far superior than the other. Easy to make a case that one is better than the other though (in either direction).

4. I find this to be a weird arguement. Basically you're saying you visually like the way we play defense now, despite the results not being significantly better. If this new style of defense is a way better strategy, the case would also have to be made that the roster is way worse defensively, which also seems like a major reach.

Certainly agree with your overall conclusion that it's still too early to draw huge conclusions. Meaning it was WAY WAY too early to draw meaningful conclusions 6 weeks ago.

 

Not by results it isn't... You have to weave a story to come to that conclusion at this point.

I certainly hope the results end up making this to be the case though. We'll be in great shape!

 

You know warriors were short handed too

 

Maybe I didn't convey it well, but, with No. 4, yes, visually I like the way we play defense now. In Stotts system, there essentially was no defensive system, not a deep one, at least. The defense was playing great offense.

I think you can throw "the results not being significantly better" argument out the window for two reasons. First, it's a small sample size. Second, our players still are getting used to playing with each other and, by extension, the system we're playing.

Why is it so important if people got hyped and did?

This is what I think is a weird discussion: The need to prove people who saw signs we were making progress, turning a corner, and even being good were wrong and during a bad stretch a few weeks later going to the opposite extreme and rubbing it in the faces of fans, who, you know, wanted to be fans.

The only reason I can come off with for fans of one team to try to bring down fans of the same team and actually revel in that team struggling is because it makes them feel personally better about themselves like they found some affirmation in the team's poor play. Meanwhile, they don't realize the self-own of doing the exact same type of thing about a mistaken judgment of the team based on a small stretch of games and risk having to go away on business if the Blazers go on a win streak because they'll look silly and hypocritical.

To each their own. Personally, my life is unaffected by whether Poster A missed the mark in thinking the team was going to be great or Person B thought the team was going to be bad and finds biases to confirm their feelings. I just wouldn't feel good if I was continually trying to go out of my way to try to make other posters feel stupid over getting excited with the blind spot of doing the exact same thing they're being called out over.

 

You're not going to see me calling out individual posters who didn't think the Blazers would win 30 games if they end up winning more than 40. If I thought they were going to win 25 and that's what they did, I wouldn't be scoreboarding other Blazer fans who thought we might make a deep playoff run. I'd feel ridiculous doing that to people. I couldn't even imagine doing it to fellow Blazer fans if I didn't actually see it, especially in (checks calendar) December.

 

Imagine what it’s like to do that to somebody who picked a low win prediction? To claim this team has a weak bench and be shamed as somebody who doesn’t know anything about basketball….. HA! I love this place.