Re: Here's a Thought I've said this many times before, but McMillian's rotations are terrible. He sticks to them even if the guys are playing hot. And again, we should never have Outlaw and Rudy in the same unit. They do not work well together on defense at all.
Re: Here's a Thought I won't disagree he tried a flop or two as the Rockets were getting away with them. At least he was hit and then flopped.
Re: Here's a Thought The only flop I didn't agree with, was the charge that got LA the third foul, I believe, against Scola. That was crap-tastic. All of the other flops both sides were pretty even. However, Roy drove a couple of times and got huge body contact and didn't get a call. My question is, what happened to Rudy's driving abilities? Why wasn't bayless in to provide defense against Brooks, he was torching blake all night Why wasn't Batum played more at the three last night, he doesnt SUCK on defense like Trout. Why dont we have another offensive weapon when Roy is out? What happened?
Re: Here's a Thought Our bench is playing really bad lately against good teams. It's basically Rudy and Travis who have to carry that unit, and when they're not hitting, it gets ugly fast.
Re: Here's a Thought Another pearl of BBall wisdom on display from "I coached the most athletically freaky humans at the olympics so I must be a good coach" McMuffin. Simple. Guys gotta go.
Re: Here's a Thought Thank you!!! These slow starts are really starting to bother me, you can't even use the excuse that there was a back to back this time. They seem to come out on fire and then can't sustain the intensity or they come out with no fire and play catch up for the rest of the game. I'm concerned because this seems like a coaching issue to me and it's not getting any better... they've been really lucky to win some of those games and the come from behind mojo ran out last night.
Here's a Thought: Part Deux We just are not that good of a team. (Not HCA worthy at least) We don't take advantage of mismatches. We should have pounded the ball in the post all night long and run it through the bigs. Time to lower expectations and pray we just make it in the playoffs. As I type this, it is the 6th straight road games we have fallen behind by 15 or more points on the road. We played the Rockets without T-Mac and the Spurs without Duncan and Manu and it wasn't even close. At times we may have got close, but you never got the feeling we were going to pull it out. I do not believe a trade would have helped us this year. Our coach is our achilis heel. We play way too much one on one offense and our defense is piss poor. We switch too many pick and rolls. Nate seems like a good guy, but I think I am at my turning point with him. I know he can't control Roy being so off, but he could have put in Bayless to attack the rim or quit playing Blake so damn much when is so off. We have no shot at winning playoff games on the road if we can't make hay against teams hurting from injuries. At least Channing Frye showed forms of life and we found a way to contain Parker a little in the 2nd...too bad Nate didn't realize that Batum and Outlaw would have been good to start the game on Parker. I am seeing the same bad signs I saw in Cheeks that I see in Nate And yes, if we don't win on Friday..time to
Re: Here's a Thought: Part Deux Here's a Thought: we have the 8th best record in the NBA. There are 22 teams that wish they had our record. I know you want us to go 82-0 but it's not gonna happen. Enjoy. We're having our best season in 6 years.
If we are playing for the future we better get Bayless in there as much as possible, along with Roy, Batum, Aldridge and Gregory.
YEP YEP YEP!! I completely agree. Im fine with taking some lumps along the way if we are truly building towards the future. But our playing rotations and players minutes seem to contradict this. Our future is Bayless and Batum then they should be getting more than spot minutes. Management is in one heck of a pickle because the fans are screaming playoffs now yet we are also supposed to be building towards the future.
Not having GO in the lineup hurts this team more than we want to acknowledge. Sure, he hasn't dominated night-in and night-out, but he allows us to bring Przy off the bench. And having Przy with the White Unit helps us with our team defense and second chance points.
I agree, Maxiep. You are spot on when you said not having GO hurts much more than people know/believe. I think the biggest part is the rotation that is effected. Having Greg/Joel on the court at all times unless we CHOSE to not have them on is a HUGE luxery. definitely!
Oden is also always double teamed. Even off the ball he has two defenders watching him. That opens up a whole lot of space for other guys to create in. He also gets and creates a ton of offensive rebounds. Portland can't get second chance opportunities to save it's life without him on the floor. Too bad the entire team has frozen Oden out of the offense. It is sad that Joel gets more passes in the middle then Oden does. Actually, it's not sad. It is infuriating.
I really hope over the summer, Nate and the staff start figuring out a way to get GO involved in the offense. When Greg's engaged on the offensive side of the ball, his defense gets even better.