As the Dude watches these playoffs, I realize how poor our defense is, and how far we need to go in getting better at it. Not sure our best defender is better than Memphis' worst defender.....and Z-Bo is on that team
I don't think you are going to see a defense oriented team with Stotts at the helm. He was an assistant coach and the offensive coach for a championship team, which shows an offensive oriented team can win it all. But i'm with you . . . I think the Blazers need to focus more on defense. In fact I'm of the opnion defense wins championships.
I just looked it up, and Dallas was actually ranked 7th in the league in Defensive rating the year they won the title, and 8th in offensive rating....for what that's worth. They weren't really an offensive oriented team.
The Dude, it all starts from Tony Allen with the Grizz, and I'm worried because he's actually been rumored to be interested in the Blazers (not talking about the rumors from this forum, but from actual local news reports). Marc Gasol's a great all-around player, but no way did he deserve D-POY. The true D-POY was Tony Allen, who was probably the best defensive player in the league for the third year in a row. He's a complete offensive liability, and I don't think I've seen anyone miss as many open lay-ups since Ron Artest, but as a fanbase, we'll gladly take the good with the bad when it comes to "TA," because his work on the defensive end is that important. TA has not only been the catalyst for our defense on the floor, consistently locking down the other team's best scorer, but his energy is also just infectious. He coined our "Grit N Grind" mantra that the team's been living by these last few years, gave our arena its nickname ("The Grindhouse"), and just overall brings that energy that gets his teammates and the crowd into the game. Most NBA fans think he's inconsequential, but down in Memphis, we consider ourselves to have a Big Four (Gasol, Z-Bo, Allen, and Conley). Everyone else is trade bait as far as I could give a damn, as long as we keep those four intact. With that said, our new owner is cheap as hell, and there are rumors he might not want to pay up for TA's new big deal. Just letting you know, if you acquire him in free agency and pay him his due, most fans will probably hate the signing, but trust me, he'll not only become a fan favorite half-way through the season, but he'll also be a defensive presence on your team like ya'll haven't seen in a long time. I hope it doesn't come to that, but if it does happen, I assure you that the guy's going to be worth every penny.
Where is this rumor that Allen is interested in the Blazers? I endorse that signing! However, it would kind of make Wesley redundant. And it wouldn't provide the shotblocking center Olshey promised.
Depth and defense are our biggest problems right now, no question. We must play better interior defense. Whether that means getting a defensive center or just playing better help or team defense I'm not sure. I have my doubts that Stotts can get us there. In fact, I'm of the opinion that he's probably a worse coach than McMillan.
When did Memphis become a great defensive team? Trick or Treat Tony has always been stellar on the defensive end, but it wasn't that long ago the team seemed average at best. They kept the same coach and tweaked the personnel, so we ought to be able to do the same thing without a complete overhaul.
Well, they've been one of the potential suitors that people on the sports radio keep talking about, but as for an actual print news source, this was the one that made me actually think it was a possibility - http://www.commercialappeal.com/new...y-allen-says-mind-is-on-not-free/?partner=RSS They ran that story the night we played ya'll last, at the end of the season. It seems like nothing, but for they didn't ask him that when we played San Antonio, Dallas, Sacramento, LAL, Houston, or any of the teams we played down the stretch, and his answer was pretty politically safe: “I ain’t thinking about free agency. I’m thinking about a championship.” There are also rumors that he's at odds with Hollins, and for the franchise it'll either be one or the other in the offseason, but ya'll know how those rumors go...
