Claver: Seems to know exactly what to do at all times, but might not have the skill level to get it done consistently. There are guys dubbed million dollar body, 2 cent brain....Claver might be the opposite. Aldridge: Looked great Lopez: Nothing has changed since my last observation Matthews: Never been a fan of his, like the rest of you, and he is re-enforcing that to me the more I see him play Lillard: Looked tonight that he was indeed making more of an effort to draw contact. One of the things he needs to work on, so that's awesome Robinson: Does he have some Mo Lucas in him? he has a lot of emotions, and once he gets those under control he could be nasty. He looked very nice tonight Freeland: Looked as if he found a comfort zone tonight. is that his role? Leonar_: Fucking horrible. When a Plumblee makes you look like shit, you are shit Williams: Light years better than anything we had backing up Lillard last year. He and Lillard looked like they played together well Crabbe: I don't seem to share the enthusiasm for him as some of you other posters. Seems to be one of those not quite guys. Barton: Nice to see the hard work pay off. needs to play a little more under control. Offense: Still discombobulated Defense: Embarrassing
Disagree on Robinson. That's stupid nasty, not useful nasty, and he gets blocked and stripped entirely too much. Needs to just focus on rebounding and stop thinking he's a scorer. Should get no plays run for him this year, unless in the D-League. The elbow: that isn't the first time I've seen him do that. In fact, he does it A LOT. He was even doing it to other Blazers in the fanfest! He needs to cut that shit out RIGHT NOW. Re: Lillard. We wanted two things from him this year: a better effort on D and fewer minutes. Looks like the first is taking care of the second, because he's picking up fouls like crazy.
It's odd to say he should focus on rebounding as part of an analysis of a game where he got 6 rebounds in 13 minutes, nevermind that he was also 2 for 4. Sounds like he should be playing 40 mpg not DLeague. Yes, he's immature in a variety of ways. Some of us are hoping that after a few years of Lillard/C.J. influence he'll grow up. He's trying stuff defensively and finding out what the refs will put up with. Some of us see this as a good thing.
By "focus on" I did not mean "work on improving," I meant, "realize that that's his role." Who is this collective that has appointed you its spokesman? Or are you just Borg?
One thing I took away from last night was that we are still hopeless when it comes to defending Goran Dragic! That guy looks like Chris Paul against us. I know he's a decent player overall, but can't believe how good we make him look. The other thing: who built this Phoenix roster? Short of Bledsoe, Gortat and Dragic, the only other name on the stat sheet I recognized was Hornacek. I never did like Hornacek either.
It's weird: they've got a ton of PG-sized players and a ton of centers and comparatively few middle-sized players. Remember when we all wanted Len? He looked slow and skinny last night. But he did manage to provoke just about all our frontcourt players.
In response to the point on Claver, he's a perfect glue sort of guy for me but needs to play with the starters. If I had my choice, he'd start at the 3, Batum at the 2, and Mathews to the bench. In the starting rotation he'd be a perfect fit. Doesn't need shots, but will from time to time make a three, rebounds a little, and always seems to make the right pass. If the NBA kept assists like the NHL does, he'd have a ton as he always seems to be the guy to pass the ball to the guy who passes the ball. Tremendous basketball IQ, but your right his NBA skills are probably below average. That being said, stick him with LA, Damian and Nic, I like what he can provide.
I have said this in the past as well. He is not a go-to scorer by any means. And he doesn't need to score at all if he started. He just does a lot of the intangibles that would fit well with the first unit. But at the same time he can still play with the starters without actually starting. Hopefully Stotts will have 2-3 starters in the game at all times. I prefer not having two separate units unless it is a blowout.
Leonard is terrible. 1 rebound? If we could trade him for Jeff Withey I'd do it. I'm worried rebounding is going to be a big problem for this team as it isn't a strength of 2 board Lopez either. At least Lopez has proven he has value in other areas.
My impression is that defense has been the focus early in camp, and combine that with the fact we have a lot of new faces and lots of guys have been sitting out with minor injuries, and it's not really much of a surprise. I think it will get better, the only direction is up. The two areas that really stood out as horrific are transition defense and fouling. The transition defense can be partly attributed to our discombobulated offense which is leading to a lot of turnovers and a lot of points off those turnovers. Surely they're working on some aspect of defense in practice, I just can't figure out what exactly it is... It's been hard to watch but everything is fixable. This is what camp is for. The two most pleasant surprises for me have been Crabbe and Freeland. Barton seems improved so far as well, but there's something about the way he plays that doesn't instill confidence in me. Claver's starting to grow on me. And I like Robinson's toughness, since as a team we have none. But needs to keep that in check. Toughness does us no good when it's in the locker room by halftime. I was bummed to hear weeks ago that Leonard had worked on his 3-pointer during the off-season. Literally ever aspect of his game needed work except for that. So not surprised he hasn't progressed on defense in the slightest. Not concerned about Wesley or Lopez, I think they'll be fine come regular season. Mo is going to be fun to watch too.
Goran Dragic scored 26 points in the last 13 minutes of a playoff game against Tony Parker. It happens.
I was very encouraged by the time that Williams and Lillard played together. Mo still seems rusty with his shot, but he's a million times better than anyone else we've had at that position in the last ten years or so.
