It's not so much rationalizing as it is pointing out that home teams have a mental advantage in their home opener. They get amped up and overachieve. Even our shitty sub-.500 teams over the last decade won their home openers. It just happens more often than not.
Glad someone is paying attention. It happens every year. Having said that the Blazers were not sharp in preseason, even with their winning record. They are going to take a while to gel. This forum is going to be ugly.
Re: Can you feel the mediocrity tonight? A lot, but they were open shots and he was making them. He had a variety down low, too. Aldridge's shot selection wasn't an issue.
Re: The Blazers got there ass's handed to them tonight. I was surprised the offensive sets looked so....Nate like. There was no movement. The beat reporters made mention of the lack of movement during the preseason, so it looks like a real problem. I think Stotts was quoted as simplifying the offense this year. Offensive sets are supposed to be his forte. I find it disconcerting, too. My hope is the one-dimensional players showcase their other dimensions once the offense starts moving. With a lot of veterans, it's a little puzzling. Maybe Aldridge missing most the preseason is the reason. He is the straw that stirs the drink after all. The new guys may need to get used to playing with him.
Re: The Blazers got there ass's handed to them tonight. I haven't seen much difference between the two offenses honestly. It is disappointing.
Re: The Blazers got there ass's handed to them tonight. I think the main reason we lost is we got outworked. It shows on the boards. A lot of their paint points were from offensive boards. The long shots ignited a lot of fastbreak opportunities for the Suns and that's where the rest of the paint points came. He was an imperfect coach, but Nate always got his players to play hard. Part of the reason they largely over-achieved (except for that last year). I'm hoping this isn't a trend.
Re: The Blazers got there ass's handed to them tonight. Thank you for posting this! I mentioned after the game the lack of tempo that I noticed early in the game, as the team would just walk the ball up the court and take 12 seconds to get into a set. It was dump the ball, then cutters, then a bad pass or a missed shot off of a bad pass. Repped.
Yes but the Bobcats lost too and they DO suck. Which losing team are we most like? Miami or Charlotte?
I wish the Blazers would, for the first time in decades, hire a real coach instead of these cast off rejects like Cheeks, McMillen, and Stotts. We had multiple changes on getting a real winner like Rick Adelman and blew it. The Blazers look like crap on both ends. A good coach could get a lot more out of this roster.
Wow. It was one game folks. It happens. Some posters around here must enjoy being negative Nancy's in real life over small things.
Re: Can you feel the mediocrity tonight? Perhaps not, but I honestly believe that Aldridge himself is an issue. The guy is almost exclusively an outside shooter anymore. That means we don't have his 6'11 presence in the paint to rebound, block shots, or play defense. And even though he's a very good shooter, you can't win in this league on jump shooting. I'm personally sick of his game. It's become very one-dimensional. You can almost predict the shot he's going to take (after he backs his guy down), and while he's preparing to take his shot, everybody is standing around watching him. I would be very happy if Aldridge was traded for somebody big who was willing to play under the basket.
Re: We need PLAYERS, not shooters I think what we saw from Plumlee was player play like the coach knew some Basketball. He was setup very nicely by Dragic several times. I don't know if Hornacek learned much playing in Phoenix but I think he did playing for Sloan.
Re: Can you feel the mediocrity tonight? I bolded what I noticed mostly from the game last night when he or Dame got the ball. 1. To much standing around 2. Nobody else stepped up to play besides Dame and LMA 3. Where did Batum and Wes go? I feel like they just didn't live up to what they're supposed to be 4. No defense, again... Glad it's one game, but the whole pre-game hoopla about how we kick ass on defense now was overrated.
Re: Can you feel the mediocrity tonight? He did take a lot of jump shots, but he was hardly one dimensional last night on offense. It is the same argument for Damian. Accept what they do well and compliment them with players who do other things. You trade Aldridge for a player who is willing to play under the basket and I guarantee that player will have other deficiencies that LMA does not have.
Re: We need PLAYERS, not shooters I watched the game on KGW (via Dish) and the Phoenix broadcast on League pass, switching between the two. You get the other side that way. Anyway the Phoenix crew showed Olshey talking gesturing and talking some more. All the time Paul Allen, hat down, eyes straight a head, lips tight. Wonder how Neil is doing? Ha! Not so good by the look of it.
One game folks. They looked pretty awful last night, but all of these sweeping judgments are about ten to twenty games too soon.
Re: We need PLAYERS, not shooters Not a big deal. Paul Allen acts like a fan, Neil acts like a professional.
Re: We need PLAYERS, not shooters My Goodness, that is observant. What fan likes to sit there lips tight, animated like the slowly boiled frog?
