But this can't be a surprise. Stotts has ridden the starters hard since the beginning of the season and it was only a matter of time before they wore down. He can say he doesn't have a bench but at the same time, they haven't really had much of a chance to develop and get better. Every year Pop finds some scrub and turns him into a gem by playing him all season long so by the end of the year, the kid has confidence and is contributing. Stotts seems to think he will just ride the starters for 40-42 minutes in the playoffs after wearing them out all season long. Just doesn't make much sense. They have lost a little swagger but that comes a lot from scheduling. In the first couple of months, they played a ton of games against the East and almost every playoff team was at home. Now those Eastern games have gone away and they are playing playoff teams on the road much more often and real contenders are stepping up in the 2nd half of the season as they tend to do almost every year.
Yup. We blew a 10 point half-time lead. I think it's cumulative though. I think our starters are just exhausted. We saw the same thing last season. We need a damn bench. It's not Neil's fault that Wright and Mo have turned out so badly, but something must be done.
Great post and something I've been trying to tell people on Blazersedge for a while now, but the homerism is absolutely insane over there. This is not a shooting funk and the fatigue will only get worse as the seasons goes on which doesn't bode well for our jump shooting offense.
That's some nice analysis, refuted only by the facts. Nobody on the team averages more than 37 minutes a game.
The swag is gone? The Blazers played the top two teams in the league, Indiana and the Thunder, in the past week. They lost both games, but could have won each if a single shot had gone their way. In neither game has their most experienced player off the bench been available. In last night's game, LMA shot less than 25%, and how often is that going to happen? Yeah, put me on the list of those not jumping off the bandwagon.
Oops....This was supposed to be a reply to Blazer Caravan's post. Nimber of starters in the top 40 of Avg minutes played OKC - 1 SAS - 0 LAC - 2 HOU - 3 GS - 3 IND - 2 MIA - 1 POR - 4
Guys are banged up. Guys look tired. I don't see this changing, and possibly only getting worse. I really hope Neil makes a trade.
The same thing happened last year, the starters were ridden into the ground and completely sucked at the end of the season. these guys are going to be dead by the playoffs if there aren't any trades.
But how do professional athletes get worn down by playing 35-40 minutes of horse three to four times a week?
I am partially joking. But it's not like we're pounding away in the low-post on offense. And it's not like we're pounding anywhere on defense. We are probably the most contact-phobic team in the league.
It's less impressive when you split it a bit more: Number of players playing 36.1 minutes or more (Top 20): OKC - 1 SAS - 0 LAC - 0 HOU - 2 GS - 2 IND - 1 MIA - 1 POR - 2 Number of players between 21 and 40 (i.e., 36 minutes or less): OKC - 0 SAS - 0 LAC - 2 HOU - 1 GS - 1 IND - 1 MIA - 0 POR - 2 If you can't play 36 minutes a game and you're under the age of 30, you might not be in very good shape for a pro.
The thrill is gone, we can no longer close out tight games. Season Over before the All-Start Break. [video=youtube;J7s4RpQJ5ek]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7s4RpQJ5ek[/video]
Number of players playing 36.9 minutes or more (Top 10): OKC - 1 (3rd) SAS - 0 LAC - 0 HOU - 2 (2nd and 5th) GS - 2 (6th and 7th) IND - 0 MIA - 1 (8th) POR - 1 (9th)
