The reason that Portland has not made a playoff run in the last ten years has little to do with depth. Consider all of the players who never got a good shot here but went on to have successful careers elsewhere. Those players weren't utilized here because a coach in this small market believes that victory depends entirely on his key players and he can't risk using reserve talent. The bench has never really developed because they don’t have enough responsibility, so the reserves feel like victory doesn’t really depend on them and they don’t need to play their best game for any reason except to earn minutes. Naturally, the expectation that a few players do the lion’s share of the scoring also backfires whenever one of those players goes cold, gets hurt, etc. People act like we can’t win without Aldridge, but the notion that he is a superstar is one of the biggest problems we have as a team. We wouldn’t be destroyed if we freed up the cap space and brought in an array of new talent or a free agent who was a better inside scorer. It was unfortunate when we traded for Afflalo, because we already had good backup shooting guards in McCollum and Barton, and we didn’t have a better garbage man than Robinson, assuming that he had a chance to play to extended minutes. We gave up two young, talented players and a first rounder for an experienced guy that we didn’t need. This is the sort of ‘win now’ myopia that has ruled the back office. “We need scoring off the bench!” someone thinks, but no one understands why we don’t have it. As terrible as it is to watch Meyers miss an assignment on defense, it is great to see him get a chance to perform. Along with McCollum, these are two guys we should remain invested in. Lopez’ performance is usually unimpressive, especially on the boards and above the rim because his feet never seem to leave the floor. Leonard is potentially a better defender and inside scorer if he can learn to put the ball on the floor, post up, and generally, play like a center. Somehow, Terry Stotts won’t let anyone but Aldridge do this. We are still a perimeter team, and we give up a lot of points inside because we are too used to spreading the floor. We aren’t a *bad* defensive team because no one is lazy, or too offensively minded, and we are not a *bad* rebounding team because we have relatively good size, but we are not *good* on defense or on the boards because no one is particularly aggressive inside. That just isn’t our style of play. We won’t really succeed unless we stop trying to run big men off the pick and roll, but leave them inside so there is a real threat to defend in addition to the perimeter. The winning formula is never predictable, but our losing formula is: shut down our perimeter offense and we don't have much to rely on except the individual efforts of our streaky all-star reserves. Shut them down, and we don't have anything except perimeter offense. We can't win without a balanced attack, and that is easy to achieve if we have the confidence to develop players instead of bedding marquee talent. Imagine if the guy from Moneyball said, "No, we're not going to rely on Sabermetrics, smallball, love and common sense. We're going to waste our cap on a second-rate star who won't help us win." Neil Olshey, meet the Grizzlies, a team full of has-beens and nobodies, and a gritty, hardworking group that knows it can win. We really need to learn from this series, from the failures of Aldridge and Lillard, the successes of McCollum, and Leonard, and the fact that Wesley Matthews or Aaron Afflalo couldn't have solved a team that swept us in the regular season. We need to stop lauding our personnel and demand more of the franchise.
We have too many guys who want to be heroes and make 3-point shots. Not enough guys who want to do the dirty work inside.
We don't cut bait and trade guys that have obviously peaked. We hold on to them until their stock has fallen to nothing. This front office has been far too timid to make the big deal.
It's too bad Wes went down. It's the last run with this core group of the Blazers and we never really found out what their pinnacle was. If Wes' injury was something with stronger odds of fully returning from, I think Allen would greenlight another go with this group. Now, I think he'll let Olshey go forward with his original designs of rebuilding the team. I think the fanbase is ready for it. We've had 8..9? years with Aldridge, Batum, Wes....Blake! It's probably time for another new era. Not quite sure that means the Lillard era.
Since few will read the opening post (I was reluctant, too), I will summarize it for you: We can't win without a balanced attack. Year after year, Blazer subs don't develop, because the starters get too many minutes. Olshey's misjudgment in trading for Afflalo was caused by not giving a chance to subs like McCollum and Barton (not to mention Robinson and Leonard). We won't be destroyed if Aldridge goes.
Who are all these young players from your second sentence that were eventually great elsewhere? Patty Mills is the only one I can think of, and he is great as a backup. Jarrett Jack was a already a great backup here as a rookie just as he seems to be every other year. I think the coaching staff has done a good job developing our bench. Meyers has been given small chances to succeed and protected from his own failures which has allowed him to grow to what he did this week. This series was lost because of injuries and because our two allstars were outplayed by the other teams allstar and allstar snub. It was lost because we failed in the end of the regular season and didn't get home court advantage against a weaker opponent. There are very few teams that contend for a title and we were right there in the mix this season. Yes it didn't work out but its the most fun I had rooting for this franchise in 15 years and I have zero regrets. Only 1 team out of 30 wins the title so no matter what the front office does its extremely likely the season will end in disappointment. All you can hope for is a chance and we had a better chance this year than most. The Knicks haven't had a year like this since they had Ewing and the Clippers went 3 decades with less and those are the two biggest markets in the country. Its a bit unrealistic to expect a title contender every year. I'm happy to have a team that needs a few lucky breaks to contend and we didn't get those breaks this year. The Spurs and Mavs got bounced in the first round then brought back similar teams to win titles so I hope our team follows that blueprint.
Mills was a big one, and he definitely was neglected here, last on the depth chart even when he was healthy. Channing Frye stepped up in Phoenix after he left. Jerryd Bayless and Dante Cunningham have become dependable reserves elsewhere. Jermaine O'neal became a superstar in Indiana. Rasheed Wallace and Cliff Robinson were champions in Detroit, although they started here. We have a history of passing up on great talent, MJ and Durant. This is in the back of my mind. I didn't expect us to contend for the title; there were just too many problems with our play. We were swept by the Grizz in the regular season when everyone was healthy, so the argument that we lost because of injuries doesn't really hold. You're right that it was a more enjoyable year, but some of us expect these players to earn their money, to play their best every night regardless of the score or the standings. I don't care if we lose a game if we can give credit to the winning team rather than finding fault with our coaching staff and personnel moves.
Wheelbarrow, you left out Juwan Howard, the peanut-paid hero who rescued us when Pritchard assumed that Oden, Przybilla, Pendergraph, and Cunningham would be there. Only Cunningham was, but we had 50 wins. So Pritchard threw Howard out on his ear, and the board said ho hum.
Dirk Nowitsky (beat FUCKING Lebron.....) Karl Malone (ring stolen by Jordan) Charles Barkley (ring stolen by Jordan) not to mention Tim Duncan....
Grass is always greener. Bayless and Frye and Jack make a combined 18 million dollars. If they were here putting up inconsistent numbers here it would be an epic freakout about "cap clogging journeymen making too much money blocking the development of our young players etc" I mean fuck, no matter what, half of y'all are gonna be miserable. At their salaries, would you rather have Frye or Leonard? Cj or bayless? I mean jack is ok but seriously, for 6.3 MM? You want to see Jarrett Jack off the bench? Gross.
I've pointed out before, and I'll point out again--any championship team, is, by definition, an exception. Only 3.3% of the teams in the league win a championship. To look at the 96.7% of losers to find "rules" which prevent a title is silly.
