Here's what Olshey, Blazers have to do this offseason

Eggers is fucking pro. Old school. A real journalist.

Quick is a TMZ scrub. Canzano might as well be Perez Hilton.

 

Quick has definitely given a back alley blow job

 

The article consists of Eggers' exit interviews. What's notable is that two players held their cards close to the vest, and two others didn't. Aldridge and Matthews are at the top of their positions among this summer's FAs. So they refused his attempts to get them to say they favor the Blazers. Lopez and Kaman aren't hot properties, so they spoke enthusiastically of returning. It appears to me that the probability of return is 50% for the first two, and 100% for the last two. Olshey already knows the summer's chronological order of which players get signed (or not).

Speaking of differences in holding one's cards close to the vest...After last season, Olshey took a couple of weeks to decide whether to replace Stotts. This time, Olshey says there is no decision to make. Why the change in the decision process?

 

Stotts signed the extension the day after the playoffs ended last year. Neil has always been fully in his court.

 

Nearing 30 with a career altering injury I fail to see how Wessy's stock is rising.

 

Last season, there was a little suspense. Articles said that there might be a change in either head or assistant coaches. When "the process" finished (I don't think Olshey's the only one who makes the decision), Stotts immediately announced he was keeping all assistants, to their relief.

In hindsight, maybe it was just a motivational technique to get Stotts to win the first round, but it was in articles, and the issue was discussed on the board. This season, there has been no mention of the "process," and now it's over before it starts.

What struck me in the article was that Aldridge and Matthews wouldn't throw even a bone of hope to Blazer fans, while Lopez and Kaman happily affirmed they wanted to go nowhere else. So I lowered my estimate to 50% for Aldridge and Matthews.

 

This is why I love Kaman and hope he comes back

 

Something clicked with Meyers.

He defended Gasol better than either Lopez or Aldridge.

 

Yeah that was cool and it seems to me his mentoring has really helped Meyers, nice to see Meyers is getting married and doing so in Portland

 

yeah that sounded like classic hype to try to get a battered stock to rise, and I'd do the same thing but reality is reality. I think Wes either signs a 1 yr deal to prove himself and then get a nice 4 yr deal the following summer, or he takes a decent bit less now to sign a longer term security deal

 

Not surprised by Wes/LMA comments. Those two most likely have a sheet their agents have given them and told to only say whats on that sheet.

 

Pretty good article, but it didn't really tell us anything we didn't already know. I really like Terry Stotts, the person. Like his demeanor, his level headedness, his temperament. But I have serious concerns about the X's & O's with him.

Offensively: By Jan it was apparent that Batum wasn't right, while Lillard had been lights out. At this time a strategy for defending the Blazers emerged . . . Get the ball out of Lillard's hands. Trap him, jump pick & rolls, or run over the top of screens forcing him to drive towards the basket. DON'T LET HIM SQUARE UP ON 3's (even deep 28' +). Batum's defender could cheat off him. Wesley's defender would try to take away his catch and shoot 3s & make him attack off the bounce, which is not his strength. Our offense suddenly became inept. When the defense would extend pressure, there weren't any passing lanes to get the ball down low to LA. He'd end up coming out 20' from the basket to get the ball & w/o the defense having to rotate he's not in a good scoring position for a PF. We all know he can shoot it, but when everything is contested & nobody underneath to rebound, it wasn't pretty. Dame stopped getting good looks, and not coincidentally they stopped going in. When he DID get decent looks, his rhythm & confidence weren't there. When Wes went down it only got worse. To make matters worse there were no adjustment made. With teams extending pressure & chasing us off the 3 pt line, we should have been able to get better looks around the basket. That didn't happen. All we heard from Terry as the losses started to pile up was "I like the looks we're getting . . . we're just not making shots." Contested/forced 3s, & LA fadeaway 20'ers aren't looks we should be happy with. Very disappointed in the stubbornness, lack of creativity, or whatever it was that kept him from adjusting to how we were being defended. And why can't we inbound the ball?

Defensively: Where to start? Last in the league in steals . . . for the 2nd year in a row. We just don't pressure or extend our defense at all. We let teams walk the ball up and get into their offense all day/everyday. Memphis' offense was brutal after AS break. As teams pressured their backcourt, they struggled & that was WITH Conley! You're playing into their hands when you let Calathes walk it up & throw an easy toss to Gasol or Z-Bo. Steve Kerr won't overlook that & the Grizz will get destroyed w/o Conley. And the way we defend the pick & roll is frightening. While other teams are running their bigs out at Dame, making his life miserable, OUR bigs just sag back and give up open jumpers. If you're a PG & you like to shoot midrange jumpers your eyes light up when you see PDX on the schedule. It's not all Dame here. More times than not he's getting screened when Beno Udrih is sticking open jumpers. What adjustments do we make? Why don't we mix up our coverages more? Terry likes to stay true to his principle of playing "sound" defensively & "contesting" midrange shots. Need to be more creative than that coach.

Line-ups: Sure, we had a lot of injuries. But how he decides who comes off the bench & for how long is anybody's guess. Did Meyers & CJ play over their heads in the final games of the series? Meyers looks like a 7'1" Kyle Korver & CJ can get to the basket & shoot it. If LA & Dame shoot their normal % that series could have been awesome with the way Meyers/CJ were playing. Coach talked about how "disjointed" CJ's first couple of years have been. You can't blame that all on injuries. It just feels like the bench hasn't been used right & roles aren't very well defined.

I'm not saying Stotts should be gone, but he needs to learn from this season & get better. We need to be a more dynamic team on both sides of the ball. To beat the big physical teams (Grizz/Hawks/Jazz), the gazelles of the league (Wariors/Clippers/Thunder), and the high IQ teams (Spurs), that's going to require some versatility. It seems like we only know how to play one way right now. That has to change. If we are staring at the same issues after next season then he should be on the Hot Seat.

 

The problem i see is the way Matthews and Aldridge seem to be tied together. There is just no way Wes's Stock went up. I don't care if he says he wants to come back 300%. The very nature of that injury is not just tough to come back from but it also takes longer than 5 months to come back to whatever level he might actually come back at. Be it 85% or 110% it wont be known for many months and possibly the entire season.
The Blazers have to walk a narrow line here but i think they will do it. They have to offer enough as to not disrespect him but also allow themselves some way to protect against a bad situation. My feeling is if they take care of Wes then Aldridge will be much more willing to stick around here. Not saying he is not but if there was some kind of disrespect towards Wes it could have an effect.
This could also work in the Blazers favor. They fight tooth and nail to keep Wes and Aldridge is sold on coming back no question?

This article is just head and shoulders above the garbage being passed of as journalism over at O-Live. It's actually kind of criminal. The minute the playoffs were done the overall Blazer coverage has all but ended. But at least Quick isn't running a "Aldridge is leaving" 4 paragraph drive by shooting every day and Johnny C has nothing remotely original to write so he has been quiet. Guess you have to count your blessing.

 

Great post by Kaydow; I pretty much agree with everything in it. Lack of adjustment on both offense and defense are also the two big faults i saw with Blazers. This was not only over the season by also within a game. And also lack of creativity, especially on defense as far as mixing up coverage, as mentioned by kaydow. Stotts has made some adjustments from season to season so hopefully he can do it again. Denny hints at an idea; bringing a strong, new assistant coach in with some new ideas; Olshey might "suggest" this.

 

Alright. I would agree with that but there is no way he gets a 4 year deal the same as he would have got pre-injury.