For me: Our wing rotation will be very solid. Coming into the preseason, I didn't expect this at all Crabbe can straight up play. His shot might not always be on, but he's no longer scared of shooting. And his reads are always on point and he knows exactly when to shoot and when to take a one dribble pull up, or pass. And his defense is more than passable. Harkless will be a steal. Another unselfish dude who can slash and finish at the rim, and shoot from the corners. Dude's got some sick upside. Can't believe we got him for nothing. Aminu is a defensive monster. And he's shown me he can score off the dribble and make an open outside shot. We have yet to see Henderson but he has to be serviceable at least. I thought SG/SF would be very mediocre this year, but these guys are proving me wrong. What's your most encouraging revelation from the preseason?
Definitely Allen crabbe for me. It looks like hes ready to take a giant step forward. He plays really smart, can play d, can get hot, has a good shot, and always seems to be in the right place. I have no idea why some posters around here have already spewed a bunch of haterade on crabbe.
I'm most surprised by how well this team has jelled. With all the new faces and unfamiliarity among the players, I expected our offense to look a lot more chaotic. But in preseason at least, it feels like the players have been playing with each other a whole lot longer than a month or two. Our offense and defense, though disjointed at times, looks rather smooth.
Team rebounding= I thought we'd be decent BUT... our team will be elite! Vonleh & Davis playing VERY well together= My original thought was not to put these guys together because scoring takes too much a hit BUT after seeing them play together in the Utah game... there's plenty enough scoring not only from our other guys BUT also from these 2 crashing the boards like crazy & getting/contributing enough points through putbacks & broken plays/sets; there's an excellent flow/energy w/ these 2 on the court, so much so in fact that I think we should pull a contrarian type of move: start Lilliard, Harkless, Aminu, Vonleh, & Davis really concentrating on defense (score enough/scoring becomes the 2nd most important thing vs. normally where points comes 1st; to win games, u ONLY have to score MORE points vs. the opponent in the end) AND THEN hit opposing teams (aka their 2nd units) w/ our scoring 2nd unit (Cj, Henson, Crabbe, Mason, Meyers) which will concentrate more on points vs. defense (in actuality, opposing benches won't have the best defense so... really our 2nd unit even though their focus is more offense... they'll actually be able to maintain decent enough defense to not only sustain what the starters did BUT would probably easily be able to gain/grow leads!).
-Moe Harkless and Aminus versatility and length that will cause problems on both ends of the court -The general dominance on the boards. Vonlehs rebounding especially.
I really like this idea, and have been trying to convince the skeptics for a while, but if we have a great defensive first unit and a second unit with CJ, Meyers and the rest, we could really have something good by the end of the season. I would swap Harkless for Henderson and either Vonleh or Davis for Plumlee, but I really like the idea of us playing big and mean and letting our 2 great scorers do what they do best.
Also can we please please please keep Pressey AND Montero? Best D-League backcourt ever (if we had a team...)
I'm surprised. They may have had an extra month, but they also have several years less experience playing in the league. Over and over you hear veteran players say that adjusting to a new team isn't that hard because everybody uses a lot of the same sets (they just call them different things). A seasoned vet with a week of practice is probably better prepared for game environment than one of our kids. Anyway, watching the last couple games it's clear to me we're going to run what I'll call the Labrador Offense. You have a guard who throws the ball at the rim. A big retrieves it. Then a guard throws it at the rim. A big retrieves it. Then a guard throws it at the rim. A big retrieves it. Then a guard throws it at the rim. A big retrieves it. Then a guard throws it at the rim. A big retrieves it. Then a guard throws it at the rim. A big retrieves it. Then a guard throws it at the rim. A big retrieves it. Then a guard throws it at the rim. A big retrieves it. Then a guard throws it at the rim. A big retrieves it. Then a guard throws it at the rim. A big retrieves it. Then a guard throws it at the rim. A big retrieves it. Then a guard throws it at the rim. A big retrieves it. Then a guard throws it at the rim. A big retrieves it. Then a guard throws it at the rim. A big retrieves it. Then a guard throws it at the rim. A big retrieves it. Then a guard throws it at the rim. A big retrieves it. Then a guard throws it at the rim. A big retrieves it. If the guards successfully throw the ball into the rim and the bigs successfully retrieve enough of their many misses, we'll win. If that doesn't happen, we'll lose.
So, can you explain again how you think that offense will function? I'm not sure I caught it the first 17 times...
I agree the big surprise is the chemistry. One of the knocks on the team this year was that it would take time for all these new inexperienced players to get on the same page. Dame and Stotts have done a great job getting this team to play together quicker than most thought.
As improbable as it seems, we have built a pretty competitive team overnight. Maybe these Blazers should be called The Phoenix . . . You know, rising from the ashes and all that.
Only the regular season will tell, and I agree with all the revelations in this thread, but I'll just sum it up with, Neil had an excellent plan for LMA walking.
Yeah, when you look back at other disasters--post 2000 WCF, Roy's injury, Oden's injury--we were caught much less flat-footed this time in many ways. We haven't had as much young and promising talent on the team since the Roy draft.
