I've got to say, I haven't felt great watching the preseason games. Literally only Lillard is looking good. Obviously we knew that we over-performed last season, presumably because of excellent chemistry, but the converse of that is that our success is very fragile, because chemistry can be disrupted easily. The huge scoring droughts haven't come when we're putting a bunch of scrubs out there: they've come when we've had key rotation players out there. Neither CJ nor Crabbe has looked good, and neither of them seems capable of drawing FTs to save their lives. Turner is on an almost 1 to 1 assists to turnovers ratio, Harkless and Aminu look hesitant, Plumlee still can't shoot, the difference is he now thinks he can and I can't even look at Meyers with that stupid hair. I may just check in in 2017 to see if they've managed to work Turner in. Otherwise, we SERIOUSLY need a trade, and given the contracts we handed to Turner and Crabbe, I think it's very likely to involve CJ.
And before the inevitable "it's pre-season" - yeah, I know. But it's very rare that teams have a totally meh pre-season and then just turn it around on a dime. And the teams that do are veteran teams who just rest their main guys totally, and we're not doing that. Plus, weren't we supposed to be ahead of the curve because everybody's been hanging out in San Diego?
Way too premature. Preseason isn't about winning the games so much - more about working on things to get ready for the season. The players, individually, get a chance in game situations to take contested 3pt shots or whatever, that they wouldn't normally do in regular games yet. Stotts gets to try out assorted combinations of players with goals other than winning in mind. Like forcing a guy to play defense against bigger players. I've seen enough of Stotts and the players to believe in them.
We looked damn good in the first quarter last night when Aminu and Harkless were hitting threes and all 5 guys were flying around on D. What CJ have you been watching? After his initial hiccups, he's been dominating out there. He seems quicker to me. And AC has looked so much more comfortable with his 1 dribble pullups. And did you catch him execute a perfect P&R with Plums last night? I suppose it's all a matter of expectations. If you figured CJ, AC, and even ET would transform themselves into superstars because of their new salaries, you'll be unhappy. But with incremental small improvements, and some more cohesion, this team looks crazy deep. Give it time.
This team can score in bunches when they are hitting from the outside and will struggle when they are not hitting their shots. ... Pretty simple. They don't play top-half defense and they get very few way baskets and have nothing of an inside game. They are a pretty versatile group but there is at least one odd man out given the 9-man rotation that is the league norm.
Check out the pre-season records (and how the teams played) in 2000, between the Blazers and Lakers. No, I'm not saying that this years team is on par with the 2000 Lakers, but they looked horrible.
Lillard went off against the Lakers, but he has not played well either. Going to San Diego had nothing to do with on court chemistry. But it should help keep them on the same page until they improve it. Making a trade right now just makes things worse.
I hear rumors that CJ has been very vocal in practice about how the new guys are not learning the system. Doesn't sound like CJ at all. Anyone have any inside news on this?
I plan to thoroughly enjoy the season...I believe guys will gel and get on the same page. I don't get the need of some folks here to assign blame for summer league mistakes. I say if you don't like this roster or staff you can follow any of the other 29 other teams. Show some support and give the new guys some rope to acclimate.
Of which, only Turner will see big minutes and is important. Ezeli has been hurt, so I doubt he's practiced much.
It's preseason. The lineups are loose. Stotts has been playing everybody that's avalable, trying different lineups and matchups. Come regular season the rotation is going to tighten up, the third strings will go back to warming the bench, and the Blazers starters will play more minutes. I'm not worried a bit. I'm actually excited. It's shaping up to be a good season.
The inevitable letdown.... I'm not feelin' it either. But, the reason is that we get all excited to see basketball again after many months off, and this feeling holds through the first or 2nd game. We then realize that it's just preseason, it doesn't matter, the team isn't even running all there plays. It's easy to lose interest, even a sense of boredom sets in. Here's what's even worse, I think the players feel the same way. It's not too concerning, except for the fact that it'll happen again next year, and the year after.....
This season is pretty much over at this point. Now we have to wait until late October 2017. The off season seems to get longer and longer.
