What Neil did this offseason, was like going out car shopping with $150,000, and going out and spending it all on a Toyota Corolla. In that scenario, you had better come home with a Corolla and $130,000. Crabbe, Turner, and Leonard are not doing anything for us that we couldn't get from guys making 1/5th the salary. He brought us to the luxury tax threshold for nothing. I think tonight's game was further proof that this is a two man show. Damian and CJ have to light it up one on one for the Blazers to barely beat a mediocre team at home. Neil can't be blamed for not landing players, but look at how he tried to massively overpay Hawes and Hibbert. And the cash/production ratio from this off-seasons signings has been nothing but abysmal. Harkless is the only saving grace, and he was like an after-thought.
Harkless is my 3rd favorite player on the team. I mentioned him as being the saving grace, but the Blazers are still a two man show. CJ or Dame have to dominate for Portland to barely win.
Harkless is just part of the scenery. Truth is, you pretty much take any teams top 3-12 players and replace them with our 3-12 and we wouldn't fare any worse.
Whenever Dame has left the court, the Blazers get murdered...the only exception to that is when CJ is killing it one on one.
We get murdered because we put the ball in Turner's hands and he turns it over. We really should explore trades that unload Turner. It's just not the right fit. He did well in Boston. Send him back.
Small sample size but here is Turner's +/- per game on the year -17 -1 -7 +3 -36 -10 -11 +10 Total: -127 for an average of -16 per game. This is the worst on the team by far. Crabbe is second worse which makes sense to me. The Crabbe/Turner wing combination sounds good in theory but it's been dreadful in practice.
I never liked the Evan Turner signing. I was peeved when he locked up that large sum money to him just to say he signed someone. There are questions now on whether or not he fits in. I never felt he did. I think Neil sometimes does things to save face. I think he's been a failure in a lot of ways and have felt that way for a several seasons. He still has yet to prove that he can structure a deal with a player or group of players and bring in something via trade that really helps. People like John Canzano thinks he has the pieces to do that. I kinda think other teams will consider those pieces overpaid and take up too much space on the cap and therefore will be disinterested in anything we have to offer. I think Evan Turner, Meyers Leonard, Alan Crabbe and Maurice Harkless and perhaps even Aminu are way, way overpaid.
Our bench simply needs to get better. Dame/CJ averaging 56 a game on 51% shooting is friggin' amazing but I fear that it is hardly sustainable.
