Game Thread GAME# 51: MAVERICKS @ BLAZERS - FEBRUARY 3, 2017 - FRIDAY, 7:30 PM (PST), KGW & ESPN

Dude no. Keep stotts and hire a defensive minded assistant to help on that end. Obviously our current roster has holes and it doesn't seem a deadline trade is likely. We need a assistant who brings a new defensive philosophy we currently do not have.

 

Stotts had a good defense when he had good defensive personnel. Stotts has a bad defense when he has bad defensive personnel.

Stotts had a title contender when he had a talented roster. Stotts has a borderline lottery team when he has an untalented roster.

That's how it goes. Most coaches aren't significant difference-makers and that includes Stotts (in both the positive and negative direction). If you want a good or great team, put together a good or great roster.

 

I think if I was Paul I would tell Neil so this is your hornets nest. You created it. You have two and a half months to show me why signing each and everyone of these players was a good idea and what your vision was when you signed them. Even if it's a glimpse of what it was you were vision was. I want to see this on the court. And you are going to do it as coach.

I think Neil was shortly but surely being exposed for being the inept GM that he is. He cracked and took the easy way and defaulted to signing players he knew would sign because he had their rights and could offer them more money than anyone else. And players that he knew he could sign because no one was coming with that kind of money. Very little creativity goes into his game. And hasn't since day one of his arrival.

 

Wait, when did Stotts have a title contender? Be honest. We haven't had a title contender since 2000. May be mid-2001 until the massacre at the Moda by LA.

 

The 2014-15 team, until Matthews went down, was one of the top teams in the NBA, record-wise. They were well-balanced, excellent offense and about a top-ten defense. I think that they'd have been the second-best team in the West that year if they had remained healthy and been a good match-up for the Warriors.

 

Does this mean a new Avatar is in the works?

 

Probably. But I'm keeping the name

 

The team that was led by mental midget LMA? They were dangerous at times, but even in my heart of hearts I didn't think a title was a possibility.

 

That was the dumbest game I've ever watched.

 

I enjoyed this game more than the last game against the Hornets. That game was boring as.... Outside of the first quarter, this game was entertaining.

 

You must have a short memory?

 

Thats what he said

 

Lillard shooting 34% from 3 for the season....dropping a home game to another lotto team....Matthews showing us he'd have been a much better investment than any of the fuckers we signed.

 

looks like our horrible guard defense helped Yogi get a 2 yr deal with the Mavs, guards on 10-days must salivate if the Blazers are on the schedule during their call up period

 

But no average bear.

 

Aldridge may have been on that team, but he didn't lead it.

Wes was the leader and heart and soul of that team. In spite of other injuries (Aldridge had missed 9 games, Batum 9 games and Rolo 23 games), when Wes went down, the Blazers were the second seed in the West and had the third best record in the entire NBA. Is a top 3 team not a contender?

When Wes went down, it completely took the air out of the team's sails. You could see it in the way they finished out the regular season and they way they didn't even out up a fight in the MEM series. Aldridge and Lopez both quit. It was only the young guys (Dame, C.J. and Meyers) who brought it in that series.

Who knows what would have happened if that team had been healthy. If they would have held onto that #2 seed, they would have faced DAL, a much better match up in the first round and would have also held HCA in the second round. HOU, who we had owned, when healthy, made it all the way to the WCF. If we had made it that far, with our size and much better defense (back then) we would have been an tough match up for GSW.

Rolo vs. Bogut
Aldridge vs. Green
Batum vs. Barnes
Wes vs. Klay
Dame vs. Curry

If both teams had been healthy, that would have been a hell of a series.

BNM

 

Any idea how much and if both years are guaranteed?

I can only hope Cuban, caught up in the euphoria of Yogi Mania, vastly overpaid and over committed. I hope so and he wakes up tomorrow and realizes, they won't be playing POR 82 games a year for the next two years.

BNM