Adjusting to the Nets instead of making them adjust to us is such a stupid idea, and that was his postage justification for not having Nurk in the game.
I firmly believe this is actually nurkic, who pulled over at a gas station to tell us this. WE ARE WITH YOU NURK!
If I was the owner I would lean over to Olshey and tell him either he goes or your going make your mind up.
I've always believed that he pockets his timeouts and at the end of the season, he cashes them in for some rewards...
What pisses me right the fuck off more than anything else is the fact that we wasted Dame's prime years with this idiot. Fucking A.
I couldn't believe he put Shabazz, CJ & Pat in all at the same time against their length. They go on a 8-0 run against us & Stotts calls time out. When they come back he STILL has the same lineup in!!!
If anything my concern is the team is mostly lackadaisically going through the motions which concerns me that perhaps he has lost the team.
I'm for firing Stotts now, but I'm REALLY scratching my head over people complaining about the defense. We have the fifth ranked defense. I don't think that's because of Stotts, per se, as the Blazers have a lot of plus defenders running out there, especially with the improvement of Dame. But you gotta be fair and give credit where credit is due. The Blazers defense has been good, though inconsistent. It's the offense that's looked horrendous. If people are judging the defense by the fact that teams keep rattling off 10 - 0 runs, well, that's not the case. It's the fact that the Blazers are collectively shooting worse percentage wise across the board. Harkless is down. Cj is doing well from outside, by awful everywhere else. Lillard has been terrible everywhere other than the foul line. Nurk is starting to look better, but is being held out of fourth quarters for whatever reason. Whether that's because of Stotts is hard to pinpoint. But what ISN'T hard to see is that the Blazers have the second lost Assist percentage in the league, worse only than the suns. That number? 49.0 %. We are ranked as 14th by O Rtg. Only other team in top 15 offense remotely close to that is the Clippers at 50.5%. The Blazers aren't moving the ball, and they're not moving off the ball either. We're instead camping wings who can't shoot at the 3 point line. I think that is Stotts fault. Instead of using Players' strengths, he's trying to pigeonhole them into his offense to create space for the Blazers star players. Ironically, this is doing the opposite, as teams are perfectly content to let Turner/Harkless clank away. Instead they make our stars take hard shots. That's why our spacing actually improved with Vonleh - we no longer have four players drifting on the perimeter. Sorry for the text wall.
We HAVE a solid foundation for 50-53 wins. We have a Big 3.....and we make it work most of the time with the others. The problem is coaching. The problem is Stotts and this coaching staff.
Offensively, we seem to be able to overachieve......for three quarters. In the fourth quarter, we seem to stop playing more carefree and it stagnates all to hell. This isn't something new for this team. Defensively.....I'm judging the defense on the fact that most of the problem elements still exist after hundreds of games. The whole philosophy of contesting threes and forcing really long twos....I don't see it. I see wide open threes due to lack of proper coverage. I think the last time it happened consistently was during 2014-15 before Wes went down. This year, we have been getting lucky on a lot of these open misses by good shooters, especially in tonight's game. There were at least three or four shots that were halfway down the net and somehow bounced out. If it's a personnel problem, why haven't we adjusted this same defense strategy to perhaps cover for our own shortcomings? While teams are perfectly content to let Turner/Harkless clank away, as you say, we seem to be perfectly content to let sharpshooters take their time and bomb away. Why can't we get our good shooters open more consistently than they are right now? Why do we count on getting bailed out by tough shots when there certainly must be a way to make it easier? Damian and CJ continually switch to the opposing big men. If someone happens to come help, then you have a couple of problems. One, that help defender has now left his man wide open for a shot. Two, you're stuck with your big man trying to guard the perimeter player, who can put up the outside shot or easily drive in and score/get fouled, or dish off to that big guy who's got a PG defending him for an easy two. The Blazers have a lot of plus defenders....when they're one-on-one. Damian's improvement this year is noticeable. However, as soon as we get picked at the elbow, on the baseline, on the sideline.....we have guys scrambling like chickens without heads most of the time trying to find their man. Guess what happens? Someone gets open and we pay for it. Then, on the plays where we do get beaten one-on-one, the help coverage is subpar. Layups galore tonight, for example. I am hearing boos at the games on these plays, so I know I'm not the only one seeing it and feeling disappointed with it. Let's see....our defense on the fast break is shit. More often than not, we give up an and-one, rarely getting an actual stop and making the other team try to get set. So when do we have guys getting back on defense? All we have to do is jack a 30-footer and presto, no one's under the basket to grab a rebound. They're all already heading over the half-court line. I'd like to rename our fast break defense to fast break REACHfense, because we excel at that. In-game adjustments are practically non-existent. "Oh, it didn't work this time or that time? We'll keep trying it until it does." That's what it feels like. Credit to the coaching staff for getting a lot out of the younger players, but to get everybody to the next level? I think I'm done expecting it to eventually happen. It's ENOUGH already.
OFFER JERRY SLOAN $15M A YEAR. Even with Dementia, he'd be better than this shit show we have right now.
*looks at teams we lost to* *looks at how we constantly blow leads* *looks at how we lose games* It’s a coaching problem, jack. It’s tough, because at first I thought he helped us overachieve. Then people figured out the swirly offense and it’s been downhill from there. But now I truly believe he is holding our team back and have for a while at this point. Rotations? Adjustments? Player development? X and O? Average at best.
