I don't see why they wouldn't play up tempo. They both love pushing downhill and pulling up/driving out of it.
I see some of it but most of the time Dame likes to slowly walk the ball up to set the offensive. At times you do that but I like to see outlet passes off the board. I seen little bit by Zach in the summer league off the his rebounds.
I’ll believe it when I see it... the Blazers have never been a good transition team during my tenure as a fan.
I think Dame would gladly push in transition compared to walking into a brick wall of a trap. I think it's just philosophy and mindset, and if they look to run, I think it'll be better for them, and it'll be embraces. Transition basketball is beautiful, and I'd love to have more of it.
I’m not sure who the current big coach is (do they have one?), but I don’t think the bigs they’ve had have gotten better since they fired Hughes. Meyers Leonard is the guy everyone will point too, but I’ll go through some other ones. Nurkic came in last year and played well, but most of this year he was actually worse though he finished with similar stats, so maybe since he’s young he just needed to adjust. Ed Davis came in a good rebounder with no offense, and left the same player. Noah Vonleh super young and I honestly have no idea what the heck the Blazers were trying to accomplish with this kid, but it seemed like a very bad plan... Layman 3 years in and has hardly seen the nba court. I can’t judge Collins yet, but just overall it seems like the bigs aren’t developing very well, they don’t seem to be adding new things to their games.
In the playoffs Damian needed to be better at distributing against the defensive pressure the pelicans were applying. It seemed he got frustrated and kept attempting to do it all himself.
I've always tried to figure out what Stotts is doing, (and I assume it's Stotts because I can't believe Lillard is allowed to continue to do whatever he wants); it seems like he wants Lillard to walk it up and also either stop way outside the three point line or often take a shot from way out there. The benefit to this would seem to open up a big area around the top of the key, on both sides of the three point line. However our offense doesn't seem to take advantage of having this big open area there. Do we not have the personnel or is it lack of creativity?
Well Lillard and CJ very obviously have the green light to shoot whenever they want. I’m sure sometimes Stotts isn’t incredibly impressed with the shot selection but you do have to give your best players some freedom. I question Stotts a lot too. It’s a little weird but after the season I was mostly annoyed at NO, but longer the off season goes the more I think Stotts should be on pretty thin ice too, he got completely out coached by Gentry.
I expect the offense to improve this year, but I don't think much of it will be scheme related. The offensive talent outside of Dame and CJ just wasn't that good last year. I would like some new stuff ran just from an aesthetic standpoint, but scheming and execution only can do so much...if you don't have the talent, it's not going to matter a whole lot. For instance, for all the (well-deserved) credit Brad Stevens gets for maximizing players in their roles offensively, that team was still in the 16th percentile offensively with Kyrie off the floor. CJ's efficiency bouncing back, and better overall spacing (higher volume & % 3pt shooting and more Zach at 5) are our avenues to improve here imo. Yes, I think losing Ed hurts our offensive rebounding, but I think better overall offensive talent will outweigh that loss. I also thought we saw Nurk settle into his role offensively as the year progressed. Lowered his usage, became more opportunistic as a post up player, showed more patience and a finisher/decision maker in the pnr...I'd still like to see his usage drop a little more (I feel like 19-22% is the range where he has a chance to be reasonably efficient) but he's still developing and Terry still hasn't fully gotten a handle on how best maximize him. The big question is, and I think Terry brought this point up in a recent interview, is whether we can replicate or even improve upon our 9th ranked defensive rating while still going down this route of getting more shooting and skill on the floor.
I barely remember them, but that’s about the time I fell for basketball, but I love when I get a chance to watch those old games! One of the greatest things technology has given me is the ability to go watch older basketball, it’s so fun to watch.
I want to see more movement going towards or around the basket and less running in circles 20-30 feet away. I know I’m old and the games probably passed me by, but I just hate spending 10-15 seconds running around the perimeter and handing the ball off to each other... Yes I realize it’s supposed to be a way to create mis matches, but there are many other ways to do that...
You must think nearly every NBA coaches schemes are horrible than. Harkless, Turner, Aminu, Nurkic, Shabazz and Pat are all below average offensively at their position. Dame's brilliance was the only reason we managed to be 13th on offense.
Bucks are a prime example. Team runs a dated corner offense that's painful to watch, but because their top 3 are proven offensive players, they finish 9th.
Tell that to Warriors fan's who bitch and moan about too much "beautiful game" and not enough Curry pnr. The NBA is a talent and match up game. No amount of scheming is going to offset a considerable talent deficit, which is what Terry was dealing with offensively last year.
