Blazers wasted a lot of time around the years they made the playoffs playing the clippers and the 8th seed year the year before last. Those two years were huge waste of times
I get it. I'm just sick of cliche and dumb phrases being tossed around that don't even have anything to do with basketball reasons. I've never seen this much pessimism from this forum before a season. We have people claiming that Dame and CJ are at the end of their primes... Anyone cam feel that way. Just tired of the media and fans putting a little bit of a damper foe those of us who are excited for the season to start... Moda isn't as loud as it used to be. It's sad.
I get that. I am really excited, like more than a normal person should be for the start of the season. I know it's kind of a debbie downer, but I just don't feel all that good about the state of the team right now. No Dame and CJ are not at the end of their prime they're basically at the start of it, and I'm so pumped to watch them but in terms of competing for a championship I just don't think they're that well equipped for it. I think what we're seeing from the fanbase and the pessimism is a function of yes the Blazers roster, but also just the rosters and 'upside' of the teams at the top obviously GS is literally an allstar team. Houston (may take a dip this year), but teams like Boston and Philly look poised to be really, really good in the coming years. We say we're top 10 and we might be, and yes it's better than being a sacremento fan, or insert like 15 other franchises, but at the same time at least to me it's hard for me to argue that the Blazers are very close to being a true contender too.
Outsidr Dame/CJ/Nurk; Ed was one of if not our next best player. This was last season and other seasons when he wasn't hurt. We lost him for nothing. His minutes will be played by inferior players this season. Crippling was the word the scout used and I agree.
Yes even LeBron was statistical supperior.at 28 then he is now. If you look at production of NBA players through their careers it doesn't go up after age 28 on average. Now of course there are exceptions and some players plateu for longer... But on average around 28 players effectiveness declines. If we aren't anywhere close to forming a legit contending team as this expected decline starts the franchise needs to explore when to trade CJ and Dame. Again this is not my preference. But it's not some long distant problem where 3 years from now we can twiddle our thumbs and start to slowly evaluatimg what to do if we make the same tiny improvements we've made the last 3 years. This team needs to get more legit talent NOW or change it's long term direction.
I cut out 2/3 (changing it from 632 to 197 words). ---------------- I don’t want to say it can’t work in the playoffs but they’ve got some real holes in their lineup, guys who don’t bring much to the table offensively. Shabazz Napier was in a lot of their good five-man lineups last year. He really helped them. That’s a big loss. [Losing] Ed Davis [to Brooklyn in free agency] was a crippling loss. It totally messes with their frontcourt rotation. If we look ahead for the next three years, I’d rather have Collins than Nurkic. Nurkic isn’t really a rim protector but he showed me something on the defensive end last year. Their defense was top 10 last season because of its discipline, rather than its versatility. That’s another thing that came back to bite them in the postseason. CJ McCollum...he’s so crafty that he shifts away from defenders, that it sometimes works against him. He’s not huge on seeking out contact. Lillard and McCollum are older and in their prime and almost their whole roster is really, really young. The front office has gone too far towards the youth movement. Their time to win is now. Nik Stauskas...Three teams have given up on him. He’s that bad defensively.
From this it sounds like he thinks Collins is a 5 and can be better than Nurk and needs to be on the floor as much as possible. Sounds like Neil agreed with him and is why Ed is gone: "The tricky thing is whether they use Zach Collins as a four or a five. To me, he’s more of a five, but that’s Nurkic’s spot and he’s a stone-cold five. You can’t use him anywhere else. So that limits Collins to a back-up role, or it forces you to play him at the four with Nurkic, which could make for some spacing issues. I think they need to get Collins on the court as often as he can handle. If we look ahead for the next three years, I’d rather have Collins than Nurkic.
Nurkic is 280 pounds and Collins is 80 pounds. Collins will get injured as soon as he tries to play center seriously. The article's only light bulb moment (= clarified my feelings into words) was "Their defense was top 10 last season because of its discipline, rather than its versatility." I've always thought Stotts' defense is simply high energy, the same as his offensive "system."
Collins is now 235. Ed Davis is 245. Yes Zach needs another 10-15 lbs but you don't get hurt from being skinny. You just get pushed around.
Honestly, I don't understand the basis for this statement. What exactly is it that makes Collins preferable?
yeah he never did explain why other than he was more of a rim protector. Unless there was more to the statement. The big question for me is can Collins replace Ed this year as the back up center?
It's like the Nurk Fever stretch is some mythical run that Nurk can never duplicate. Nevermind that last year his numbers were actually quite similar, especially from January on. And the whole rim protection thing??? Nurk doesn't have huge block numbers but that doesn't mean he isn't a rim protector. His rim protection numbers are elite.
There's a lot of bullshit in those takes... "Nurkic isn’t really a rim protector" That's just one line of the many takes that are complete crap. Curry is MUCH better than Shabazz. We're not going to miss Shabazz at all...
You'd prefer missing the playoffs 13 years in a row, sneaking in as an 8th seed, and then losing your best player and going right back into the lottery? Or maybe 8 lottery picks in 8 years and never winning more than 32 games, losing your one good lottery pick and starting over again? Seriously, this whole notion that winning 24 games is better than winning 49 is baffling to me. How many high lottery picks has PHO had recently? Yet they still suck big time. Call us a treadmill team, but I enjoyed the fuck our of beating HOU and LAC in the first round. I even enjoyed the first GSW series three years ago. Sure, we lost in 5 games, and everyone knew the 73-win Warriors were going to beat the 44-win Blazers, but it was still a fun series and we led for more minutes than we trailed (unfortunately, they led when it mattered - as expected). I'd much rather enjoy those moments, like Dame's 0.9 series clincher against HOU than be a sad sack franchise like SAC, MIN, PHO, etc. You don't get Dame's 0.9 buzzer beater if you tank. BNM