If MeeJay were more efficient or didn't ball dominate so much, it would be easier to deal with. However: Lowest 3-pt % of his career this year Lowest amount of assists since he became a starter Worst defensive rating of his career Highest FGA/36 of his career Tied for 7th on the team in eFG% To be fair, he is having his 2nd highest FG% rate of his career so it's not all bad but overall, his style kills ball movement and rhythm for the rest of the team and when you combine his porous defense with Dame's average? defense, it just isn't a long term recipe for success. Then again, this has been pointed out my more than a few for at least a couple of years now. It's not getting any better.
theory mode: it's a rope-a-dope strategy that more and more teams are employing. They've all seen video of the Pelican series and the lesson is this - tilt your defense heavy toward Dame and make life miserable for Dame as a scorer and play-maker; it will leave the floor open for CJ and he'll take the ball and dribble and dribble and dribble then shoot. Even if he's hitting his shots at a high clip he can't beat any team because he gets nobody else involved and his teammates stand and watch. CJ had a great series statistically against the Pelicans, but the Pels didn't care. They still didn't care when they advanced to the 2nd round and CJ went fishing
Guess that's one way to look at it but i would hardly say CJ had a great series. He had one good 38 point game in game four. but 1-3 he averaged 20.5 and shot under 40%. Couldn't buy a three. Then there was Aminu doing his best to shoot them out of the series but don't get me started. Same thing happened last night against the Mavs. Dude gets a steal or two and everyone calls him a defensive specialist? WTF?
His Defense is pretty overrated imo, 1on1 he is mostly good but nothing special, and his Off Ball Defense can be really bad, last night he lost barnes several Times, and Barnes had a lot of open 3s.
Man, while the game was close towards end of 4th both teams were running and gunning with 3 being launched from all over, I immediately realized just how much this game has changed as compared to the days when the three was bonus. I appreciate the big fella from Philly taking back his game. Im not a huge Pop fan but he's right with regards, to his recent comments about the game.
With the rules they are today and the emphasis on things this year especially I think we have to rethink what good defense is. A lock down defender 15 years ago could basically mug someone and get away with it. A Great defender now, is just someone who can consistently bother someone's shot, who can for the most part stay in front of them, and once in a while will get a steal or a block, at least in the sense of one on one defense. Aminu actually is good at almost all those things. More than ever, defense is a team thing, because of the rules being slanted to the offensive player, the team has to do a lot of work, to keep one player under wraps. That's why so many guys can consistently put up big numbers, or scoring out bursts, once someone gets into a rhythm it can be almost impossible to cool them off without throwing everything you have at them. That's really the worst part of Moe and Aminu to me, their defense considering the rules of today is good. There offense is so off and on, that teams BEG them to shoot, they sell out for Dame and basically say can those guys beat us? The answer in the playoffs has been no. The answer to why they lose games is usually because one or both of them couldn't hit enough shots to get the defenses respect.
The Blazers are now 1 lost and 1.5 games out of the #10 spot with back-to-back games looming against the Warriors. 10-3 seems so 9-12 ago...
They say that the opposite of love isn't hate, but indifference. And it seems like that's what this team is engendering in a lot of their fans right now. They're not making fans angry; they're just making fans not care.
Well put. I do get completely frustrated but more and more find it a state of apathy. It is what it is and isn't going to change. No sense getting worked up over it. That is a sad place to be and I don't enjoy that with the team that is my first sports love.
The first step in setting up the team to move. We have no way of knowing if the front office paralysis is incompetence or calculated plan. Just saying.
Sorry. I agree with a lot of your posts, but this one is hog wash. Unless you believe Paul Allen has been scheming for the last few years to drive fan interest down in order to move the team. And I don't think anyone can truthfully say they think this. What's going on post-PA is the same shit that was going on before his death.