Cant believe the Dame hate in here. Obviously he is hurt... but also think about how he is feeling. He has been game planned against all post season. Doubled every time, hit and harassed on each drive. Hes dinged up and frustrated. Now imagine his coach goes into game 1 of the WCF and designs a defensive scheme that specifically allows the other teams best players to get WIDE open shots? Hes hurt, pissed off and frustrated. I think his relationship with Stotts will never be the same. Hank
Being critical isnt always “hate”. Most of us really respect Dame, and love what he has done for the team. I realize when we say “hate” it isnt the literal, “I hate you”, type of thing. None of us as fans are above criticism, and unfortunately for guys like Dame, part of leadership is taking the good and the bad. I hope between, Dame himself, the roster and Stotts they’re better next year. I also hope Dames injury isnt anything terribly serious so he can be ready to go and injury free next year.
First of all, no hate on Dame and it sucks that he is hurt but i never feel sorry for pro athletes that cant get an open shot cause the opposing teams wont let them... second, He is the leader of this team and is expected to contribute and when he does he gets most the accolades but when he doesnt he's going to get criticized... thats just the way it is
all that dame hate was due to the performance levels observed on the court recently with no indication he was carrying an injury. there was zero context around this so all anyone has to go on is what they/we saw and what we saw was a very subpar Dame. Obviously with context there is much more understanding from observers around what is going on. There is a (and somewhat justified) opinion that him playing through the injury caused more harm than good to the team as he's so pivotal and having him struggle hard at all his 'normally' proficient skills just disrupted the cohesion and with the team mates knowing his pain etc there was likely a ton more respect and 'let him play' than there maybe should have been when considering the over all team performance. That is a Stotts call really, but I'd probably prefer to have at least seen some solid minutes with Simmons running the point to get a gauge on how that looks. We'd also have needed to say Dame was hurt, but imo its better than all the blind negative fire he's been receiving for his play. He's a warrior, but Team - Mission - Self.
Dame has whined about not being an All-Star, been vocal about Portland never getting respect, prided himself on playing with a chip on his shoulder, been vocal about being one of the best leaders in the NBA, and has tapped his wrist for years to let everyone know how clutch he is. We’re in the WCF Finals and have blown a 17 and an 18 point second half lead in the last two games. Dame was nowhere to be found in both. When you talk like a superstar, and demand superstar respect...you better be ready for superstar criticism. Look at how Harden, LeBron, Curry, KD, Westbrook, PG etc are treated by fans and media when they play poorly. And the injury thing not an excuse. If you play, you are healthy enough to play. WB and PG both having offseason surgeries , no one cares. They were ridiculed for a week straight after game 5. And will hear about it all offseason. So you can’t have it both ways. Either Dame is as good as he (and a lot of you) think he is, and the criticism is warranted. Or perhaps he’s just an all-star, not a superstar. One who is a career sub40% playoff shooter in a 50 playoff game sample size, who still can’t overcome a team game planning solely to stop him. Dame’s two big game winners have overshadowed the fact that in most of the other 48 playoff games he’s played he’s statistically been underwhelming.
Lillard is playing with an injury right now, okay i get it. What about the Denver series, game 2, 3, 4 and 7 when he didnt show up? And those Traps were not nearly as hard as Golden State does, in those 4 games he was pretty bad. CJ and Hood carried him that series because he couldn't beat Torrey fucking Craig or Gary Harris. Sorry if you cant beat these guys you are not in the same category like the "real superstars". Lillard is what he is, a legitimately All Star but not a Superstar, who is shooting under 40% in his Playoff Career. You live and die by Lillards Performance.
in addition, just wanted to say i appreciate knowing now that Dame has been hurt and was trying to soldier through it. but it clearly hasnt been working and as A$AP says above, we have literally thrown away 2 game winning positions in all this. do i want to see another one just cause Dame is being tough? no fuckin way. the Team is bigger than any player bar a few exceptions and we need to manage him better and/or he needs to tell stotts when he's struggling and let anfernee have some burn. that baby blazer hasnt let us down at all really and done some pretty spectacular things, maybe he's another piece that might pleasantly surprise us
He hasn't had a good game since game 1 vs Denver. I love Dame, but what the fuck is going on? It's so frustrating to see other teams stars fight through teams game plan against them. Dame should be able to do the same. During round one he looked like the best player in the playoff, I though he was going to put us on his shoulders and drag the team to the finish line. It's been very disappointing.
It's a 2 way street as some who criticize can't tell that what they are really doing is hating. Things like so and so sucks isn't criticism and that is often used in here especially in game threads. The game threads are an obvious embarrassment to this forum.
Its only an embarassment to those who dont underatand how emotion works in the moment. To others, its logical.
Denver series: 39 points 6 assists 14 points 4 assists 28 points 8 assists 6 rebounds 28 points 7 assists 22 points 6 assists 32 points 5 assists 13 points 10 rebounds 8 assists 3 steals 24 points 5 rebounds 7 assists = "not showing up" and that's Lillard's fault? where is his help? This is Lillard's 7th season in Portland. Why are the Blazers still a one-man band then after 7 fucking years? If Curry and Lillard changed teams, the Warriors would still lead 3-0
Nothing to lose, het him get some valuable playoff experience against the best in the biz by taking Curry's minutes at least, Curry is very likely not coming back so give the id some time
Will Stotts need come up a plan to try eliminate Dame getting in double team that Stotts job to game plan for this and all about adjustment. He had did adjustments on D but not on offensive and have see the warriors defense thrown at his team 3 straight games and still no adjustment. But if think putting Leonard is his adjustment then he time thinking about getting different coach in here.
at this point, the only adjustment to be made is to take the ball out of Dame's hands and give it to CJ, Turner, & Hood. CJ has actually been worse than Dame in this series and expecting Hood or Turner to bring it for 4 quarters is pipe-dreaming. Stotts can't adjust CJ into Paul George or Hood into Kawhi
