As most of you know, i take a "20 game approach" to the season where i dont get too high or too low in the beginning of the season. That said, how do you think the first 20 games will be? Whenever you have this much turnover it takes awhile (even if you have two big time players in dame and CJ). How Will the growing pains be? Do you think we will jive quicker than most in a similar situation? I think if we go 12-8 in our first 20 thats a damn good start, imo.
I think the tough early schedule will be more of a factor than the team meshing. Anytime a team has 2 players that monopolize the shot attempts coming back it's easier for the new players to know their role of just having to do their specific jobs. Whereas teams like LAC, LAL, and Hou are trying to integrate two super star players to learn to play with each other. I think the starting lineup will be Dame, CJ, Hood, Collins, and Whiteside. 4 of those guys already played together last year with success in the playoffs. With how quickly Kanter fit in with very little practice time in the middle of the season I highly doubt it will take Whiteside long to do the same considering he'll have a whole training camp more than Kanter did. The bench might be what takes some time to gel butI like the mix of vets and young guys.
I think it'll be Bazemore who starts at the 3 (could definitely be wrong). I think Baze is more of a 3 and D fit with the first unit. Hood is better with the ball in his hands and they're probably more comfortable running offense through him when the bench is out there he may finish a bunch of games on the nights he's "on" though. I agree for the most part with you though.
Both Stotts and Olshey have made comments that Hood will be starting. I'm not necessarily disagreeing with your reasoning but I think they told Hood he'd be the starter. Hood is a better pure scorer than Baze but Baze is better if we need more of a PG type to take pressure off of Simons bringing the ball up in the 2nd unit.
Maybe the summer's fried some things (or they were already fried heh), I don't remember many comments about who would be starting. - Not saying they didn't happen just that I don't remember -
13 & 7 maybe 14 & 6 be great if it was 15 & 5 Many of the other teams also will be fitting pieces and I like our vets we picked up.
Not only do I agree with you that Hood will start at the 3, but I also think that we're going to be pleasantly surprised by his production at that spot. I would not be surprised to see him contributing 15 ppg.
I think people are overlooking how good Hood was on defense before he tweaked his knee in Game 7 of the Denver series. Stotts was using him defensively the exact way he used Harkless and there wasn't really any difference on that end.
We'll see. You may be right. The scoring available to the 3-4-5 spots on a Dame/CJ team is definitely a zero-sum game. I think Hood's scoring will come more at Collins' expense than anyone else.
Hood put up 10 ppg last year on 8 shots a game. He needs about 3-4 more looks per game to get to 15, with hopefully more 3pt FGAs. Moe and Aminu totaled about 13 shots. I think their absence will help him get close to 15 points. The shot distribution should be fairly the same as the end of last year unless we finally decide to run more and speed up the game. Only big change I see is hopefully a larger focus for Collins. Here's how I see it: Curry/Turner <---> Simons/Bazemore Aminu/Harkless <---> Collins/Hood Kanter <---> Whiteside Layman <---> Hezonja Meyers <---> Pau Unless someone like Simons/Mario/Collins/Skal etc pops, it isn't that far fetched for Hood to be our 4th leading scorer.
Growing pains? Sure, it's the facts of life. We already know who's the boss, and it's a small wonder, even with some of the guys being perfect strangers, that there's a chance for a dynasty.
I think if we depend on our family ties and dominate at home with a full house, we've got a good chance to experience some wonder years.
Nurk being out too leads to a few more available shots as Whiteside won't be as much of a focal point on offense as Nurk was. Nurk was also good for at least a couple times a game of getting someone an easy bucket which won't be the case with Whiteside. That leaves a few more possessions where shot creation will be needed and that is probably Hood's greatest strength.
Cheers! I think that we need to wait a bit to find out if this is a love boat, or if it's a hells kitchen. If the food at the Moda Center is good eats, we can all lean on each other during times of hardship. M*A*S*H.
No time for growing pains. Jody and Neil are going all in. 50 year anniversary and Jody's doing it for Paul.
I'm not concerned about growing pains as much as I am injuries. In 16-17 players were in and out of the lineup all year. Something Stotts has shown to be one of his best assets as the HC, if not his best. Is figuring out how to get continuity quickly with the team. But when you have Aminu in and out of the line up missing 21 games, Davis missing nearly half the season, and Turner getting another nagging injury every time he started to look like he was going to play half decent.... You can't build that easily because you don't know who is going to be available 5 games later. Now I'm not saying these players were the reason why Portland was a top 5 seed, or struggling for the 8th seed/barely playing .500 ball... I am saying that continuity has meant something to Portland for awhile now. This is the first season sense Portland lost 4 out of 5 starters that we've had so few returning players. It was time for a change. I do expect certain posters on this board if Whiteside struggles to protect the rim to start the season, to make countless threads about Collins being > Whiteside.(ala Nurk early in the 2018 season) I also expect those posters to completely forget they said that as the season rolls on.(just like they did last year) At the end of the day give me more than 10 wins in the first 20 games and I'll think Portland is right on pace for HCA in the first round again. Which is what I believe will happen.
The team lost some Friends, but Damian can still hold night Court. There should even be some Home Improvement. I think Ant will look like a regular Doogie Howser.