Portland didn’t just lose the game to the Clippers, they were knocked out by TNT broadcaster Chris Webber, who spent most of the game criticizing the Blazer’s isolation offense. It was brutal. Every time Lillard or McCollum or Anthony went one-on-one with somebody Webber would start in again about how that kind of offense can’t work in the NBA. At one point he wondered who had told the Blazers that this style of play was a winning strategy—a direct swipe at coach Terry Stotts. Even more damaging, Webber suggested that the Blazers don’t play hard. His repeated praise of Montrezl Harrell’s hustle was a thinly veiled criticism of Portland’s lack of effort. Webber and Barkley seem to have different takes on Portland’s problems. Barkley thinks the Blazers have gone “stale” and need a trade, while Webber thinks the problem is the Blazers’ style of play and lack of hustle. Either way, the Blazer’s national reputation took a big hit last night.
Webber is 100% accurate in his assessment. The isolation heavy style offence will never be successful in the NBA and it’s been proven by the teams winning the championship. Which NBA Champion in recent memory had an iso-offence like ours? Can’t think of any? That’s because there are none. Teams like Golden State, Miami, San Antonio all had players capable of playing 1x1 but chose to share the ball to get the best shot possible.
The 'effort' (or lack thereof) has sadly been quite apparent on many a night. Sometimes, the other team just has more talent but the Blazers are getting outworked and outhustled on almost a nightly basis. Even when I posted a comment about how the Blazers struggled to beat a bad Bulls team at home, some of the responses were, 'Well, the Bulls played really hard.' Why can't the Blazers be that team? Harrell was the hardest working guy on the court last night bar none. Kawhi was probably 2nd. The only Blazer I would put in the top 5 of 'effort' last night would be Little and he was in foul trouble and is a fringe player at best for the Blazers. I'm glad someone called out their effort because more and more often, it is on the lesser end of the two teams playing. And don't get me started on the ISO/least passing offense in the league. Just because Dame/CJ can convert some high degree of difficulty shots at times doesn't mean that should be the goal. I spoke to someone yesterday who has 2 very close realtives in the NBA coaching ranks and who played for a nationally ranked team in college as well. He said the Blazers schemes on offense and defense are some of the worst in the league given the talent they have on their roster....regardless of injuries. It was quite the breakdown of team sets around the league and how the Blazers fall well short in many areas. Quite enlightening.
Realized I forgot to include 'NBA' coaching rankts in terms of who that guy talks to on a regular basis. It was quite the discussion in terms of scheme, where coaches get their ideas from, who has borrowed ideas from whom, tweaks coaches make, and what coaches allow outside of what they are actually instructing.
Except he's absolutely right. Our offense is trash and actually, the more national recognition this gets, the happier I will be because our terrible coach will finally be held accountable. Honestly, would the Blazer play any different if they didn't have any coach at all ? Right now our offense is isos and Lillard PnRs. Dame don't need any coaching to do this. Last night the Clippers kept creating open shots by swinging the ball. We kept bricking contested off balance off the dribble shots
1. I wouldn't look to Chris "timeout" Webber for coaching advice 2. I assume he says the same thing about the Rockets? 3. The Clippers' defense makes a lot of teams look bad. And we ARE bad. If we had more skilled players maybe we could play like the Warriors. Stotts has routinely overachieved with the rosters he's been given.
We don't play hard, cos we are very nice team. Blazers went from JailBlazers to FriendsBlazers and I don't blame Lillard, bcos he can punish teams. CJ can be rude too, but they are smart guys. Blazers are smart and friendly. Not sure if that can bring ship, but at least you not gonna write how much of an asshole CJ was for some kid on the shop (like Sheed was). Nurk and Collins will put us back on track, but I mostly blame this nice guy, Stotts. I guess this nice guys strategy don't work, bcos we can't bring big town talent. But yes, we got great culture. At least Blazers are not bunch of assholes anymore.
Three times if you count Shaq's complete dismissal of our team in the pregame. I like Stotts and have supported him but there is way too much isolation and 1-on-2 basketball this year. Too much jacking up thirty footers with 20 seconds on the shot-clock. Too much dribbling before shooting an off-balance contested jump-shot. They may have gotten to the western conference finals last year being 25th in assists, but this year it's even worse. A lot of it is on the players who continually display bad decision making and tunnel vision. I can tell five seconds in advance if Simons is going to shoot. We can get a thirty-foot three-pointer or a wild 1-on-3 drive with devastating results anytime we want so shouldn't we at least first try a play, a pass, maybe even two? But then there are plays where one player is dribbling out by the three-point line with maybe 15 seconds left in the shot-clock, and I'm looking around, and all four of his teammates are COMPLETELY MOTIONLESS scattered around the three-point line as well. WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE DOING IN PRACTICE?! Do we have plays? Do we move in practice, or just practice remaining stationary? Either Stotts needs to completely overhaul his "offensive scheme" or he's lost the players because they sure shit aren't listening to him about 40% of the time which is 40% too much. So much offensive talent on this team but they can't seem to grasp the extremely well-known fact, that if everyone passes IT MEANS MORE POINTS FOR EVERYONE. Has no one on the team watched Golden State the last half a decade? Sometimes they pass but it needs to happen almost every time. They need to value their possessions much more than they apparently do. But thank you to the Knicks as they are now the worst assist team in the league. So we have that going for us. End rant. I feel better.
Along with the "okay, I'm going to pass you the ball, I'm looking at you, I'm faking the pass, get ready for it. Oh darn, three other players on the other team saw me lock into you and stole the ball." I can't believe this is what Stotts wants. I think you are right that either the players cannot run what he wants, or they don't want to run what he wants. Neither is good.
maybe, but who is going to listen to the show to know if he does or not? not me but.... * Portland is 8-13; Houston is 13-7 * Portland has a -1.9 net differential; Houston +5.1 * Portland ranks 22nd in FT/FGA at .192; Houston ranks 1st at .260 * Portland ranks 24th in FT Rate at .236; Houston ranks 1st at .330 * FT Rate: James Harden .601 Damian Lillard .401 Russell Westbrook .316 CJ McCollum .108 and finally, a couple of assist numbers: * Portland ranks 29th in assist/game at 20.0; Houston ranks 26th at 21.7. However, Portland only has a .481 assisted FG rate, while Houston's mark is .532. Big gap and all that highlights the big difference between the teams. Yeah, Harden and Houston have a frustrating style to watch, heavy on flops, but they are good at the one thing you have to be good at in an iso-heavy offense: getting to the damn FT line. They capitalize on their one-on-one about 3 tiers better than Portland does. Houston scores 6.1 more points a game from the FT line than Portland does. That's the difference between 8-13 and 13-7. CJ is the weak link in what Portland does which explains why they have a MOV of -2.0 while Houston has one of +5.4 (Dame scores 5.1 more points a game at the FT line than CJ). Bluntly, CJ's .108 FT rate is horrible for somebody who goes one-on-one so much. That's just bad offense. His assisted FG rate is .330, but with that pathetic FT rate it should be in the .800 range and he shouldn't be burning thru so much Blazer shot clock dribbling. and when it comes down to it, what's worse to watch: Houston's iso-heavy FT hunting that results in high efficiency because of league-leading FT rates; or Portland's iso-heavy offense from 2 small guards that fails so often? Both styles can be ugly at times, but one works a lot more often. Portland needs to change
as the “leader” of our team, our lack of energy falls more on Lillard’s shoulders than Stotts’. Lillard just isn’t an energetic person. He has the personality of a Rastafarian. I have NEVER seen Lillard get in the face of our players. Not a single time. He walks the ball up the court and takes 10+ seconds to get into our offense in most plays. Then we wonder why we aren’t passing more? Uh, bc we have no time left in the play. It’s take an iso shot or pass to someone else who will take a worse shot with time winding down. Can anyone explain to me how Lillard is the “greatest leader of all time” but he bares no responsibility for his team having NO energy? Point guards are supposed to be the coaches on the floor. Lillard is good in many ways as a leader but he is absent when it comes to inspiring his team to play hard. He’s no Kevin Garnett.
This is true and that's why Zach is an important piece. Zach has a tough mentality, he's a fighter. Dame is like Gretzky. The Blazers need to have a much tougher mentality. When Melo went down they should have done something. I am not saying they need to throw punches but they have to draw a line in the sand. It's like in prison , at least in the movies... If you don't fight you become someone's bitch. Sean Penn in Bad Boys should be required viewing for the entire organization.
I will say though that over the last 10 games they've averaged 23.2 apg, which would tie them for 21st overall. So at least they seem to be getting better than the incredibly bad 17 apg they averaged over the first 11 games.
All they do is "talk up" teams who play well and kick teams when they're down. It's not exactly riveting basketball discussion. If the Blazers are playing that way and up 15 they don't say anything about the 1 vs 1 iso stuff.
Lillard leads effectively in his own quiet way. He needs a sidekick who can be the tough, vocal guy. And I am having a problem thinking who that might be on the Blazers. Nurk and Whiteside a little bit too goofy, light-hearted, Hood too quiet. Zach has the intensity but may feel like he lacks the cred to call guys out. CJ? Well, I think you gotta be a tough guy yourself to call other guys out.
