Game Thread GAME# 25: KNICKS @ BLAZERS - DECEMBER 10, 2019 - TUESDAY, 7:00 PM, NBCSNW

Mhh

 

Wow. We just had this discussion a day or two ago too. Yeah, crappy numbers there; but I'd grab him fast. Cheap. Tons of energy (that we desperately need). I THINK he could really help us.

 

Don't worry. Dame is feeling great, and he said I could play him 48 minutes to get the win. I got this!

 

I'm still available, if you want to cut back on Dames minutes. Just give me a yell....

 

Thanks coach. Now, maybe try to run some offense instead of just letting CJ dribble the leather off the ball.

 

I would have predicted that we win but with that last disaster against Oklahoma City and my reticence to denigrate the Blazers, I'm gonna sit this one out.

 

can we agree that people are leaning way too heavily on this excuse?

* start with Hood: it's clear Portland wasn't going to beat the Lakers even if Hood had played the whole game. So, essentially, the Blazers were 9-14 with Hood. His injury has had no impact on the won/loss record yet, and he's been around for just about every minute of the crappy play

* last season, the Blazers were 11-2 with CJ out; In the regular season, they were 8-2 without Nurkic, and CJ & Nurk missed many of the same games. And from when Nurk went down till game 1 of the WCF, the Blazers were 16-6

* everybody knew Nurkic was going to be out till at least sometime in January. His absence was already baked into the equation, and factored into expectations. Last season, they had Kanter, this season, they have Whiteside. Kanter does a couple of thing better than Whiteside, but Whiteside does some things better than Kanter. It's essentially a push

* finally, Collins. Zach had 0.1 winshares in 3 games. Multiply by 8 (for 24 games) and he would have 0.8 winshares...less than 1. Double it because of Olshey stocking nothing behind him, and maybe, with Zach, Portland has an 11-13 record right now. But if Zach doesn't go down with injury, it may very well be the Blazers don't have Melo so there might be an offset that drops the Blazers back to 10-14. I think even the most rosy homerific scenario would put Portland at .500 with Zach

yeah, Portland 'would' probably be a better team with those 3 guys (but remember, no Whiteside). But Hood was injured 3 days ago, and Portland went 16-6 without Nurk last season and 11-2 without CJ (and 7-2 without both). Why were they so much better without Nurkic and CJ last year, than without Nurkic and Zach this year? What has happened so far this season can't all be explained away with the injuries excuse because we have some extremely relevant benchmarks from 8 months ago

 

in the last two games Dame has averaged 40 minutes and Portland has lost by an average of 18 points. Is there any chance Stotts stops grinding Dame down chasing wins that aren't there?

 

Before the season I looked at the schedule at thought if their 10-10 after 20 games, the schedule lines up well for them. Who knows if Zach, and Whiteside (he missed a few games in there too), healthy they get to that, but My guess is they’re much closer to .500 if healthy than they are right now.

 

Last year they play as a team plus our assist total was up too. Better ball movement because Dame knew he do it by his self. This year with good ball we very successful but when everyone wants go iso then you got many standing. We must start moving the ball better that usually have someone with rythem shot.

 

I would be surprised if anyone was surprised.

 

The main difference is the power forward position. We got rid of our starter Aminu then Collins got injured. We wouldn’t have gone far last season with the power forward options we have now.

 

Smartest thing you have ever said

 

Damn reading this was great. You nailed it. Only thing I can say is curry, kanter, harkless, aminu were much better than the guys who replaced them.

Curry was huge for us last year not only his shooting but defense was above average. Simons has been completely useless all season except the first 5-6 games. And I guess Tolliver, Baze and Mario are complete dumpsters compared to Mo and Aminu

 

Not sure about that? At that point Kanter was completely healthy. The injuries they were dealing with happened in the first round for the Warriors. The Blazers may have played a much better series and fought just as hard. Nobody thought they would get by Denver without Nurkic. As a matter of fact if you go back to March 26th nobody thought they would get out of the first round at all. Also Curry was nursing nagging injuries through the second round also.