Game Thread GAME# 26: BLAZERS @ NUGGETS - DECEMBER 12, 2019 - THURSDAY, 7:30 PM, TNT

What constitutes breaking up this team? Because we lost 7 rotation players this year and in most cases that would constitute a major "rehaul".

 

I would have turn my tv off if not for Kristen Ledlow. Oh well, on to the next one and Suns is not going to be easy

 

This was something I was concerned about. When all of the injuries hit in 2009-10, we still won 50+ games and pushed the Suns (3 seed, WCF participant) to 6 games because Nate McMillan was a motivator and that team scrapped their butts off. I'm really not liking what I'm seeing out of this roster at the moment. No one rebounds (aside from Hassan) and the decision-making on defense is abysmal ... how do they watch film the day after and not see what we're all seeing. I understand we're going to be out-manned most nights, but we're not even doing the little things right. I'm not seeing how Nurk fixes all or any of this ...

 

Thats dame and Cj problem. Whiteside and Melo did everything

 

To be fair, it's hard for me to expect someone like him to come in and be Rodney Hood when his minutes are sporadic and vary greatly from night to night.

He's one of those guys who suffer from Stotts hesitance to let young guys play and grow unless he's forced to. He's looked decent at times this season, actually had a couple games where he played a lot better than I expected under the circumstances. With the way this team is playing, I don't see a reason to hold him back. We're letting Ant play through not seeing a shot he doesn't like.

 

I disagree. I think the changes have to be on the court. You have to have some sort of threat off the bench. If your bench doesn't score you are not going to win many games. I think to much pressure is being put on Ant. He can't be the only threat to score off the bench.

I don't think we need a superstar trade, we need to do a trade like last year's Swanigan for Skal.

 

The game got close in the third but we just couldn't get there. Dame had an off shooting night, they really tried to take him away. In my opinion he did what he should have by distributing the ball with 11 assists and only two turnovers. Our other shooters weren't hitting shots that were open. All and all I don't take much from this game. They're a better team than us with our injuries. We got it close but got closed out by a better team.

 

Rollover has my dream job. Signs a contract. Clanks a bunch of 3’s and then gets to chill on the bench and travel around with a bunch of NBA ballers while enjoying all the luxuries.

Edit: I meant Tolliver

 

To me, Skal's biggest asset is his shooting touch. Did he take one shot tonight?

As much as he is playing, he should be scoring at least 5 points every game.

 

He should have had 22 assists instead of chucking when we were close to coming back.

 

Riddle me this, Bonesman: How is it that our center kept ending up on an island covering a guard at the 3 point line all night long, almost always resulting in an easy score for the bad guys?

 

Completely agree it's tough with spot/garbage minutes....but if you can shoot, you can shoot. Occassionaly you are going to get hot a'la Jake Layman. But he is averaging 8 MPG in his career so there are times he gets the opportunity....and is a career 35% shooter. Given that his rep was as a shooter, I was expecting at least more glimpses of that ability.

 

I have no clue why you chose to include Dame in that criticism...?

Dame is 7th in the NBA in FTA, and he's 5th in made FT's because he's 4th in the league in FT%. He's great at this

CJ is the Blazer dead zone of FTA and drawing fouls...he's really bad at it, especially considering how much time he spends with the ball in his hand

look at the FT rates on the team:

Damian Lillard .408
Hassan Whiteside .351
Zach Collins .316
Nassir Little .289
Mario Hezonja .278
Kent Bazemore .243
Carmelo Anthony .219
Skal Labissière .198
Anfernee Simons .186
Anthony Tolliver .180
Rodney Hood .157
CJ McCollum .109

this is a big reason why CJ should not be going one-on-one as much as he does. He's a clever ball-handler, but all that clever ball-handling results in below average efficiency, and his inability to take contact and get to the foul line is the main reason. His assisted FG rate should be above 65% instead of below 35%

 

Dame drove and got himself caught in the air and tried a desperation pass to Herzonja, who wouldn't have done anything positive even if he got it. Then they hit a 3. Then Dame took a really deep 3 and Ant missed a hot and our defense didn't pick us up and we were toast.

IMO, these are the situations where Dame or CJ really need to work on drawing contact and getting to the line. And I don't want Herzonja ever touching the ball near the bucket after that unnecessary wide-open reverse layup he tried against OKC -- talk about a low-IQ play that really killed our vibe.

 

I would say that this team isn’t talented, is not underperforming, and injuries are masking our horrific offseason. Sure we’ll be much better when Nurk & Collins return. But nothing like a 53+ win team. Unless all our young players develop. Clock is ticking on Dame’s prime and we are wasting time playing has beens and known garbage players just to save face.

 

WTF?

 

Shooters need to shoot and he could have had 5 more assists if our other shooters could hit their open threes.

 

He shoots a lot of FTs in the fourth quarter because when we have the lead and are in close games he's going to get fouled or he shoots them during his scoring spurts and he also shoots a lot of free throws because he plays as many minutes as anyone in the NBA. He needs to draw more when we're struggling to get good shots.

I love Dame. But he's not immune to criticism.

 

I'm not saying he's immune to criticism, but that specific criticism was nonsense