Whiteside. He'll have to play a lot more minutes and probably be more on the cautious side..which tends to lead to injuries imho. I.e., over thinking.
Skal has been the backup C. And if you want to compare Skal this season to Zach last season in order to get a handle on what Portland would be gaining or losing: PER: Zach 13.5....Skal 15.6 TS%: Zach .562....Skal .588 rebound rate: Zach 13.5%....Skal 15.6% assist rate: Zach 7.1%....Skal 15.4% block rate: Zach 3.9%....Skal 4.6% defensive rating: Zach 110....Skal 110 winshares/48: Zach 13.5....Skal 15.6 defensive box plus/minus: Zach 1.0....Skal 1.6 box plus/minus: Zach 0.1....Skal 1.5 honestly, I don't really see that Zach would be a significant upgrade over Skal in the backup C role, and in many ways may have been a downgrade; Skal has been playing pretty well overall, most of the time. I think Zach has become overrated in his absence as I said, I think too many people are leaning too heavily on injuries to excuse what this season has been. They are a factor for sure, but there's also a lot of other factors mitigating the actual impact of those injuries
It seems like you're argument amounts to all their starters sucked so bad their injuries don't mean anything, or don't mean very much. They were just going to be bad. Which is all just ways for you to say Neil sucks because he put a bad team together? I'm really just trying to figure out why you're constantly on this the injuries don't matter thing it's just an excuse. Like what's the end-game here? I know you've said you don't like Neil, is that the end game, pointing out that Neil sucks?
that's simply not true at all. I don't see how you can get that from what I said. but let me ask you something: what do you think Portland's record would be with a 'normal' amount of injuries? Say Nurkic healthy, no Whiteside, and a PF rotation of Zach and Tolliver, no Melo
It's not just what you said here, but overall the last like 3-4 weeks. I'm trying to wrap my head around what your point actually is. You have constantly said the injuries are just an excuse, ok there an excuse, and the reason you've given is basically those players weren't very good anyways. See your argument above, Skal's just as good as Zach at C. Or they had a subpar record with Hood, or Nurk got hurt last year and they found ways to win. The argument always comes off to me as well none of those guys were really very important to winning anyways. So why do you think they're losing so much this year compared to last year? What is the difference between an "excuse" and a "reason" in this discussion? You've harped on this for like a month that the injuries really aren't it, and always post stats that show those guys weren't doing much anyways. So I'm just trying to understand what your overall point is. I mean whatever it is they're a pretty crappy team compared to last year? Was it the summer moves? Is it Neil? Coaching?
what I said: "but there's also a lot of other factors mitigating the actual impact of those injuries" that's a pretty clear statement and I outlined what I believed those factors were
that's false TB...I have not said "injuries are just an excuse". What I have said, repeatedly, is that I think people are leaning too heavily on injuries to explain the way Portland has been playing, and excuse it. Do I really have to debate the difference between those two positions? that's just wrong....I haven't said that, and now I suppose, we have to debate what "good" means....? I posted their comparative numbers, Skal this season, Zach last season. Do you think I made those up? Has Skal played decently as a backup C this year? He's a better rebounder than Zach, clearly; he's more efficient on offense. Zach is probably a a better overall defender, but how much better is he as a backup C? How many more wins would Zach have been worth if he was taking Skal's backup C minutes? is that wrong? The point I'm making there is that Hood was not good enough by himself to make a dent in the won/loss record. He's a supporting player, and he was a supporting player for 20 of the 34 games, so it's not like he's missed the entire season which is true because they found an adequate replacement in Kanter. This season they have a more than adequate replacement in Whiteside. Nurkic does things better than Whiteside and is a better team defender; but Whiteside is a better rebounder and shot-blocker, and yes, I know shot blocking isn't all there is to rim protection. Like I said, it isn't like Portland has had to downgrade from Nurkic to somebody like Joel Freeland well then that's you choosing to interpret my argument poorly because that's not what I have been saying. You need to argue with that straw man, not me... I think there are a lot of reasons. * One of them is injuries and I've said that dozens of times although you apparently won't see when I say it because you're hung up on your belief I'm saying they don't matter....which again, I've never said * I think a big reason for the struggles is that Olshey made some serious miscalculations when he put together this season's roster, and we actually have his words to gauge those miscalculations. He believed he put together a roster that was going to shoot better from the perimeter than last season's roster....a group of supporting players that were "going to do a much better job of floor spacing"...his claims, not mine. * Obviously, he decided that the hypothetical upgrade to the offense was going to more than offset the loss of defense and rebounding with the departing players. Aminu + Harkless + Turner + Curry was just a much better perimeter defensive unit than Zach + Hood + Bazemore + Simons. Aminu + Harkless was a better rebounding starting forward combo than Zach + Hood, and then Tolliver + Hood. Aminu + Zach was a much better PF rotation than Zach + Tolliver, then Melo + Tolliver * Turner + Curry (and the year before, Napier) were a much better pairing for running the 2nd unit's offense than Bazemore + Simons has been. And that highlights another issue with this team: there's no secondary facilitator because Olshey for some reason remains stubborn about refusing to add an actual backup PG. Turner was barely adequate in that role, but Bazemore has been a disaster, and because Hezonja sucks and Simone ain't ready, Stotts has been forced to rely on Bazemore, god save us all * it was obvious that Olshey was putting a whole bunch of hope on Simons and Zach. His hyping the hell out of those two was miles over the top, it was crazy. And the biggest issue with that is that Portland was going to be heavily relying on two young players who were guaranteed to be inconsistent because of their ages and experience. But because Olshey has a tendency to force Stotts into giving major minutes to guys he wants featured, there was really nothing behind Zach and Simons...so yes, the injury to Zach knocked the pins out of the risky support Olshey built for those positions * Portland misses the consistently good 3 point shooting of Curry and Meyers. I think they miss it a lot. Those two guys made 18% of Portland's three's last season and they did so at a 45% conversion rate. That hasn't been replaced and it's a gaping hole in the Stotts offense * there was too much roster turnover. Aminu + Harkless + Meyers + Turner + Curry + Layman represented 22 years of rotation missing. As flawed as they were there was a lot of chemistry built up over those years of playing with Dame and CJ; of playing in the Stotts offense. That was always going to be a chore to replace and compensate for, and obviously, many of the things those players brought to the floor have not been replaced does that help? I'm saying there are a lot of reasons why this year's team sucks so bad to this point. Yes, injuries are a part of it, maybe a significant part, but injuries aren't the only reason for this team struggling. You're an honest poster so I'm sure you'd credit that the reasons I just listed are valid. Maybe the only real difference is the weight we each put on the injuries as a factor
I agree with most of what you said. I may not have asked the question well, but I think you sufficiently answered it. I guess my “problem” and maybe where the disconnect or miscommunication has been is that it seems to me anytime says oh its the injuries, you jump in with a nope thats not it type of response. Which was giving me the impression there was more to what you were trying to get at, then what I was getting from your posts.
40% of the games have been played with a different starting lineup and many adjustments have had to be made in many of the other games due to injury. Plus we added in around 9 new players but that doesn't factor into any struggles? There is also no guarantee that what happened last season will just automatically carry over. I remember several years ago the Seattle Mariners had tied the best record in Major League history with a veteran roster as many of the players had career years and then the following season they struggled with pretty much the same team. Blame Olshey all you want, but you were one of many that complained about Leonard and Turner and there was no way we could retain all the players from last years such as Aminu and Curry. Changes were going to have to be made and not all changes pay immediate dividends and then factor in all the lineup changes and adjustments to the rotation. Life is a bitch sometimes.
Except that everyone in the organization was talking championship... and that was with the Nurk injury being known. Now having a slight drop off for those expectations is fine, but to be 5 games under .500 when your 2 best players making over 70% of salary cap are healthy is inexcusable. So with the Nurk injury being known while they were talking championship, you are saying the net affect of losing Zach and Hood and adding Melo justifies a drop off from championship aspirations to 5 games below .500 and fans are supposed to accept that and be grateful??!
