Game Thread GAME# 37: BLAZERS @ HEAT - JANUARY 5, 2020 - SUNDAY, 3:00 PM, NBCSNW

And this is why I believe it's scheme, not talent. Everyone thinks Harkless and Aminu were such great defenders but shouldn't that reflect in the numbers then like you always say?

 

numbers wise they ere both a heck of a lot better than Melo is especially on defense, bazemore's ok.. After that though we got Tolliver and Mario I guess who are just bad.

 

Game 1 of the season against Denver I saw Whiteside hard hedge Murray coming off a screen allowing the guard to recover and then got back to his man quick enough to prevent a pass to him, but that must have been instincts because it's been coached out of him.

 

Or Jokic is also really slow.

 

what are you talking about? I wasn't projecting Zach's rebounding rate ahead to 2023. Last August I was projecting him ahead 2 months

and if he was going to make a jump in rebounding he was off to a bad start. His rebounding rate dropped 43% in the two games he played. Sure, sample size, but it was not a good sign

 

So the 3 point % defense is better this year because we have worse individual defenders?

 

Or Jokic got in foul trouble and wasn't in the game every time it happened.

 

I think we have to probably wait till game 82 to judge if it's actually better. Every other season had an 82 game sample size, this one isn't even half done

 

Yes, I agree. I just hate using individual defensive stats for anything.

 

well just because it's ranked a couple spots higher than last year I wouldn't say it's better, it's still just bad.
Here's the thing though last year they had the same schemes and coaches and were a heck of a lot better than they are this year with the same coaches and scheme's. The changes are the roster which is drastically worse (partially because of injuries), and they are drastically worse at winning basketball games. So yeah the scheme's bad and has been bad, but the biggest changes to the team are who's playing and who's on the team. The roster stinks.

 

There have been very few games where I thought both the players had energy and focus the entire game and that the coaching staff tried everything possible to fix that.

Until that occurs I just can't agree that the roster is the problem.

Complacency has set in.

 

You were saying Aminu is just a better rebounder than Zach. I'm saying Zach in theory is on the upswing portion of his career, and yes he had two games that weren't special, but we don't know if he was in for a jump or not. Obviously right or wrong the Blazers thought he was going to make a jump this year.

 

So yesterday you said it was injuries and then coaching. Now it's scheme? Which makes me think you do think it's coaching...
Injuries are part of the roster. You also seemed to get annoyed that I thought you were insinuating that the problem is the coaching. Now you're saying the problem is the coaching.

 

I listed what my issues were in order. Having Nurk and Collins back can help compensate for shit coaching therefore the injuries are the biggest problem.

But I'm so fucking sick of the injury and roster excuse when players are constantly out of position on defense, don't play as a team, there's very little ball movement, and there's a complete lack of focus and energy. These are coachable things. I've watched 3 full Raptors games this season other than the Blazer game and in those games I've seen Nurse try a box and one, a full court press, a trapping 1-3-1 zone, and multiple PnR coverages and those have mostly been in games where they've been playing guys like Malcolm Miller, Terrence Davis, and Chris Boucher heavy minutes. If they lose it's not from a lack of trying. Then I watch the Heat tonight who started two undrafted players who aren't good defenders and Meyers Leonard and they made the Blazers offense look terrible until the 2nd half when they actually started playing with urgency.

But don't worry, they had ONE practice the other day where they focused on just defense so it will all get better soon!

 

The Raptors are better than the Blazers talent wise. I get it the coaching isnt great, but the Blazers basically have Dame and then if you want to say CJ and WS are good fine, but after that, thats it. You know as well as anyone that draft position isnt a true gauge on talent.

Our bench is a bust in Mario, a guy who wasnt supposed to play in Little, a guy they were expecting to play a big role but isnt ready, Simons. Then a 6’7 SF being asked to play Center in Tolliver.... They just arent a well constructed team.

Nick Nurse wouldnt make the Blazers a good team, because they just arent a good team. Its not an injury excuse, its just the truth the roster is bad, and the coaching is bad.

Im not defending Stotts, I dont really care much either way if he’s fired, in fact maybe that’ll inspire them to win a few games, but it wont change the fact there 2nd best player has been out all year, their 3rd best player is CJ, and Melo is both a bad offensive and defensive player at this point.

 

See the coaches and players seemingly have adopted this same philosophy that they just suck so why even try?

You keep just dismissing the roster as bad but that doesn't dispute anything I've said about fixable problems. If Tolliver gets scored on because he's 5 inches shorter than the guy he's guarding and he just shoots over the top of him then fine, that's a roster issue. That's not what's happening though. There are multiple times a game players don't even know where to stand off ball or who they're even suppose to be guarding.

 

It could be that they have a bunch of low iq defenders. Pops has coached some of the best defenses in the history of the NBA, but they arent good this year, theres a chance that he didnt forget how to coach a defense and a drastic decrease in high IQ basketball players and talent has hurt them.

Saying the whole team is clueless, well ok Id agree and yeah some of thats coaching, but guess what Miami fans said that Whiteside was a clueless team defender last year, is Spoelstra a good or a bad coach?

 

Same posts, same posters, different year.

Reading some of these posts you would think we're Charlotte.
Not a franchise less than a year removed from the WCF.
Sure got swept again. But that's the 3rd round. Many of this forum believed round 1 was the ceiling Lillard & CJ could get to.
They were wrong.
Just like they're wrong now.

 

I think they’ll be fine with some roster moves and maybe coaching, and health. Its just that they need all 3 of those things to get back to the wcf.

Im not upset or emotional at all about where the Blazers are at right now. Just saying what my opinion is.

 

No, they wouldnt...