The trap narrative from last year with Dame doesnt really ring true IMO. Denver did trap some, but their biggest issue against Denver and GS was rebounding, and transition defense, especially GS Draymond wrecked them... Though I do agree that Dame hasnt performed up his standards in the playoffs.
LOL...so, it's gone from "CJ is always the best player in the playoffs" to Dame wasn't good last season, in 2 of 3 playoffs against OKC: against Denver: (in case you're wondering, CJ averaged 1.12 points/shot in that series, Dame averaged 1.21 points/shot. CJ scored 9 more points on 20 more shots) against Golden State: the one series last year that CJ supposedly played better, against Denver, there was practically no difference at all, and Dame was arguably more efficient. CJ fans point to game 7 against Denver all the time as if that was some kind of vindication for all slings and arrows CJ suffers. But if CJ was so integral to Portland's playoff chances, and is he was worthy of 31M/year, then CJ would have showed up against the Warriors when they doubled, tripled, hedged and trapped Dame all over the floor....while single-covering CJ and rarely doubling him. I mean, it was the WC finals and CJ needed to help Dame and the team out by picking up the slack from the Warriors Dame-centric defense...but he disappeared. He took 14 more shots than Dame and scored 1 less point I don't mind people being big fans of CJ, but a lot of the time they seem to come up with arguments that don't withstand much scrutiny.
From my post in the Simons thread: Simons Stats sans January (calculated "by hand"): FG: 147/337 = 43.6% (Jan: 35.1%, Season: 41.5%) edit: CJ: 44.6% 3FG: 54/145 = 37.2% (Jan: 23.3%, Season: 34.0%) edit: CJ: 38.3% FT: 45/56 = 80.3% (Jan: 86.4%, Season: 82.1%) edit: CJ: 75%
So Dame was that much better than CJ....WHILE being double teamed for most of the Playoffs. CJ, by comparison, was below Dame in almost every category while benefitting from the rest of the floor being 4-3 because of the attention Dame was getting. Interesting.....very interesting.
I have my issues with CJ, not to the extent that you do I think. However, that contract is my big issue which kinda points at Neil... I have no idea why CJ got that big of a contract...
I knew you would object to that, because you love to cherry pick stats. Your numbers show pretty clearly that Dame wasn't nearly as good after the OKC series, which is the same thing that's happened against every other playoff opponent since Houston. Yeah, CJ hit the wall against GS, no argument there. He was just as impactful against Denver as Dame was against OKC, though. So, it's basically a wash. And you're still not addressing all those years prior. You simply latched onto literally the only year where you could even attempt to make a counter-argument.
that's simply not true and I clearly said that in a previous post 2015-16: 2016-17: 2017-18: 2018-19: Dame definitely had a terrible series against the Pelicans when Holiday, Rondo, Darius Miller and Solomon Hill took turns guarding and doubling Dame every time down the floor while AD and Mirotic hedged him at almost every screen. CJ was single covered for most of the series but the other 3 seasons, Dame was clearly the better playoff performer now, it might be a closer call if you want to gauge which player falls off more from their regular season numbers, but there's no debate which Portland guard opponents game-plan their defense for. There's also no doubt which Blazer guard opponents are determined not to let beat them...and which guard opponents believe can't beat them
That's blatantly false... C.J. was good in the Denver series but he wasn't scoring, defending, or making plays for others at the level Dame was in the OKC series. And it seems to me like Cup's providing you with a full sample of stats. I don't hate C.J. as much as him and I don't think stats paint as big of a picture as some seem to think, but C.J. definitely has some weaknesses and hasn't shown improvement from his first year starting to now... If anything, he's regressed.
I've said many times, CJ hasn't been as good since the Chinese shoe deal and/or Nurk's first full season, which seemed to make him the odd man out. I'd love to see him get back to the scoring efficiency gains he showed his first four years in the league. I see Dame having a huge TOV%, which is exactly why he's ineffective in the playoffs. Shooting is only part of the picture. And CJ's USG% climbs to nearly the same as Dame's, showing how much more he has to be relied on than in the regular season. (In other words, as always, your selection of stats fails to grasp context.) You also left out Memphis ('14-15). That's the series that started the trend of trapping Dame, which he still hasn't figured out. In his recent scoring burst, I think it was late 3rd quarter against Utah, they threw some soft traps at him and he immediately threw a few bad passes, turnovers, missed shots, etc. Utah didn't stick with it and he got back to scoring. It's cause and effect. Teams can't trap CJ as much because he's better able to handle it, resulting in someone being left open. Dame rarely finds the open guy in time. I'd love for him to be able to figure it out, but he's never been a pure PG and that's the glaring hole in his game.
