Good posts and reasoning everyone. Lack of passing ability on team, iso ball Poor preparation and coaching Last point I might add is Dame himself, seems hes not directing people, passing or not passing quick enough
People have to hit shots to break the traps. People don't hit shots, we don't punish the team for trapping Dame, and we lose. When we were hitting shots we were destroying people on offense. Dame was going off. Well...... last night was a glimpse back at the Aminu/Harkless days.
I strongly disagree that is why we are struggling with Dame traps right now. When teams trap we are not generating good quality shots. There should be a steady result of wide open shots for somebody when the defense puts 2 defenders on 1 player. That is not the case for our offense. Step 1 is we need to beat the trap to generate wide open shots Step 2 is make enough of your wide open shots, should be easy with better shooting personnel we have this year. We can't seem to complete step 1.
Interesting wrinkle in how Houston is countering traps on Harden, who also is shooting like shit, but they're winning because they're jacking so many open threes. They were talking about this on the Windhorst pod today. They had Jeff Green initiate P&R with Harden being the screen guy. Prevents a trap on Harden, or forces a switch of a guy who Harden can take off the dribble. Wonder if we can do some of this with maybe Melo and Dame. Key still is spacing. Houston puts the other three guys on wings/baseline completely spread out. I wonder if we need Ant to just be the third wing shooter in this series.
The middle of the floor is wide open. We need to either A) trust Nurkic to be a decision-maker with the ball in the middle of the floor or B) send a cutter to the open area, which allows for a look at the rim, or if the Lakers rotate, an open perimeter shot. Portland right now isn't taking advantage of the 4-on-3, 3-on-2 areas of the floor when the Lakers are sending 2-3 defenders at Dame. The openings are there, we just have to move on offense. Way too much standing around and watching last night.
To be fair, Dame didn't get rid of the ball fast enough last night, and having Whiteside in along with Nurk killed any and all spacing in the middle of the floor.
Having Nurk and Hassan in at the same time is going to be tough on the pick and roll. If we're going to go jumbo lineup, we need to run some post ups and punish the Lakers in the paint. It's also difficult, because Nurk sets the better screens of the two and also has the better range so figuring out what to do with Hassan or where to put him on the floor will be a key adjustment the rest of the series.
Traps on a team's primary creator are actually difficult for most teams. The Warriors have broken traps on Curry most successfully because they had Draymond Green, a creator with almost point guard like vision and ability to pass. If you can counter a trap with another primary-level distributor to lead the 4-on-3, the traps become much less effective. McCollum needs to be that guy, like he is when Lillard is out with injury. But he rarely seems to be able to tap into that game when Lillard is around. The team needs to empower him to be their point guard whenever Lillard is trapped and Lillard needs to do what Curry does in those cases--become Reggie Miller and run people ragged off screens to become an off-ball threat. They do this sporadically, but they don't, IMO, have a commitment to playing this way when a defense goes trap-heavy.
you forgot Memphis...they were the first and set the template the answer to the question is simple: because Portland doesn't have another elite talent
with Dame, and his style of play, the Blazers would likely have a top-10 pick this year they sure as shit wouldn't have played in the bubble
You and Skip Bayless. Thanks for making what I consider to be the dumbest post I've seen in this forum all season. Dame is coachable and if he were given a way to get rid of the ball earlier or be effective off the ball (oh and we've seen him do both of those things and the team have some limited success with them) then Dame would do it. Dame has been getting blitzed and boxed in all season but he's still had a historic season and is the reason we got into the playoffs. Does Dame demand to be the man all of the time and demand to dominate the ball? No, he gets the ball to Nurk when he can to facilitate and he is constantly inbounding to or telling teammates to have CJ bring the ball up and instigate the offense... in my opinion a little too much. If you're going to point to his record in the playoffs please do. His stats are incredibly similar, a little lower and we're talking about less than a whole point, assist, rebound, turnover, or steal and we are talking about less than two percentage points in both overall field goals and three-pointers. Advanced stats don't tell you a lot because they are incredibly different for all players in the playoffs. You can say that it's Dame's fault or that it makes sense because the level of competition goes up. You can also make the case that a point guard above any other position, especially one of Dame's size could benefit more from personnel around him. Basically every expert and almost every fan that pays attention and thinks is going to tell you that you're wrong about this being the fault of Dame or his style of play and they are going to talk about the teams around Dame and the ways in which coaching has utilized Dame. I know this isn't where you were going but if anything I think Dame could be a little more selfish and more ball dominant, shoot through slumps instead of looking to his teammates and be a little, not a lot, more of the superstar that his outstanding leadership and character make him not want to be but I don't know if I'm right or if he could even be like that. In summation, I don't think you could be more wrong.
Portland is not going to be able to scheme their way out of this. Changing role players solves nothing. Trying to cheap-screw lower rotation solutions like Turner and Hezonja is pointless. this is all about talent and Portland only has one elite player. That's not enough the Pelicans swept Portland when CJ & Nurkic were healthy. Sorry, but this is a problem with the core pieces
I remember when Chip Kelly was at the UofO and he would hold up picture signs to call plays. We should get Stotts a sign like this. #ProblemSolved
the irony is this thread and question could have been posted during: the Memphis series in 2015 and during the warrior series in 2016 and during the Warrior series in 2017 and during the Pelicans' series in 2018 and during the Warrior series in 2019 and now it's the Laker series in 2020 Blazers are now 3-21 in those series, and 2-21 against that trapping defense, and unless they find an answer, it could be 2-24 maybe it's the wrong question
I think that Nurk is elite and fits well with Dame. I think CJ is an elite level talent and what we can do with that should be discussed after the season. These guys are no less elite than the talent that surrounded some of the Tim Duncan teams in San Antonio or what Dirk had in Dallas. They might not fit next to Dame in the same way but they are of an equivalent level of talent to the second and third options on a lot of those championship teams. Hakeems first championship team with Houston had no one more elite than CJ or Nurk and the second championship was spurred by a Clyde who by that time may not have been more elite than Nurk will be by next season. The Pistons that won with Chauncey, Rasheed, Rip, Tayshaun and Ben didn't really have any all around elite talent outside of Sheed and maybe Chauncey but a lot of players who were elite at their roles but not guys who could garner more on the trade market than the guys we have now... how much overall elite talent would you give up for Rip Hamilton or Chauncey Billups for that matter? Make sure you look at their numbers. If you were trying to get someone well rounded and elite for Ben Wallace, how far would you really get. We saw what they had to give up to get Sheed... was that elite? I'm sorry but the narrative that building a championship needs two or more hall of famers or even two or more first team all nba caliber players is a false one. The narrative that you even need two or more perennial all stars is also false. We need the right pieces and already have a first teamer/perennial all star, we also have someone who could be a rung below that in Nurk and an excellent specialist in CJ who in the right situation would be a multiple time all star. We have an up and coming three and D star in Gary. I don't know how much we have in Nas but I think it could be something special. So while I'm pretty sure we won't win a championship this season... we aren't mathematically out of it so I'm not talking about players that need to be moved or anything. We have a high level of assets and talent on this team that very well could translate into championships.
c'mon...CJ is not elite...that's diluting the meaning of the word. Top-10, maybe top-15 if you're stretching things, that's about the cut-off for elite talent and CJ is not close to the level of a prime Tony Parker or a prime Manu or an aging DRob. That's really not debatable IMO Nurkic? he's a top-5 C in my view, but a C is not going to solve the Dame-trap defense. Nurk can't come out 10 feet past the 3-point line, receive the escape pass from Dame, then turn, and consistently dribble drive into either running the offense or scoring his shot if CJ and Nurk were elite, WTF happened against the Pelicans? What happened against the warriors last year? CJ was worse than Dame and he was single covered. What happened last night? I've seen 5 years of people arguing that the answer to the stop-Dame defense was lurking somewhere on the roster. I'd think in that time, the answer would have been unleashed already. What the hell are they waiting for? How much seasoning does CJ need to consistently show his elite credentials? He's played in 430 NBA games and will be 29 in a month. In two games this season, he's scored 34 points on 36 shots while having 3 assists and 6 turnovers....that's elite? it's true, the series isn't over and the Blazers still have a shot. If you go by game 1, a decent shot....if you go by last night....uh-oh here we go again
Whoa there. I don't think CJ as our second best player is the answer... I just think he has the value and we have other assets and I do believe in Nurk being able to help more than you do, to where I don't think we're too far from being able to solve the trapping problem and legitimately contend. Now what Olshey will do and/or what he should do to get us there is a conversation for the off season. For now, our guys need to hit their open shots, Dame needs to be a little more assertive/aggressive, we have to rebound better and not let there be so many scrambles for loose balls and when there are then we need to win far more of them. That is the only way we can win this series and advance... we don't have the option of changing the coach or players right now.
