This preseason proves Stotts has more quality tools/players to work with than he has ever had. Sure each player has his strengths and weaknesses. We would all love to have 14 top 5 two way players, but that is not possible. What we now have is the next best thing. Too many quality players that deserve minutes. It is up to Stotts to find the right tools/players to get the job done each game. And to get those players working together like a fine tuned machine, rather than playing hero ball. This should be a very fun season. IF, Stotts gets it right.
Portland was 8th in the NBA in defense in 2018 when they got swept by the Pels. That's a good defense and could very well be the ceiling on this year's team and were 16th in defense when they made it to the WCF portland has exited the playoffs in series when their offense has stalled
Derrick Jones' jumper looks improved. Trent and Dame look great. Giles has been the biggest surprise. A little shocked we are blitzing or VERY hard hedging nearly every ball screen regardless of personnel or where it's on the floor. I understand it's preseason though and I'm sure Terry wants to see as many reps of it as possible. Backside rotations have not been very consistent or well timed. Some good moments though and have looked the best on empty side pnr's with Cov at the nail. Really hope this is not our base coverage though. It isn't taking advantage of our two best defenders most valuable defensive skills. Nurk's rim protection and Covington's stunts and digs off the ball.
Giles has been great off a small sample, but he's playing with purpose and hungry to impress - im good with that, i think he'll earn whatever minutes he gets and hopefully will pressure those ahead to maintain their minute share. good competition for minutes is great for any team, helps build assets and options.
Nurkic and Giles look great at hedging IMO. The team needs to fix some aspects of that specific defense and the rotations behind it, but I'm very encouraged! We shouldnt even gave a base scheme. Run the best defense given our personnel on the floor, the opposition's personnel, as well as time and score. Be unpredictable and keep the offender off-balance while being better situationally and harder to gameplan for. Been asking for it for years, I think Stotts might finally do it!
Yeah I don’t think Giles has actually ever played in a game that “counted”. Also both have had injuries. Both had season ending injuries as I recall?
No matter where Giles ends up fitting in, he's definitely an upgrade over guys like Swanigan, Skal Labisserie or Weyen Gabriel. If he stays healthy I can see him working into being a rotation player.
I think they start off 10-10, but after that win 2/3 of their games. It's clear they need time. Two new starters = more time to click. They will continue to be torched by teams that are outstanding from 3. They have not altered the perimeter defense. You can pass faster than a defender can run.
Id like to see DJ guard the oppositions best scoring wing, including two guard. As an example he should guard Doncic, Butler, Mitchell rather than CJ or Dame.
Perhaps....and yet I think we've all seen things (albeit in 2 pre-season game) that Giles could do that Collins hasn't come close to doing. That would make sense as one of these two was the #1 high school recruit in the country and one was not. From a skills standpoint, Giles seems to have more ability. Both have struggled with missing time on the court. Would be nice to see their max potential when healthy.
I don't think he looks serviceable at all. He looks like a placeholder. Any time the ball came to him he immediately swung it. I didn't see good defense. He did hit a shot but overall the guy almost looks like a fan that they put out on the floor.
the hedging on screens and picks by Portland's bigs has always been bad-to-downright-horrible in the Stotts defense. It has been way too passive and left ball handlers too much open space. So any improvement will probably seem like big improvement if starting Covington and Jones means Portland is going to be contesting passing lanes a lot better and getting steals and deflection then maybe the biggest room for improvement is to be able to switch from defense to transition offense. Portland has sucked at that under Stotts and some of the blame has to go to Dame and CJ. Dame was only in the 63rd percentile in transition possessions, but CJ was much worse down in the 45th percentile. Not sure if it's because they are short or just haven't ever run transition with any regularity but that's just transition points; they can still up their transition games by timely passing. Derrick Jones was in the 96th percentile last year, and transition was 21% of his offense. That's a weapon the Blazers need to use. Surprisingly, Covington was only in the 56th percentile in Houston and 63rd in Minny (Ariza was in the 87th percentile; Hezonja in the 82nd). Hood was in the 70th percentile and Giles was in the 71st. Trent was only in the 32nd percentile. Blazers really need to improve in this area
I understand that Giles was the more decorated high school player. However, Collins was more impressive in college. I think that counts for more.
It’s embarrassing that he’s got a contract. If you’re gonna be giving handouts at least give it to the guy that can somewhat play (McCollums brother)
