I loved during the Clipper game when the camera panned over to Stotts a few times - almost every time he was looking skyward as if looking for some sort of divine intervention to save him. Truly clueless.
But there has to be some sort of middle ground right? Blaming Stotts for us having the worst defense is like praising Luke Walton for the Warriors offense a few years back.
Or my guy Monty Williams, who I love, but has never been considered an offense genius, now has the Suns at the top of the offensive list. There are too many variables to blame a coach or give him all the credit.
So blaming the guy who subbed for Kerr is the same as blaming the guy who for what, 9 seasons in Portland, has had sub-part defense all but 1 of those years?
Stotts certainly is reponsible for part....but that doesn't mean Dame/CJ don't share in the blame. Olshey does as well for putting the two of them together. #GiannisWasAvailable
"where it starts" is not the same as "share in the blame" Defense is about effort, and schemes. If you don't enforce it, or make it punitive when they don't play it, that's on the coach.
yeah, Olshey's irrational attachment to CJ is fucking ridiculous. We have a pretty good idea that Olshey held CJ untouchable when he was supposedly going after Paul George 3 years ago. And it's probable, based upon the PG13 stuff, that Olshey had the same "CJ is untouchable" stance if he was asking about Kawhi and Jimmy Butler when they were available now, it's being reported that Olshey won't consider including CJ in any Harden trade. I'm not even sure if a Dame/Harden back court would work out and make Portland a contender. But it could which is more than you can say about the Dame/CJ back court. I think this will be another season of more of the same. Decent record, maybe HCA when the playoffs roll around...then wilting badly when matched against a real contender. I've never been a big anti-Stotts guy; I have been much more inclined to blame the roster for failures, and that's on Olshey. But I think both of those guys need to go
While we're drawing conclusions from 4 games worth of stats: CJ's win share is 6 times higher than Dame's. Covington/DJJ are worse shooters than Aminu/Harkless were in Portland. I could add many other "meaningful" stats through 4 games.
Rebound might be because we are taking the ball out of the net so much might be one reason for us being so low. Then the might be the worst defense in the league probably a another factor why we so low in the league on the boards. Until we figure out you can't switch off a 6'3 guard on a 6'7 or 6'8 fowards and believe your going be successful then you out of your mind especially when there names are George and his partner. Are guards produce quiet a lot on the offense end but there getting there ass handed to this year on the other end.
But our wings are not a big key in our offense and never will as long Stotts is the coach because we are guard oriented offense and for our guards to react to want the defense is showing them. Problem we got 2 guards that not shot that didn't look good them. This year even the center is not involved very much either.
This is a chicken or the egg debate: Are our forwards not great offensive players because they're not a big key in our offense or are they not a big key in our offense because they're not big offensive threats? I would love for us to get an elite wing to settle the debate! We've used guys like Matthews and Batum in the past and I haven't seen Aminu, Harkless, Bazemore, and Tolliver light the world on fire since leaving Portland. I agree we are a guard oriented offense, as our gurards are our best offensive players. Our assists are up over 10% this year. But back to my original point: stats through 4 games don't hold much meaning to me.
When your 2 guards shoot 31 times last game and other 3 only get 14 shots there balance issue. Plus we need 3 scorer it use to be Nurk last few year but this hasn't happened yet.
Trade: CJ & Little for Levine & Young Scoring and younger and we get scoring D and an old guy with 1 year left, but is better than Carmelo at 4, at this point.
