https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/...lls-continue-to-trend-in-troubling-direction/ " I still like Portland's ability to at least credibly match up defensively in the playoffs. They have switchable parts, but any team that is starting McCollum and Lillard is going to be vulnerable at the point of attack." ***************************************************************************************** "Entering Tuesday, teams were shooting 67 percent inside the restricted area vs. the Blazers, which ranks 25th league-wide. Nurkic, as the primary defender on such shots, was giving up buckets at a 58 percent clip, which isn't awful but isn't even close to elite. He's shown he can defend at the rim at a 53 percent clip as recently as 2018-19, and he has to get back to at least that given that McCollum and Lillard are going to be compromised a lot on penetration. The bench unit is an even bigger problem. Right now Terry Stotts is playing Enes Kanter and Carmelo Anthony, two legitimately atrocious defenders, a lot of minutes together. Usually McCollum, another subpar defender, is with them as the lead scorer on the second unit." Not very complimentary. Points out some of the things the softie Blazers media (outside of Quick) won't ask Stotts about. Yes it's early, but the worrying trends are not new.
That was a good article to post but also... duh! This is what we all know. Nurk hasn't been himself but I think he'll return to form but Dame and CJ are not a championship back court. You can't cover for two defensive liabilities on the perimeter in today's NBA. The fact that Stotts' rotation is constantly allowing CJ, Melo and Enes to be on the floor at the same time has also been discussed ad nauseam on here, as it should be. That just can't happen. Three horrendous defenders at the same time? Stotts has been bad so far with this group. I do hope for this team to play better. I don't think Olshey is going to do the right thing and fire Stotts along with making some really big moves.
This is a 500 team. 8th seed, first round sweep etc. You know that next game it will be the same squads off the bench. He is compelled to play melo. I wonder if dame influences the decision to go with so much melo
Maybe... I would bet that they finish 4th-6th seed, with a +.600 record but you're probably right about the first round exit, unless we make some serious adjustments to the trap on Dame. Then we'll get taken out in the second.
Dame ranks 160 in steals? He should be much much higher for a star pg. Take a look at those ahead of him. He's goy to get his hands on more balls than .06 per game.
everything about this season so far is wacky. But of all the areas I'd worry about Dame, steals is way down the list of priorities. His career steal rate is twice that of what it is this season. sample size is skewing most stats right now. Since it was being discussed in another thread, I noticed that in one game, CJ's FT rate dropped from .182 to .157. That's a 14% drop in a single game. CJ was 2.4 points ahead of Dame in assist rate going into the Chicago game; now he's 2.3 points behind. probably need for at least 25 games to go by before we start putting a lot of stock into single stats for players
Oh I know small sample in a season like this is cloudy at best. It just surprised me to these that stat even at this point.
No, I see you meant .6 which is his stats this year; he has averaged about a steal a game over his last five years.
