While the team has a LOT of issues, one of the apparent items is that the two great defenders we brought in this summer thrive in zones/off-ball and the rest of our defense does not. I think this problem is compounded because our guards are small. It seems apparent that Olshey is committed to Dame/CJ/Simons, and also that Gary Trent is going to make bank, will want to get to a big market (clutch) and would thrive playing with a real PG. This makes me wonder if a natural move would be to pair Trent/Collins for someone long that thrives in off-ball defense. I think a natural fit would be Boucher TBH. He's come back down to earth, Toronto desperately needs backcourt help and shooting, and he'd be playing with two PGs (and a coach with an offensive system) that can feed him the ball more effectively than our guards and system. If we added Boucher we would no doubt lose some more scoring, but our steals/blocks/transition offense would grow by leaps and bounds and we could commit to playing zone for significant stretches, which would be a good way to get more out of Jones/Covington and hide CJ/Melo/Kanter on defense for longer stretches. Lillard/Simons McCollum/Hood Jones/Boucher/Little Covington/Melo/Little Kanter/Covington/Giles if Nurk comes back healthy and Hood doesn't step up we could have a playoff rotation with a lot of size and defense. Lillard/Simons McCollum/Jones Jones/Boucher Covington/Melo Nurk/Kanter
one way Portland could have landed some length: look closely at that. The Pistons traded Christian Wood for part of what Portland traded for RoCo. Making it worse, for Portland, is that the Blazers seent out two firsts for RoCo while Houston got a first along with Wood the Rockets basically traded Covington for Christian Wood and two 1st round picks. That was an incredibly good trade for Houston, and Olshey looks like a dope
We had more length tonight and we still got blown out. We need a coach more than we need length right now.
We could have five Draymonds out there and we still wouldn’t be able to defend as a team. It’s not a personnel issue.
Wow, the 2 trades were only 2 days apart, so it was all available to Olshey. He obviously valued Covington as being two #ones better than Wood. I thought the time elapsed between trades would be his excuse. P.S. It's nice to see someone else use the site I've pushed for many years, http://prosportstransactions.com/basketball/index.htm
I have noticed this also, as I watch the games. We often seem overmatched by teams with much more length than us.
You said "more length' and I was asking for clarification on more in relative to what/who. I read it as Milwaukee.
A couple of weeks ago Stotts said that he was going to meet with NO and discuss what options they had in bringing in another big.... Since then, there has been silence. This is troubling because we have 1 open roster spot (and 1 open 2-way spot), and yet NO has not taken any action. There is absolutely no downside in filling the 2-way spot...
One open roster spot, two filled roster spots with players that never will help a team win anything, and trading two first-round picks and Trevor Ariza for a guy who doesn't seem like he's a good fit here.
But, I mean really, we're wasting three spots on the roster right now if you just count the opening, Elleby and Blevins. Heck, I think we would have at least gotten something out of Jaylen Hoard if we held onto him.
Why is Elleby a waste of a roster spot? Jaylen Hoard? No other team thought he was good enough to be on their roster either.
