In our 4 game win streak, we've basically tightened it up to an 8 man rotation, with Melo, Kanter and Simons off the bench. Before then, you could see games where as many as 11 guys were getting minutes in competitive games. Pros: - Powell's minutes are a little up, to where he's basically getting the same minutes as Dame and CJ. - Guys seem to understand their roles better. - Simons seems a lot more confident in what he's doing, which is mainly taking threes and not running an offense. - Our bench is really balanced in terms of offense (Melo shoots whenever he touches it, Simons shoots threes, Kanter grabs all the misses). - Two of Dame/CJ/Powell are always on the court. Cons: - This is coming at the expense of Nassir and Jones getting any PT. - Dame seems to be taking on a lot more tough defensive assigments, like him guarding Tatum in the last game. - Holy shit our bench sucks at defense. But I guess embrace the suck? Is this just temporary fools gold, or has Stotts somehow stumbled onto a real solution to finish out the season and enter the playoffs? Or are we just watching what happens when Nurk and Dame are finally firing on all cylinders?
its fools gold until proven otherwise, meaning to do it continuously in the regular season and more importantly, to do it in the playoffs im not a believer, but im open to being proven wrong
Agree. We’ve seen this story before where the team finishes out the regular season strong (Orlando bubble, anyone?) and then goes on to lay an egg in the playoffs. Like you say, I’m happy to be proven wrong but I just don’t see this team making any “noise” in the playoffs unless they get a favourable matchup (Denver is the only one that comes to mind). Even then, WC semi-finals will likely be their ceiling.
Orlando bubble was mostly Dame/Trent going supernova offensively--something that predictably was not maintainable. This is primarily based upon defensive effort/intensity, which is controllable and repeatable. Apples and oranges, IMO.
I think the only 'con' to this tightening is the potential of Dame playing too many minutes and Portland dropping into the play-in games. Last night Dame played 39 minutes and he's not loafing on defense; Just the opposite in fact and by taking on guys like Brogdon and Tatum he's having to fight thru more screens it does show that Dame is a lot better at defense than his norms suggest...which in my mind is another reason why Portland should have a good, backup PG so Dame can play some defense while keeping his minutes in the 32-34 range
The difference is a combination of things: they’re making shots at a high percentage and they’re playing banged up teams. The last four games Portland is top 5 in both FG and 3PT%. The problem is they lean on that completely. They still don’t move the ball, they don’t really get to the line, and the bench is still a liability defensively. I don’t see how that’s gonna work in the playoffs. The teams success is tied 100% into whether they can make jumpshots. That’s not a good bet.
Im not sure it's a con that Dame has taken on the defensive approach he has now. Id consider that a pro.
Let me know when the Blazers play the elusive non-banged up team. In this shortened season with its crazy compressed schedule, I don't think that there are any. People need to stop using that as an argument to put down Blazers' victories. Every team is playing banged up teams.
And it's not like we haven't had our share of injuries. Dame has been banged up, CJ and Nurk missed a ton of games, and Zach is pretty much out for the season. Interestingly, Portland seems to have pushed through the injuries and found a little bit of a groove. By way of comparison, the Lakers have lost two against Sactown and Toronto since LeBron returned. It can take a while for things to fall into place sometimes. I'm still pretty sure we're getting dumped in the first round of the playoffs. But it's nice having a little hope in the meantime.
He's only played 28 out of 65 games so far this season. That's less than a coin flip. Not exactly a huge amount of luck for the Blazers.
IMO, DJJ's minutes being reduced is no big deal. It was a bad signing, he's gone, and playing him is taking away from other people. Little had a great season, it's sucked to see his shooting slide a bit, and therefore his minutes be reduced.
Well one reason are offense doing better there Dame and CJ finally including the other 3 players in the offense and I think someone might have spoke up to Dame and CJ about it. They are the same players but playing together much better at both ends do they fall back in that old mod sometimes the answers is yes but doing less of it means there moving the right direction.
What's your point? Jordan Clarkson sat out with a sprained ankle, otherwise it might have been a real blowout.
I said it form day one that Norm Powell will speak up if he's not getting the ball. He must be involved to water down Dame & CJ's domination of touches.
