Very pleased with the performances of Nurk & Nance Jr. Nurk was moving like never before, and facilitating with precision. Ant really has stepped his game up. He was lousy from 3 pt. range(1 for 9), but that's not the norm. He can shoot. But facilitating and driving to the hoop was beautiful. Dennis Smith Jr. looks like the talent Dallas thought they had drafted. He looks like he's matured, and taken his game up to another level. Fantastic job of facilitating. Making shots too. Other than shooting from 3 pt. range(brutal open shot making), & turnovers, the effort as a team was there. CJ Elleby played with purpose, and in control. He's developing. Along with Brown Jr. & Watford, some nice players to develop.
Fantastic potential, but he's a hacker on defense. He should have been called for at least 2 more fouls. It's easy to play defense when you can hug and slap your opponents.
My takeaways: The Blazers do seem to have a lot more ball movement and player movement. We had a lot of turnovers, but that's going to happen when you're playing guys like Blevins significant minutes. If that's the offense we actually run in the regular season, it'll be a lot harder to trap Dame. Nance has a quiet competence about him that's very similar to Roco. If he takes every minute Melo used to, our defense will be light years better this year without really losing a lot on the offensive end. After years of one dimensional forwards like Melo, Collins, Aminu and Harkless, who could do one thing reasonably well but couldn't be relied on for much else, it'll be nice to have a pair of really well-rounded guys out there who aren't world-beaters but can do everything at least ok. Nurk is who he is. When Nurk fever was in full swing his first season, I had hopes he could be a top 5 center. But I think he's always going to be a little flaky, a little too easy to get out of his game on the mental side. He's a good center and I think even a championship-calibre center, but he's not nor will ever be a franchise center. He looked a little more nimble out there--I think he has dropped a little more weight. Dennis Smith Jr, at least for one night, looked exactly like I hope Nassir will look this year. How the hell is he, a guy drafted 9th, on his 4th team and he's only 23? And he's been on some really, really terrible teams. A 24 win Mavs team. A 17 win Knicks team. A 20 win Pistons team. How is it none of these teams could find a use for the guy? It feels like we could have dug up another Tim Frazier here. Say what you want about Olshey (and I think it's deserved) but is there a better dumpster diver in the league? The guy can sniff out a perfectly edible ham sandwich at the bottom of a compost heap. I'm still not sold on Ant as a true point guard. But he seems to do a lot of CJ and Dame things, albeit less competently. With the motion offense we seem to be running, maybe that's just fine.
"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" Unfortunately, some were able to see his non-existance.
Too early - yet there is this vague sense of unease that it is already too late. I find myself mentally prepping for the post-Dame era. Sorry, just feeling morose this morning.
I understand this. If Dame wanting to stay is tied to us upgrading our roster to contender status this off-season, we lost that battle already. Doesn't matter if we have 10 turnovers a game or 30, Olshey did not significantly improve this roster. Now we have to hope injury luck is on our side and we get unexpected production from one of our minimum guys.
can someone on the team fine Nurk every time he brings the ball down on his post ups? they need to condition him out of this ridiculous habit. dude isn't a youngin anymore--- stop doing this!
Larry Nance is really good by the way. I look at his stats and they look like nothing, but I thought he was the most impactful player on the court last night for our team. Regardless of how and where he plays, he’s helping the team on both ends every minute he’s on the floor. He’s someone who will look better playing next to better talent.
