agree 100% doesn’t need to be full rebuild. We have some pieces and to be honest if you could make a couple of changes to this team i still think we could be a very good team. I really felt like Nurk and CJ are the two pieces that make the most sense to trade now.
Lets see how things are going after 15 more games? We know what we have now. This place has teetered between "Blazers Are Fucking Legit!" to " Blazers are a complete Embarrassment" and everywhere in between. Halfway to knowing what we got and it will probably be around a .500 team. Which they are very close to now. With any luck they win tonight 7-8 at 15 games. If they go 8-7 the next 15 they will be 15-15. What if they turn it around a bit and go 9-6 the second 15? end up 16-14 at 30 games? That would actually be a fairly nice turnaround. 10-5 would be really nice. What a difference a couple games can make?
This is why I posted a few days ago what Tom Thibodeaux said about his team. “Just been ten games. Ok it’s only been 20 games. Give it 30 games” and then your season is over.
Wasn’t it a pretty high-consensus opinion around here that we would likely struggle with consistency in the first third of the season? So what we predicted has come to pass and now we need to blow it up? I hate to be the “patience” guy but c’mon. New coach, new system, new bench, and a uncharacteristically bad Dame. There’s still a few bright spots to hold onto. Dame has looked more like himself recently and hopefully with some rest, he can be even better. I can already see he’s starting to make adjustments to the new foul interpretation rules. Yeah, it’d be nice if he could adjust as easily as Stephen Curry, but remember that Steph has had to adjust to this type of whistle-swallowing for the past 6 years in the playoffs. Dame is still passing really well and seems to be taking less heat-checks when he knows he doesn’t have it. Perhaps these struggles are a blessing in disguise and will force him to be a better player come playoff time. CJ is CJ. We can’t bench him because it will surely tank his trade value. Trade him at the deadline for a above-average wing and I’ll be happy. However, he’s been shooting well from three and has had some good defensive moments. Our bench is the best it’s been in years. Our defense has looked amazing on some nights, especially at home. If you thought we would be the Billups Pistons from day one and play that way each night, of course you’re disappointed. We need time to get consistent on defense. I am personally amazed at the level of defense we’ve been able to see in the first few weeks compared to last year. With time and repetition, it can continue to to get better. How many times did we get up 100 points by the end of third quarter? Compare that to now and there’s a big difference and it passes the eye test. Nurk is actually playing pretty well if you lay off the all-star expectations. We’re definitely not better without him. Ant + Little are showing solid improvement. Our point differential shows we are capable of being really good. We just happen to suck on any given night. That’s the product of a new system… inconsistency. If we can trade CJ + RoCo + draft compensation for someone like Tobias Harris, Harrison Barnes, or Brandon Ingram, we would be solid.
Yes even the first half of the season considering our SOS. We obviously need a big move but I think we'll be much better after the AS break regardless.
30 seems generous. And while some things might not be perfect for 30 games (or more) some things don’t take that long. I’m more concerned with just the effort in some games.
What seems like effort might be comfort and reaction times. I’m sticking with 30 games. That leaves 52 to make the season. Some things will work out.
The Blazers are 7-8, but presumably because of their SOS, 538 still has them at a whopping 85% chance to make the playoffs. This is much higher than the 10-3 Wizards, for example. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2022-nba-predictions/?ex_cid=rrpromo So, we may not be "going anywhere", but that's not obvious from how we've played so far.
