Are we better defensive team compared to last last two years? Payton, Hart, Winslow, Grant? That’s a decent group of defenders nothing earth shattering but I think it moves us up defensively 7-8 spots
I think there is only 1 answer... because it COULDN'T get much worse. Therefore, by definition - they will be better.
we have seen how team looked without dame, cj mccollum & powell on both ends of the floor, they absolutely bought what chauncey was selling to them, now we have added some defensive players which obviously should help a lot, lets hope dame & grant buy in too and were in for a ride... we have competent defenders and even those who are not, they need to give their best effort ("running around doing nothing" is what westbrook said about beverly, we need those players to be dogs like beverly) nurk, grant, hart, payton, little, winslow, they are competent defenders to me, rest of them need to be dogs
I voted yes because it’s the only rational answer, but we are going to get killed at the rim and on the perimeter with Dame and Simons on the floor. Scheme will be everything
Dame is finally healthy, and loves to prove people wrong. I've seen him play some really good defense in post up situations. I think he will take Coach Billups tutelage and run with it. I'm not saying he will be an all world defender, but i doubt he be blown by as often , and with his quick hands, could up his steals per game. Chemistry will take time, but i see the team making a drastic improvement on defense .
it may not be applicable, but in 2017-18, with Dame and CJ on the floor, Portland was 8th in the NBA in defense. That season, Portland was 16th in opponent 3ptFG% and they were actually 1st in opponent FG% at the rim. Obviously, that was a different team, but Nurkic was the anchor of that defense in the paint. Now, Portland had Ed Davis and he was a very underrated paint defender. That was a significant factor. on the interior, Blazers were Nurkic-Davis-Aminu-Zach (played less than 16 minutes); now they have Nurkic-Eubanks-Grant-Winslow-Watford. Yeah the 17-18 team was better, but not to any kind of extreme. I was hoping that the Blazers would add a minimum salary big better at defense than Eubanks, but oh well to offset the Dame/CJ pairing on the perimeter defense, Portland had Napier-Harkless-Turner-Aminu-Connaughton-Layman. To offset the Dame/Ant pairing on perimeter defense, the Blazers will have Payton-Hart-Winslow-Little-Grant-Sharpe-Johnson. I'd actually give the edge to next season's perimeter defense, especially if Ant improves on that end of the floor so, on paper, next season's team will be weaker in the paint but better on the perimeter. But as you say, scheme and execution will be critical.
