Game Thread 2023-24 Game #24 - BLAZERS VS MAVERICKS - DECEMBER 16, 2023 - SATURDAY - 6:00 PM PST - ROOT

Ant has a 30% assist rate this season. His previous best was 22%. Dame averages 30% assist rate on his career.

 

I don’t think anyone is making Billups tank. I think it comes naturally for him.

 

Portland was playing 'better' teams before Ant came back. Not hard to find them on the schedule since just about every team in the league is better. By the way, the combined record of GSW and Utah is 20-31; and 3 of the 5 games since Ant returned have been at home; and all 5 games in the same time zone..and yeah, I know that last one is a nonsense stat, but jet-lag should be tracked even if it's only at The Onion

IIRC, Portland's defensive rating before Ant returned was 112.9. In the 5 games he has played since, Portland's defensive ratings were:

112.8
121.2
136.8
128.6
126.3

I'm not sure who else Ant has been taking minutes from except Mays, but the odds are high they are better defenders

 

I think that's skewed by formula and 6 game sample size. And by the way Dame's career mark is 30.8%

Ant has averaged 5.9 ast/36. Dame has averaged over 5.9 ten times; over 6.0 nine times and over 7 the last 5 seasons. Ant is averaging 8 ast/100-possessions. Dame has averaged more 11 times; averaged over 9.0 eight times including the last 7 years straight; and over 10.0 twice

that said, if Ant can finish the season relatively close to a 27-30% assist rate and in the 5.3 assist/game mark he's currently at he'll have improved quite a bit, especially if he can keep his ast/trn ratio above 2.0

 

Yes small sample size. We’ll see how long Ant has to keep putting up 26/6 on 60% TS before people start changing their perception of what he is as a player.

And this is coming from someone who wanted Ant gone this offseason. It’s crazy how Toronto fucked that up. Put Ant on Toronto or Orlando and he’d be the engine of a top 10 offense.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/ripcity/s/GyTLuyPDDE

Really good analysis on how Ants gravity gets open shots.

 

But he has strengths that could be exploited in the right circumstances. He averaged 17 and 10 on 63% shooting in under 30 mpg... when he played with Chris Paul.

 

I suspect it has less to do with Ant than it has to do with teams now know how to play the Blazers. Also they lost just as bad or worse against these same teams with Ant out. And to that mix the lakers, grizzlies, Sixers and Thunder. Fact is this team isn't very good and their defense isn't very good. Now that they have played a quarter of the season they won't catch any team off guard. It's a simple equation to beat the Blazers. Shoot lots of threes and spread the floor. Then punish Ayton. Then make the Blazers shoot from the perimeter. Pack the paint. We will watch this over and over again until Billups figures out the recipe to beat it or they get enough talent to trade blows with a team doing it.

Basketball isn't as hard as a lot of people try to make it. Talent wins in this league.

 

He doesn't appear interested in doing much. I dunno how much of it is on Chauncey

 

You think this team with the injuries they've had wins a lot more games with a different head coach??? You think we weren't actively trying to lose games the previous two seasons???

I don't know if Chauncey is capable of getting a good or great team extra wins as a head coach or if he would cost them a few games, even when figuring playoffs. I can't know how Chauncey would do with a well built roster that could logically be expected to win consistently because by Joe's admission Chauncey has never been given one. He sure as shit doesn't have that roster right now and I sincerely doubt we will be angling for more wins this season as the trade deadline approaches.

 

It was a strange game.

It felt like Dallas was scoring at will , but in reality they made only one more field goal (48 vs 47) than the Trail Blazer and the same amount of free throws.

So it pretty much comes down to the Mavericks making 16 three-pointers compared to the Blazers making 7 three-pointers (out of 32 attempts).

If the Blazers could have made 4 more three-pointers, which is still only 34%, they would have been right in the game.

Taking 32 three-pointers, and only making 22% of them was one major thing that lost the game.

In the biggest win of the season in Cleveland, the Blazers made 14 of 35 three-pointers, which is 40%.

 

I don't think a good coach or person for that matter talks bad about the people they've been charged with leading unless they're absolutely sure that negativity will light a motivational fire. A good leader will lie about the people they're leading being great just to try and inspire greatness out of them. Then when they fall short of that, identify areas of improvement and praise the people they're leading for the things they did well.

 

Everyone stunk on 3-point shots. Except Scoot, because he's like a box of chocolates.

I don't think Billups has much control over crappy 3-point shooting.

If the Blazers shoot 40% on threes in this game, like they did in Cleveland,

that would be 13 of 32 makes, which would have been 6 more makes x 3 = 18 more points.

Obviously, a huge difference on the scoreboard.

 

Ayton, Grant,Brogdon, Sharpe, Simons...we have 5 players that are are mid-tier starting NBA talents. It seems we could be closer to .500, but the team doesn't really have a top 30 talent. Most teams have a star.

 

By calling every other team INCLUDING THE JAZZ a "better team" you're essentially just saying we're a shit team.

 

I did. I guess that was my point?
Seriously I don’t know where I was going with that but I’m just not convinced Ant is the reason they are losing.

 

Once again I think the problem is that we're a schizophrenic team. If you were really committed to winning NOW (say, because you had none of your own picks for a while) then a lineup of
Brogdon
Ant
Jerami
???
Ayton
is surely at least a play-in team? (IF you can somehow get them to play as a team.)

Conversely, if you want to develop your young team, then you play
Scoot
Shaedon
Camara
Walker
???

as many minutes as you can.

But they're a poor mix. I say pursue strategy 1 up to the trade deadline, to maximize value of the vets, then trade everybody over about 23 and pursue strategy 2 thereafter.