Game Thread 2023-24 - GAME #44 - BLAZERS @ ROCKETS - JANUARY 24, 2024 - WEDNESDAY - 5:00 PM PST - ROOT

Yep. He’s awesome.

 

Will flat out say we don’t win that game without Matisse’s play last night! Dude was legit on the defensive end!

 

We obviously don't win that game without a big time team effort and great coaching from Chauncey... we had to hit a buzzer beater to get into OT and then we dominated OT. As a singular game it was awesome. Ant, Jerami, Deandre, Matisse, Jabari and Malcolm were all fucking brilliant last night.

 

I like Billups but Grant said the play wasn't designed for the ball to go to him. The play worked because of a great decision and pass by Brogdon and a great shot by Grant.

 

forgive me if posted already

"They have really good veteran scorers," Udoka said. "They have Malcolm Brogdon starting with [Scoot] Henderson coming off the bench. They are a talent that is better than what their record shows. Everyone is looking at their record but just look at the talent they have across the board. They are a dangerous team."

 

So Chauncy doesn’t get credit for the win…..on this site he DEFINITELY gets the blame for loses. Can’t have it BOTH ways FAMS!

 

No, that's not what I said. I said he doesn't get credit for the last play that took it to overtime.

 

using Chauncey's W/L record as an accomplishment, is like putting regular gas in a diesel engine. Not something anyone should try to do.

 

Why would you use his W/L record to judge how he’s doing? Look at Pop’s and Monty’s. I thought they were fantastic coaches….why aren’t THER winning I ask?

 

Look at SAS & DET team salaries compared to Portland's. The Blazers should have more talent. Portland is #15 in team payroll, wedged in there next to the "contending" Knicks & T-Wolves. But for some reason Cronin's super duper expensive team has fallen into huge vats of inconsistent and uninspired basketball.

Of course there's been injuries, but who traded for Centers with bad knees? Uh oh... can't bring up bad trades. Never ever say this Front Office made mistakes. Everything is still Olshey & Lillard's fault.

 

I stopped four words in when you mentioned “salaries” Has nothing to do with talent.

 

how about Monty has winning accomplishments and Pops has championships. We're left with "we don't know" under Billups whistle.

It's a mystery. There's just not enough evidence to make a case for a new coaching staff. Ignore Lillard having his best season ever, and the Blazers struggled to maintain a .500 record. A cake home schedule with a healthy team last January, saw opposing coaches embarrasing the Blazers strategies.... nope, we're gonna shred that file. Full rebuild mode.

Blazer fans are the problem now. Anyone who thought the team might show some improvement in any facet of basketball under Billups are dummies. Useless snotty fans need to zip it, so Cronin can draft stacks of rookies for Billups to train.

 

I propose we build through the draft and trades, like everyone else. But I do NOT propose we intentionally lose in order to get a higher pick.

Scoot Henderson is the perfect example why. Every genius in the Blazers’ brain trust thought he was going to be our savior, but instead he’s a kid with an unreliable shot who isn’t as fast or athletic as everyone thought. And yet we intentionally lost a bunch of games last season just so we could draft him. It was stupid then, and it’s even more stupid now.

 

So we should win games that are essentially meaningless in order to give ourselves less choices. If as far as you can see is the game the team is playing that night/day that's great for a coach and that's great for a fan but if that's how our GM is thinking we're fucked.

 

I’ve played sports all my life, and I’ve never tried to lose a game. No one I’ve ever played with, or against, has ever tried to lose a game, either. It’s totally against the idea of sports and athletic competition. I’ve also never had a coach who told us in the locker room, “We’re going to intentionally lose this game.” If he did, he would have been fired by the school I was attending.

And yet this is what GMs are doing in the NBA every time they “tank.” They’re pulling just enough players, or putting just enough on the “injury list” to make sure the team loses. It’s despicable, and it taints the whole idea of fair competition. It also taints the record of all their opponents because it means a certain percentage of the games they won were handed to them by the other team.

 

There has never been an advantage at any level of sports that I played to lose a game. I can tell the same was true for you. What I'm asking is that you think a little outside of your box and try to understand that at the top level of pro sports that have drafts, future draft picks, the ability to trade players and picks and have a salary cap; that it is a long game that we have never been pieces playing in. GMs cannot have the idealism that you do. They have to be tactical on a level that goes beyond one season and definitely goes beyond one game. You don't have to like these complexities that cause nuanced paradoxes in competition but I find them fascinating and even entertaining.

No coach should ever coach any player to play less than their best. No coach should try to engineer any play or game plan not to work. Definitely no player should ever worry about any of this shit and should always compete at their highest level when in games. A GM who doesn't have a team close to a championship has to, otherwise that GM is playing a short game while everyone else is playing a more tactical long game. A coach can also be told that it's a time of a season where developing young talent has become more important than game to game wins as far as rotation goes and there's nothing unethical about that. You don't have to like it but pretending that this level of sports and business is the same as levels you've played at isn't doing you any favors.

This roster needs a lot of help to compete in the future and it needs to maximize the assets that it has. It does not need wins right now, I know why it feels counterintuitive to you because just typing it out makes me feel weird but I'm willing to embrace the strategy of it, knowing that for small markets either this or getting very lucky late in drafts and usually a combination of both is what can win you a championships.

Good luck this season keeping your head up because I think the true tank is very close at hand. I sincerely hope it's the last time we have to see one but I don't think it's a bad strategy or again unethical at this level of sports and business competition.

 

If Grant and Mal are dealt then it's ON. Full tank mode. I assume that is your meaning. Coaches are never going to tell players to miss their shots (last second FTs excepted). To me a tank is having a roster out there that, at present, simply cannot execute against better teams. I believe CB wants to pass more and create better shots, but when players either make bad passes and/or drop the ball, POR is helpless against experienced teams. If a team don't have all the pieces, and POR isn't close to having all the pieces (imho), then you have to draft well.

My question:
Is Cooper Flagg worth a full blown tank? Any other players looking like that in the 2025 draft? I 100% think pops will tank again next year while VM develops more to get Flagg.

 

am i the only person who watched last year's "developing the youth" final month of losing for a draft pick ?? Coach Billups was actively benching players in the middle of games for playing to well. It was like a cheating at poker for Billups. Dealing aces up his sleeve to the opposing teams. I've never seen anything like it in proffesional sports.

While it may be the most optimal part of winning the draft and advanced rebuilding, how do the proffesional players feel about management sucking their pride for the game like money hungry vampires ?? Just pay the players more money, so they'll shut up and do what they're told?

Someday i'd love to see a Blazer pull a Giannis and say, "screw you Coach, i ain't coming out. I want to win."

I guess it's important to have young Blazers who are just estatic to be in the NBA. Then the Blazers GM and Coach can manipute the scoreboard without any pushback from the players on this team.

 

You can justify tanking all you want, but even the NBA knows it’s wrong, which is why they fined Mark Cuban for admitting to doing it. It’s a little wink-wink thing the NBA does by looking the other way most of the time, but if forced to, they will slap somebody’s hand. And why do they slap their hand? Because they know it’s wrong.

 

You're conflating two different things. The Mavericks deliberately pulled all of their starters from a game that had direct playoff implications. If they'd won, they'd have been in the play-in and, if I recall correctly, would have given up their first round draft pick. They made sure that they'd lose so they could keep their pick and have a shot at Wemby. Deliberately throwing a game like they did violates league rules and they were fined for it. On the other hand, teams that are rebuilding and make reasonable moves to ensure that their rebuild is successful are operating within the rules. Playing your young guys extensively in order to develop them, or trading vets for picks to improve your odds of finding good players in the draft, are perfectly legitimate things to do. You're not deliberately trying to lose any given game. The coaches and players are working their tails off, but they don't have the talent to compete with established teams. This results in more losses in the short run. but improves the odds of getting better in the long run.