I have a love/hate relationship with Blazersedge, but I think Dave nailed it this time. At least that's what my eyes have been seeing when comparing this year to last year. Dave gave four reasons, but think the first one is by far the key. https://www.blazersedge.com/2017/12...ffense-stats-lillard-mccollum-nurkic-rankings
This is a bit scary because it seems like "oh crap, I didn't see that coming. I wonder what we should do now?" Teams may have found a simple answer to defending Portland's lineup that the Blazers won't be able to overcome without some major moves.
The player on our roster with the closest match to the skills that counter this defense will make everyone here scream in pain. It's Meyers Leonard. Leonard hits the three, but he's also decent midrange. He gives you a second player to set screens, and a reason why you can't just double Nurk down low. Now, Olshey's goal should be getting two players who do any or all of those things better than Meyers does, but honestly, starting Meyers, Patty, and Nurkic might be crazy enough to work once or twice.
This is insane to say, but I'm going to just say it: in order, this should be our rotation (first five start, next four are our bench): This is stupid, but hear me out: In your starters, you get three legitimate ball handlers, four players who can hit the three, an offensive rebounder (Jusuf) and a defensive rebounder (Meyers). Ed Davis and Vonleh continue the rebounding, while Patty C rounds out the guard rotation. Aminu acts as a defensive specialist. Like I said, stupid, but these are our nine best players, by the numbers and by the eye test.
Evan Turner, Maurice Harkless, Jake Layman, and the rookies are all bigger liabilities on the court than Meyers Leonard; take that how you will. I’m not saying he’s the best player on the team. But I’d rather have him out there than anyone not on the list I posted in the post you didn’t quote.
Opening myself up for a beat down but........from what I saw in limited minutes during the Washington game, they have that guy in Zach Collins. Seems like he’s the only guy who not only knows HOW to set a pick, but also WHEN and WHERE to set a pick. He’s young, raw and skinny (the kid disappears when he turns sideways) but I was still impressed by the small sample size. He can shoot, his footwork blew me away, especially on defense (we had good seats and he was playing right in front of us), he stuck with his man and he seemed pretty well aware at all times of what was going on (for a rookie with limited playing time). In other words, he seems like a Meyers Leonard with an actual basketball IQ and mental toughness. I’d love to see what he could do with more playing surrounded by seasoned starters.
In two years yes. But the dude completely disappears on the court (a negative 13 PER?! How do you even do that?!) and will be targeted by grown men more than a 15 year old at Roy Moore’s stag party. He needs time to season, but I don’t disagree.
I personally believe analytics are overrated but.......hard to buy that PER considering just how little playing time he’s actually had. I just don’t believe it’s truly reflective. Time to throw him to the wolves and watch him grow. I think the kid has the intestinal fortitude to succeed sooner rather than later.
I think the point is that what they are doing now isn't working. They need a lot more scoring from the 3&4 positions than they have right now. And sorry, but Pat is not a 3. The easy way would be to put Biebs, Layman, Harkless, Collins, Biggie out there and tell them if they don't try and score aggressively then they will be on the bench the rest of the year. Yeah, you would take some losses in the short term, but we need more people scoring. If none of them will step up then you try and trade for an underused scorer who is over 6'5".
It was a joke. Yes, New Meyers is playing better (in very limited minutes) than Old Meyers and producing more on the court (and making less money) than No Show Mo - the incredible disappearing man. I mentioned as much several times in the What Can Meyers Do thread. BNM
The Aminu defenders always point out how he wins us games when he's on, but this thread highlights how bad of a strategy that is...because opponents are willing to take that chance, knowing he'll lose us 3 out of 4 games.
Sounds like a talent issue to me. Our forwards are just... terrible. Hopefully Collins and Swanigan will develop into good players because we got nothing there.
