Game Thread 2022-23 Game #44 - BLAZERS @ NUGGETS - JANUARY 17, 2023 - TUESDAY - 6:00 PM (PDT) ROOT

You really get into this shit don’t you?
First off this was a personal discussion between me and the @Tince guy….but since you butted in. Last spring all everybody talked about was the #7 pick or whatever we had was going to turn this franchise around. All @THE HCP said was that we should use that pick to bring in a vet to help dame and not use it on a player, whoever it was going to be was going to take 4 years to develop. I felt Dame would want us to do the same. And by mid season when we had a losing record, he was going to want out. Oh yeah I got killed for that opinion along with my 39 win prediction by the forum experts 2 weeks into the season.
To be honest you lost me at ,”not being combative here”.

 

LOL...don't try and pull the "private conversation" bullshit. If it was private you'd be on some message app or the phone. But you posted it here for everybody to read. This is a public discussion forum, not an "I'm-just-talking-to-this-guy-so-butt-out' forum

I honestly did not know what pick you were referring to...so I asked the question

as far as your predictions...yeah, I know what they were, everybody does, because you remind us about them all the time

 

HCP is hoping this is the year that one of his predictions is CORRECT. The odds are with him......

 

With as much hate as I receive from the nutjobs on here…. I’m allowed to.

 

SHITS. ABOUT. 2. GO. DOWN

 

I actually thought the Blazers looked pretty good in the first half of the game, maybe because the Denver D energy wasn't high but we were doing OK defensively and getting ball movement and good shots.

2nd half, as Gramps said, we started the "stand around at the 3 pt line shit" and go one-on-one. It's particularly bad when Ant is with the 2nd unit. He goes into dribble too much mode, seems to think all the scoring must come from him and the ball movement stops. It's a horrible, frustrating style of bball that is way too common in the NBA.

Sometimes I think I might smash my fucking TV if I see Nurkic stand out at the 3 pt arc for multiple possessions while Ant dribbles the air out of the ball.

Not to bash Nurk, he gets plenty of negative reviews. He started the game well and then like many other times as soon as some adversity comes his way, his mind is blown.
I think he has a poor mental game, always feeling persecuted by refs, gets some ticky tack calls but mostly dumb fouls. Why? I think he's gassed, overweight, out of shape, whatever you want to call it. He's slow to react, can't jump and has to gather with a clear path to dunk the ball. Ridiculous for a 7 footer. But still more of a mental thing to me. He can affect a game when he's aggressive and motivated, looking like he's engaged, anticipating and energetic. Doesn't happen enough. Weird dude, plays with blinders on and never seems to know who's next to him or behind him about to strip the ball. His poor touch around the rim is in part due to this as he gets surprised a lot by late double teams and rushes. He has terrible balance it seems, falls down more than any 280lb guy I've ever seen and ends up throwing the ball at the backboard. (might be euro soccer flopping) Seriously, he needs and ballet class or yoga or something because guys glance impact him and he falls down.

 

Tonight the Nuggets shoot 18% from 3 in the first half. If they did that yesterday the Blazers would have blown them out.

 

Imagine having lengthy defenders that can close out on 3 point shooters.

McDaniels, Kyle Anderson, Prince to name a few of their lengthy wing defenders

 

Portland's perpetual length deficit at wing has become frustrating squared. Cronin took a step in addressing it by adding Grant. Then he signed 6'2 Payton. Hart works his ass off but he was measured at 6'3.75 at the combine. Nassir was measure at 6'4.5. Sharpe was measured at 6'4.25. All three of those guys are SG size, and they are routinely going up against 6'8-6'10 wings like Michael Porter, Aaron Gordon, Bandon Ingram, Kawhi, Markkanen, Vanderbilt, Kyle Anderson, Taurean Prince

Orlando beat Portland with a starting frontline of three guys 6'10, and we didn't even see Bol Bol or Issac

Toronto beat the Blazers because of this:

Scottie Barnes 6-9, OG Anunoby 6-7, Chris Boucher 6-9, Pascal Siakam 6-9, Thaddeus Young 6-8, Juancho Hernangómez 6-9, Precious Achiuwa 6-8
Otto Porter Jr. 6-8

Beside Jokic, Denver can put this on the floor:

Aaron Gordon 6-8, Zeke Nnaji 6-9, Vlatko Čančar 6-8, Michael Porter Jr. 6-10, Jeff Green 6-8

OKC has:

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander 6-6
Jalen Williams 6-6
Josh Giddey 6-8
Kenrich Williams 6-6
Aaron Wiggins 6-6
Mike Muscala 6-10
Aleksej Pokusevski 7-0
Darius Bazley 6-8
Jeremiah Robinson-Earl 6-9

it's just crazy that Blazer management allowed Olshey to build such a tiny roster; and that Portland isn't doing much at all to address it

 

Yep, 6’6” to 6’10” guys with long wingspans are a vital part to the construction of an NBA team these days. Yet, we never seem to address it while the top GM’s make it a focal point when drafting.

 

Again, if our lack of size everywhere isn't addressed... right fucking now at the deadline, I will be disgusted but not surprised.

 

That would most certainly help but that simply was not the case in their shooting woes in the first half. They were simply missing open looks.
The second half the Nuggets woke up and hit their shots at about a 60% clip and ended the game shooting about 38% from three.
As a matter of fact the Blazers defended the three better overall in their game on the first of a B2B than the T-Wolves did in their game.
Blazers held Denver to 34.4% 3 pt shooting.

 

I watched nuggets/wolves game. They were closing out way better

 

I remember when some of us wanted to trade for the 6'8" Aaron Gordon....and others said no way because he was a tweener. That a 6'8" PF was too short and his outside shot was not consistent enough..........

 

I appreciate the things Nurk brings when he's engaged. But boy is he frustrating sometimes. Twice he literally handed the ball to a Nuggets player. Just no awareness sometimes.

 

I'm almost completely over Nurk being on this team. The inconsistency seems like it will only be fixed by being traded. That no one in this comfort bubble he has here can get through to him that he doesn't need to finesse anything offensively and everything in basketball takes intention and can't be done lackadaisically, including swinging down with his arms on defense, getting stupid fouls... he's just not athletic enough to get away with this shit and too imposing physically to not use that to its fullest.

Again I hate the way Chauncey utilizes him defensively, with Nurk ending up looking incredible slow while defending in space or on the perimeter so often and us left with absolutely no one capable of protecting the paint because of the guys we have around Nurk and Nurk lacking the ability to recover from the perimter to the paint anywhere close to quickly enough.

 

Obviously not in the second half?
I agree length would help the Blazers.

 

Watch out saying things like this? There are some around here that will say you have an agenda.

I agree wholeheartedly and no i don't have an agenda and it's not just a narrative.