Game Thread 2022-23 PRESEASON - GAME #5 - BLAZERS @ WARRIORS - OCTOBER 11, 2022 - TUESDAY - 7:00PM (PDT) ROOT

I'm one of the more optimistic fans in here, but this might be the least offensively skilled team we've had in a long time. The Blazers have only 3 skilled shooters (Dame,Ant,Grant) who can be counted on to provide consistent scoring. OUCH! I'm not counting the rookies because it's too early to tell. But Sharpe and Walker are very promising. Hart will provide scoring, and Nas has the most potential to be a contributing shooter, but is still getting his legs under him. After that, nothing. No clutch shooters, and no one to provide needed scoring. Not good. Keon is a terrible shooter, and a marginal distributor. He's a work in progress. We can talk defense all day, but if you can't score, you can't win. This looks to be a lottery year, unless Cronin can pick up some quality shooters on the bench. I'm patient with this, but i want to see Joe go get us some dead eye dicks who can shoot the ball like all the Warriors bench players do. They don't miss, open or defended. Our bench guys are brickers.

 

ditto....I'm not feeling what Chauncey is trying to do in the preseason at all.....guys don't look prepared and I guess I expected a lot more ball movement, better screens and better shooting as well as 3 pt defense.

 

Nobody is calling for his job.
At least nobody who knows a fucking thing.

 

Chauncey's coaching is fine. What he's teaching takes time. But he has too many guys who can't shoot the damn ball. That ain't gonna change till Cronin adds some quality shooters, period.

 

Better shooting from guys not named Dame, Ant, or Grant ,on a consistent basis ,is unlikely. Nas has potential to become consistent, but he's not there yet.

 

what is he teaching? i think our summer league squad would run circles around this team.

why we didn't implement the defense they ran in SL is baffling to me.

 

Th

They can play great defense, and as long as they shoot the ball the way they do, they won't beat anyone.

 

My memory was we were something like 8-10 games under .500 when we shut Dame down. Maybe I'm wrong.

 

His coaching is TBD, no one knows if it is fine yet as we have given him a pass on last year's performance.

What is worrying is that there is very limited off the ball movement on offense so far - this team is very stagnant and seems to be a high pick and roll and we will figure it out from there team so far - and that's just not good enough. Even Stott's iso heavy sets showed a lot more off the ball movement and double screens to get people open. We do not see this here and it is vital to have it with Ant and Dame, imho. Ant is at his most dangerous as a 3 point catch and shoot target. This means you want to run plays to free him off the ball - and the team is not doing any of that stuff. It's quite frankly, a shame.

Now, the defense, there is a lot of switching and this team is short - so it might be problematic, but maybe with increased intensity it will solve it self, but I would like to see a bit more of a mix between switching and drop coverage with Nurk, he is not great at going out and recovering and people are going to exploit it, so the team needs to find a middle ground somewhere.

It will be interesting to see where this team really is in 10 - 15 games, until that time, there are worrying signs, but it's too early to write it off, imho.

 

we're playing rat ball on offense, and have no semblance of any strategy at all on defense. and there's no energy from either the starters or the bench. it's obviously too early to fire a coach, but wtf is chauncey teaching these guys? we look like a middle school team. Contrast that to the cohesion and aggressiveness we played with in SL, it's staggering.

 

I think it's easier to look good in SL, because of the lack of talented players you're facing game to game. This is big boy basketball, and the other team is playing for keeps.

 

we just got run out of the gym by the warriors' third team.

 

But their third team is loaded with skilled shooters from distance. We had a bunch of athletic try hard guys with no shooting skills.

 

They are the most well oiled team by far. Night and day difference to our sludge.

 

Vets. Doesn’t mean they are old. But they are veterans.

 

I would consider a vet to be someone who has put in substantial minutes for several years.
Vague definition i know but i dont consider a guy in the league for 10 years only playing in 15 games a season, a vet, for example.

Or, i consider a vet someone who has been exposed to/has learned most of the tricks of the trade. I don't think half our roster qualifies as such.

 

Ok. I don’t think playing time plays a part in whether someone is a veteran. Nor does age necessarily. After three or so years, you aren’t a rookie, you aren’t new to the league, you’re a vet.

 

Gotcha. I think playing time is a huge factor in learning things that would qualify vet status compared to rookie or newbie status. Without playing time, hard to learn things that could be considered tricks of the trade, or vet skill sets.

 

Sharpe should get a min of 15 mpg in order to blossom. It would be a huge error not to play him consistently 12-15 or more mpg.
Remember he hasn't played on a team for over a year.
We got this guy because we decided to trade CJ and others along with tanking.