Game Thread 2023-24 GAME #69 - BLAZERS VS CLIPPERS - MARCH 20, 2024 - WEDNESDAY - 7:00 PM PST - ROOT

I think the expectations on this draft need to be tapered quite a bit.

Yes, there will be good players with talent... But we are talking players like:

Sarr => Jarrett Allen
Risacher => Trey Murphy III
Topic => Killian Hayes
Sheppard => Seth Curry
Williams => Cam Reddish
Holland => Miles Bridges
Buzelis => Aleksej Pokusevski

There are going to be a LOT of swings and misses in this draft. One or two players will hit, with the high-end out come being a good (to very good) starter - but well below All-Star level.

 

I think he definitely has Ant playing his best ball of his career by far, he has taken huge leaps under Chauncey. Jerami is actually playing the best ball of his career. Matisse is doing the same. He's finally getting as much out of Deandre as he's been giving during his career under other coaching. Before his surgery Shaedon sure as shit looked like he was/is on a great career trajectory (compare his numbers month over month to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander). Those guys are all guys who I think belong in NBA rotations right now but I don't think anyone besides Jerami and Deandre is a sure fire starter but Chauncey is getting the most out of them that I think anyone could expect.

Role players like Kris and Jabari are coming along really well in my opinion. Scoot is really early on in the process and his two three week regular season injury absences along with his SL injury absence has totally disrupted every time he seemed to be getting momentum with his consistency.

I'll tell you what we don't have... anything close to a superstar. Maybe guys like Shaedon or Scoot could possibly get there but they aren't close now (3-4 years away at the soonest) nor were they coming into the league. We don't have one guy that's close to being all nba and you need two of those guys along with role players like Jerami and Deandre to even sniff contending in this league.

I haven't been very impressed with in game execution from Chauncey as a head coach but talent development that you referred to as his ability to "unlock talent" has seemed pretty damn good if not elite. Dude just hasn't had the elite level talent to unlock or if some of these guys who can't even legally drink yet are elite Chauncey definitely hasn't had the time to unlock that elite level.

 

You being so sure that none of these guys will be an all star when considering how hard it is to make accurate prognostication in pre-draft evaluation is a bit rich. I'm not saying any of one of these guys specifically will be an all-star for sure but given what we know about drafts, the odds are that even this one will yield a couple of all stars. The idea that the ceiling on this draft is two guys who are good starters well below all-star level is pretty extreme and also unprecedented.

 

I don't see the playbook or even inbounding the ball schemes as good coaching and it's been 3 years with still zero core identity. I also think he's using way too much ISO and rolling the ball out there....and I don't think Ant going ISO in the 4th qtr and trying to erase double digit deficits game after game is a winning formula. We started this season a top defensive team and end it not close to the top defensive team. I've said a few times, Chauncey is too much like Mo Cheeks..our highest draft pick and pt guard is probably our least prepared player from the draft and the coach is a pt guard. 3 seasons, 79 wins.....ending with one of the worst teams in the league. That's enough rope for me. I don't value tanking as a building tool so there's that as well..losing teaches losing. Some seem content to wait for years to be competitive but it isn't working for me as a fan this season. This season blows chunks. This is the time of year to be playing your best ball getting playoff ready but for the 3rd year it's been the Blazers roster tryouts after the allstar break. I hope it gets better over the next small stretch. Our rookies that have improved did it by getting playing time and staying healthy if anything.

 

I needed video context

it's official, Harden is an idiot

 

...oh I see now that the Instagram slides aren't easy to notice when embeded here -- if you click the side of the image there is an arrow to the next slide that provides the video context! Lol -- I figured Choke Harden was just trolling for comedic purposes

 

Poor offense and defense rankings = shit show. I see POR neck and neck with the likes of WAS and DET. HOU has a really good defense despite being pretty young. MEM has good D as well. SAS has Wemby.

POR is a bad bad team. There is simply no other way to interpret this year. These guys have to decide what their identity will be. WTF is the leader of the team? Ayton or Ant? I just cant get excited about Grant or Mal.

 

Harden post game after playing defense on his own teammate "gotta bring some excitement to this team. It'd have been better if he made the shot." His Coach chuckled when asked about James being a weirdo.

 

You knew it was going to be a really bad team back in October thought right? I mean honestly.

 

I have been told more than once that I bury my head in the sand sometimes…