My apologies if I've missed it in other threads, but just kinda thought that this little factoid should be posted a little more prominently...and probably deserves more of an article than a thread, but you guys are way smarter than I am at this... 25% of the season down, 12-8, T-1st place in the NW Div., T-4th in the (ABSOLUTELY LOADED (TM)) Western Conference, 3.5 up on the 9th place team (OKC?!?!?!). They are #5 in Team +/- Seems like a mix of Defense... #1 in Opponent eFG% #3 in DRtg / #5 in NetRtg #4 in DReb%/Opponents' ORb% #4 in Blk% (and #29 in steals, for a #28 in Opponents' TOV%) #5 in fewest opponents' fastbreak points allowed #8 in opponents' 2nd chance points #12 in opponents' points in the paint ...and Offense... #20 in ORtg #30 in Ast% #18 in TOV% #27 in eFG% #22 in TS% #19 in Pace #11 in FTA Rate hold on, that can't be right. That seems to show that our team defense is Elite Adonal Foyle while our offense, well... More to follow later for potential reasons why (Dame shooting 41/34/93 while maintaining a 24.5 PER may have something to do with it, as maybe Ed Davis being #2 in the league in ORB% would as well) but I guess this is a TL;DR way of saying...
Great post. I believe the offense can come around without losing any of our defensive improvements. It comes down to Stott's finding his rotation. This will help alot on turnovers, guys knowing their roles and fluidity on the court. We have 2 of the top 20 scorers in the NBA and a top 10-15 Center. Scoring will not continue to be an issue as long as roles are developed and consistency in rotation. Until then our offense will be sporadic. If we can get our offense into the top 10-12, which I believe it certainly can be, and we can hold onto our Defense, we are poised to make a big splash at the end of the season and open some eyes in the playoffs.
Our schedule has been really weak. The signs are encouraging, however-- we still should have about 2 or 3 more wins than we do now given our SOS. But for historical perspective, our record after 20 games: 2017: 12-8 2016: 10-10 2015: 8-12 2014: 16-4 2013: 17-3 2012: 8-12
The good sign that our offense looks like it starting to improve. Dame looks like he shooting better and CJ has shooting the ball all season except couple games and Nurk starting play better on both side of the ball. Scoring 108 points against a good a Washington team last game and of course the points we sore on the Nets. Our biggest problems has been turnover this year and if we can correct that part of the game our offense stats should go up.
Against this early schedule, I actually expected them to be a couple of games better. It has just been so soft. Even on this trip, 3 of the 4 teams were without their top player. The only team that had their starting lineup, pounded us by 20. I still want to see what they will look like when they play tougher teams at home and healthy teams on the road. If they are still in 1st place (and with HCA) in another 6 weeks, I'll be impressed.
This. I still think we are a solid starting SF away from being a good team. Right now we are not that good. We could barley beat Nets without their best player. Against the Wiz they dominated us all game without their best player. We lost against the garbage sac kings. Lost to the Nets at home. Honestly this season has been somewhat a disappointment so far for how easy our schedule is.
I'm going to come off as an Aminu fanboy but... https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/POR/2018/lineups/ Getting him back will be a big deal. If you look at the 4, 3, and 2 man lineup performance by point differential, Aminu is in most of the top 5 lineups in each category. Look at the FG% and 3P% differential, too.
Yeah I'm hopeful we continue to improve because most seasons we start out very hot and intense but then drop off after a couple months.
So, not to rain on it with a SSS Alert, but going +61 in the first two games against PHX and IND without being around for the last 12 games of regression, may have something to do with these. I'm intrigued about his fit when he returns, though... tossing Chief in as the starting 3 (with Noah at the 4) would be interesting to see.
Aminu only played 19 minutes of that first Phoenix game so it’s not counting for that much spread out over those lineups.
