I'm a fan of stats, but this is why you should be skeptical of stats this early in the year: blazers went from 30th to 24th in defensive efficiency in one game. They went from 27th to 23rd in defensive rating after 1 game.
Metrics are great if they have the appropriate sample size. To your point, 4 games is not close to enough.
Denver has more to worry about than us. We've at least shown signs that we're a better defensive team than the ranking indicates-- denver has been terrible throughout, and not sure how much improvement they'll see considering the key defensive pieces they've lost.
I’m just using this to track their efficiency throughout the season. Maybe changing the title would be more appropriate.
No don't do that. We need to be able to merge it with the "Meltdown" thread by the end of the season. We can put it by "This is the worst Team...' thread.
We can't be cherry picking to make Stotts' record look better than it is. It isn't. He's below average when you look at his record not only with the Blazers, but as a Head Coach of the Bucks.
Blazers are 23rd in DrtG, but IMHO stats are meaningless until around game 15 or 20 because of the limited training camp and preseason.
I'm going to look at it at 10 games and then again after 20. If this team is in the bottom 1/3 after 20 games I'll start to worry about it. 20th or better they will be fine. By the halfway mark if they are in the top 15 I'm happy. Anything better than that is gravy.
After 6 games, Blazers are 3-3: Drtg: 28th Ortg: 12th goal: top 10 defense, top 5 offense status: not close to goal
More realistic goals....perhaps. But that defensive ranking, much like last year is a stinking rotten mess. Get Nurk in-shape/healthy/motivated and they become a top-10 offense or better despite how Iso centric they are. But on the Defensive end, it will take a LOT to get them to a top-10 offense which is probably a minimum for approaching contender status.
I don't know if it's true, but i've read that all championship teams the last years had a top 10 offense and a top 10 defense, we are very far away fams
I think realistic expectations for this team are a top-15 offense and a top-20 defense. That's around where I expect them to finish up. Optimistic but reasonable goals, to me, are a top-10 offense and a top-15 defense. These goals require everyone on the team to be playing efficiently to their strengths all season long.
