As of November 4th I'll bump this every now and again (maybe monthly?) just to see what's changed. The big surprise to me after 6 games is to realize how well we shoot threes (2nd in league) and how rarely we shoot threes (21st). Dame is having an MVP-caliber run so far.
Also overall FG% being fifth in the league is pretty good to see. The Blazers should become a better rebounding team if they ever have all their bigs healthy.
Dame is putting up 30-8-6 on 48% from the field, 41% from 3, and 89% from the line. We gotta be better than .500 when he's killing like this.
CJ's 2P% seems to be the one major anomaly this season--taking 3 more 2's per game this year compared to last, but not making any more.
15 two point shots 5 three point shots 4 free throw attempts This breakdown is terrible. CJ has the worst 3pta/FGA on our team and he has historically been among our team's best 3pt shooters during his tenure. Only 26% of his shots are 3s. That HAS to change for him to become more efficient. This would be OK if he shot more FTs, but all his shots are midrange 2s. We all have to accept that while this shot is necessary, it shouldn't be the primary shot for these dudes. When he hits close to 40% of his threes, the coaches have to get on him to shoot more of them. Tolliver leads us in this category at 78%. I'm digging Hood and Simons hanging close to 50%.
Man, you don't need an MIT degree to realize this. Terry has been clamoring for more threes the last few years as well. Yet we take these shitty fadeaway shots from 20'. In the playoffs, when the game slows down and the need for isolations increases, and there are good rim protectors, that shot is absolutely necessary. In the reg season, against a defense that is begging you to take that shot? Need to change it up.
His offense is too freelance and player centric. He’s not going to reign CJ in just like he’s not gonna tell Dame to stop shooting 40 footers. Not in his coaching DNA.
Wow what the hell, 30th in assists? I thought we were supposed to have a motion offense, seems more like a blackhole no pass offense.
We shoot a lot of pull ups because of our guards. That skews the stats as well. We're also pretty efficient on pull ups.
I appreciate that fact, but I just wish we did more passing as I too often see CJ shoot contested shots often drawing double teams. If you're doubled up that means there's an open man somewhere else, with the team shooting such a high FG% we should really be finding that guy that is open to shoot.
Yeah, my issue with CJ's shot selection is that the type of shots he usually gets could come at any point in the shot clock. Why not move the ball around and if nothing is developing then let CJ do his thing? It helps players stay engaged if they aren't just watching him go one on three without getting to touch the ball. There were two plays in particular that bugged me last game. In the 1st half Hood had just hit 4 shots in a row and was open again but CJ drove and took a contested floater. Feed the hot hand! In the 2nd half there was a play where CJ got a pick from Tolliver and both defenders went with CJ and Tolliver popped to the top of the 3 point line. There was no one withing 10 feet of him and all CJ had to do was turn around and toss it back to him. Instead CJ takes a 12 foot jumper with two guys all over him. Now he made the shot but over the course of a game/season shooting an inefficient contested 2 instead of passing to a wide open 3 point "specialist" is not good team basketball. CJ has an incredible ability to draw multiple defenders on him when he gets into the midrange. I wish he'd use that to be a playmaker more often.
I know everybody knows the sample size is too small to really make any judgements, but I think it's worth pointing out: prior to the last game, Portland was shooting .365 from three which ranked 11th. One game jumped their 3pt% from .365 to .401 and up to 3rd. At the 5 game mark, a great game 6 statistically in one area can distort what's going on. In one game, Simons elevated his 3 point percentage from .357 to .421 and he only made 3 shots
Agreed, what seems ironic to me about this is that CJ would find that he would actually be getting less double teams and find easier shots if he simply passed the ball more. Teams collapse on him with little regard for leaving their man open because they know he won't pass and there's little risk to leaving their guy wide open. So easy to be an armchair critic, I am sure making those kinds of adjustments to your game is difficult, but what really separates elite talent like Lillard from guys like CJ is that they work on their weaknesses year over year. I have not seen virtually any improvement in CJ's weaknesses since maybe his third year, the guy is what he is and I don't think he's going to change at this point from where he is now.
