I honestly think the team would do better without Lillard than either Aldridge or Lopez. Lillard is awesome and all, but Mo could probably keep the ship afloat. Losing Aldridge would be a disaster. Losing Lopez would be very bad as well because his replacement would be a young player who would get abused in big minutes, or God forbid Leonar_
There will be at least one vet big man being shopped at trade deadline. I don't know if the Blazer have any assets, but I would like to see a big man 4/5 added to the roster. Boozer? I know he has a horrendous contract but think what he could add to the team coming off the bench. I like Deng to but Bulls will want value in return, probably just looking to get rid of Boozer.
Looking back at the Finals last season, Spurs shot same amount of 3s per game as they did in the regular season. Shot a better %. Same thing with the Heat. And both teams gave up a far worse percentage in the finals than they did throughout the regular season. Same thing for the Spurs in WCF against the Grizzlies, same amount, shot same % as regular season. Miami did take slightly less against Indy Indy shot fewer in that Miami series, but at a better percentage. Memphis shot slightly more at roughly the same percentage. Top 4 teams last season so no significant change in the playoffs to assume they were all of a sudden stopping the 3 more. Am curious if you have a stat that supports your take I'm missing?
Remember when Joel Freeland didn't play and we all thought we could have won the game if only he'd been available to play? That's the very definition of "doesn't have depth."
Just so people don't accuse me of hyperbole. Damian: 19 PER in a featured role Mo: 11 PER in a backup role.
Like Indiana? Fair point, but I'd venture to say that the last 5 games have seen us intentionally move away from bombing and actively look to the inside game for points. I'm saying that I think Stotts knows we can't be one-dimensional and win, so we've been feeding the beast big-time to make sure teams know they can't just guard our perimeter players and get away with it. By the time the playoffs come around, we'll be more than a long bomb team.
And that may be where we differ. I would also count CJ and I have a feeling that if given the chance one of Crabbe, Barton could contribute. But as usual I agree that it all boils down to not getting what we need out of Leonard. The amount that would change things is frustrating.
Exactly. We are probably most thin at power forward, but that's a calculated risk because we're trying to develop Robinson.
Picking one year does not make a trend. I don't have a stat in hand and I don't really have the time to go digging through years of game records at basketball-reference.com and then cross-reference them between playoff and regular season averages (knock yourself out) but is it really that controversial of a statement to suggest that teams typically play better defense and easier points are harder to come by in the playoffs? Maybe it's not a hard and fast law, and maybe the percentages don't always go down a ton, but if you're forcing your opponent to take less 3s in a playoff series and make them step in for long 2s, that does translate into fewer points.
I'm not saying it's a controversial statement. I'm just wondering if it's one if those statements that get repeated so often people take it as fact with nothing to go on
I'm interested to see CJ McCollum's impact. He, Lillard and Williams seem to be the same player. Also, I wonder how Bieber is doing, whether the demotion has destroyed his confidence or made him work harder. At some point in time, we're going to need Leonard.
I actually think - depending on how long he's down - we'd fare the best with him as our missing starter. I think Freeland would fill in just fine for a short stretch of games. The problem would be giving Freeland a breather. LMA would have to step up and take on some C duties so we don't have to rely on Leonard. LMA going down would be tough, but if it happens later in the season I'd be more hopeful that Robinson could fill in capably enough. He won't replace LMA's scoring - but we have plenty of other players to pick up the scoring load. And Freeland would play some minutes at PF too. With Lillard, Wes and Nic we'd still have enough scoring punch to weather a short stint without LMA. Lillard going down would really hurt - depending on who we'd face during his missed games. Lillard wins games for us in the 4th quarter. However, if Mo happens to be "hot" during that hypothetical time period, it could turn out just fine. The idea of Wes/Nic going down is what concerns me most. If it's <5 games, we'll be fine. If it stretches on for weeks that would really hurt.
There is NOBODY on this team who can protect the rim outside of Lopez. Freeland isn't big enough nor athletic enough and he'd get eaten alive in a starting role.
It depends on the competition. Freeland does an excellent job of protecting the rim. But he's not going to look so good if he's guarding Howard, Cousins, Bynum, etc - but will Lopez? There aren't a ton of teams that run offense through a C so, like I said, depending on the competition I think Freeland would do just fine. He's quite good at sliding over and jumping vertically to contest wings driving to the hoop.
Its one of those old fashioned stupid statements that is outdated. The Spurs shot a ton of threes in the playoffs last year and had Danny Green in the running for finals MVP because of his 3 point shooting. The Spurs ended up losing because Miami was drilling three’s with LeBron and the famous Ray Allen shot to avoid elimination. Teams that don’t shoot threes have major problems in the playoffs! Its exactly the opposite of what is repeated. Take Andre Miller, he’s never been out of the first round. In the regular season it doesn’t matter nearly as much because defenses are tired, out of position, and less focused. But during the postseason if you don’t have the floor spacing of three point shooters a good defense can double team their opponent without paying a penalty. The Blazers team with Andre Miller and Gerald Wallace both on the court at once couldn’t make Dallas pay for leaving them wide open. Look at Miami’s players, almost all of them can hit the three. They have shooters like Mario Chalmers, Ray Allen, James Jones, Shane Battier, Rashard Lewis, last year Mike Miller; even Bosh is shooting well from 3. The 3 pointer is far more important in playoff basketball than in the regular season.
