Powell is the one that should bring the ball up when Dame struggles with it. Powell is looking for seams more so than Dame does, imo.
I don't know how it came to the point that "bringing the ball up the court" was the problem. It never has been that. It's that Portland's offense operates best against good teams when Dame is Dame, scoring and running the offense. They could have Kanter bring the ball up the court, but somebody still has to then take the ball and get good looks for the team. Meanwhile, Dame is facing major ball denial defense, Portland's offense stalls, and they lose over and over I'm not saying the same thing is going to happen again this year, but if Portland advances, they are certain to face that some problem again. If they play the Clippers in the 1st round, they'll face it then
Great Questions. My answer is obviously a guess at this point but it’s a combination of CJ Powell and Lillard bringing the ball up and using Nurk as a better distributor. Then having 4 players that can all hit a three and having Nurk punish teams that go all in on stopping the three. I think they can do it. The passing and communication needs to be on point.
as I said in the post above, I think "bringing the ball up" is irrelevant to the problem. the problem is opponents get a two-fer by limiting and harassing Dame. He is Portland's most dependable and efficient scorer, and he's the best facilitator and distributor. Dame has passed the ball out of double teams and traps. But to this point, he's had no teammate, and that includes CJ, that can quickly & consistently punish a defense in 4 on 3 situations
They wait for Dame to slowly bring it up and trap him at half court many times. So it does have to do with how you bring a ball up court if you dont want a defense to be ahead of you which is what happens many times. Some guards when they are trapped to very well at passing out of it, some use push and power to beat the trap by looking for seams. When Norm pushes the ball and Dame and CJ are off the ball watch how the defense reacts. Same when CJ or Dame push and make the defense adjust to them. The ball must move to keep D guessing.
That is definitely something that Powell brings that we haven't had enough of. Been asking to push the ball for years. Not sure if that's a coaching philosophy issue, just how Dame likes to manages the game, or a combination.
I think much of it is Dame which is fine, he's been a super star! But even super stars have areas they could improve on. Dame like to bring it up court and look for a pick & roll or a lane to drive. The ball simply needs to move more to keep the defense guessing.
Yeah, that's kind of my stance on it too. Dame averages 30 PPG, I'm not gonna argue with his game management much.
I agree for the fact that no team is going to trap Powell at half court and potentially leave Damian Lillard unguarded. Dame can still receive the ball and run the offense.
Lots more of the same in today's article. https://theathletic.com/2593572/202...eeks-tips-from-title-winners-to-realize-goal/ ---- Behind the scenes, Lillard has been gathering intel on what goes into becoming a champion. He has talked to a championship coach. And he has sought out players who have won titles. One of those players recently joined his team: Norman Powell, a reserve on Toronto’s 2019 team that won the NBA title. “He kept bringing it up, that I have a championship, and that I know what it takes,” Powell said. “And he just started talking about how badly he wants to win and bring one to Portland.” So on the Blazers’ recent six-game trip, Lillard sidled next to Powell and began peppering him with questions. The first time happened during pregame warmups. Then after a different game, Lillard approached Powell in the locker room and began asking about the Raptors’ 2019 title run. “I don’t know how detailed I want to get into it, because it was like a personal conversation,” Powell said. “But we had many conversations about playoff runs, and guys stepping up during runs, and different situations. And the first time we talked about it, it was more about the experience, like the parade and everything. He had a lot of different questions about that, the vibe of it.” Said Lillard: “I asked him what I asked all people who had been a part of a title: What was the separator for that team to be able to make that run? What did it take? What was different in that run from a past run?” ----- In Lillard’s eyes, if he were going to make his dream a reality, he needed more than his exceptional skill and his uncanny ability to come through in the clutch. His mind needed more information, more perspective. That’s why in the past three weeks he has sought out players and coaches — the names of which he wanted to keep private — to quiz them about their title experiences. In the course of two conversations with Powell, three words stuck with Lillard. ---- “A lot of what he said was pretty much stuff I had heard before, but there was one thing he said: ‘You gotta defend,’ ” Lillard recalled. “He was talking about how teams end up in the halfcourt in the playoffs, and you have to defend. And once you get your stops, then you have people on your team who can get you a basket when you need a basket. But when it comes down to it, you have to consistently defend.” Lillard chuckles in retelling the story. “I was like, ‘Man, that’s real simple … real simple,’ ” Lillard said. “But it’s hard to sustain the simple stuff because sometimes you take it for granted. And when I think about their run, I think about them getting stops. And when he said that to me, I was like, man … they were just coming up big time after time. And then Kawhi would hit a pullup. Kawhi would get fouled. (Pascal) Siakam would get to the rim. Kyle Lowry would hit a 3 … they had people who could make a play or hit shots, but they got stops. They defended. And they had really good team defense consistently. And it was like … it made perfect sense.” On that trip, Lillard set a defensive tone through his actions. He asked to defend Indiana’s Malcolm Brogdon. He guarded Boston’s Jayson Tatum. As his defense intensified, so too did the defense of everyone else. The five-game losing streak and what looked like a spiraling season had righted itself. The Blazers head into the playoffs having won 10 of their final 12. ----- “Some people might look at it like, ‘Oh they can’t do that’ or ‘They don’t have the team,’ ” Lillard said. “And regardless of what is the truth or not the truth, my mind is on the fact I think we can do it. If everybody thinks that and everybody believes that, that’s when it happens. That’s when it can be done. “People who have won in the past, players and coaches I’ve spoken to over the last few weeks say the same thing: You can lead a team to get it done, but everybody has to believe it, and you really have to push that,” Lillard said. “That’s kind of like where my head is. I want it for the city, I want it for myself, I want it for the team … we’ve done everything else. We should be excited to be back in this playoff, or this tournament, to have a chance to win it again.”
Any guesses on the championship coach who he has spoken to? And is this person currently employed? (Becky Hammon was an assistant on the Spurs in 2014 when they won-- that's my guess).
This is the sentence that stuck out to me. It all goes back to the fundamentals. I'm a strong advocate that the team needs a coach that focuses on the details and the fundamentals. It's easy to overlook - but that is where most games are won/lost.
