Does anyone seriously think we had a better roster than New Orleans?

Seriously?
Davis > Lillard
Holiday > CJ (certainly on defense)
Mirotic > anyone else on the Blazers' roster (and for the series you can probably remove the "else")

I think the Pelicans were (even) better than their record. I think the Boogie/Davis pairing is stupid (maybe it would work in the '90s) and they had a double piece of fortune mid-season when Boogie went down and they got Mirotic (who was Chicago's best player by a mile) for a song. Mirotic PERFECTLY complements Davis, and Davis is best playing the 5. Without Boogie there was no friction to doing that.

Also: everybody forgot how good Holiday was because he'd been injured all this time. FINALLY we can say it clearly: New Orleans won the Holiday/Nerlens Noel trade!

Now, it's also true that the Blazers were slumping just as the season came to an end. I don't think you can necessarily pin that on Stotts - he wrung everything he could out of this roster. We are just talent-poor (with no clear route to improvement - unless we take advantage of things like the Mirotic fire-sale). But this season we won lots of games we shouldn't've - probably a good deal more than the games we lost that we should've won.

I expect New Orleans to be a real handful for Golden State. And if Curry is out for the series, they've got a real shot to beat them.

 

Seriously? Come on, you can't be. You think that defensive strategy of blitzing the guards and having AD roam all over the court will work when the bigs he's leaving open are Green and Durant? They are going to get filleted.

 

Hindsight. Before the series, most Blazer fans would have violently disagreed with that.

 

I know this much, every player on their bench hit their open looks. Pat Con, Shabazz, even Zach all missed key ops to put the Blazers ahead at key momentum times, and failed. Their bench didn't miss. It was like a perfect storm. The Blazers MUST add quality shooting on the bench this offseason.

 

You think the Blazers could trade for Boogie?

 

Why do you think they will leave Durant open. If GS doesn't have Curry, Durant and Thompson will be the target of their defense. They will leave Green open and challenge him to beat them.

 

Exactly tyk as that is what I called it, the perfect storm. They were hitting everything this series and we missed a ton of open looks.

 

Yes, let's assume their coach is a total moron and can't devise different strategies for different teams.

 

Isn't he a UFA?

 

I agree!


...well, I would say Boogie has much more natural talent than Mirotic, which is not the same as being the better player

Article: https://hoopshype.com/2018/04/19/new-orleans-pelicans-anthony-davis-demarcus-cousins-free-agency/

New Orleans outscored opponents by 16.8 points per 100 when Davis was on the court with the same group but Mirotic instead of Cousins. This was the fourth-best net rating among all five-man lineups (minimum: 200 minutes) in the Western Conference.
This unit has a remarkable net rating (+35.3) against the Trail Blazers in the postseason, though just a two-game sample size. Among all lineups that have appeared in more than 16 minutes together, this is currently the second-best in the NBA.

 

Is signing-and-trading still allowed? Cuz if so, the Pelicans would be crazy not to ship Cousins out for more shooters/3-and-D types. We could probably land him for CJ and Nurk, but I don't think that would be a good idea.

 

The Pelicans have a better roster. No doubt about it. Neil needs to bring in a legit shooter/defender at the wing. 40% 3pt. Get it done Neil, we would have won this series with one or two of these guys. But get it done without gutting the team.

 

This is the same point I have been trying to make about CJ with the Blazers... he is not a good fit. Maybe CJ is better than a player we would get in a trade but it would result in making Blaers a better team... like someone with more size that can play defense and move without the ball in their hands. Doesn’t matter who we add to tho team as long as we roll with Dame/CJ pairing, this team will go nowhere

 

The Warriors would win in 5 or 6 without Curry.

First, they have no one that can guard Durant. Holiday can't shut down Durant like he did Lillard.

Second, if they blitzed the Durant-Green high PNR, Klay Thompson would absolutely cook them. The Warriors are actually well-coached and know how to pass/move the ball around. They actually have guys that will knock down open 3s.

Third, the Warriors defense is light years better than anything we showed the Pelicans in this series.

Fourth, the Warriors have Kevin Durant.

 

Why do you say "would" instead of "will"?

And I guess we get to find out.

(Getting Curry back might not be an unmixed blessing - he tends to hit the ground running, but it wouldn't be surprising if they had to adjust a little.)

 

That's the point. Unlike in our series, they won't be able to leave the wings to help with the guards. They dared our other pieces to make open shots, and they couldn't. GSW has too many pieces that can shoot.

 

Only one game separated these teams in the regular season. While we were pretty much the same team throughout the year, NO were evolving. Starting Feb 10th, each team only lost eight games. Of those eight games, Rondo was out for three of them. They had everyone healthy and were clearly the better club, coaching and player personnel.

Bad matchup for us but they probably only take a couple from GS.

 

Why would they target the "guards"? They will target their best scorers (Durant and Thompson). Now I agree that's no easy task, but that will likely be the game plan. If Curry plays that makes it more difficult. Green has been a limited offensive threat this year and has shown to be a sub par shooter as well. I have no idea how the series will play out, but I wouldn't sell the Pelicans short, especially if they continue the hot shooting they showed against us.