I'm fine with paragraph 1 and 3 to some degree. If you were responding to my comment about ownerships #1 priority not being winning championships, you took what I said to a whole new level. The Blazer are winning, they're just not contending for championships. My statement was that I believe the Vulcan's care more about business than winning championships. Would they spend $160m + tax if they were proposed a championship? Yes, of course, that would make good business sense. The problem is, spending more money doesn't mean you'll win championships, we're proof of that. Now, overspending not only doesn't promise a ring, but it really hurts your ability to compete in the future, which could just cost the Vulcans a lot of money. This is a business to Jody and the Vulcans.
By putting together a championship roster. That's what we want! One below average height all-star in 6 years isn't the receipe to win a championship. I don't care how amazing Dame, Steph, etc are.
How do we know we dont have a championship roster? We have 3 players who, if healthy and at their peak, are all-star quality. One is a legit superstar and MVP candidate. Another was playing like a superstar before going down this year. We have one of the best 3-&-D role players in the league. We have an uber-athletic forward who defends well and who're cutting ability fits perfectly with our starting Cs playmaking. Our bench has a guy who was shooting 50/50/80 last year before injury and hopefully he can return to that. We have a 16ppg scorer and 3pt sniper who's shown flashes of good defense and intensity. We have one of the better backup Cs in the league. We have Melo who is one of the best 6th men when he's actually on. We has Nas who could potentially be better than all our bench players if he got a chance. We have a super-athletic guard shooting 40% from 3 on generally tough shots. Oh, and I havent mentioned Zach yet. Roster-wise, I think we could contend with an elite coach. I want to upgrade the coach to truly see the ceiling of this team.
We can absolutely win a championship without changing roster or coaches or ownership.....it takes playing flawless two way ball and getting the roster back to full strength....all it takes is execution, ball protection, rebounding, shooting at a high clip and staying healthy....when we execute we can beat anybody....this covid shortened season with barely a training camp is not the season to bitch, moan and blow up the team...simple. We have to shoot well consistently ....every night the team that does pretty much wins the game.
I fully believe Stotts will be fired end of season. So maybe we should start a potential HC candidates thread now. Or maybe there already is one I have no idea.
It might not be as complicated as spending 160M plus luxury tax. It might be just getting new blood (quality hires) in here and seeing what they can do with the talent we have (both coaching it and making moves with it). We have Dame, maybe I overvalue the guy but I think with his leadership and game, he might be the most valuable players in this league today. I just don't think we have the most complementary pieces or coach around him and Olshey has shown that he can't seem to put that formula together. Now in the second half of this season Stotts very well might have every one of our top six pieces and pieces eight through fourteen (Zach being the only one missing). If this is the team that both Neil and Terry wanted then they should be able to make some major noise with it. Zach and under half of the season without CJ and Nurk will be no excuse if CJ and Nurk are healthy for the playoffs and lead up to them. So holding onto Olshey and Stotts would seem to me like bad business if they show once again that they can't perform.
I suppose it's possible we could be the first team to win a championship with one below average height all-star and no above average height all-star next to him, but I believe we would be the first to do so. Even if we're not the first, it's VERY VERY rare. If you're not ok with us trying to win a championship with a style of play that requires everything to go nearly perfect (correct me if I'm wrong that you don't feel that way), then why would you be ok with us trying to win with a roster make up that never wins a championship?
A superstar getting 30 & 8, btw. CJ is all-star caliber. Guards have been loaded in the West. Peak Nurk is all-star caliber in terms of impact. Dont use a popularity contest to gauge overall player quality.
Draymond was only an all-star because of how good Steph and Klay was. In terms of impact, I don't think prime Draymond was all that much better than what Nurkic could be. He was utilized perfectly with the perfect star guards to play next too. Thing is, team success breeds all-star appearances. The West is loaded with talent, its a popularity contest. Using this to gauge a roster is as casual as it gets. You're better than this.
This years all star voting alone should negate any relevance to what teams have however many all stars and how important they are.
And the recipe to shoot at a higher clip? Passing the fucking ball and getting assists, which we're last in because of our couching. We have SO much talent. It's about utilizing it correctly.
you can pass the ball 6 times and clank a long 3 that the other team corals and gets an easy layup from....the idea is to make the shot...the team that pulls that off for 4 qtrs wins....you can't miss shots for 4-7 minute stretches and win games...passing is great unless it's to the other team...which we've done too much of lately...we started out not turning the ball over and over our last losing streak turned it over all the time....mostly from trying to make that extra pass...it takes execution to win in the modern NBA.....if you don't the other team will score 150 on you protect the ball make shots rebound
You must agree that easier shots will lead to a higher field goal percentage, and potentially more points, no? Lack of easy buckets is, imo, one of the key factors holding this team back and that is because the coach loves himself some iso/hero ball. I mean, how good does the team look when they’re actually getting all of the role players involved in the offense? Engage them on the offensive end, they will put in even more effort on the defensive end. This isn’t rocket science, except to Terry Stotts and his apologists. Too often with this team it’s the whole “my turn, your turn” hamster wheel with Dame, CJ and Melo all taking turns taking long, difficult, and contested jump shots. When they’re going in this team looks great. When they’re not they look like a bottom 5 team in this league. And, worse of all, this mentality has rubbed off on the young guys, Trent Jr and Simons, who are starting to become chuckers as opposed to getting their points in the flow of the offense or learning how to attack the basket. It’s as if Terry is opposed to his team getting better and more open looks (which can’t happen without crisp ball movement). But hey, keep worshipping the ground that Stotts walks on. He hasn’t led the team to a conference finals victory in his 9+ years at the helm but hey there’s always next year (or the year after that or the year after that...)
see the difference when Hoodie, Melo and Roco make 3s? We win games....brick fests lose games...we've had a stretch of them. I don't see our players taking bad shots....they are just not making the damned shots. It really looks bad when most of your shooters are cold. The teams beating us are taking the same shots...they're just making them when they beat us....it's really simple. The good is that our bench rotation players have been playing against starter level talent and holding the fort down..that's going to really help when CJ and Nurk come back...game after game we've bricked uncontested corner threes and the other team has shot them really well
sorry, but Blazers do not have enough talent right now to win a championship....not unless about a half-dozen elite players on true contenders get injured that's no reason not to fire Stotts or Olshey however. Masters of mediocrity shouldn't have job security
You listed one all-star, who is awesome, love Dame! Nurk and CJ are almost all-stars like we are almost NBA Champions. My point isn't how great Dame is, he's never had a championship #2 next to him, which history has proven to be very important if your best player in below average height. We can do All-NBA if you don't want to use All-Star, that's fine, the result is the same. You need an MVP level above average height player if you're going to try to win a championship without an all-league, all-star type #2 player. That's just a fact
I hate Stotts so much. As long as he is coach we will never be even average defensively. 90% of all our games come down to are we gonna shoot 40% from 3 tonight, cause if not we are gonna lose. Plus how is it after 4 seasons we still haven’t figured out a way to take advantage of Dame being doubled for an entire game? Stotts is horrible.
Except passing is done to create higher percentage shots. We don't do it enough. That's why we lack consistency.
