https://sports.yahoo.com/trail-blazers-reportedly-tried-recently-210025327.html They let others leave and come back. No excuse not to let Aziza go through the proper protocol first and let him in.....if they wanted to be consistent...and if he wanted to do it.
terry himself when he was asked a question about his d and he pulled his mask down to reveal a small laugh.
You would need some trump level of ignorance to deny that. As low of an opinion as some fans have about Terry, I don't really think he is THAT stupid.
Its terrible defense , why does stotts dont try nurk on 4 and hasan on 5? Zach is total trash. Never been more disappointed in a player than zach. Terrible all he does is foul or miss bunnies, awful on Defense
Nurk and Whiteside on the floor together is one of very few ways to put together a lineup that is even worse at keeping the opponent in front of them.
Quite clearly they were a huge part of making our defense even somewhat average the last few years, even if they hurt the offense.
Players who can defend 1-4 have real value in this league. We often roll our 3 players who can't defend 1-5 and two bigs that can only defend the 5.
Ariza opted out, knowing he would be out for the rest of the season. It was his decision. The players in the bubble are able to come and go, with some limitations. It seems pretty fair to me.
I think if they really wanted to fix the defense they have to get rid of CJ. A guy like Tobias Harris operates at the same level of offensive efficiency as CJ and can serve as an outlet for isolation plays, but won't get massacred on the defensive end every game.
From my vantage point, it's the scheme. Terry Stotts coaches defense like it is 2018. Unfortunately, the game has revolutionized a ton over the past two seasons. Teams are going small at the 4, the floor is littered with knock-down shooters, and the floor has never been more spaced. Our defense is the equivalent of a prevent defense in football. We put no pressure on the opposition, offer up no resistance if they want an open look, and 2-3 passes usually results in a wide open look from three or at the rim. Most importantly (or detrimental) it is predictable. Teams know we don't switch up the defense. Our coaching staff is too afraid to take the ball out of a hot hand and force others to beat us. Also, can we not switch the pick and roll every single time? It's not fair to Hassan or Nurkic to defend a quick guard with handles and range on an island out on the perimeter. Except the Houston Rockets. This is where I am bewildered by the coaching staff. The Blazers implemented a "Diamond Defense" surrounding James Harden and we did it all four matchups this season, which resulted in not only a 3-1 season series win but a 102 point output for the Rockets in the seeding games -- by far the fewest points the Blazers allowed. Speaking of that seeding game, the Blazers utilized that strategy 37 times, resulting in a .86 PPP. So why do they adapt and adjust only against the Rockets? Lastly, there is some blame on the players. Portland does not know how to defend without fouling, especially the bigs who LOVE to reach and fall for pump fakes. And, aside from Gary Trent Jr., I don't see many players fight through screens. It gets really bad when the bench (not-named Gary) checks in. There are communication mishaps galore with the second unit. It is a mixture of both, but I do believe with this roster, we should not be as awful on defense as we are. Just how poor did we perform on that end of the floor over these eight seeding games? Take a look for yourself: Blazers Defense in the Bubble: Allowing: 123.4 PPG That’s 5 PPG worse than the 30th rated Defense from the regular season (Atlanta Hawks 119.7) 49.4 FG% (346-700) 48.5 3Pt % (128-264) Overall, I think the coaching staff needs to be more flexible in their adjustments. If that means some games Zach starts and some games he comes off the bench (allowing Gary to start), so be it. Another poster mentioned this but Zach's defense is not where it needs to be as a 4 going up against small ball 4's. And even if his defense isn't where it needs to be, he's not making the opposition pay on the offensive end for going small, which in lies the biggest issue. We're trying to go big against smaller teams, and, aside from the Rockets, we can't seem to make them pay on the offensive end. I think Ariza and Hoodie would help but, to be honest, even if we had a team full of Kawhi's on defense, we would never be elite on that end playing such a conservative strategy.
Yeah the guy doesn't give a shit about defense. He won't let players play that are only good for defense. He doesn't make rotation adjustments based on defense. He hasn't realized at all how to hide our bad defenders. He lets this team get lit up from three and allows way too much penetration, I realize personnel isn't ideal but we could be so much better defensively if it was more of a priority. Telling the guys good job but try harder isn't getting it done. We need defense to be our number one priority because we have so many gifted offensive players and players with defensive deficits. CJ playing on ball defense with little to no help on any player in the league is fucking stupid. CJ being put on the best player of the other team, who has been lighting him up the whole game and hasn't been checked effectively by anyone else is so goddamn crazy it boggles my mind. Why LeVert didn't blow by CJ and take his chances against our rim protection is beyond me, he took the worst shot possible and I thank him for that but CJ gets no credit from me and shouldn't from anyone else... he's probably the worst defender starting in the NBA.
The personnel excuse is so used up. LeVert loves playing against drop coverage. Dame himself said he doesnt understand why coaches run drop coverage. All Terry does is run drop coverage or switch into constant mismatches. After terrible runs of defense he doesnt try anything difference. The only team we switch it up for is Houston and it works. If it was our personnel then are defense wouldnt be better against Houston when we switched things up. The one time we hedged hard on LeVert in the 2nd half he almost fumbled away the ball then threw it to no one. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If Terry tried a bunch of things and tried to do the best thing when taking into account specific situations, nobody would be blaming him. But people ignore all this and say personnel because it's easy and Terry is a nice guy so a lot of fans just want to like his coaching. Terry's a terrible defensive coach.
I know you love to bash C.J. but he's not the reason our defense is so bad. He's not a good defender but theres so many overall scheme issues that replacing C.J. with Tobias Harris wouldn't adjust. We'd also have no one other than Dame who could consistently create buckets at the end of games.
