Game Thread GAME# 2: SPURS @ BLAZERS - OCTOBER 20, 2018 - SATURDAY, 7:00 PM (PDT), NBCSNW

Blasphemy!

 

Looking through the lineups makes me wonder how in the actual fuck could San Antonio beat us. Impossible.

 

They have a better sg, pf and coach. That's how. I still think the blazers are a better overall team. We will see

 

Give him a few minutes. If he doesn't score consistently then bench him and make Mo the starter. I just wanna see if he can continue the shooting he showed in Summer League and Preseason.

 

Jake has played well in preseason and deserves a chance, I agree. I just think we are at our best with Moe in the starting lineup. I think Moe is an intangibles guy and as long as he never becomes Mo(p)e again, we will exceed expectations.

Also, if Jake finds his touch, I can (I hate admitting this kind of thing) see Olshey's vision. Last night, ET was exactly what I thought we were getting in 2016. Surround ET with Staukas, Jake, Curry, and Zach (or Meyers), and we are going to surprise some people; all those guys (not ET obviously, but ET as distributor) can shoot. In fact, three of those guys (Staukas, Curry, and Jake) are guys that can get bizarro hot (like Staukas last night) and single-handedly change the complexion of the game...

 

Well. There's 82 games in a season. Giving him a chance probably won't mean much in the long run. But it's worth a shot. I saw we start him against the Spurs..

 

I'm with you, but only because Moe isn't 100%. When Moe is 100%, he starts. If not we should just waive him, because if history has taught us anything, it's that you don't fuck with Moe's head. Dude is sensitive.

 

I’m guessing it’ll be the same lineup as yesterday. Harkless is still on a minutes count. And it’s only one game, I think Layman deserves more looks.

 

Blazers vs Spurs

The thread question is right in line with my main topic for this game. Before the Laker game i questioned Harkless and his injury. Then i sat quietly today wondering if we were going to hear Harkless aggravated his knee in Thursday's game. Seems like he not only played well but might be out of the woods so lets go positive and say the Blazers handled discomfort correctly and did the right thing not playing him in preseason. Guys who produced got valuable time on the court and Moe seems to be fitting in just fine. Glad to hear it.

Now as far as who should start? I think you have to go with Harless. Players should not lose starting positions due to injury and he was very good last night. Layman will still get plenty of minutes and it seems Stotts doesn't mind playing the hot hand or player making the most impact. Last night he stayed with Stauskas in the fourth with Dame and CJ. He said Nik had a good game going so he decided to keep him on the floor. I'm really happy to hear those kind of words from Coach Stotts. At times in the past he has come across as pretty rigid in his rotations.

Talking about Terry Stotts though has to bring up offense. The Blazers shot 37 three pointers last night. They looked pretty good in making just over 35%. Hitting much less though might be a problem? Terry has gone on record saying he is pushing the team to shoot more of them. Last year they averaged just over 28 threes a game and they made 36.6%. The other thing to take into consideration is the Lakers played an up tempo game and the Blazers took 100 shots. they averaged 87 last year. So as time goes on and the games get played we will keep an eye on this stuff. The Blazers would do well to keep the pace up a bit and take a few more shots if they are making 3's and trying to score more points. One thing that is certain we didn't see any huge offensive changes other than shooting more 3's last night.

The Spurs have LaMarcus Aldridge and we all know what he brings. Decent defense and he likes to shoot mid range. His shot is pretty much unblockable so he will shoot the ball often. Against Minnesota they rode Aldridge and Derozan hard. 41 and 38 mins respectively. They got the win but who can expect them to last playing minutes like that. They started Poeltl but he only played 8 mins. They mostly used Gasol and Dante Cunningham. Another old SPUR in the side will be Belly Nelly. That dude loves playing the Blazers. He went 3-6 and 2-4 from 3 point. He usually doubles that against the Blazers? WHY?

I like what i watched from Meyers Leonard. No Meyers has not ARRIVED! But he played another good game and made a very positive impact. That is all we can ask for. Put enough of those together and he has a good season. Now that would be awesome.

I think the Spurs made a good move getting rid of Leonard for DeRozen. I think he will fit well with that club and they will be back in the mix this year. They have a huge loss to deal with losing Manu Ginobolli not to mention Tony Parker. But they added a great player and they have very solid veterans. Then there is POP!. Pop will get them ten wins just being Pop.
Blazers can go out and win this game if they continue to hit timely shots and play their game.

Go Blazers!
Kjironman is a fan!!!

 

Start Hark. Looked ready to go to me.

Layman kinda sucked last game. He started that whole dunk sequence by just giving the ball to LeBron. Then he finished that sequence by DYING on the screen that gave LeBron the 2nd dunk. Watch it again. Layman was the whole reason for that highlight.

Give him minutes, but they should be minutes off the bench playing against their 2nd unit.

 

2nd unit should be:

Curry
SAUCE
Turner
layman
Collins

 

Layman sucked but he helps space the floor much better than Moe. Idk I liked Moe coming off the bench and stifling the other team's second unit on defense. I want Layman to start for a few games to gain some confidence/rhythm.

 

You can maybe say it was an outlier year, but Harkless shot 41.5% from 3 point land last year. Layman hasn't shown the ability to hit 3's in a game that matters so until he does there is no way you can say he helps space the floor better.

 

Until Harkless is healthy, start Layman.

The threat that he can go off shooting is going to create space for the other guys.

It also benefits him. He doesn't have to do too much, playing with the first unit. He doesn't have to press. Then, if he has a couple of good games, maybe it helps his confidence when Mo comes back and he goes back to the second team.

 

God I hope it wasn't an outlier year. That'd be fantastic if he could at least shoot 37% from three. I'll do backflips at over 40%!

 

You know i really didn't pay a bunch of attention to Harkless's stats from last year. He not only hit over 41% from 3 point but he also hit 54.7% from 2. He had an effective FG% at 57.7%. The key stat is he only played 59 games and started 36. I just don't remember him being out that much??? I know we had "Sulking Hark" for a while and he got benched and all. I also remember he was a big reason the team went on a 13 game winning streak. His minutes per game was way down to 21 where he was sitting at almost 29 the year before. Overall minutes played last season was almost cut in half.
Makes me wonder which Moe we will get this year? Gonna have to watch that.

 

That makes the most sense right now until Moe is off his minute restrictions. As they both are healthy then Moe will likely be the starter but I would platoon them and then see which one is having the better game to see who finishes.

 

I can like Layman starting with the 1st unit due to there know pressure on him playing on the first unit. Harkless look good with the 2nd unit especially on the defense side. Yes I know Stotts said he will start when he healthy but the team just might be better the way he has now.

 

No pressure playing with the starters? I'd argue that he's feeling too much pressure trying to do well with the starters (or maybe just in general) and that his shooting issues are all mental right now due to that pressure.

Some players produce more when playing with better players because it frees them up. Some players are better with plays run for them or in the more free flowing bench unit. Then you have some players who are good enough to contribute in either scenario.

With Layman there just isn't enough data yet to say for sure which situation he does better in. The way our 2nd unit played against the Lakers that to me seems better suited for his game but it's just a guess at this point. I would like to see him with the starters if they played at a faster pace too because he is athletic. They should probably run one of those back door lob plays that they'd run for Connaughton to get him some positive momentum.

 

There are positives and negatives for Layman on both units.

He fits the starters because he doesn’t need the ball in his hands and he’ll get better looks. The downside is he’s relegated to that Connaughton role where he’s an afterthought.

He fits the second unit because they’re more uptempo and share the ball. The downside is there’s also nobody defenses have to really make a concerted effort to take away, which makes scoring/getting good looks more difficult.

Harkless does a bunch of “glue” stuff with the starters but I also still think he could really expand his offensive game if he were with the second unit.

I say let Layman start at least two more games. These things tend to work themselves out anyway plus Harkless still needs time to get in game shape.