Game Thread GAME# 45: BLAZERS @ MAGIC - MARCH 26, 2021 - FRIDAY, 5:00, NBCSNW

It was nice to see some fans at the game.

 

Never do anything??? How about winning a Game 7 on the road. A Game 7 win on the road has only happened 28 times total. I'd say Portland has done SOMETHING. And CJ was the reason we won that game.

 

Since his injury, CJ is back to old CJ

 

Um what? Followed by who?

--- Kanter

 

What even the fuck is this? The guy has no central philosophy or values in the way to play. It's literally just random select and hope it works.

 

at 7:00 min mark, nurk criticizing teammates, says theres no effort and communication on defense and that he wants to change that

 

Powell looked good, but anyone who follows the NBA knew he would.

Congrats to the Blazers for struggling to beat a glorified G league team

 

I guess Nurk knows our defensive schemes suck

 

Nurk: “We have pieces to be a good defensive team...”
Yeah, if you play the pieces instead of the Melo crutch.

Regardless of their defense, Dame and CJ will play a lot and Enes will play a lot of when Nurk is resting. That’s 3 bad defenders. Unavoidable with this roster.

The rest in order of value:
Nurk
RoCo
Powell
DJJ
Little
Thats 5 very good to good defenders. Little may be a work-in-progress defensively because he’s unseasoned but he will be a good defender. Play him.. a lot. Always have 3 of those 5 on the floor.

Melo should be a 10th man. Or let him chase his “legacy” elsewhere.

 

Nurk wants the defense to be more aggressive. Wasn’t feasible with the lineups we were playing... Dame, CJ, Enes, Trent, Melo, Hood, Ant... aggressive = layup drill. But now it’s feasible.

 

I wonder if Nurk got a talking to after those comments. Last person that spoke about this team was Harkless and sit end of the bench for month.

 

Gary was taking way too many forced/bad shots IMO, maybe a contract yr thing, no doubt in my mind we crushed this trade

 

I think we’ll see a 3 guard lineup a lot. Dame, CJ, Norm, RoCo, and Nurk.

 

With Nurk back, on top of CJ the other week, we don't need both of Kanter and Melo in the rotation. One of them is great off the bench for offense. Both suck at defense. With Dame, CJ, and Powell we have plenty of offensive firepower.

Usually a veteran minimum bench player we could play for a decent role then bench for games if there is a minute crunch or a bad matchup. I don't know how Stotts can bench Melo without it causing trouble. Benching Kanter after he has done so well starting much of this season seems unfair as well.

If there is a way to alternate playing one of them the bulk of the bench minutes in each half or giving one a rest day on back to backs maybe Stots can do some of that.

.....

I'm fine with playing guys like RoCo only 30mpgs. In fact I'd rather see Dame and CJ player those types of minutes as well, with Powell the team doesn't have to run them into the ground to win games. I want to see Dame and CJ fresh when the playoffs start, as Dame was at the start of the bubble. Not worn out and ineffective as has been the case in many playoff series over the years.

 

One thing I noticed about powell on defense how far out he picks his man up while the rest of our guards start guarding below the 3 point line with a lot of space.

 

Powell comes from a Championship Team. Their Defense was awesome during their Championship run. Nurse ran multiple different schemes. You can see the difference immediately in comparison to our players and how they "defend".

 

OK, followed by Kanter, followed by Ant.

 

I noticed that about Jones this year as well. He is always aware of the high screen and does a good job of avoiding it.
He was well-coached in Miami on D.