Game Thread GAME# 6: BLAZERS @ WARRIORS - JANUARY 3, 2021 - SUNDAY, 5:30, NBATV & NBCSNW

From the interviews I remember, after the Rockets game he said at halftime they decided to go back to more of what they had done previously because of the eye-opening numbers they gave up in the preseason, the Utah game, and first half of the Rockets game. I can only assume, he, the staff, and the team assumed the new defense was worse than the old defense. Hard to compare two different piles of crap.

 

that doesn't compute

Portland came in with a .438 FG% and they shot .418 tonight. Apply their season average to the 98 FGA and the Blazers would have had 2 more FG's and 1 more assist. Still a major under-perfomance in assisted FG's

 

Interesting that Stotts would be so keen to use stats from such a small sample size in preseason, but completely ignore the years and years of sample size that showed Carmelo to be a terrible player.

 

so in other words, Stotts was full of shit when he talked about a new way of defense? As soon as the new way got tested he abandoned it?

 

I know a lot of us have been saying if Trent played way more that would solve some of our problems.

Well tonight he got 32 minutes (3rd highest on the team), 7 points (3-11 shooting), 2 rebounds, 0 assists, 0 steals, 0 blocks.

 

Years and years of stats would say Melo is a HOF player. Now, the last couple seasons, not so much! Why do you think Olshey signed him if he's terrible?

 

He was exerting a bunch of energy guarding Curry for the time i watched him on the court. Seriously he wasn't even doing a poor job. Curry hit some crazy shots.

 

Well yes, clearly I'm talking about the last few seasons, why would I not be?

 

I think we need not blow up but changes in our personal. I like CJ and Dame but not playing together due it's looks like CJ will always will someone that can shoot over him. But a 6th man I think would the idea thing. But I don't see that happening with Stotts. But I also our bigs so far are not being effective on defense so far this year. But I also see us not getting there when our guards shoot 48 times and majority of them are iso or quick shots. We might pick them but then it turns into iso play. But don't blame it all them due we really don't move a lot on offense with our players and the other players look to much for them on the offense instead of them trying to make a play for the team. But that's just my opinion how I see this team. A lot of people complain on Zach for numerous thing and one is scoring but if you look at covington and Jones there not scoring much either and again that's due to our guards shooting 48 times and them standing in one place.

 

That's a possible narrative.

It's possible he was pressured into changing it and when he realized it wasn't going to work, he and the team agreed it wasn't working.

To be honest, I didn't think the defense in the pre-season was drastically different. Bad defensive players were exposed last year, this preseason, and tonight. We have 5-6, minus defenders on this roster, it's a problem

 

I thought Trent was the most effective on Curry tonight.

 

BTW the Refs sucked this game. Many horrible and inconsistent calls.
To be clear I am not blaming the loss on the refs, just that I thought they were the worst crew so far this season. And you wouldn't know it by listening to the Warrior announcers.

 

I agree with a lot of what you said. Without a big change, to expect a different result is crazy.

CJ, making $35m coming off the bench would likely mean we're playing a below average vet or inexperienced player at SG. I'm not sure that will incrase our chances to make the finals.

 

You said years and years and I don't think of that as 15-20% of a guys career, that's why I asked.

You would agree that Olshey knew we were going to play Melo when we signed him, right? If so, why do you think he signed him?

 

I'm totally fine with the theory that Steph scored 60 on crazy shots. If that's the case, you should be happy with a defense that forced a guy into taking 31 shots, many of which were crazy. If you're not, then being a primary defender on a guy who scored 60 and scoring 7 in 31 mintes, can't be a success.

 

I don't know why you're asking this, I was vehemently against it from the beginning. Maybe ask Olshey?

 

I tend to agree with most of that

the thinking around here that the additions of Roco and Jones was going to somehow transform the defense was always really suspect in my mind. Too much hype. They are good defenders for sure, but there were simply going to be too many minutes divvied up between the bad defense of Dame, CJ, Melo, Kanter, and Ant for the defense of two wings, new to the team, to overcome

not only that, the assumptions that this was going to immediately be a major upgrade of the roster seemed too optimistic. Roco and Jones provide good defense, but tonight, for example, they combined for 9 pts, 3 rebs, 1 ast, and 2 trnovers...and 8 personal fouls. Last summer Olshey ignored defense and rebounding and seemingly focused on offense when he built the roster. This off-season, he may have over-corrected toward defense and downgraded the offense...while not really addressing the rebounding situation

it's way early obviously, and Portland will get better. They could fatten up their record over the next dozen games and things could look a lot different by February

 

I'm asking because you seem upset that Melo is playing.

 

Until next time, cutie. ;-)

 

Agreed.

I think we'll win 8 of the next 12, but if we haven't improved in that stretch, we're going to have a finish from there on out.

Until we have 4 guys on the floor who can be at least average on the ball defenders on the floor, and be an offensive threat on the other end, we're going to be in a world of hurt. Nurk being way out of shape has really taken our defense to another bad level as well!