Game Thread GAME# 9: NETS @ BLAZERS - NOVEMBER 8, 2019 - FRIDAY, 7:00 PM, NBCSNW

I think the Jailblazer team was way more talented than the Caleb Kanales team and more fun to watch

 

Losing to the G league Warriors was the worst loss I can think of. Nets have NBA players.

 

There isn't one offensive set that works time in and time out. That's my point. We should have at least one play for each different defense we see. Instead when the defense gets tight we either score because of an iso situation or off pick and roll. What is there if those aren't working? It's the same thing we've seen against GS in the playoffs and against the Pelicans.

And if your answer is that double teams are effective then I ask you why our coach doesn't ever employ a double team on defense?

If you watch CJ off ball on defense, or Dame or Baze or just about anyone, they get caught sagging or with their back turned to their defender quite often which leads to a wide open shooter. Someone posted an example in this thread of CJ sagging off Kyrie for no reason leading to Kyrie hitting an uncontested 3. When CJ drives he often gets the defense in similar bad positions because everyone knows he's going to shoot. There are multiple passes he can make. The funny thing is if he made those passes consistently then he'd have more space when he does decide to shoot.

In my mind there is no excuse for someone with CJ's usage rate going 4-19 from the field without registering a single assist.

 

About 15 minutes before the game, they showed the players standing in the tunnel outside of the locker room. Some players were already out there, one by one more came out, Dame was the last to arrive. Dame went around, and high fived everyone. Mario stood there with his hand up, waiting for a high five, for what seemed like a long time. To the point that it started to seem awkward, and I thought Dame might miss him. It seemed like Mario felt the same way because he opened, and closed his hand, like a toddler wave. Dame did get to him eventually.

 

Huh? Weren't the Blazers one of the last in assists last season?

 

2015 Blazers were 20th in the league that is the last time they werent basically the bottom.
https://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/assists-per-game?date=2015-06-16

 

Yeah, my eyes were what told me instead.

 

And that team had really unselfish wings with Wes and Nic plus RoLo never took a lot of shots.

One thing that could help this team out a lot, especially considering the personnel of the 2nd unit, is to play at a faster pace. Getting the ball up quicker often leads to a bit of chaos for the defense and people can get open easier.

 

I think a lot of us said in the preseason that when the second unit was pushing the pace they looked good, in the half court they looked awful.

 

he made Kobe proud

 

Where has that gone? Other than an occasional Hezonja play where he tries to be aggressive we aren't running at all.

 

So I don't remember I think it was the clippers game, but Mario had a TO where he got a rebound and was looking to pass to the wing, it was either Simons or Bazemore I think, but they decided to turn away and he had a turnover that looked silly and embarrassing. I thought that displayed a lot of what's going on with the 2nd unit though. The best way to break is to pass, the ball will move faster than Mario can run his initial thought of pass it to the guy already running, made sense, but there was almost no cohesion there on if they should be pushing the ball or not. So he ends up with a TO everyone says what's wrong with that guy, but that's a matter of players not being on the same page, which sure may be partially on Mario but it seems to really point to a somewhat deeper problem, it seems like so far this year the team, in general, isn't on the same page. Makes you wonder at times what the focus was on during Camp, because offensively they're are guys who have been in the system and obviously sort of get it and a bunch of guys At least like 6 of them off the top of my head who seems to be not completely on the same page as to where they need to go.

I get there are injuries, and it's early but they seem so disjointed, Mario seems that way, but at times so Does, Simons, Whiteside, Skal, Bazemore, Tolliver they seem unsure of should we be pushing the pace should we slow down. There's been a bunch of times they're passing the ball around the perimeter and a guy just isn't where they believe they should be.

Then defensively they're a mess, feels like 10-15 times a quarter they're looking at each other like was that my assignment?

I think they and this includes Dame, made it to the WCF's, and said we have arrived, we don't need to do the process like we've been doing it. Dame acknowledged he wasn't going to do an SD trip to get people together outside of basketball he has done in the past. They all talked about oh this team was in the WCF's last year, the approach to this year seems to have forgotten that there is a lot that goes on to get people on the same page, and that starts at the top and ends at the bottom, that's a management/coaching issue. You never heard SAS say well we made it to WCF's, or the Finals we don't need to go about the same process we did last year, you never heard GS do that, or Lebron, and yes all those teams / players were great, but the Blazers have said there a Championship team, that in their minds it's kind of "Championship or bust", but they seem to think just making the WCF's last year proved something for this year, and it didn't.

I believe Dame is a great leader and a great player, and that he can will this team to a bunch of wins, but it looks like they're just in the last week realizing oh we need to be on the same page defensively and offensively and so a process that should have started a month ago, seems like it's being started a little late, and is becoming even more complex the more injuries and young players are being thrown into the mix.

Sorry for this soliloquy, just kind of vomitting out thoughts on the season so far.

 

The LSU head coach in the post game interview sounded like the defensive coordinator in the Water Boy.

 

in order to run, you need opportunity. Portland ranks 27th in defensive rebounding (9th last season), and 26th in opponent turnover rate. Hard to run when they are taking the ball out of the net

 

While true, they rarely ran when rebounding was good either.

 

What did they rank?
We all know Amino and Harkless couldn’t shoot. Turner wasn’t going to make a huge impact. So what exactly is your point here? Other than making mine for me?

 

Then your eyes watched exactly what I just wrote. When open catch and shoot shots don’t fall then assists stay low. It’s not rocket science.
Getting open looks is all a coach can ask for. The players still have to make the shot.

 

You don't need to shoot well to get assists. Go look at the teams who finished ahead of us. They shot percentages far lower than us as a team. You're assigning your own made up version of why we don't get assists. I would say it's probably at least a part of it but not the entire problem. Stotts has a bullshit offense. If he was smart, he'd run the entire offense through Nurk. It's happened in games before and we've looked like a completely different team. A MUCH better team. I know Nurk's not there now but do you doubt any different? Watching the Blazers is such rat ball. It's just not good basketball. I can see it. And it's mostly the game plan. Having guards go one on one most possessions. It's coincidental that both Dame and D. Russell had 5o+ point nights and they both lost.

You said that having only 11 assists wasn't part of Stotts' plan and I'm telling you that our assists have been historically low under Terry Stotts. How did that make your point? The coach is most responsible for the ball movement. It's his game plan. If the players (CJ) aren't executing than he's both responsible for that as well as not doing more to change it. Seeing how low our assists have been historically, this IS Terry Stotts' game plan and it's a terrible one.

 

If we're not making certain shots, we should keep shooting a ton of them huh?

 

Little doesnt think so, which is why he cut baseline on Whitesides short roll and got a dunk. Wish other guys would do that, but these "non-shooters" keep spotting up and somehow thats used an excuse for the coach... some people will be able to connect the dots here.