George Karl on what's wrong with basketball (and the Blazers)

Neither was LMA. You hear about his shoe house?

 

Hey, that's the theory I used to post...that I define "experience" not in years, but in how many systems a player's played in. Playing for 3 coaches in 3 years raises BBIQ much more than playing for one coach for 6 years. Until McMillan's last year here, he mainly had players who had started here and never experienced a better coach. In his last year, veteran players came in and could see that the Emperor had no clothes. Authority-worshipper Jason Quick kept crying that the players had turned on McMillan, and I said, yes because they're smarter.

As for Turner, he doesn't want to take long shots, which he knows he can't make, but Stotts yells at him that the system requires it or the other team will move their defense away from him. I'm sure Turner is shocked by the stupidity.

 

I'm aware--but I think LA realized there could only be one star player on the team worried about their accolades off the court lol

 

If "off-the-court" interests really damaged a team, then the Cavs would be totally fucked, given all of LeBron's non-basketball concerns. Yet they seem to do fine, don't they?

 

George Karl should spend more time figuring out what's wrong with George Karl than in second guessing what's wrong with the Blazers, given that he has absolutely no inside information as to whether the Blazers are as tight of a group as they were last year.

 

This is why so many teams are beating down the doors to hire George......he never noticed how Dame's assists are career high this season. Dame gets to the line more and has added a tear drop to his game...you can play ISO judgement ball on a guy but it's a team sport

 

I thought Karl was talking about both off the court distractions and jealousy.

Also, one could read into it that some individuals (Carmelo) may be more concerned with their personal on-court accolades above the team, because it feeds into their off-court marketability. That's not to say that is the case with Lillard, but Karl seems to think those things were issues with someone he has personal experience with (Carmello) and so maybe (since he doesn't know) these things might be contributing to some of the Blazer woes. Karl basically described a situation he was familiar with (Carmello), and asked if it's possible something similar could be happening with the Blazers (Lillard), because it's a mystery why we are worse than last season.

I would add: Just because Karl seems to have pissed a lot of people off during his career, that doesn't mean he doesn't know what he's talking about.

 

Hmmm...I think Pop and San Antonio blow this theory out of the water Or they could just be the exception.

 

I don't think Karl is thinking Lillard has neglected his basketball game; it's maybe that he has neglected his leadership role, part of which is to find out what is going on in the heads of different individuals and then try to fix it.

 

I'm not sure if that is a fair criticism. I remember reading that Turner shot the three quite well for the second half of last season. That would indicate he has the capability and it is better for the team if he can be successful at shooting threes.

 

I don't remember that; what did he say?

 

Karl can suck a fat cock, he's the one who has been thirsty for attention.

 

I can't remember the exact quote but it was along the lines of "I came to the Spurs to win a Championship--certain players in Portland, while very talented, didn't have their focus entirely on basketball".

 

Ok so after wasting time reading this thread I'll sum it up from my perspective:

Lillard:

• Taking bad shots.
• Not shooting at a good percentage.
• Getting more attention.
• Making music in the offseason.
• Having a bromance with CJ.

Have NOTHING to do with team defense.

Fuck George Karl.

 

I'm sorry, I call bs on this.

As much as I don't care for how he left, he was under the microscope and everything he said was dissected. I would like to see the actual link where he said this, or its just playground gossip.

 

I thought it was pretty obvious coming into the season that we have a flawed roster. We did nothing to fix those flaws. No low post scoring threat, nobody to really protect the rim. Quite frankly, our defense sucked last year, it sucks even worse this year.

I think a deal to shore up some of the clutter might be a necessity. Even if that means one of either McCollum or Lillard need to go.

 

That might be part of it, but I think it's more a matter of alienating the team when a leader gets too much attention for off-court activities. In a small market like Portland, there's only so much attention to go around. Maybe the other players are jealous of being overshadowed to such a large degree?

I never really got that. I think it was LMA's insecurities boiling over, no longer being the focal point of every front office decision.

Relationships are often more about how things are handled than what actually happened. We see Dame's off-court activities, but we don't see how that plays out behind the scenes. Karl may be totally off his rocker, but he's a hell of a lot more likely to have a pulse on NBA locker room relationships than we are.

Bingo! Right or wrong, this seems to be what Karl is saying. He's not talking about Dame's shortcomings as a player. He even ties the two together in terms of Melo being the best offensive player he's ever coached, which perhaps suggests not caring for the defense of either guy but he tip toes around that.

If those add up to a fractured locker room, then they have everything to do with bad team defense.

 

Mick. I'm sorry tro sound as if I am picking on you, but man so many people posting the same stuff that is just wrong.

We did nothing to address our rim protection?

Olshey pursued elite bigs and they didn't want to come here. So he then signed Ezeli.

No we don't have who we all(including NO) wanted for a C this year, but it doesn't mean we did nothing. We tried and that is doing something.

I'm just soooo tired of people around here saying we didn't do shit.....
Yes we did. Just because plan A didn't work doesn't mean we didn't try.