Honest question for Stotts supporters

Other than Denver, just about every other team also made significant changes or have had just as bad of injuries this season. I love that people can't be critical because they should just give up when people get hurt.

 

Worse records doesn't necessarily mean the west is worse. It could also mean the west is much tougher so it's hard for anyone to dominate. There aren't a lot of gimmies.

We are winning on the backs of our starters, but it's the same issue that we have seen in the playoffs since LMA left. If the other team lets Dame go off, we win. If the other team has a halfway decent coach and they trap Dame, we tend to lose.

The Series against OKC is a perfect example. They didn't trap Dame so he popped off and we rode him to a series win. The Warriors took Dame out of the series and we lost. Our offense is built entirely around isolation and individual talent. If that individual talent can't perform for whatever reason, we lose. Coaches like Pop and Phil Jackson had a system and they could plug almost any player in that system and get results out of them. Obviously their systems required very good players at their core (Duncan/Jordan) but once they had those foundational pieces they could plug and play just about anyone. We don't have a system. Our system is to give Dame the ball and get out of the way. Sometimes our system is to give CJ the ball and get out of the way. That's why this team is very beatable in the playoffs.

 

Denver tried to trap dame you skipped that one, oh wait it's just because they weren't experienced enough to beat the Blazers bad team / coaching.

Duncan and Jordan are a lot better than Dame... I get it their system's have issues, but I also think this year their talent kind of sucks because of the injuries. Both can be true it's doesn't have to be mutually exclusive.
Dame's good, Whitesides been good, CJ does CJ things... After that basically the whole roster has been mostly bad...

 

I agree with you that a deeper west would mean overall, more records towards .500.

@TorturedBlazerFan is right when he says nobody is arguing we're good. Some are making a case like this currest roster should be competing for HCA and it's Stotts' fault we're not. The reality is, I can't believe we're 8th in the West with how crappy this roster is!

I understand your frustration with Stotts wanting Dame/CJ to be play makers (it's not all ISO like you say it is). I think you've came to a conclusion that we haven't had more playoff success because "we don't have a system" (also not true), but only once under Stotts have we lost a series where we were the more talented team (NOP) and in that series we didn't have the best player. A case could be made that we've won up to 3 playoff series where we were the least talented team. I don't see the issue there.

 

We lost our entire front court. I’m surprised we’re playing as well as we are.

 

In addition our bench is depleted of experienced NBA talent You take this same roster as now and add in Nurkic, Collins and Hood we would be a pretty deep team.

 

Yes, but these games where Dame and CJ score 30 each, Melo scores over 20, and Whiteside has 20 and 20 and 6 or whatever, and we beat a lottery team by a handful of points, decided in the last minute of the game, are mind blowing. I literally don't know what to think, other than the fact that we can't stop teams from scoring, period.

 

And a lot of that is due to lack of depth. We rely extremely heavy on starters to have big games.

 

Oh, I don't think they should be in the top 4 right now. However, I think that they should be closer to that. Even if they were 18-14 instead of 14-18 they'd still only be in 7th place. The difference there is they'd only be 1.5 games behind the Jazz and 4 games behind the Nuggets for 2nd place. Instead we're now 5.5 games behind the Jazz and 8 games behind the Nuggets. So any chance of moving out of the 7th or 8th seed when we start to get guys back or make good trades is slipping away.

That's why it's such a disservice to say that "Well, they're in the 8th seed, that's great!" They lost to the Pelicans twice, GS missing their whole starting lineup, Denver at home with Collins and Hood, SA after they blew a huge lead, to Philly at home without Embiid (100% that game was on the coach), Brooklyn at home, Sacramento without Fox and Bagley, Toronto at home without Lowry, OG, and Ibaka, Cleveland without Love, and OKC at home. How many of their wins came against teams that they should've lost to? Maybe the Dallas game, that's it. Please help me understand how you can read this and think that being 14-18 is hard to believe? That's it, win 4 of those 11 games and we're 18-14 and wondering what this team can still be this year once we get Nurk and maybe Collins back. Instead a team with Dame and CJ plus a center playing terrific is 14-18.

 

Yes, of course. And I'm not on here ripping Stotts often at all (anymore), but even the positive iteration of Propagandist can't help but be perplexed by the utter lack of imagination on BOTH the offensive and defensive end.

 

That Philly game is interesting... There was definitely some “bad coaching” on the last play, but the Blazers didnt have Whiteside either... Neither team could stop the other. If you’re gonna say they were without Embiid it seems fair to mention the Blazers didnt have their center either.

 

Be critical, go ahead. Maybe they’ll fire Olshey and Stotts and hit the jackpot and the new guys will immediately implement their system, keep everyone happy and bought in during Lillards prime and all will be great. Some are going to be unhappy until that happens. The rest of us won’t.

 

I wasn't purposely omitting anyone, I just assumed everyone remembered the circumstances. Also in that game Skal was playing well (same with the GS game) and Stotts took him out with 4:45 left and inserted Tolliver. We were up 8 at the time. Tolliver played 27 minutes in that game to 22 minutes for Skal. Tolliver was 2-6 with 2 rebounds.

 

No one could get a stop, thats the Blazers season in a nutshell so far. Skal wasnt exactly stopping them either.

 

I actually don't really have a problem with Olshey right now. He made two really good moves last year getting Hood and Kanter and I actually liked the trades this summer. That might change if the trade deadline passes with Whiteside and Bazemore still on the team though.

I don't know how many times I have to say this: They aren't going to fire Stotts. Don't worry though, the team plays with the same attitude as you have that it's not their fault and there is nothing they can do.

 

Yes, I thought Kerr was better. I wanted the Blazers to hire him. I don't see a Kerr out there right now, so I wouldnt be for firing Stotts. I like our culture and he has generally gotten teams for this city to overachieve.

We can win a championship with Stotts if we can put the right pieces around him.

 

Im kind of all over the place with this team right now... I dont think Stotts is a championship coach, and they could probably get more from this roster. However Im also not sure what that really means, as I frankly think the roster post injuries kind of sucks especially on defense.

Its like part of me is surprised their record isnt worse. I think Dame is special, but Simons, Little, Skal are all young and not ready to contribute every night. Mario and Tolliver are just bad (though I think when Tolliver actually plays back up 3-4 he’s not as bad as when he starts at C...).
Melo and CJ are basically what they always are, chuckers who dont play defense... Whiteside has been good but his BBIQ / Feel for the game is fairly low.

Its just a combination of bad coaching, bad players, players being in put in roles they cant be successful in. The good news is I guess somehow their still a playoff team.

Im having a hard time saying oh man if Nick Nurse was our coach we’d be at 20+ wins because our roster just isnt that good without their entire front court.

 

lol ok

 

At that point Kerr’s experience was running Phoenix into the ground as a GM.

 

I'm pretty sure you feel the same way but there hasn't been many games this year where I felt like the team "left if all on the floor." It was obvious when a guy like Little got inserted into the lineup just how much the rest of the team was lacking energy. I'm not saying they're dogging it or being lazy it's just when there are injuries there needs to be more of a battle and more urgency if they don't want to lose games the way the have.