Alot of it is on the players, but Harden was just eating us alive, no adjustments. And give them some strategy to counter what the Rockets were doing defensively.
This team is built for consistent substituting, not for a fucking pattern that Stotts always needs to create, Vonleh plays to start both halves, he never plays otherwise, why? because Stotts is fucking OCD, sorry OCD people, we have Cliff Alexander who never got a chance other than in garbage time, why he isn't at least in the NBDL is beyond me, why isn't he playing? because he can't help us? because he can't give us something different, a different look another option? I think he can but I guess we'll never know. Neil brought all these lesser known players also because Stotts couldn't deal with benching any of last year's starters (besides Rolo) so he sent them away and brought relative no-names but Stotts sticks with his minute distribution patterns so that no-one gets upset and yes, he started making his substitutions more about basketball but it shouldn't be more about basketball, it should be only about basketball. Shuffle it, Terry. Play with it, have fun with it, think basketball. If you wanna play small, play small, if you wanna try Meyers as a 3, play Meyers as a 3. Don't always rely on some kind of system you think is working, you shouldn't trust any concept. Player movement, ball movement, team defense, offense, rebounding, these are concepts, the substitutions are on you. You have 12 players worth playing, you can give most of them DNPs on any given game but don't just stick to the plan, experiment, trust your instincts, test your instincts. I'm reading Phil Jackson's book and he said sometimes he let players keep playing through other team's runs for them to figure it out themselves. I think that's fair. Also that criticism is fair. I think Stotts is a good coach and more importantly, I think he's getting better
It is curious how when the only way Houston could possibly come back is if Harden goes absolutely nuts. No hedging, no doubles, no Aminu guarding him....nothing to keep him from getting into an insane rhythm or anything to slow it down. This is not the first time and sadly likely to happen again. It's not like it was GS where multiple other players could hurt you.....Houston had no one else who could carry them to that type of comeback. A pretty glaring lack of any adjustment what so every.
Biggest problem with Stotts is that he never adjusts to defending one player, even when that one player is absolutely torching that night.
Coach of the Year, Coach of the Year! 1 loss, albeit a shitty one. Now everyone thinks he's a bum. Get real, were in the thick of a playoff race with truthfully a mishmash roster of has-been's and supposed to be's.
Stotts just popoviched Houston. Who gives a shit about them? Why show our hand when they won't be in the picture later. We have bigger fish to fry.
I didn't want to start a new thread for this. Apparently this is not a new thing. We have improved a lot on D but I would take a week with Tom Thibodeau to see if he could give us a few pointers.
Boston is historically a hard place to steal a road win....our role players couldn't make shots all night..2 guys in double digit scoring aren't ever going to beat 6 or 7 guys shooting well. You could tell we were tired after the first qtr. Boston beat us....no need to bash the coach over one road loss. Credit Boston for kicking our butt and move on...I think it's a ridiculous low blow to bash Stotts over this one but doesn't surprise me. Boston is no slouch...37 win team so far.
Yea I'll be interested to see how we do against them at our home! Boston has been on a home stand and like us have really good fans.
You do realize that PDX does not use the D-League for a reason right? It's become clear that we have something pretty special here with regards to player development. When you send a player down to the D-League they travel and are not around the team. Just because Cliff isn't playing in games doesn't mean he isn't getting valuable time with our coaching staff and being around a very healthy and competitive culture. I know this is just SHOCKING to many people around here but guess what...the franchise is in good hands and I'm prettyyyyyyy sure they have a better handle of their roster than people outside of the organization. Everyone needs to just take a chill pill. We've got a franchise player. We've got a true leader on and off the court. We've got a great GM. We've got a Top 10 coach. We have an owner that doesn't mind spending to win. Just sit back and enjoy this team and the next couple of years.
It's kind of an odd spot to be for us knowledgeable fans who follow a ton of players in the league, know salary cap rules and are fluent with analytics. There were many times in the past the team made so many bad decisions or missed obvious opportunities it was easy to critique. Neil has a heck of an eye for talent and chemistry. Listening to Stotts on the vertical it's obvious he understands analytics as well as teaching, player motivation, relationship skills. Dame would be a great leader in any situation. Yeah we should just enjoy the show.
But in the D-League they get to play in real games, the fans can see them play or check out their performances. Crabbe went to the D-League and even didn't have impressive numbers but he came back more ready and the funny guy with Trader-Bob in his avatar watched all the games and made commentary it was fun. If Cliff Alexander is impressive there he would get minutes when he returns, he would at least get a decent chance to prove himself for the fans, even if the coaches get to see him in practice
In an ideal world, yes that is how it would work. But the D-League is still not a finished product with regards to being a farm system. If the Blazers were in the same spot where we were last year with a great veteran team, then yes I'd say to send players like Cliff down there to get experience. However, I'd say the Blazers are now more than likely a Top 5 team when it comes to Player Development and I'd rather have a player that needs to grow do so by spending time with our coaches everyday and developing in the culture Dame has helped to create.
They play zero D in the D league...it's an oxymoron...practicing against real NBA talent is way better. Tim Frazier is beasting in the D league but he didn't beast against NBA level competition. Alexander, Connaughton and Montero are getting a real NBA education from our staff.
