Is Portland the best team in the West?

Like whom?

If you look at DBPM for that Little rookie year, his DBPM was worse than Hezonja or even Hood's very injured shell. Gabriel, fwiw, was also behind Herzonja in his DBPM.

What defensive tools did Terry has that he did not play? The only players with a positive DBPM that year were Nurkic, Whiteside, Bazemore, Ariza, Herzonja and Skal. That's it. There were no defensive options on that roster. Zach Collins was not back to his defensive standard after the injury, that team had no defensive players on the roster that did not play. It was a crap roster, simple as that.

BTW, for the very small sample we have seen so far, it seems like ZCo is finally back to being a defensive force after all these injuries. Still a minus on offense, but on defense, he is starting to look again like his old self.

 

Neil built those teams for himself my guy. What Stotts did with some of those rosters is strangely overlooked on here.

 

Agreed

 

What you care about and what the team cares about are obviously different. That team just went to the WCF. Neil claimed he fixed the problems (Aminu / Harkless) with the new roster. It would be absurd not to think the coach and the team would try to play to win. Dame Lillard is not around here if you always play to develop the young ones, especially if they do not produce and are in and out of the active list because of injuries. Sorry, man, that's your unrealistic expectations.

Don't know what Ant was instructed to do or not, but Meyers problems began when Neil fired the big man coach we had and did not replace him. As for Melo, as bad as he was offensively that year, he was still better than Ant - and he was brought in to try and help the Blazers save their season - so it would not be reasonable not to try and get him going.

Frankly, you are reading too much into your expectations and love for the young talent for that season, in the context of what it was, what Terry did given the crap roster he had to work with was more than reasonable.

 

Well said FAMS.

 

I said this in June and I’ll say it now. I don’t believe Dame wants to “develop” young talent….he wants to win NOW!

 

Good question about CJ? I wonder if Wes had stayed healthy and the Blazers made a good run that year in the playoffs if CJ would have even been here? Everyone said Wes was the heart and soul of the Blazers. That team stays together without that injury maybe?

 

Anyone with two eyeballs can tell you Little and Gabriel's defense was better than Tolliver and Hezonja's. Little came in with an NBA body. One of the few. I hardly think Stotts was looking at DBPM stats. All things being equal, you give your first round pick run over guys who are hanging onto the NBA dream by a fingernail.

 

Agree to disagree, my guy. There's a reason why Stotts had a horrendous coaching record before he got to Portland.

 

Except he totally values developing Shaedon Sharpe. It's fine to not develop the young guys if you have really good vets in front of them, not Tolliver and Hezonja though. That's just a horrid excuse.

Sure, Olshey should have hired a big man coach. But Terry is the HEAD COACH. It was his responsibility at the end of the day. And he let Meyers drift further and further from the paint, which made him successful against Memphis before. Again, fine to not develop when you have Rodney Hood and Seth Curry. Not okay to not develop when you're putting Tolliver and Hezonja over your first round picks.

 

Win now in the regular season, or win now in the playoffs?

 

Sharpe doesn't need to be "developed." He needs experience.
He needs playing time because he's really, really good.

 

those two things don't have to be mutually exclusive. Talented rookies can be getting 'developmental minutes' (I'm not even sure what that means) and still be able to contribute to wins. I think Sharpe is really close to those standards right now

 

Fine, who sits and why?

 

For a while it's going to be "Watch and Cheer NOW" for Dame.

 

The scoreboard is a set of numbers, games are not won on eyeballs unless they are a lot more capable than ours, as fans, frankly. No disrespect, but your eyesight is clearly wrong here - we have multiple years of data to go through and Little has yet to have a positive DBPM in all his career (including under Chauncy). He is yet to be a good defender in the NBA and has not yet, 3+ years in, to have as good a defensive year as Herzonja had that year.

First, Sharpe is a much better prospect than Little, the team has come from missing the playoffs and not from reaching the WCF and finally, everyone with 2 eyeballs can see that Sharpe actually know what he does on defense as far as being in the right place and moving. He is still not a good defender (early in his rookie campaign), but at least he is much more impactful on the offense than Little was as a rookie, so it makes more sense to give him the time. Again, you are ignoring context. Context is important.

 

That is absolutely not right. Sharpe has holes in his game, which is to be expected. Handle, defense for sure.

He also needs experience, but to think he is a final, ready prospect is not right.

 

Did somebody hack your account FAMS?