I think this is the big quote in the story: "Eventually, it (Portland) will run into an elite defense with a mobile center who blitzes Lillard on pick-and-rolls and exposes the fact that his teammates can’t make enough plays to make them pay for it." This is a roster creation flaw as some of us have been pointing out for a while. It's not that the players aren't talented, but many of them do not have a skill set that compliment Dame. Having an AD or Green would do wonders for Dame's ability to advance in the playoffs.
Embiid, Curry, Jokic, Dame and James (in no particular order) all belong in the MVP discussion, IMO. I think Doncic is a phenomenal talent and maybe he should be on the fringes of the discussion, but he's having a slightly lesser season than last year.
luka got first from all three categories last year. Harden got second, Dame, third. https://ak-static.cms.nba.com/wp-co...r-Western-Conference-Guard-Voting-Results.pdf Out of 100 voters from the media, Dame got 1 vote for a top 2 spot, Luka got 100 votes for #1.
So here's a question, if the pick'n'roll is what's leading to Dame getting trapped, why run it? We used to see the same damn thing with Brandon Roy. We are creating a scenario where the other team can double our best player in a disadvantageous position on the floor. Why create that situation if you know it's coming?
How hard is it to understand that CJ is a terrible fit next to Dame in the backcourt which means he's an even worse fit as our second option, taking up all of that cap space and those minutes. Olshey is to blame for Dame's mediocre playoff success. Please spare me the "CJ is great in the playoffs" bullshit. If we all critically think about it, why would CJ's numbers be good in the playoffs? It's because all of our opponents entire strategy is to take Dame out of the game and make CJ beat them... and that strategy has almost always worked with the exception of one post season in which we ran into teams experiencing a rash of injuries. Dame is too good and has too much talent around him for that talent not to fit both his strengths and weaknesses. It's bullshit and it's Neil's fault. And while the CJ apologists in here are in no way to blame for our lack of success, your position still pisses me off.
Doncic had the narrative of being an amazing player at such a young age. I think the media overreacts to narrative angles. For as good as Doncic was last year, Lillard was even better (and is better this year, too, by a wider margin).
Because that's the style Lillard is best at and, relatedly, the style Lillard wants to play. That's not on Stotts--any competent coach is going to build his offense around what his star does best and will actually sell out to do. He can bark at Lillard to play more like Curry and run all day off the ball, but if Lillard doesn't sell out in that role, it's going to be far worse for the team.
That makes more sense. But for your sake and street cred, Dame shouldn’t really be in the same conversation with LeBron. You can respect both their games without choosing one or the other.
That nullifies what he did for the first seven years of his career. He has played with great players since then and gone to more finals than anyone else that didn't play in the 1960's. I mean are we really debating Dame v LeBron... that's not a real thing is it?
Yes. Carrying a team in the playoffs was significantly easier in the eastern conference, especially in the 2000s. That conference was a joke, and still is outside of a few teams.
Looked it up. This happened before in the first year they started weighting this vote: A: That's right. If there's a tie, the fan vote is the tiebreaker. Harden also ended up with a 2.0 average -- the lower the number, the better -- and finished second among fans, media and players. Curry and Harden won the tiebreaker. It was close but Westbrook lost out. So Dame has to get first in either media and/or player vote or he's not getting in. Unless there's a late push from fans this past week, it looks more and more like Steph and Luka will be starters.
