I'm to blame for Lillard being so good. I can't really go into details but my afterlife might be a little on the warm side.
Without Leonard... Pau Gasol = 31 pts Al Jefferson = 29 pts Say what you will about Leonard's shortcomings, but he is a pretty good man defender (on Centers)
Leonard would help us guard Pau Gasol? Impressive since the Blazers haven't played him. Nor has he guarded any players we haven't played. What a slacker.
Does anyone read John Schuman's power rankings on NBA.com? The dude has Boston at 6 and Indy at 7.... Like.... is he even trying...?
Does anyone know what is going on with Meyers? No one is giving an exact timeline, he's listed as day-to-day. So if all of a sudden he's feeling well, they're going to let him play?
The 4-6 was by a doctor that did not evaluate Meyers firsthand. I read somewhere that he's just doing exercises and the team doesn't really want to give a definitive timeline because they don't know. Just wanted to know if there was an update somewhere.
If we didn't have two upcoming games against LAL I could see us going winless until his return. As it is, I think we win fewer than 5 games before the new year, and just to be on the safe side I'd wait until January to bring Meyers back.
I think his analysis of Portland is accurate. But he does seem to be too willing to move teams based off of a weeks performance. Detroit should not have fallen to 15th. Boston is a playoff team in the east so I can actually understand him putting them at 6 right now.
They may make the playoffs, Indiana may too, but their rosters are not talented enough to be among the top 10 teams. Brilliant coaches make sub-par teams good ones, but eventually talent will have it's say, and Indiana is the only one of the two (barring significant improvement form Marcus Smart, whose a baller) who has elite offensive weapons to compliment it's evolving D. Celtics D does look legit though
Also our offense hasn't been the problem thus far this season, it's been breakdowns on D, mostly on Meyers, Plumlee and CJ (his aren't as bad), and Kaman will help a lot with our interior team D when he plays. Davis and now Alexander look like quality backups, and Vonleh still is 20 and talented as they come. I think our team will come together as the season goes along, but we have a brutal schedule over the next couple weeks. So ya, he got that more or less right on
Figured I'd put this in this thread where it makes more sense: So far we're shooting ~3% worse without Meyers, AND giving up ~3% on the defensive end. A -6% swing without Meyers.
The spacing is NONEXISTENT with two bigs out there. Davis/Kaman Kaman/Plumlee Vonleh/Davis Vonleh/Plumlee These lineups - they just don't work. Dame and CJ have literally no room to operate without Leonard.
Don't you have to look at us playing a much more difficult schedule since he's been out and factor that in some how?
I could see this making sense if we played Minny/Utah/Denver again, but we have played Memphis/San Antonio.....much better teams.
