The team that beat the Blazers 4 times in 6 games just got swept. Does it change your opinion of the 2021 Blazers team?
I believed that shit Denver team should've been an easy playoff victory for their opponent. Embarrassing the Blazers lost 4 times in 6 games to that team. I've never seen an easier playoff opponent in memory of my time as a fan back to 1989. Their second best player is coming off his rookie year, other forward can't shoot, and their starting guards are 9th men. Their second best player and another key starter were out the whole series. Shit job by the Blazers coaching staff, shit job of the GM with roster construction having a full MLE hard cap addition getting DNP. Shit job on defense from CJ, Melo, Kanter while not even being average offensively. Shit job by Nurk getting in foul trouble and bitching about his role publicly during a season. Dame, Powell, Simons and Roco are the only members of the franchise that were solid contributors.
2021 Blazers were always a team with very few quality wins IMHO. The playoffs always expose those squads. Aaron Gordon being trash in the Suns series was a silver lining.
It confirmed the issue wasn’t personnel because on paper that should’ve been a rather easy round. And unlike their series against the Suns, Denver didn’t even have Barton. We got smoked by fucking Austin Rivers.
Maybe Barton was the issue. "Playoff Austin Rivers" is not bad at all. Also maybe we should give respect to Phoenix who kicked the Laker's asses as well. They have won 7 games in a row and none of them have been close.
No, just reinforces my view that the team as currently constructed will go nowhere and a full blow up should be seriously considered, and at least big changes should be made, and Olshey should be fired
Yeah well, I listened to a whole segment on the radio that discussed Rivers' playoff improvements. I guess they should have consulted with Blazer fans first.
Not really. The '21 Blazers were not substantially different over the last 3-4 years. Some of the names have changed, but the foundation remained the same. The Stotts/CJ/Dame trio needed to be re-evaluated. Also, I think you have to give the Suns a LOT of credit. They are a damn GOOD team. All the players fit really well together. Bridges is significantly under-rated player.
Denver looked to me like it took a lot of energy for them to beat us in 6 games....one being a double overtime game...sort of like when we beat them in 7 games and got swept in the conf finals......playing against the Suns on fumes.....has nothing to do with us being a bad team...has to do with the marathon to get to the finals and what it requires fitness wise.....this is new for the Nuggets to make a deep run this year and they are hobbled as well. Fact is the Suns are hot this season and they beat the Nuggets like a tin drum...Lakers as well. Impressive playoff run by them
The funny thing is that I'm not sure Denver would have put up that much more of a fight even if they did have Murray. They got schooled.
The Denver/Portland series, and the subsequent Denver/Phoenix series showed a few things. one of the glaring things was that the Blazers defense sucked still. But it also showed the Blazers have pieces that work, and pieces that don't. The pieces that don't are CJ, Melo, Kanter and the coach. So far they gotten rid of one of them, and hopefully 2 of the other 3 are gone too (or have their roles drastically changed).
I think it's always a bad idea to try to put wins and losses against various teams into some sort of mathematical formula like Po < D, D < Ph, therefore Po << Ph. There's too much variability in matchups and individual player performances for that to necessarily be true. I think that Jokic was MVP Jokic against the Blazers primarily because Nurkic couldn't keep from getting into foul trouble and the Blazers' backup options were Kanter (about the worst possible matchup is against Jokic is mobility impaired Kanter) or going small ball. Neither worked. Ayton was able to stay in the game and seems to have enough athleticism to really frustrate Jokic. I also think that the ability of the Denver scrub backcourt to be effective against the Blazers, but not against the Suns, had a bit to do with the fact that the Blazers guards had to spend more time doubling the Joker to try to slow him down. All of that said, I don't think the Blazers would necessarily have done as badly against the Suns as the Nuggets did, but they still would have lost. Changes are definitely needed.
