These intriguing statistics may show how best to use new Blazers. For example, Hezonja should probably not be used as a PnR ball handler or as a spot up shooter, but excels in transition. Tolliver very good as roller in PnR and in transition. Bazemore best as a spotup shooter, surprisingly not effective in transition. https://www.blazersedge.com/2019/10...g-offense-whiteside-bazemore-hezonja-tolliver (note, if this has been posted in another thread, it shouldn't have been! )
Bazemore had a lot of possessions as a PnR ball-handler and also with handoff plays (receiver?) but not very effective at either. Due just to playing on a bad team? Wish the writer had provided stats for more than one year.
Portland replaced Nurkic/Kanter with Whiteside/Gasol. For the rest, they've replaced a bunch of role players with other role players. Maybe the new roles will fit better than the old roles, and obviously, that's the bet management is making. But, the high-water mark is 53 wins, the 3rd seed, and the WC finals. That's a really tough gauge to match, let alone exceed
We essentially have 7 guys that will be like Gerald Henderson his first 20 games as a Blazer.....trying to fit....around Xmas should click for all the new vets..until then it'll be interesting to see who wins the bench mob minutes going into the all-star break. Awesome to have this many new players for a change. Going to enjoy watching it unfold.
But you could also say that Nurk was missing in the playoffs so if you are counting him for having to be replaced but also counting the WCF appearance then where is the line for the discussion. Plus Kanter and Hood, two significant parts of the playoff success, weren't a part of the team until the last two months of the regular season. Olshey was able to shore up holes during the season last year to lead to that "high water mark." Now all of a sudden it seems like people are acting like we're stuck with this roster. If Bazemore and Whiteside suck and aren't performing as well as we need them to then they are both massive expiring contracts that can be traded for pieces that could fit better. If Hezonja and Tolliver turn out to be like Stauskas then we ship him off just like Stauskas last year.
obviously, I was talking about the season, both regular and playoffs. Blazers played 98 games last season and Nurkic played 72 of those games, and all but 10 of the games that secured Portland 3rd seed and favorable playoff matchups. We don't know how many games he'll play this season, but we know he played 87% of the regular season last year. Kanter played 39 games and will play none this season honestly, I'm not sure what it is you're getting at? All I did was point at Portland's pretty massive turnover, mostly being role players for role players, and wonder how much difference in upside is available in maybe plugging in better fitting role-players on offense, when those same players may very well be worse fits on defense I'm not sure who is saying Portland is stuck with the roster...I'm not, but I sure don't count on trade deadlines coming up with better solutions every year. That's happened twice in Olshey's 7 trade deadlines
