This may be just me, but I'm an extremely positive person (as people who have met me can attest to)... Yes, I battle pretty major depression, but I always tend to look at the positive side of negative things in life. One of the things I've learned in the last decade or so is to change how I look at something. "How can I use this to help me?" "How can this teach me a lesson" Instead of "The world is out to get me." "Why me?". I still have my moments, but I'm in them far less. However, when it comes to sports, me looking at the negatives in it doesn't affect or reflect my views in life. It's just a game. I'll cheer when an individual person does great (I.E. Nurk, Dame, Jake, etc), but when it comes to overall team success... regular season just doesn't hit me the same as playoffs. If we do well in the playoffs then it's something. I still watch most games, but until the team shows consistency in the playoffs.. well, you know. But in the regular season, I don't lose sleep over a loss and don't get too high on a win. I get frustrated when constantly we lose because of the same thing, but I don't lose sleep over it because in the end it doesn't really matter until the playoffs (or, if you know you're not making it, the next few years). That's just my longwinded way of saying life and sports emotional wise doesn't hit everyone the same. And this is no reflection on you, I'm only speaking for me.
Pretty much my thoughts, except I think Curry is a bigger improvement over bazz. 3pt% alone puts him over. The only other thing I would counter is the end of the schedule. Though we do have more road games, we play better in the second half as well. I think we are a little better, and have an upward trend. These things combined will get us 49-50 wins but much better entering the playoffs than last year because of another year of growth, development and syncing up. We need to make it to the second round and then ah==have a good start to next year and go all in at the trade deadline with our expirings.
Not to beat another dead horse, but until the figure out how to tweak SOS to reflect the difference between road games and home games, I have to question the accuracy. Edit: Oops, others beat me to it. Nevermind!
https://www.blazersland.com/are-the-blazers-better-this-season/ Yes and no. The Blazers are a little bit better. They seem to be unstoppable when they play extensively through Nurkic, who has had his best season thus far. It opens up the Blazers offense and disallows the opponents defense from isolating Portland's guards. Lillard and CJ are Lillard and CJ. Portland would be a lot better if they played through one another rather than parallel to one another. But, using Nurkic as a conduit is proving rather effective in its stead. The Blazers have also have moved the ball much better this year. They are up to 22.5 APG from 19.5 last season. Not a huge jump, but it shows. Last year most of the Blazers assists were at the arc. This season we are seeing more assists at the basket, with cutters hitting the paint for open shots off confused and disoriented defenses who are still adjusting to Portland's movement. They are use to last seasons team which was largely stagnant and seemed to have less movement then residents at an old folks home. The Blazers bench is also somewhat better. They are at about 34 points a game up 6 points from last season. Curry is better than Napier, but needs to produce more. He is finding his legs after a season off and with them his consistency. Pat Connaughton and Nik Stauskas are interchangeable. Their stats are practically identical. Connaughton had slightly better shooting percentages, and Stauskas averages slightly more points a game. They both have suffered at the hands of inconsistency. Zach Collins is still young and developing, and he is struggling a bit with more minutes and responsibility. But, his numbers are up. The Loss of Ed Davis has hurt the Blazers, but not as badly as expected. Evan Turner is finally fitting in to an applicable degree, after giving the Blazers and the fans headaches, earlier this year and the last few seasons. Meyers Leonard 6.0 aka "the hammer" is a vast improvement over his ill-achieved previous iterations. He can score effectively and set screens like no ones business. He has helped Portland's bench take a step forward this year. He should get more plays called for him. Jake Layman has been the biggest and most pleasant surprise. Everytime he plays, it is like opening presents on Christmas morning. He can hit the three with savage ease or get to the basket with ungodly speed. He is a hell of a cutter. Opponents are still trying to figure him out. The Blazers are 28-19, three wins better than this time last season when they were 25-21. Last season they had a 5 game losing streak, this year they have 2 three game losing streaks. Over all it is pretty even. The Blazers have an easier second half of the season schedule this year as opposed to last. Will they get another 13 game winning streak? No. But, they will get their wins a different way. The Blazers will probably end their season a couple games ahead of last season say 51 or 52 wins. Is Terry Stotts better this year? No. Not really. He is starting to learn to adjust to opponents a bit, and he is using timeouts more efficiently, but he is commiting a lot of the same mistakes. Overplaying the bench, making costly gameplan mistakes at the end of games, and is still married to that damned index card. He is roughly the same coach as he has been. Does two effective beat downs of the Pelicans who swept Portland in the 1st round of the playoffs mean the Blazers are better? No. The first meeting saw Anthony Davis sitting on the bench in his suit. There is no equitable measurement to be had there. The second meeting was a dog fight till Jake Layman came in the game. Gentry was using the same tactic he used in the playoffs to suffocate Lillard and McCollum with double teams. But, Aminu who was left open was having an on night from the arc. It was shot for shot basically. The Blazers had a small lead going into the 2nd. The Pelicans fought back and then Stotts brought in Layman, who had 20 points in the quarter. Gentry and Pelicans weren't ready for that, they hadn't thought of it. How could they have? You can bet when the Blazers see the Pelicans in New Orleans in a couple months, they will give Layman a bit more respect. Also, trading Rajon Rondo hurt the Pelicans badly. Payton is a heavy downturn at PG. They will look to upgrade at the deadline. So, part of Portland's success in those games is that the Pelicans got worse. They don't get all the credit though. And, before you say, "But, the Blazers beat the champs in overtime in Oakland, they must be far better," remember the champion Warriors trounced them in the two meetings before that. The Warriors have gotten worse too, but I expect them to be #1 at the end of the season. They have had injuries, but also they miss the prescence of Javale McGee dearly. Their center Damion Jones suffered a season ending injury. And, they have been without DeMarcus Cousins who has recently returned. He is going to help them wipe the floor with opponents, and shore up any weakness they have had. Will the Blazers fare better in the playoffs? Maybe. Portland has had more help this year, and they may bring in another player or two at the deadline. Will the Blazers get to the 2nd rnd? Depends on the matchup. Depends on if they run the ball through Nurkic or settle on Iso ball. Depends on the Blazers movement and trust in one another. So, yeah the Blazers are a little bit better. They are headed in the right direction. They will need more help before they can make a deep run. But, I believe they can make a hell of a dent.
Great post/article! That True Blazer Fan guy could probably use your help with content. Not to be contrarian, but I think the challenge (not travel) of road games can be overblown sometimes. A.) there are many arenas with weak crowds B.) there can be less distractions on the road and it's sometimes easier to get up for an away game when you're facing an opposing crowd.
Oh this again... Road games against the Pistons are easier than home games against the Warriors. Just sayin.
As a self-described Blazers Homer, I would say that they are better, but negligibly so. I don't have the stats to back me up (anyone, please chime in with stats), but our bench seems to regularly have a negative +/- during games. Random Sample: Our Bench against NOLA: positive, +/-. Our bench against Cavs: negative +/- (and we won by 17) Our bench against Kings: -7.something, we lost by 8. Our bench against Nuggs: -1.something, we lost by 3. Our bench vs. Hornets: +8, we won by 31 (bench not needed) Our bench vs. Bulls: Big +/- (starters were evenish, bench really won us the game) ... Basically, our bench isn't as good as it should be to compete. Doesn't seem appreciably better than last year.
* 9 of Portland's 20 road games have been against teams with losing records (10 if you count the 1-4 Rockets). Portland lost 5 of those games, so counting on a bunch of future road wins against losing teams seems a little questionable, especially considering... * 10 of Portland's remaining 21 remaining road games are against teams with losing records * if Portland matches their current home and road winning percentages over the rest of the season, they'd end up with 46-36 record. Looking at home/road balance seems on topic in a thread asking if Portland is better than last season...no? ok...I'm going to call bullshit on that until you can point out what was actually negative about my post. I simply pushed back against the SOS narrative by illustrating home/road imbalance and home/win differentials for the 9 WC playoff contenders. Since when is +1 negative? yeah, maybe. I think Connaughton was better than Stauskas though as far as Curry and his 3pt%, that might give him an edge in the Stotts offense, but overall, I question if Curry is better, mainly because Napier crushes Curry in just about every metric other than 3ptFg%. Napier was a better defender as well one bad thing Napier did was join the Dame-CJ-Turner one-on-one jamboree
*Portland's playing a lot better than they were earlier in the season but you ignore that context to try to make your point. *You're also talking about near .500 teams instead of bottom-feeders we have left to play on the road (PHX, CLE, ATL, CHI). *Portland won't match their home and road winning percentages because they were (1) playing a lot worse earlier in the season and (2) they had a much tougher schedule during those games. You try and point out the road and home imbalance o downplay SOS, but then you make the mistake of isolating home and road games and extrapolating each over an easier schedule. Regardless of road/home imbalance, our home schedule and our road schedule gets easier in isolation, so you can't extrapolate based on early season results.
Yeah I'd take Curry over Bazz too, because Curry has a good NBA skill while I don't think you can say that about Shabazz.
Id phrase this differently (just my opinion), I think Curry / Shabazz both have "good" NBA skills, the difference is Curry's shooting is a great overall skill. Whereas Shabazz doesn't have anything "great" in his tool bag.
He was good at running they pnr. He has a good handle, good hands on defense. For an NBA back up pg I think he’s good, and thats about it.
I wish that site and others would factor remaining road games into SOS. Is there such a combined stat somewhere?
Curry is even tinier than Napier, but somehow seems tougher on defense. And Napier wasn't bad at it, especially in steals. Curry is stickier glue--he stays closer to his man. (It's easy for an ant.)
