So NOW do you understand what I'm talking about??? We are a better team this year.

Bring Aminu off the bench. I think he would work there. Vonleh I want to see more of first. I still think he might pop. He is super quick at going to the rim when he is decisive and confident. I also love Vonlehs rebounding positioning and placing of picks

 

HA! Suck it Denny! Great win last night by the way. Great seeing smiles on faces! #HoopKnowledge

 

So @HCP, with a remaining schedule of 50 games, and a greater percentage of home games, you still predict us going 11-39?

 

Damn, that would be a slide wouldn't it? Just looked at our schedule and I think by the end of Jan, we'll have 17 wins.
When I made my initial prediction of 23 wins, I never looked at the schedule game by game and broke it down. Just from what I was seeing and looking at the roster, that's the number I came up with, just felt right. I believe we have played at a much higher level than we should be......proud of these guys. No quit in 'em!

 

But then again, what do I know right? I was bananas for thinking we weren't better than last years team.

 

I thought this year would be a craps shoot too; my first prediction was "anywhere between 24 and 48 because who the fuck knows?"... our current reacord says we'll win 31. Our pythagorean says we should be 15-17 right now (lots of close losses), which would put us at 36 wins (if we play 15-17 ball the rest of the way, plus our 12 current wins).

Basically, we have good pieces starting to gel, and some bad game management in the 4th to fix. Anything could happen in the next 50.

 

Just as a snow storm disproves global warming, so too does a win over the Cavs prove the Blazers are better than last year!

Go Blazers!

 

Depends on the metric that you're using to measure "better."

In my opinion, if you matched up these rosters from 1-15, I think this is a better overall team. There's a lot more talent on this roster, overall. If you went down the lineup, the biggest hole is the one that Aldridge left. Plumlee is better than Rolo, CJ and Wes are a wash, and our bench is MUCH better than any bench we've had in the last ten years. Nic is a toss up because last year he was pretty crappy, but two years ago he was pretty good.

 

Aminu held Lebron to 12 pts last night...that's as good as Nico ever hoped to do on defense. Not sure if it was last nightor a previous game but I checked the Hornets game recently and at that point Aminu and Batum had almost identical stats except Nico played way more minutes.

 

The biggest loss wasn't really Nic's defense, but really his ability to run the point guard. It allowed Dame to play off the ball more. He also would defend the other team's point guard if they were giving Lillard too much trouble. I haven't really noticed, has Stotts done that with Aminu at all?

 

I think Crabbe has taken that on more but Aminu had a lot of assists..Aminu seems like he can guard 5 positions. I was really impressed with his defense on Lebron last night..he crowded him and smothered him. That's no easy task. Aminu has an enormous wingspan..don't know what exactly but he can wrap up a lot of space. I think Stotts is in school just like the roster is..he's finding out where the holes are and trying to get guys a shot to succeed. I think he's a really unselfish coach when it comes to player development. He gives guys more rope than I would and lets them work through slumps. I like him

 

I loved seeing the 3rd string end the game for a change

 

Yeah, I guess that's my point though. The Nic/Aminu comparison is hard because they're both a little inconsistent, and they bring slightly different things to the table.

 

yeah but to me Nic had 7 years and Aminu has a couple dozen weeks with the team.

 

Miami's defensive rating is 10 points WORSE with Whiteside on the floor compared to off the floor. People think blocked shots automatically means good rim protection, which it doesn't. I'm not sure he's much better than Plumlee, but he's especially not worth the $20M he'll get.

Derozen is a higher volume Henderson. Look at their percentages and where they shoot from. It's almost identical.

Lopez is interesting, but defensively? Ehhh...

 

Thank God. My biggest issue with Nic was when Stotts allowed him to run the point. As a SF he was good at it, but that doesn't mean that the team was efficient when he did. Don't get me wrong, Nic was beneficial to the Blazers because he had those skills, but he still was/is not as good at it as many guards. (i.e CJ) But because it was not Wes' forte, Stotts relied on him to help Dame.

Let Aminu concentrate on defense and rebounding. Any offense should be a bonus, not an necessity. Last night was ideal in my mind for Aminu. 3-4 from 2 pt range and 2-5 from deep, with 5 assists and 2 steals. Only one rebound but he usually pretty good at that.

Bottom line is when he plays with Dame, CJ and Plums, there won't be much need to have our SF run the point.

 

Too true.

 

We are definitely not a better team this year. That's expected with the rebuild though.