The 10 Reasons the Blazers are not good enough this year.

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DroppinDimes

DroppinDimes

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The Trailblazers just aren't good enough for these reasons:

1. Zach got hurt. He was the defensive anchor and there are some major holes without him.
2. Individual defense is AWFUL (nothing to be done there, except maybe effort at times). Team defense has been AWFUL (although I expect that to get a little better as time goes on).
3. They miss David Vanderpool.
4. The flow offense doesn't work with a group of bad passers. Dame is good in the pick and roll, and Mario seems ok at times, particularly in the open court but overall, this team is full of bad passers!
5. WAY too much 1 on 1 in the half court.
6. Terrible transition defense.
7. Spotty effort from everyone.
8. Dame time needs to stop! Is he trying to pad his 4th quarter stats for a MVP run? I hate all the individual awards discussions all season long. I get it, Dame is amazing, but find the open guy damnit. Team ball is the only way these guys have a shot this year.
9. The second unit needs a primary ball handler. Ant is a GREAT 2guard, but a point guard he is not... (yet) It looks like they're confused out there to who is going to initiate and run the offense.
10. Have I mentioned bad defense?

I don't expect this team to do anything this year, HOWEVER I do see good things happening next season. Nurk and Collins will be back, We'll either trade Whiteside by the deadline to pickup a serviceable 4, or have cap space to maybe get an impact player. Fully healthy and a few tweaks in personnel (maybe bring in a defensive minded assistant coach!) this team will be a contender next season in my mind.
 
Seems fair. I especially agree with #9 - what does Olshey have against decent backup PGs?
(Ntilikina would fix this, IMO.)
 
I'd say many of those things are true of the Blazers' play so far this season, but I don't think that they are necessarily things that won't be fixed as the season goes along. First, the Blazers have had to deal with a significant number of injuries to players in their starting rotation. That messes up any team, especially one with as many new faces as the Blazers are currently trying to incorporate into their rotation. Second, let's get real. Other than last night's horrible loss, the Blazers are a couple of plays from being 6-1 instead of 3-4. Third, getting Gasol and, eventually, Nurk into the lineup will have major impacts upon the quality of play.
 
DroppinDimes said:
The Trailblazers just aren't good enough for these reasons:

1. Zach got hurt. He was the defensive anchor and there are some major holes without him.
2. Individual defense is AWFUL (nothing to be done there, except maybe effort at times). Team defense has been AWFUL (although I expect that to get a little better as time goes on).
3. They miss David Vanderpool.
4. The flow offense doesn't work with a group of bad passers. Dame is good in the pick and roll, and Mario seems ok at times, particularly in the open court but overall, this team is full of bad passers!
5. WAY too much 1 on 1 in the half court.
6. Terrible transition defense.
7. Spotty effort from everyone.
8. Dame time needs to stop! Is he trying to pad his 4th quarter stats for a MVP run? I hate all the individual awards discussions all season long. I get it, Dame is amazing, but find the open guy damnit. Team ball is the only way these guys have a shot this year.
9. The second unit needs a primary ball handler. Ant is a GREAT 2guard, but a point guard he is not... (yet) It looks like they're confused out there to who is going to initiate and run the offense.
10. Have I mentioned bad defense?

I don't expect this team to do anything this year, HOWEVER I do see good things happening next season. Nurk and Collins will be back, We'll either trade Whiteside by the deadline to pickup a serviceable 4, or have cap space to maybe get an impact player. Fully healthy and a few tweaks in personnel (maybe bring in a defensive minded assistant coach!) this team will be a contender next season in my mind.
Click to expand...
#8 is not the problem with this team, it's the reason this team isn't going to be competing for the top picks in the lottery.

The rest of your list is good.
 
DroppinDimes said:
The Trailblazers just aren't good enough for these reasons:

1. Zach got hurt. He was the defensive anchor and there are some major holes without him.
2. Individual defense is AWFUL (nothing to be done there, except maybe effort at times). Team defense has been AWFUL (although I expect that to get a little better as time goes on).
3. They miss David Vanderpool.
4. The flow offense doesn't work with a group of bad passers. Dame is good in the pick and roll, and Mario seems ok at times, particularly in the open court but overall, this team is full of bad passers!
5. WAY too much 1 on 1 in the half court.
6. Terrible transition defense.
7. Spotty effort from everyone.
8. Dame time needs to stop! Is he trying to pad his 4th quarter stats for a MVP run? I hate all the individual awards discussions all season long. I get it, Dame is amazing, but find the open guy damnit. Team ball is the only way these guys have a shot this year.
9. The second unit needs a primary ball handler. Ant is a GREAT 2guard, but a point guard he is not... (yet) It looks like they're confused out there to who is going to initiate and run the offense.
10. Have I mentioned bad defense?

I don't expect this team to do anything this year, HOWEVER I do see good things happening next season. Nurk and Collins will be back, We'll either trade Whiteside by the deadline to pickup a serviceable 4, or have cap space to maybe get an impact player. Fully healthy and a few tweaks in personnel (maybe bring in a defensive minded assistant coach!) this team will be a contender next season in my mind.
Click to expand...
1. We can make due without him. Skal's looked great.
2. Only way to go is up.
3. TBD
4. Flow offense isnt that good, period.
5. A product of flow offense.
6. Only way to go is up.
7. Again, fixable. Only way to go is up. 2 and 6 are pretty much the same as 7.
8. Horrible take. He's getting over 7 assists per game and his scoring is the only thing keeping us afloat.
9. Stotts needs to stagger the guards.
10. The same as 2, 6, 7.
 
TorturedBlazerFan said:
At the end of the Philly game he literally found Simons in the corner, for a 3.
Click to expand...
With 30 seconds left in the OKC game, he found Rodney Hood in the corner for a 3 as well. I've been very impressed and surprised by his willingness to share the ball with role-players in clutch scenarios in this early season.
 
1. Injuries
2. We gave up good players for crappy players, but that won’t become fully evident until we recover from #1 and are still worse than before when should be much better, given the addition of Simons, development of Zach & Nurk, and general improvement of the rest.
 
#2.....Especially Whiteside.
 
It would really nice to have a guy like Tim Frazier out there playing PG for the 2nd unit. Ideally, someone bigger, but just having a real PG backing up Damian. I also would like to see more ball pressure out on the perimeter. I am warming to the idea of a Kenneth Faried who can just get dirty in the paint cleaning up the boards, and with the team's track record of reclamation projects, who knows he might flourish.
 
I'm leaning this way also. I realize it may be too early but Blazer brass should be thinking about it. Zach out, Nurk probably not full strength any time this year. Let Anf, Skal, Hezonja and Little play a lot. (and yes, the best way to let Anf play a lot is trade CJ; add a couple draft picks to him and maybe Chicago would trade Porter, they don't seem to really have a top shooting guard. ) Focus on teaching fundamentals for the rest of the year rather than game prep. Fundamentals of passing, defense and screen setting for starters. Try to develop a more varied offense that can involve more players. What would I estimate as the chance of any of this happening? Zero.
 
Some upside? Either we learn to play defense without Collins and Nurkic (which would help the team be better defensively when they both get back), or we get a lottery pick.
 
Either or we are still good. If we suck this year fine we’ll have a great pick to package or use for ourselves. Then when Nurk and Zach are back healthy next year we’ll have more weapons. So I don’t see the big deal about this year
 
I think your list is a fair assessment of how things have gone so far. With poor defense being the number one most obvious problem. Hero ball being second. Who on this roster is known as a defensive stopper besides kent Bazemore? Collins has looked solid in stretches if he can remain out of foul trouble and whiteside will get a couple blocks here and there but otherwise we are weak on the defensive end.

The hero ball comes from the top two guys. Dame and CJ with CJ being the worst offender. What are CJ's assist numbers anyways? Because to me it seems like whenever he catches the ball with less than 10 seconds on the clock he does some fancy dribbling and shoots it. Sometimes he makes it and sometimes he doesn't but from a casual observers perspective i know what to expect from him in that situation.
 
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Stumptown14 said:
I think your list is a fair assessment of how things have gone so far. With poor defense being the number one most obvious problem. Hero ball being second. Who on this roster is known as a defensive stopper besides kent Bazemore? Collins has looked solid in stretches if he can remain out of foul trouble and whiteside will get a couple blocks here and there but otherwise we are weak on the defensive end.

The hero ball comes from the top two guys. Dame and CJ with CJ being the worst offender. What are CJ's assist numbers anyways? Because to me it seems like whenever he catches the ball with less than 10 seconds on the clock he does some fancy dribbling and shoots it. Sometimes he makes it and sometimes he doesn't but from a casual observers perspective i know what to expect from him in that situation.
Click to expand...

Through 7 games, CJ has a PER of 12.2 and Lillard has a PER of 30.7. CJ has a WS/48 of -0.006 and Lillard has a WS/48 of .284.

Please don't lump CJ and Dame together as if they're the same entity. Dame has been absolutely carrying our team and CJ has been actively hurting us.
 
Five Second Violation said:
Through 7 games, CJ has a PER of 12.2 and Lillard has a PER of 30.7. CJ has a WS/48 of -0.006 and Lillard has a WS/48 of .284.

Please don't lump CJ and Dame together as if they're the same entity. Dame has been absolutely carrying our team and CJ has been actively hurting us.
Click to expand...

CJ needs to step up he’s absolutely sucking it up this year. Mo Williams 2.0
 
Five Second Violation said:
Through 7 games, CJ has a PER of 12.2 and Lillard has a PER of 30.7. CJ has a WS/48 of -0.006 and Lillard has a WS/48 of .284.

Please don't lump CJ and Dame together as if they're the same entity. Dame has been absolutely carrying our team and CJ has been actively hurting us.
Click to expand...

I was saying they both play hero ball. Which they both without a doubt do. Dame is just better at it and is more of a willing passer than CJ is. The PER numbers you've quoted speak to that.
 
When it comes right down to it I think a lot of us underestimated the positive impact of the players we lost. None of them were world beaters but they had learned to fill in the gaps around Dame and CJ and as a team they were able to deliver more than the sum of their parts. None of the new guys are there yet. I don't think they are going to get there this year. I know it's a bit early to throw in the towel but I feel like we are already at the point where we should just let the kids play and not worry about wins and losses. I wanna see if we have anything in Nassir Little and Gary Trent Jr. We are losing anyway, we might as well try to develop the youth we have. If we don't make the playoffs as a result, so be it.
 
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