This team IMO has issues and appears badly put together. We are last in the league in D and our bigs just plain suck and as we all know we shelled out huge money for 2 guards/wings in Turner and Crabbe. So is assigning some blame warranted here? and if so who deserves more blame; Olshey for assembling this roster for huge $$$ or Stotts for his rotations and defensive schemes? For me I have to put 80% of the blame on Olshey for the roster he has put together, our bigs just plain suck and we may have the worst group of bigs in the league - given the huge payroll we have IMO that is inexcusable.
That may have some truth but IMO so does the post I made. This team is super expensive and IMO poorly put together.
We don't get to blame the players? Maybe they should be held accountable. They're the ones playing shitty defense. BNM
Start of season, people said we had the deepest most versatile set of big men in the league. Remember how good Vonleh looked on opening night? What happened?
I'm gonna blame Olshey; at some point he should have said: "Stotts, I am gonna find you a hardnosed defensive coordinator who knows how to teach fundamentals." And then he should have done it.
There's plenty of blame to go around from the GM to the coaches and players. However, we can make a few tweaks here are there before going into a meltdown. Call a team meeting for coaches and players. See what's working, what's wrong, and find solutions towards correcting our defensive woes. If possible, trade for a defensive minded C/PF like Dieng who happens to have good shooting range and will fit in Stotts' offensive game plan. If possible, trade for another perimeter who can score from deep dependably well (better than Aminu from 3-pt land). There's plenty of season left to make the necessary corrections while heading towards the playoffs.
I can see that being a priority when he has a deeper pool of candidates to choose from by season's end.
When we lose two tight games on the road in a back to back against playoff teams, why does anybody have to be blamed? Why can't they just be tough losses?
Stotts wouldn't play him anymore than a couple minutes at a time and then not at all. His good performance (11 points on 6-6 shooting in 16 minutes) was rewarded with 9 minutes in which he had 6 points on 4-6 shooting in the next game against the Clippers. By the 3rd game against the Nuggets it was down to 7 minutes in which he got 4 rebounds but didn't get a single shot. At this point he was shooting 83% but Stotts couldn't run one play for him. Not exactly building on a hot start. Against the Warriors he got 12 minutes mostly in garbage time of a blowout loss in which he had 6 points on 2-7 shooting in mop up time.....and that was it. He didn't get to play in the next game against the Suns. Mind you, he was shooting 63% at the time and was Portland's best big man perimeter defender where every pick was switched at the first sign of a screen. That started the sporadic few minutes here and there for a guy who was the best shooter and rebounder in pre-season and was off to a hot start from the field in the regular season. Same thing happened with Layman. In what may be the best first quarter of basketball played in history for a rookie, Layman pumped in 17 points on 6-8 shooting in 8 minutes in mop up duty against the Warriors. His reward for such an offensive outburst? To sit on the bench for the next 4 games and not play again until the Blazers were blown out against the Clippers. There he had 9 points on 4-8 shooting in 15 minutes. Layman finally got meaningful minutes in the next game against the Kings with 5 points on 2-3 shooting in 13 minutes. Until last nights game against Memphis, had only played 5 minutes twice in the 12 games since then. In his first 3 games where he was in long enough to break a sweat, he was shooting 63% from the field. Sound familiar? It was the exact same percentage Vonleh was shooting before he was shown the scrap minutes door. So it's not like those two players didn't prove themselves worthy of at least a chance at regular rotation minutes while they were there. It just seems Stotts chose not to play them for anything more than a couple minutes here and there which is next to impossible to get a rhythm. Both cases are small sample sizes but they did well with the minutes given when it was more than 2-3 minutes at a time. It was all they could do and the reward was to sit on the bench and watch players who weren't playing defense, not shooting well and not playing with energy. Not sure that is the message I'd want to send out to my team.
problem is none of those big men really excel at any one thing (except mediocrity) except perhaps Plumlee at passing, and their deficits far exceed what few things they may be at best decent at
sure the players get some blame, but if they are shitty defenders to start with you can only do so much
guess they should have joined the Illuminati when they received their invitation. #youwillbeassimilated
I don't know. Is it possible they hope by playing guys like Leonard and Crabbe that they will do enough to have some trade value?
or why not take an honest look at this team for its plusses and minuses? We ARE the worst if not one one of the bottom 3 defenses in the league and our bigs simply suck and that is easy to see. We have great guards and scoring ability but both scoring and defense from our bigs simply suck.
