lol! Thank you. I kind of stopped watching the game as a fan after Game 7 2000. I kept watching though, but yeah i guess I do watch with an eye on plays and spacing and coachy things like that. Since we've seen this team build up from nothing, I think it's only natural to see their growth like a coach would. We're better this year than last year at certain things. And last year, you could tell we played better than 2007, etc. It's been a pretty linear progression. I'm excited to see this year's team in February and March, when they've started to gel more.
definitely having a big man that commands double teams in the best thing you can have, but if you don't have that attacking the rim can get the job done.
grrrr.... he's averaging 4 ppg. He averaged 9 ppg last season. Why has he regressed? He's being molded into another Joel Przybilla. But we already HAVE a Joel Przybilla. We might as well have drafted Durant.
as for the subject of this thread... I thought the most encouraging sign from today's game was that we had yet another bench player score 20+ ppg. That makes our team dangerous in the long run.
W = Pretty At the end of the year, when the team is deep into the playoffs - and Winning....this is pretty. How we get to "W's" is all I truly care about. If our low-post play (offensively) is a weak spot - then we play to this - - and as the poster above noted - you have guards on the floor that can a) consistenly penetrate and know how to finish and/or dish; b) you have consistent outside shooters in the game. Playing Webster as a 6th man helps us "play around our weakness." Starting Webster hurts our second and fourth quarters. We are not playing balanced throughout the game. From a personnel standpoint.
The Blazers need to jell, is the main thing. The Nuggets are a tough, talented, veteran team who made no significant roster changes last season. The Blazers added Miller and Webster. Not making excuses, just that Denver is in a different place right now than the Blazers are. I agree - the rebounding edge was very encouraging, and other than too much fouling at the end of the game, I thought the Blazers' defense was the best I've seen since the Scottie Pippen days (not saying much, since there was a long stretch there, where Portland's D was consistently underwhelming).
But since the defense normally get's about 70% of the rebounds, a low FG % should hurt our rebounding. To take the exteme, if we shot 0/100 and Denver shot 100/100 we "should" be outrebounded 70/30. That said, it never seems to work out that way... not sure why.
The facts are that if you can shoot an efficient percentage and outrebound the other team on a nightly basis you will win most of your games. Only one of those things is happening right now. The Blazers have to get more out of their offensive game in the paint. They are still a jump shooting team for the most part. Jump shooting teams lose out in the playoffs. They obviously need more out of Oden and Aldridge in the paint. Particularly Aldridge. They could use a few plays where they post up Miller. That has been half his bread and butter over his years, and I think I have seen it once this year, and he basically called a clear out and did it on his own. Roy should have been posting up Chauncy Billups all night last night. Get that Fracker into foul trouble.
Funny you bring this up. At the end of the game I was being haunted by the voice of Bill Shonely - "You've gotta make your free throws!"
So Nate could announce to the world the team will not run a single play for him, since we already have enough offensive players, and that he must focus exclusively on defense and rebounding? Sorry, just channeling my inner Mediocre Man.
