Hasn't this been the theme of the blazers the last couple of years? We're a jumpshooting team, and we live and die by our jumpshots.....which in the last couple of years we've been terribly inconsistent.
We can talk about tempo and players and skillset and style and the system, but for me it all comes down to fundamentals. This team sets (mostly) lousy screens, they stand around more than they should and they don't consistently get enough separation from defenders to get clean looks ... and for whatever reason when they do get open looks they tend to brick the shit out of the ball -- particularly when they're on the road. Right now the Blazers are a little bit talent deficient (at shooting), but they are at least average talents not d-league level talents and I believe that at some point coaching has to be held accountable when this pattern establishes itself and holds -- as it has for multiple years in a row.
Why would you design an entire offense to get you long jump shots? I've never understood this concept that Nate employs. Good coaches put in systems to get you easy baskets or high percentage shots in the paint... Nates offensive system seems designed to get you long jumpers. You can't win that way.
LMA is arguably one of the worst screen setters I have ever seen. That is one facet of his game that makes me laugh. Why the fuck does he even act like he's gonna set one?
It comes down to coaching when your whole team doesn't perform this kind of fundamental basketball skill. The only guy on the team that does set a good screen is 39 years old Kurt Thomas and that's because he learned his craft presumably from coaches who know how to teach it. If the Blazers could do just this one little thing (it's actually not little at all) I predict the offense would suddenly become a lot more efficient as guys get better looks and more separation from defenders.
Yeah and another thing I haven't seen too much are those double screens. I think that would be so perfect for Batum and Matthews. Also, I see still a lot of watching the play and ISO offense; especially on the road. There isn't a lot of movement on the offensive end. You can pretty much know where the ball is going. And if I can almost call the plays; then think about experienced coaches, scouting and even the players themselves can see.
That's what I've been saying since before I even came to this board. The versatile, knowledgeable players on the team are the ones who were coached by a different NBA coach before they came here. The most limited ones have only had McMillan as a coach. I even redefined "experience" away from years in the league, to a new definition of, the number of NBA coaches or systems in which a player has had to learn. I said that a Blazer with, say, 5 years of nothing but McMillan (e.g. Webster) is less experienced than a Blazer with 4 years in the league, but this is his 3rd team. Another chestnut I like to push is that the best player on the team is always the newest one, the one who hasn't learned McMillan's system yet. In his 2nd year here he'll be worse, in his 3rd, even worse. So I disagree with the thread title. We could have a young Jerry West and McMillan would have him thinking of shooting as 5th priority.
