The offense looks a lot better when Nic is making plays, rather than dumping the ball to LMA for a fade-away.
No. They were goofing around like clowns. That's what they get paid for I guess. But Barkley, twice, tried to interject that in his opinion Batum was the Blazers MVP in that game.
I don't know if it affects PER, but notice the Nico spends the most time on the floor with the scrubs of any starter. The thing about Nico is that he is just so damn unselfish. I know a lot of posters think that's a bad thing. But that's the way he is. Even last night, as well as he was playing, he passed up wide open shots to give the ball to an open teammate.
He was the man last night. Dame scored the most points, but that was in the second half when he had Patty on him. You can see Dame's eyes light up as soon as Patty comes in the game. He just abuses him. Nic was huge all game. I actually saw him take people into the post. He was aggressive. He was in charge. He was our point guard. He really is starting to turn into Pippen. Maybe not Pippen from the Bulls, but definitely Pippen from the Blazers.
I understand why that might make some fans upset, but it's one of the reasons Nic is my favorite player. From watching him play I see that his hierarchy of importance is: #1 - Team Success #2 - Success of his teammates #3 - Personal success
The only media quote you need to take away from last night's game: Someone please print that out and plaster it on Batum's locker.
Oooh, another thing I noticed us do last night was run the P/R to get the switch, then have Lillard back it out and ISO against the C/PF that's guarding him. Why haven't we seen this before? I don't want it to be a staple like the Roy-era, but whenever we run the P/R we should try to get a switch. Lillard is so much better at ISOing after a switch, than he is trying to navigate through two defenders and another teammate. I don't think it was actually a play-call from Stotts, but rather Lillard just recognizing the situation and taking advantage of it. If we add this to his offensive arsenal, and then he develops a floater and a stop-n-pop then he'll be unguardable.
I know a lot of people want him to work on his defense but this would literally make him almost ungaurdable.
Nic is so key to our success. http://www.nba.com/blazers/news/game-4-notes-quotes-trail-blazers-103-spurs-92
Nic COULD be an All-Star next year if he plays like he played last night. We all know he's capable of it because we've seen him do it multiple times. He just hasn't figured out how to do it on a nightly basis. Obviously nobody is expecting him to drop a triple double every game, but he could easily average 18, 5, and 5. It's really only the buckets that are keeping him from the All-Star game, because he averaged over 7 rebounds and 5 assists this season. I also think Nic is the kind of guy that could make the All-Defense team.
I'm beginning to think it's the game plan. Mostly the game plan is to get LMA his shots. When we play like that there isn't much for Nic to do but stand out on the perimeter - you know, "spacing". During the first 3 games LMA was taking his usual ~25 shots per game, and the offense looked like dog shit. Last night LMA only took 16 shots, the ball was in Nic's hands more and more people were involved in the offense. Nic didn't increase his shot attempts, but he got the ball moving rather than just having it in the hands of a turn-around jump-shooter. I think on rare occasions Stotts calls the game for Nic, and when he does we see these games from him. But mostly Stotts goes with LMA getting over 25% of the team's shots.
Terry keeps trying to make LA into Dirk and LA isn't Dirk. He just isn't. He's better when he attacks the rim. He can shoot, but he's not a shooter in my opinion. When Aldridge shoots, I don't automatically think it's going in like I do when Dirk shoots. I think a lot of it is confidence, but Dirk is probably the best shooting big man in the history of the game. For a 7' to shoot like he does is just amazing. I don't know if we'll ever see another player like Dirk. It's like trying to find another 6'10 point guard like Magic Johnson. People tried, and they never lived up to the expectations. LMA can shoot, but he is definitely at his best when he attacks the rim. I'm tired of watching him shoot 20 mid-range jumpers. It stagnates the offense and it only works if LMA is having one of his "in the zone" games.
This is what I've been saying for years. Last night I noticed on some Pick/Pops that Lillard would have two defenders on him on the right wing, LMA would be all alone at the top of the key and Lillard held the ball for a split second waiting for LMA to cut down the lane where Lillard would have an easy pass to him. But LMA just stood at the top of the circle! So finally Dame just bounce-passed to the empty free-throw line forcing LMA to come to the ball. I think it resulted in free-throws, which is much better than a 20' jumper from the top of the key. So infuriating to watch LMA play weak-shit basketball - especially in a do-or-die sweep situation. I swear after his first two jumpers in the 1st quarter he never made another one - but he continued jacking them. And it seemed he would always miss a jumper in the midst of a run when we were trying to slam the door on the game.
He really is like Rasheed. He's maddening sometimes. He can be so good at times, and so frustrating when he becomes a jump shooter. I love when he attacks the rim and is aggressive in the post, but it's not something he does all the time. I wish he was more like Kevin Garnett when he was younger. Garnett had a decent jumper, but he attacked the rim with vigor. He was also a much better defender when he was younger.
Absolutely agree, KG was my favorite big for some time because of his ability to attack and hit the jumper when needed.
So I used nba stats to count possessions. Nico brought the ball down (set up the offense) 10 times, to Damian's 26 times when both were on the floor.
