WTF, "apparently!?" even Siri has a hard time admitting it. No respect. Best thing about this, we've beat the top three teams behind us! Cannot WAIT till Miami comes to town, got my seats secured, thanks to MGB RIP.
Aldridge said once that this is the most unselfish Blazer team he's been on. No one outside of message boards has said that Hickson played selfishly. What changed was that Olshey changed both 1) new players to fit the system, and 2) designed a new system to better fit the remaining players.
Re: Blazers in sole possession of THE best record in the NBA An hour ago I was reading the articles listed on ESPN's front page. There was no mention of Indiana losing its first home game. I looked at box scores of a couple of top games like the Knicks losing. Then I checked the standings and we were at the top of the league! I had no clue, despite looking at links to tonight's news. I then read about the Pacers game, then came here to see whether anyone had noticed. My point is that we get no respect on ESPN's front page even when it should be Indiana's article giving us the glory.
If you are referring to talk last season - perhaps. But I'm talking about all the predictions that were being made after and during pre-season. LA, Matthews, Lillard ALL were quoted and on video saying that JJ was about JJ on Media Day, before pre-season play even began. They were not saying it to call him out or to be hurtful, because they all said they liked Hickson. But they were very candid about it. There was also an article mid-season last year, that looked at "stealing rebounds" and the effect that players have on team rebounding. It suggested, in statistical terms, and supported the belief of what many Blazer fans saw on a nightly basis with JJ: that his rebounding "prowess" did not increase team rebounding, and that he was among the top 5 offenders in the entire NBA for "stealing" rebounds that would have been Blazer rebounds regardless. The contrast between RoLo and Hickson in terms of team rebounding is quite glaring, and a serious indictment of the thinking that pro-Hickson fans were clinging to.
Re: Blazers in sole possession of THE best record in the NBA Like democrats on Faux News. It's not about reality, it's about playing to their audience and giving them what they think they want to read.
I don't think he was directly called out, but I do remember that the players did talk about needing a true center.
I don't remember reading or hearing about that. I don't doubt they didn't think that though. It was pretty obvious JJ would steal rebounds.
In interview after interview, Olshey and Stotts have said that our defense is better at Center now. Then they quickly add that Hickson worked hard but was playing out of position. I haven't seen players get into that discussion. I wish that Aldridge would take ownership of the inside and be as possessive as Hickson supposedly was. That's what was so refreshing about Hickson, after years of Aldridge's passiveness. When I said I read about the Knicks game, I was interested because of Martell Webster's big night off the bench in a close game. http://espn.go.com/nba/dailyleaders/_/gameId/400489234
Yes, I was talking about previous seasons. Stotts (I suspect it's really Olshey) changed the system during the summer to better exploit what Aldridge can do and hide what he can't or won't.
