Style of play. Some of us brought this up throughout the year, but the homer thought we were trolling because our record was good. Assists = good Hero ball = bad
its style of play AND bad fitting/overpaid/hard to move pieces brought to you by Neil Olshey. Bottom line for me is the "pieces" don't fit very well at all with the coaches style of play. Olshey should go first and frankly I am ready to move on from Stotts
You left off the only answer that matters: Anthony Davis. His surreal ability to cover ground quickly enough to double Dame on a screen and yet be able to get back to cover a pass to the interior has totally destroyed the Blazers’ offense. Holiday and Mirotic have played great, but they can’t do what they’re doing without Davis. He’s just a great player who’s peaking at the right time.
They smacked us, we should have adjusted. We had no plan B. Just stood around and said "wow, that was unexpected. I wonder what we should do now?"
You need to add other... Dame and CJ don’t work together. You have 2 undersized ISO gaurds as the centerpiece of your team. Result: dead last in NBA in assist during regular season... too small to get shots off in the postseason. If I have to go through another year watching CJ dribble to ball down the court and shoot with no one else touching it on the posession... please Neil, do the right thing and trade CJ
It's a combination of things. Harkless is important to the offense and this team in general. Him missing the last part of the season contributed to a slump and I've always been a big believer in coming into the playoffs on a good footing. DAL the year they beat MIA was ON FIRE the last week and the entire playoffs. I was concerned when we limped into the playoffs. I figured we'd turn it around and Dame and CJ would step it up and we'd win in 6. AD is the biggest reason we lost this series. His speed and versatility render Nurkic unplayable. People like MM and other guys are going to point to the assists. It's not that. Our offense revolves around screening and "screen assists". It is no coincidence that Dame has gone to another level when Nurk came. He is a great screener and having a PNR threat makes Dame and CJ that much more dangerous. When Nurkic is unplayable, Davis becomes out best screener and best big. You ain't winning a series when the big man matchup is AD vs Ed Davis. When you combine the fact that the soul of our offense (screens) are practically taken off the table and then you add in Dame and CJ struggling offensively even before the series and you have a recipe for a lost series. Before the seeds were set, I didn't want to play SAS, but NOP was a close second. Looking at the playoffs now, I think the Blazers win a series vs any other team underneath us in the seeding. It's a HORRENDOUS matchup for this roster. It's not an excuse, this has been a despicable effort and series by the Blazers and some changes need to be made moving forward to clean the filth of this series off the team.
I wanted to also pick options 4 and 5, but since you limited this poll to only a single response, I went with 7.
I don't agree AD was the primary reason. You cannot ignore their defensive scheme on Dame. We have turned the team into one that relies on Dame to create and run the PnR. They shut him down in a way he has never seen by double teaming and having the big man stay with him. Blazers put their eggs in one basket and NO locked that option down. It's too late to go to a ball movement offense since they haven't done that all season. NO coaching and their players ability to execute on a plan brought down the Blazers.
Their defensive scheme doesn’t work without AD. Lots of teams have tried similar strategies without much success at slowing Dame down. Davis’ speed, length and athleticism make it work.
I’ll take it one step further: If AD had an injury that kept him from playing the rest of the series, the Blazers would win 4 straight and go to the second round.
Sure, for a time or two. But Mirotic doesn't have the speed needed to make it work without the Blazers being able to adjust.
the reality is it takes both. AD and the defensive scheme. Take out either and it doesn't work as well.
Well duhhh. Portland is already spotted a bum achilles Cousins. Take away any teams top two players and how that will play out.
