Which is More Significant: Finishing 3rd in the West or the Playoff Sweep?

I don’t take anything away from the Blazers season, there were a lot of ups and downs but they won those 49 games.

I understand the “matchup” arguement with NO but I also think the fact they couldn’t figure out how to win one game is pretty disappointing.
Overall though the playoffs to me are way more important than the regular season. I’d rather have had the overall season NO had then the Blazers, sure they won less games but they got a round further and got to take a shot at GSW sure they failed (the Blazers have a couple times too), but at least the got to try.

The more I think about it what bugs me the most about that series was it took until the 4th game for the Blazers to bring the attitude that they were going to push and shove back. Holiday and Rondo seemed hungry that whole series, they were every where. The Blazers didn’t come close to meeting that intensity level until game 4.
Maybe that teaches them the lesson they need though, taught them the level of effort it takes to win those games in the playoffs.

 

My view is that we played well enough to win the first two games and the second two were not great efforts...game 3 was the smackdown...worst of the series.

 

That’s legitimate, it just seemed like in my opinion anyways the Blazers didn’t bring the same energy that NO did, it seemed like NO got to every loose ball, made all the hustle plays, pushed the Blazers around and it wasn’t until game 4 the Blazers matched that attitude.

 

This is some next level king speed right here. The man can use an 8 game losing streak as a positive. When regular people hear about losing 4 of 5 against the bottom of the league and then getting swept in the playoffs for the second straight year, they hear negatives. Not king. He hears, because we fell so hard, we must have been really high up there right?

Gotta admire that persistence

 

Shoutout to them...they peaked at the right time....they couldn't miss a shot...they caused turnovers...Davis was a beast...Holiday and even Mirotic and Rondo made shots....Gentry coached a masterful series and we had no answer and shot poorly...best 4 games I've seen New Orleans ever put together...they got hot..we got cold...I was really impressed with the Pelicans...no excuses should take away from their sweep of us without HC advantage..humbling defeat but they earned it. We didn't lose...they won

 

It actually reminds me of the Ducks vs Ohio State NC game a few years ago, people act like the ducks didn’t belong, but early in that game they were up 7-0 and marching down the field to score again when they had 2 dropped passes. It changed the game completely (not saying Oregon would’ve won), just saying that momentum shifted and it felt like Oregon never got it back. The Blazers made a lot of bad plays, NO made a lot of good plays at the end of game one that changed that series and the Blazers never seemed to regain any traction after that.

 

I don't look at it that way, I don't think they peaked. They simply "Jordan Rules"ed us, doubling with 2 of the league's best defenders. The rest of the team couldn't take advantage, so we got 2 shooters in FA and 2 shooters in the draft. Pels were smashed by GS in round 2.

 

The Blazers are Damian Lillard's team. The Pelicans were able to cut Dame's production from 26.9 ppg in the regular season to an average of 18.5 ppg in the 4 game series. Everyone else pretty much did their usual work, but those 8.4 ppg of lost production from Dame killed the Blazers. The Pelicans were all-in on shutting Dame down and it worked. No other team was able to accomplish that kind of a hit on Dame's production all season despite every coach game planning for him. No other team had Anthony Davis to make that defensive scheme work. In my view, it's pretty much that simple.

 

The problem I have is what happens when we don’t play NO next year and we made all these adjustments to match up with NO better? Might miss having one of the best offensive rebounders in the nba... I really think that’s going to bite us, extra possessions are huge and we won’t have as many.

 

fair enough...I think they peaked...couldn't miss a shot from anywhere and just made us play their game...to me it was their execution and it was pretty flawless..they weren't flawless in the second round at all...we caught a team that was in the zone for 4 straight.

 

Not at all. Surround a great player with shooters is a great overall strategy. Jordan Bulls did it, Howard Magic did it, Duncan Spurs did it....

Absolutely agree here, though I'm really concerned with decreased depth here. If Aminu, Nurk, or Collins gets injured - even for a few games, it won't be pretty.

 

One factor: the Pelicans were a much better team than their record just because they'd really hit their stride after a killer mid-season trade. We still shouldn't've got swept, but we had the same second-half records.

ALSO: they were a really bad matchup for us.
Counterpoint: just about every Western team outside of OKC was, which is never a good sign.

 

I've never seen a western conference playoff race so tight...every team from the second seed down had to play almost playoff intensity games from the allstar break to the playoffs without resting starters to make the playoffs...most ran out of gas at the end which is what happened to us I think...not enough in the tank at the end. Happened to most of the Western conference teams ..not a lot of blowouts at the end of the season or garbage time wins.

 

Third seed was very misleading. We were only 2 wins ahead of 8th seed and 3 wins ahead of Denver in 9th while having much better luck with injuries than virtually all teams that finished just below us. Utah would have been above us with Gobert healthy for full season, ditto Minnesota with Butler and Spurs with Leonard. We were not third best team in the West last season and playoffs showed it. 49 wins masked the issues, getting swept in the manner we did is something you cannot neglect.

 

One thing no one has mentioned was Ed's performance in the NOP series. Not just his individual performance, but how and when he was used and how it impacted the team's performance.

Ed was a fan favorite, highly respected by his teammates and the front office, but the more I think about that NOP series, the more I understand the team's decision to let Ed go.

Yes, Ed is a great rebounder and flat out plays his ass off. I respect that, but I also respected the effort and energy Mason Plumlee brought every minute he was on the floor. I love great effort, but without talent to go with it, effort will only get you so far. And Ed, like Plums has ZERO offensive game beyond 3 feet from the basket. As much as I appreciated Plums, I'd have to be blind to not see how much better this team is at both ends of the floor with Nurk in his place.

Look at Ed's advanced stats from the NOP series:




Just look at his OBPM! -11.4 is atrocious (of the rotation players, ET was second worst at -5.1). When you are not a scoring threat, the other team is free to double team Dame with impunity - which is exactly what NOP did.

I don't so much blame Ed (he is what he is) as I blame Stotts for this. Every time NOP "went small" Stotts countered by pulling Nurk and inserting Ed. I absolutely hate this reactionary style of coaching. Stotts did the same thing against HOU earlier in the season. The Blazers blew a 14-point 4th quarter lead, got outscored 40-19 in the 4th quarter and lost a game they should have won EASILY. To me, going small when your proponent does is a defeatist strategy. You're not going to beat your opponent by playing to their strengths. You're not going to out small ball GSW, HOU, or even NOP.

Don't let your opponents force your hand. They want to go small, fine use Nurk to punish them on the low blocks. Forget the high pick and role with Nurk screening for Dame. All that does is bring another defender out from under the basket to trap Dame. Nope, plant Nurk's massive Bosian ass on the low block and force NOP to either keep Anthony Davis as far away from Damina Lillard as possible, or abuse the shit out of them if they attempt to guard Nurk with a smaller player.

With Ed in the game (he played almost as many minutes as Nurk), NOP was free to double off of him and leave him unguarded without consequence. The fact that Stotts didn't see this and kept playing right into NOP's hand pissed me off to no end. It was all too reminiscent of Alvin Gentry owning Nate McMillan by putting Grant Hill on Andre Miller and letting them hide Steve Nash on Nic Batum.

Yeah, Ed is a great guy and a hell of a rebounder (a skill I value), but his lack of offensive talent (and the way he was used) played a big role in that 1st round sweep. His minutes will go to Zach Collins. Now, we just need to hope Collins lives up to his potential on the offensive end. More than ever, in today's game, you need 2-way role players. The days of 1-way specialists are over. I believe the potential to be above average at both ends is why POR gave up two 1st round picks to move up to take Collins. I also believe it's why they didn't even attempt to resign Ed Davis.

BNM

 

I think we will miss ed more OFF the court than on honestly.

 

I also agree that Pelicans were a bad matchup but you must try to build a team that won’t be able to say something like this against anyone let alone a middle tier team like New Orleans. You should be equipped to face all of those teams and not get swept like that. Properly good teams have no such thing as ‘terrible matchups’, they might find it easier against certain teams and tougher against others but not to this extreme.

 

With GSW and Houston projecting to get to 60 or close to it this year.
+ The West still being competitive, and even more so with the Spurs having a second star player again...(It's Pop he'll figure it out)
I have my doubts that anyone outside of GSW/Houston will be hitting that 50 win mark.
45-49 is where I suspect 3-12 to land.

So what you're saying is Stotts was out coached.

 

Sure, if out-coached means failing to have a player on the roster who matches up well with Anthony Davis, or who is a strong enough scorer to keep Davis from being able to double on Dame every time down the court.

 

I think where I’d say Stotts got out coached and maybe it’s on the roster too, was they needed to find creative ways to get Dame good shots, get him some space. Not run him into another PNR with Nurk or Ed where he’d get stuck with two defenders all over him. Like I said I know part of it is is roster, but A they should’ve attacked the basket more instead of jacking up 3’s and B just get Dame off the ball make Holiday and Rondo chase him around screens.