Why I want a team in Seattle and notes for tonights game

I am a stay at home dad and we try to take advantage of any opportunity for our kids. For the past two years that meant commuting to Portland from Vancouver every day in rush hour traffic for our kids to attend a school taught entirely in Chinese. This year, my son was old enough for kindergarten and goes to a public school on this side of the bridge that is also taught in Chinese. Not having to commute has not only given the kids more time to do things after school, it has given me personal time I have not had in five years. To make use of this, I wanted to find work that I was passionate about while having flexibility since there are still demands of my kids.


At the same time I started looking at options, the Trail Blazers were looking for people for their video editing team. I did not have most of the qualifications they were looking for. However, it looked like the perfect position for me and I submitted a resume. They let me test with the other applicants and I was a couple of points above the average score for the final test. I was on cloud nine for awhile, even though I had to wait for the season to increase demand before getting an official job. Being able to work from home watching basketball on my schedule and then not be needed in the summer (when taking my kids to various camps makes working nearly impossible) seemed like a dream come true.


Then, I got woke up.


For me to work from home, the team would have to register in that state. The person who was screening applicants was new and found out when submitting paperwork to HR. He would not have given me a chance if this was known before. Not a problem if I lived in Portland or any other city with an NBA team. Washington is a problem since the Sonics are no longer here. I guess others that were over here simply moved. That was not an option for me.


While I am still bummed because I would have loved the job, it did give me exposure to an entirely different way to look at games. I think most on this board realize that not all stats are created equal. Seeing part of how a team quantifies this was great. This year I did not subscribe to League Pass since I did not think paying $189 to watch more basketball was worth it to me. Paying nearly $90 to see how Synergy breaks a game down was a no brainer though.


With that, I give you what I will be looking for tonight.


The Kings are ranked 27th for defense using traditional numbers. Using advanced stats, they are #26 against postups, 28th vs iso, 29th vs handoffs, 27th off screen. They are 20th vs pick n rolls (PNR), which is where over 25% of our offense thus far has been generated. They are 6th vs spot up shots, but this may be due to teams being able to score more efficiently in so many other ways. I look for the Blazers to take extra care with the ball and limit transition opportunities.


One would think that a team with Cousins would be better than 26th in the league for postups. Looking at the video and seeing his shots in these situations makes my appreciation for LA grow. Hopefully we see more postups than we see transition opportunities. These two have been happening close to the same amount of times, but they are 6th in transition. They have also been good at the PNR and we have not defended it well. The key to tonight may be how well we defend spot up attempts. They rank #6 and we have defended it the best. Both teams will probably see a drop to those, hopefully more with the Kings.


Random stat:


While our bench has clearly been improved, most of our statistical production has come from our starters. For the Kings, the bench is outperforming the starters.


Go Blazers!

 

Did HCP tip them off?

 

That blows that you weren't able to get the job because of were you lived. Cousins is like LMA revisited who is better at rebounding but much worse on D.

 

and crazy.

 

When your last name is Cousins I thought it was just a given you were crazy.

 

I want a NHL team in Portland more than I want a NBA team in Seattle.

 

I want a team back in seattle bad because maybe they will then Rework these broken ass conferences.

 

It totally blows that half the other teams in our division are two time zones away and we don't have a single division rival in the same time zone as us. NW Division my ass.

BNM

 

Yep, we travel more then any other team in the league. Hell OKC/Minnesota should probably be east coast teams.

 

Did you read his post? I highly doubt you have a good personal reason(like work) that trumps his. This wasn't an opinion he was giving out, FYI.

That said, I hope there is somehow a resolution for you, Charcoal. That is one of the disadvantages of living so close but apparently so far to Portland. (I lived in Vancouver for 20 years, so I know this.) I never understood why living 15 minutes away causes such a headache. Don't know why Vancouver isn't grandfathered into these rules, since it seems half of the people llving in Vancouver work in Portland.

Thanks for the breakdown. Those are some good numbers to think about!

 

CF . . . can you set up a virtual office/residence in Ptd and use that as your mailing address for the Blazers?

 

Exactly. I have no problem paying Oregon taxes on what I would have earned with the team, but not for sure how much trouble the team can get in since they would have to declare I was working somewhere I was not. Not worth it for them and we are not willing to pay Oregon taxes on my wifes income.

 

Lots of people work for the team that live in Washington. They work in Oregon though.

 

And therein lies the problem with Vancouver and Clark County. Many of them are perfectly happy to use the resources of the big city across the river, while dodging our taxes.

 

Sole proprietorship or DBA in Oregon.

 

Are you referring to me or making a general statement? If it was to me, what resources am I using?

 

You do realize that, at least from what I have seen and heard from people who do the commute... that they actually pay double the taxes. Both in washington and in oregon.