Okay how much of the season thus far have the Blazers been without Dame, Gary Payton, Keon Johnson, and have had Hart nursing a bad ankle? Would you say 50%? Is it 69-70%? At what time does this become a valid point? Also now that they have Lillard back healthy and Ant and Hart seems to be recovering and Keon is back what has the record been? Again when and exactly what is the percentage that makes this a valid point?
I get it. I really do. The dude spends his life and has put in a huge amount of work to create the platform and come up with his opinions. They are becoming successful at something they are working hard at and we here should probably support them beings they are members. I truly get it. This complaint about Billups I don’t agree with. On top of that it’s starting to sound eerily familiar to the takes that were thrown around about the last coach. How long before we hear “Fire Billups”. It’s his first real season coaching. For now I will support the coach.
A person can support Coach Billups and be critical of him at the same time. There's always someone who wants to fire the coach or tank the season or trade away Lillard, and they have nothing to do with someone pointing out an area of concern.
I get ya on that also. On the flip side I can be critical of his take on this and support him as well. I stated why i disagree with his take on that issue. I most certainly could be very wrong. I happen to think I'm not wrong because of the things i have stated. Grant has been placed in that position to this point out of necessity IMO. Not because Billups thinks he is the best option. We all can clearly see he isn't.
Defense is all about minimizing scoring. Saying "no" to minimizing scoring because the initial coverage is blown when NBA teams have a bunch of defensive principals in place in case of dribble penetration seems silly to me.
Nobody's saying to Fire Billups. I like Billups. You're just making up a reason to criticize me. Liking a coach doesn't mean you have to act like he's perfect. I also came to this conclusion about Grant before the season even started because I put in the work to watch film and try to educate myself instead of having opinions for the sake of having opinions (which you seem to think is better).
You can disagree and be supportive yes, but you're putting words in our mouths ("Fire Billups") without listening to the words that come out our mouths because you think we haven't addressed player availability. You're discrediting my opinion because of reasons unrelated to the opinion. If you wanna talk basketball, then let's talk basketball.
It seemed silly to Grant to....who didn't stick around to talk about it after the game...Chauncey put an address on the blown coverage and Dame highlighted how they broke the string on defense at the end of the game....that's game. Not system but a breakdown in execution. The coaching staff has addressed it. I heard your take on it and we disagree about why it happened. It's on Grant, not coach. Josh Hart has an ankle like a softball and is limited in lateral movement so Grant takes the assignment. Defense might be about limiting scoring but on the other side of the ball....the offense found a way to score which is what offense is about...that's the actual point of basketball so one player wins that match every play.
Sure it's on Grant, but as a coach if you see a guy struggle against guards consistently and his biggest strength defensively is guarding forwards and helping around the rim, you should play him to his strengths not his weaknesses.
I’m sorry. I’ll be better next time. I honesty feel you guys are spot on 99% of the time. Sorry it seems like I only talk about what I disagree with. I’ll work on that.
I'm personally happy to see Torey and Eric grow their brand..I'm subscribed and listen to their podcast from time to time. Always some good stuff in there. So far this has been my favorite season of Blazers Uprise. Keep up the good work! I always appreciate Blazer content whether I agree with it all or not.
Honestly I don't get the argument of saying Hart or other better options are injured and that's why Grant is defending guard. He's been defending guards since game 1.
He deserves to be an AllStar. Definitely the best Blazer this season overall. And people thought he was gonna be a prima Donna lol.
I've had no problem with his guarding them either from the start....reminds me of how we used Batum. Hart is hurt so in this matchup, Grant would guard the guy, Makes total sense to me but Grant made two blunders at the end...game over.
I think you will see much less of it in key situations once Payton comes back and Hart gets better(He looks to be moving better last game). I think you will always see teams switch and get him on a guard as much as they can. That seems to be what they are trying to accomplish. If they can get Nurk guarding a PG then they will love tat as well. Same thing just opposite when you have a strong long player like George or Durant or Tatum switching to get Dame on them. It's up to the players on the court and Chauncey/Rogers to figure out how to address this issue because it's going to keep happening.
