10 Games In...

[Wizard Mentor]

I'm glad you are optimistic. I see us playing like crap for long stretches.

However, back to the good news:
3.9, 5.2, 4.9, 6.2, 9.6
are lillard's FTA for each year.

 

[Orion Bailey]

We did look good with Layman, Meyers and Plumlee out there together like a vanilla 3 scoop sundae

I'm glad of you are optimistic. I see us playing like crap for long stretches.

However, back to the good news:
3.9, 5.2, 4.9, 6.2, 9.6
are lillard's FTA for each year.

It's not that we disagree, it's just that that's the beauty of it. Last year we played like shit and LOST the games. This year we aren't looking good, but are still finding ways to pull the close ones out. Give it some time and we should be playing better. Our poor play is fixable.

 

[Cippy91]

I think he is missing Boston right about now

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Trade CJ for a bonafide big. Insert Crabbe into the starting lineup. Voila!

I'm all for it. But who would trade big for small? And CJ's pretty hard to trade, I imagine, given his PPP status. It would have to be as part of a large, multi-player trade.

 

[Stevenson]

What is PPP?

 

[Hobbesarable]

What is PPP?

Poison Pill Provision

 

[Nikolokolus]

Who on the team right now represents that elusive "tantalizing, cheap prospect" label that other teams trade proven stars for? Not to mention the fact that stars usually only get traded in mid-season because a team is vastly underperforming and they want out. Are the Blazers a destination team when this hypothetical player starts calling his agent?

Chances are the Blazers are stuck with what they've got given how much salary they dumped on just about every one this summer, so if there's any improvement to be made I'm guessing it has to be internal; the odds that there's some magical trade floating around out there for guys not named Damian and CJ are slim for the (mostly) dreck that populates our 3-15.

 

[Charcoal Filtered]

I'd like to see Stotts play Layman more and ET less over the next few games.

Did you see the Nuggets expose Layman's defensive flaws during that second quarter run?

Give Layman some court time but bring him along slowly IMO.

I stay with my 50 game prediction. We are ahead of last year's pace and got better as the year progressed. Look for teams to have health issues while we have too many healthy bodies.

 

[Hobbesarable]

Did you see the Nuggets expose Layman's defensive flaws during that second quarter run?

Give Layman some court time but bring him along slowly IMO.

I stay with my 50 game prediction. We are ahead of last year's pace and got better as the year progressed. Look for teams to have health issues while we have too many healthy bodies.

I was thinking along the same way of bringing him along slowly. I was not advocating Layman taking all of ET's playing time. I still would like to see Layman play more.

 

[Sarni]

Who on the team right now represents that elusive "tantalizing, cheap prospect" label that other teams trade proven stars for? Not to mention the fact that stars usually only get traded in mid-season because a team is vastly underperforming and they want out. Are the Blazers a destination team when this hypothetical player starts calling his agent?

Chances are the Blazers are stuck with what they've got given how much salary they dumped on just about every one this summer, so if there's any improvement to be made I'm guessing it has to be internal; the odds that there's some magical trade floating around out there for guys not named Damian and CJ are slim for the (mostly) dreck that populates our 3-15.

Crabbe will have value across the league and we could dump Turner for someone who is equally unwanted by their team (Monroe?). Players like Leonard, Aminu and Davis will have value across the league.

IMO the team will look completely different when the dust settles and we are able to move players. No way we paid this much to current roster without looking to use some of them as trade baits.

 

[illmatic99]

We now have the 14th best offense and 24th best defense.

7-4 could be hiding stuff here.

Really want to know how much our 2 massive blowout losses are affecting these rankings.

 

[LuckyShot]

Thought this belonged, if it hasn't been posted already: http://www.nba.com/blazers/steve-smith

Also to echo BNM's post, last season we didn't win our 7th game until we'd accumulated 10 losses. Obviously we can make improvements, but I think that's a good thing. It will keep us focused on getting better. We want to improve and continue to improve all season and hopefully play at our peak at the right time of year. We just have to hope that we can win enough games along the way to get into the playoffs, and I think we're on track for that.

I think some people are disappointed thus far simply because our team grossly overachieving last season has inflated our expectations a bit. We have to remember that nearly this identical roster was picked to be one of the worst teams in the league last season. I think we're fine. I want more of course, but I don't think we're too bad off either. I'm excited to see if this team improves.

 

[blue9]

Also to echo BNM's post, last season we didn't win our 7th game until we'd accumulated 10 losses. Obviously we can make improvements, but I think that's a good thing. It will keep us focused on getting better. We want to improve and continue to improve all season and hopefully play at our peak at the right time of year.

Something that I think is unfortunate is how out of balance our schedule is. We definitely want to be playing better in March/April than November, but I fear our easy end-of-season schedule will have us overconfident. From March 1st to the end of the season the only truly good teams we'll play are:
SAS x2
HOU x1
UTH x2 (and we'll see if they'll actually end up being a good team)

Of course, it seems we tend to struggle against the Wolves, whom we play THREE times, and PHX whom we play twice. So despite what should be a cake walk, we might face plant a few times.

Not only is our competition quite weak, but over the last 3 weeks of the season we only play two road games. Of course this means up to that point we're playing A LOT of road games. We're just about to embark on our first of three 5-game road trips. Our 2nd 5-game road trip is broken up by a single home game, which is the 2nd night of a B2B, before another 3-game road trip which brings us home for another home game on the 2nd night of a B2B! December is going to be a brutal month.

Anyway, I just wonder if churning through lottery teams at home to end the season will have us unprepared to play really good teams in the POs.

 

[TBpup]

So now we are 12 games in and the theme remains very much the same. In their wins, the teams they have beaten are a combined 27-46. In their losses, the teams are 33-14. They are beating the bad teams (barely and even then, some of them are missing a lot of players) and they are getting thumped by the good teams or taking a bad loss like against the Suns.

Wins:
Jazz: 7-5 (Home) Jazz missing 2 starters and a key bench player.
Nuggets: 3-7 (Away) Denver with one of the biggest meltdowns in the final minute you'll see all season.
Mavs: 2-7 (Away) No Bogut and Nowitzki only played 16 minutes. They better have won that game.
Grizzlies: 5-5 (Away) Best win of the season so far.
Suns: 3-8 (Home) Barely beat a bad Suns team. 2 nail-biters against a team you should be blowing out.
Kings: 4-7 (Home) Kings on the 2nd of a back-to-back. Should have taken them out much earlier.
Nuggets: 3-7 (Home) One good 3rd quarter but struggled to beat them on their 2nd of a b-2-b w/0 Barton and Harris, 2 of their top 8.


Losses:
Clippers: 8-1 (Home) They are just the much better team right now.
Warriors: 7-2 (Home) Warriors not as good as last (yet) because they have no size. Neither does Portland so it's actually worse for the Blazers.
Suns: 3-6 (Away) Bad loss to a bad team.
Clippers: 8-1 (Away) A complete embarrassment. A 40+ point deficit heading into the 4th quarter.
Bull: 7-4 (Home) Embarrassed by a tough Bulls team who were without starting PG Rondo and top bench scorer Dougie Buckets.

The Blazers are just not competitive against the good teams as of yet. Last year it seemed they played up to the level of their competition much better for the most part. They are getting killed on the boards and in the paint on a nightly basis and now only 4-3 at home with two blowout losses. Their only win against a team with a winning record is against the Jazz in the first game of the season. Utah was without 2 starters and a top bench player that game.

This is the definition of mediocrity but what makes it worse is they have the 2nd highest salary level in the league. Hopefully Olshey can pull off some trades very soon or this team is stuck in purgatory for a long time right as Dame is in entering his prime.

 

[blue9]

^^^And how many times have we had to take games to OT in order to get those wins against bad teams?

If we can't make a meaningful trade we'll have to eat Terry's contract and try to find someone who knows how to best utilize the roster pieces we have.

 

[Wizard Mentor]

So now we are 12 games in and the theme remains very much the same. In their wins, the teams they have beaten are a combined 27-46. In their losses, the teams are 33-14. They are beating the bad teams (barely and even then, some of them are missing a lot of players) and they are getting thumped by the good teams or taking a bad loss like against the Suns.

Wins:
Jazz: 7-5 (Home) Jazz missing 2 starters and a key bench player.
Nuggets: 3-7 (Away) Denver with one of the biggest meltdowns in the final minute you'll see all season.
Mavs: 2-7 (Away) No Bogut and Nowitzki only played 16 minutes. They better have won that game.
Grizzlies: 5-5 (Away) Best win of the season so far.
Suns: 3-8 (Home) Barely beat a bad Suns team. 2 nail-biters against a team you should be blowing out.
Kings: 4-7 (Home) Kings on the 2nd of a back-to-back. Should have taken them out much earlier.
Nuggets: 3-7 (Home) One good 3rd quarter but struggled to beat them on their 2nd of a b-2-b w/0 Barton and Harris, 2 of their top 8.


Losses:
Clippers: 8-1 (Home) They are just the much better team right now.
Warriors: 7-2 (Home) Warriors not as good as last (yet) because they have no size. Neither does Portland so it's actually worse for the Blazers.
Suns: 3-6 (Away) Bad loss to a bad team.
Clippers: 8-1 (Away) A complete embarrassment. A 40+ point deficit heading into the 4th quarter.
Bull: 7-4 (Home) Embarrassed by a tough Bulls team who were without starting PG Rondo and top bench scorer Dougie Buckets.

The Blazers are just not competitive against the good teams as of yet. Last year it seemed they played up to the level of their competition much better for the most part. They are getting killed on the boards and in the paint on a nightly basis and now only 4-3 at home with two blowout losses. Their only win against a team with a winning record is against the Jazz in the first game of the season. Utah was without 2 starters and a top bench player that game.

This is the definition of mediocrity but what makes it worse is they have the 2nd highest salary level in the league. Hopefully Olshey can pull off some trades very soon or this team is stuck in purgatory for a long time right as Dame is in entering his prime.

1) Totally agree that the Blazers are bad, but if you're going to point out who's missing on the other teams, you need to do the same with the Blazers. A bad defensive and rebounding team has lost it's best defender and it's best rebounder in Aminu. Not to mention that Ezeli hasn't played.... of course he may never!

2) I think we've held up against the competition pretty well, EXCEPT FOR LETTING THE OPPOSING TEAMS GO ON MASSIVE RUNS. We've been making a lot of runs, but we're giving up way more.

3) We can beat anyone! But, in the final analysis we're fundamentally flawed because of defense and rebounding. The last half of last season we played harder than all of our opponents - not this year