Game Thread 2022-23 PRESEASON - GAME #5 - BLAZERS @ WARRIORS - OCTOBER 11, 2022 - TUESDAY - 7:00PM (PDT) ROOT

[tykendo]

I'm one of the more optimistic fans in here, but this might be the least offensively skilled team we've had in a long time. The Blazers have only 3 skilled shooters (Dame,Ant,Grant) who can be counted on to provide consistent scoring. OUCH! I'm not counting the rookies because it's too early to tell. But Sharpe and Walker are very promising. Hart will provide scoring, and Nas has the most potential to be a contributing shooter, but is still getting his legs under him. After that, nothing. No clutch shooters, and no one to provide needed scoring. Not good. Keon is a terrible shooter, and a marginal distributor. He's a work in progress. We can talk defense all day, but if you can't score, you can't win. This looks to be a lottery year, unless Cronin can pick up some quality shooters on the bench. I'm patient with this, but i want to see Joe go get us some dead eye dicks who can shoot the ball like all the Warriors bench players do. They don't miss, open or defended. Our bench guys are brickers.

 

[riverman]

I'm one of the more optimistic fans in here, but this might be the least offensively skilled team we've had in a long time. The Blazers have only 3 skilled shooters (Dame,Ant,Grant) who can be counted on to provide consistent scoring. OUCH! I'm not counting the rookies because it's too early to tell. But Sharpe and Walker are very promising. Hart will provide scoring, and Nas has the most potential to be a contributing shooter, but is still getting his legs under him. After that, nothing. No clutch shooters, and no one to provide needed scoring. Not good. Keon is a terrible shooter, and a marginal distributor. He's a work in progress. We can talk defense all day, but if you can't score, you can't win. This looks to be a lottery year, unless Cronin can pick up some quality shooters on the bench. I'm patient with this, but i want to see Joe go get us some dead eye dicks who can shoot the ball like all the Warriors bench players do. They don't miss, open or defended. Our bench guys are brickers.

ditto....I'm not feeling what Chauncey is trying to do in the preseason at all.....guys don't look prepared and I guess I expected a lot more ball movement, better screens and better shooting as well as 3 pt defense.

 

[Wade Garrett]

Geez, Chauncey has barely been the head coach for a year and people already calling for his job. His first season was a tank year with high roster turnover. At least give him a chance with a stable roster.

Nobody is calling for his job.
At least nobody who knows a fucking thing.

 

[tykendo]

Nobody is calling for his job.
At least nobody who knows a fucking thing.

Chauncey's coaching is fine. What he's teaching takes time. But he has too many guys who can't shoot the damn ball. That ain't gonna change till Cronin adds some quality shooters, period.

 

[tykendo]

ditto....I'm not feeling what Chauncey is trying to do in the preseason at all.....guys don't look prepared and I guess I expected a lot more ball movement, better screens and better shooting as well as 3 pt defense.

Better shooting from guys not named Dame, Ant, or Grant ,on a consistent basis ,is unlikely. Nas has potential to become consistent, but he's not there yet.

 

[illmatic99]

Chauncey's coaching is fine. What he's teaching takes time. But he has too many guys who can't shoot the damn ball. That ain't gonna change till Cronin adds some quality shooters, period.

what is he teaching? i think our summer league squad would run circles around this team.

why we didn't implement the defense they ran in SL is baffling to me.

 

[tykendo]

Th

what is he teaching? i think our summer league squad would run circles around this team.

why we didn't implement the defense they ran in SL is baffling to me.

They can play great defense, and as long as they shoot the ball the way they do, they won't beat anyone.

 

[Tince]

He was trying to win before we started to tank and he wasn't doing too bad.

My memory was we were something like 8-10 games under .500 when we shut Dame down. Maybe I'm wrong.

 

[andalusian]

Chauncey's coaching is fine. What he's teaching takes time. But he has too many guys who can't shoot the damn ball. That ain't gonna change till Cronin adds some quality shooters, period.

His coaching is TBD, no one knows if it is fine yet as we have given him a pass on last year's performance.

What is worrying is that there is very limited off the ball movement on offense so far - this team is very stagnant and seems to be a high pick and roll and we will figure it out from there team so far - and that's just not good enough. Even Stott's iso heavy sets showed a lot more off the ball movement and double screens to get people open. We do not see this here and it is vital to have it with Ant and Dame, imho. Ant is at his most dangerous as a 3 point catch and shoot target. This means you want to run plays to free him off the ball - and the team is not doing any of that stuff. It's quite frankly, a shame.

Now, the defense, there is a lot of switching and this team is short - so it might be problematic, but maybe with increased intensity it will solve it self, but I would like to see a bit more of a mix between switching and drop coverage with Nurk, he is not great at going out and recovering and people are going to exploit it, so the team needs to find a middle ground somewhere.

It will be interesting to see where this team really is in 10 - 15 games, until that time, there are worrying signs, but it's too early to write it off, imho.

 

[illmatic99]

His coaching is TBD, no one knows if it is fine yet as we have given him a pass on last year's performance.

What is worrying is that there is very limited off the ball movement on offense so far - this team is very stagnant and seems to be a high pick and roll and we will figure it out from there team so far - and that's just not good enough. Even Stott's iso heavy sets showed a lot more off the ball movement and double screens to get people open. We do not see this here and it is vital to have it with Ant and Dame, imho. Ant is at his most dangerous as a 3 point catch and shoot target. This means you want to run plays to free him off the ball - and the team is not doing any of that stuff. It's quite frankly, a shame.

Now, the defense, there is a lot of switching and this team is short - so it might be problematic, but maybe with increased intensity it will solve it self, but I would like to see a bit more of a mix between switching and drop coverage with Nurk, he is not great at going out and recovering and people are going to exploit it, so the team needs to find a middle ground somewhere.

It will be interesting to see where this team really is in 10 - 15 games, until that time, there are worrying signs, but it's too early to write it off, imho.

we're playing rat ball on offense, and have no semblance of any strategy at all on defense. and there's no energy from either the starters or the bench. it's obviously too early to fire a coach, but wtf is chauncey teaching these guys? we look like a middle school team. Contrast that to the cohesion and aggressiveness we played with in SL, it's staggering.

 

[tykendo]

we're playing rat ball on offense, and have no semblance of any strategy at all on defense. and there's no energy from either the starters or the bench. it's obviously too early to fire a coach, but wtf is chauncey teaching these guys? we look like a middle school team. Contrast that to the cohesion and aggressiveness we played with in SL, it's staggering.

I think it's easier to look good in SL, because of the lack of talented players you're facing game to game. This is big boy basketball, and the other team is playing for keeps.

 

[illmatic99]

I think it's easier to look good in SL, because of the lack of talented players you're facing game to game. This is big boy basketball, and the other team is playing for keeps.

we just got run out of the gym by the warriors' third team.

 

[tykendo]

we just got run out of the gym by the warriors' third team.

But their third team is loaded with skilled shooters from distance. We had a bunch of athletic try hard guys with no shooting skills.

 

[HailBlazers]

But their third team is loaded with skilled shooters from distance. We had a bunch of athletic try hard guys with no shooting skills.

They are the most well oiled team by far. Night and day difference to our sludge.

 

[calvin natt]

Huh? We have alot of young guys.

Vets. Doesn’t mean they are old. But they are veterans.

 

[Fairly-Hard]

we just got run out of the gym by the warriors' third team.

 

[SharpeScooterShooter]

Vets. Doesn’t mean they are old. But they are veterans.

I would consider a vet to be someone who has put in substantial minutes for several years.
Vague definition i know but i dont consider a guy in the league for 10 years only playing in 15 games a season, a vet, for example.

Or, i consider a vet someone who has been exposed to/has learned most of the tricks of the trade. I don't think half our roster qualifies as such.

 

[calvin natt]

I would consider a vet to be someone who has put in substantial minutes for several years.
Vague definition i know but i dont consider a guy in the league for 10 years only playing in 15 games a season, a vet, for example.

Or, i consider a vet someone who has been exposed to/has learned most of the tricks of the trade. I don't think half our roster qualifies as such.

Ok. I don’t think playing time plays a part in whether someone is a veteran. Nor does age necessarily. After three or so years, you aren’t a rookie, you aren’t new to the league, you’re a vet.

 

[SharpeScooterShooter]

Ok. I don’t think playing time plays a part in whether someone is a veteran. Nor does age necessarily. After three or so years, you aren’t a rookie, you aren’t new to the league, you’re a vet.

Gotcha. I think playing time is a huge factor in learning things that would qualify vet status compared to rookie or newbie status. Without playing time, hard to learn things that could be considered tricks of the trade, or vet skill sets.

 

[Hoopguru]

Sharpe should get a min of 15 mpg in order to blossom. It would be a huge error not to play him consistently 12-15 or more mpg.
Remember he hasn't played on a team for over a year.
We got this guy because we decided to trade CJ and others along with tanking.

 

[Hoopguru]

Chauncey's coaching is fine. What he's teaching takes time. But he has too many guys who can't shoot the damn ball. That ain't gonna change till Cronin adds some quality shooters, period.

When you have a player like Dame & Simons taking 36-40 shots per game between them, remember Simons is an high percentage shooter we should be ok but could use another guy off the bench that can fill it up on occasion. That could be Hart & Sharpe and some.

 

[James lamphear]

Just got done watching game defensely at times we don't do bad until the first pass at that time players get out position by over playing the off side of the court. Then we recover well when that happens. Offense we dribble a lot in the offense and a lot one on one play. Now let's talk about players. Nurk it's looks like is injuries have caught up to him slow lateral quickness makes him liability anytime he had guard premeter. Simons shot well still subject on defense. Grant look good but he not strong rebounder. Hart needs look for shot more when get to his spot not pass the ball out. I am feeling good about our rookies I think sharp should gets minutes ahead of Little backing up Hart. But we will see what happens my prediction is only 35 wins because I think we will struggle at first until we get use to playing together and when we get defensive scheme down.

 

[riverman]

Maybe instead of Santa Barbara preseason they should've gone to a place like Fresno...

 

[Fairly-Hard]

Just got done watching game defensely at times we don't do bad until the first pass at that time players get out position by over playing the off side of the court. Then we recover well when that happens. Offense we dribble a lot in the offense and a lot one on one play. Now let's talk about players. Nurk it's looks like is injuries have caught up to him slow lateral quickness makes him liability anytime he had guard premeter. Simons shot well still subject on defense. Grant look good but he not strong rebounder. Hart needs look for shot more when get to his spot not pass the ball out. I am feeling good about our rookies I think sharp should gets minutes ahead of Little backing up Hart. But we will see what happens my prediction is only 35 wins because I think we will struggle at first until we get use to playing together and when we get defensive scheme down.

Your assertations all seem to be correct.
The one thing that gives me pause is

defensely at times we don't do bad until the first pass at that time players get out position by over playing

So essentially to beat Chauncy's defensive scheme all you need to do is pass the ball twice? This is a major problem in the NBA I would think?

 

[Fairly-Hard]

Maybe instead of Santa Barbara preseason they should've gone to a place like Fresno...

Susanville? Heck Medford has a pool I think?

 

[1 Eye Jack]

Kinda like..... Dame.

He's going to be special but we're going to lose a lot of games watching him get there....off the charts talent. Not an NBA defender yet by any stretch though and zero assists tonight

Needs to tighten up those handles. Tends to get the ball away from his body. Reminds me a little of Drexler when finishing around basket. Silky smooth to the basket and finish’s. Amazing at such a young age usually kids that young shy away from attacking basket (see Simons rookie and even 2nd year)

 

[1 Eye Jack]

Your assertations all seem to be correct.
The one thing that gives me pause is


So essentially to beat Chauncy's defensive scheme all you need to do is pass the ball twice? This is a major problem in the NBA I would think?

Not if you are trying to stop the Blazers, assume we look really good on defense in practice

 

[Rastapopoulos]

I think it's easier to look good in SL, because of the lack of talented players you're facing game to game. This is big boy basketball, and the other team is playing for keeps.

That assumes that YOUR players are talented. Our players were no more talented than the competition, but (for the last 3 quarters at least) they kicked everyone's ass.

 

[SIeepwalker]

Sharpe took a lot of shots and wasn't very efficient, but he did look smooth out there. And he looked betetr than Keon (who, to be fair, looked awful)

Eubanks was -23 in 6 minutes we is pretty impressive

 

[tykendo]

When you have a player like Dame & Simons taking 36-40 shots per game between them, remember Simons is an high percentage shooter we should be ok but could use another guy off the bench that can fill it up on occasion. That could be Hart & Sharpe and some.

I just feel we need a dead eye sharp shooter coming off the bench. We don't have that right now. Even when wide open , and this has been a problem for years, we don't have that one guy you know will drain the clutch 3.