Anyone else ready to vote RoCo off the island

[PCmor7]

I like the guy. I guess I kinda maybe understand why he was acquired. But is it too early to say he's the square peg we've trying to fit into the round hole on this team?

He's averse to shooting layups. He hasn't gotten comfortable with his 3-pt. shot in this offense. He seems to get in the way of our offense more than facilitating it. Defensively, he's been decent in flashes, but certainly not what I would envision to be worth giving up two draft picks in the teens.

After watching us get beat by the immovable force that is Jakob Poetl, I think it's obvious you can't play this small the way the Blazers usually play -- you either need to be committed to up-tempo and quick ball movement or not, you can't play this weird in-between. It doesn't play to any of Covington's strengths and plays to all his weaknesses. I think we needed someone with more size than him, and, if not that, someone who was a more efficient scorer.

I'm not saying he's horrible, just a really, really bad fit for this team who probably would be a lot better for at least two-thirds of the teams in the league.

This also isn't to blame him for the team underperforming. There are a lot of reasons for that. He might be the most easily movable part to make some improvement, though.

 

[Chris Craig]

I wish we had Ariza back

 

[Wizard Mentor]

no.
Let's vote players who don't play defense off the island - Melo, Kanter, and maybe Stotts.

 

[PCmor7]

no.
Let's vote players who don't play defense off the island - Melo, Kanter, and maybe Stotts.

Has his defense really been that good? I know he has a reputation for it, but I haven't seen anything that special yet with the Blazers.

 

[ehizzy3]

No.

 

[Labinot41]

No, but the Ariza post is funny. Ariza averaged 11 points and shot 49% FG% and 40% from 3, his first 20 games were much better than Covingtons first 15 games with the Blazers. Ariza is definitely the better shooter

 

[Wizard Mentor]

Has his defense really been that good? I know he has a reputation for it, but I haven't seen anything that special yet with the Blazers.

RoCo hasn't been great, but...
We suck, and pointing at RoCo is the wrong direction.

For argument sake, let's say we make a trade TODAY: RoCo for 2 1st rounders. Are we better? No.

 

[maxiep]

I think Covington's defense has been really good. He'll be great for us at the end of the season.

 

[Titan]

I would rather we play him at small forward, but since we are short on bigs now, that ain't gonna happen. We still don't have a legit starting power forward and a true backup point guard.

 

[PCmor7]

RoCo hasn't been great, but...
We suck, and pointing at RoCo is the wrong direction.

For argument sake, let's say we make a trade TODAY: RoCo for 2 1st rounders. Are we better? No.

Fair enough. But, to your first point, I addressed that in the OP. For the second, I don't know. Are we going to win anything this year with Covington in the lineup? Are we going to be better down the road without two first-round draft picks?

I'd be thinking more along the lines of can Covington be dealt for someone else, though, not draft picks.

 

[Wizard Mentor]

Fair enough. But, to your first point, I addressed that in the OP. For the second, I don't know. Are we going to win anything this year with Covington in the lineup? Are we going to be better down the road without two first-round draft picks?

I'd be thinking more along the lines of can Covington be dealt for someone else, though, not draft picks.

I'd be OK with trading Covington, but if we're gonna dream, why not a Melo and/or Kanter trade, and/or getting a new coach?

 

[James lamphear]

Covington is help defender he not that good as straight up defender. But the team defense is not good at all so I really blame the coach because his schemes are terrible. You figure majority of the players would understand it but it's seem some do or others don't. I am complain no more about the defense because what you see is what you get.

 

[Natebishop3]

I would rather fire Stotts and see what a real coach could do with this roster.

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

Aminu clone — RoCo forgot how to shoot.

 

[PCmor7]

I'd be OK with trading Covington, but if we're gonna dream, why not a Melo and/or Kanter trade, and/or getting a new coach?

I don't think you'd get much of anything back for Melo, and I think, defensive shortcomings aside, the last thing we need to be doing is trading off size and bulk right now ... so it's hard to move Kanter unless you are getting back a legit big or two as part of the deal.

 

[THE HCP]

I think Covington's defense has been really good. He'll be great for us at the end of the season.

What this kid said!

 

[Tince]

I wish we had Ariza back

He's not in the league, so that would be an option.

Plus, Olshey loves to take guys who aren't wanted by 29 teams and seeing if we can throw them into the starting lineup and find a way to win.

 

[UKRAINEFAN]

I have had the impression that he shoots threes from some areas better than others so I looked it up. Appears he should only shoot corner threes from the right hand side (as we face the basket) and never from the top of the circle, but a few feet either way is great.

 

[TBpup]

This was talked about by some on Day 1 of the trade.

RoCo is a very good team defender but not nearly as good of an on-ball defender. In fact, Ariza was very likely the better one-on-one defender even though he is 5 years older. Since RoCo is good as a team defender operating within a scheme and, well, not sure you could even call what we have a 'scheme' unless it's just a bad one. So what RoCo excells in, we don't really do.

Same with DJJ. He was the top slasher in the NBA last year and quite a good defender in the zone that Miami played. But we don't play zone, don't have an offense with much slashing, and although our pace is up, you wouldn't really call us a fast break team.

So the things both new players do well, we don't really do here in Portland. So are they all of a sudden not the players they were before they came here? Or is it the 'scheme' or lack thereof?

 

[BonesJones]

Wait, I thought Stotts made players better?

 

[boredinsalem]

We should go all in on defense/win-now and trade Collins/2nd rounder for PJ Tucker. He and RoCo's post defense together is a thing of beauty, and he'd fit perfectly in Stotts' sit in the corner offense.

 

[julius]

Wait, I thought Stotts made players better?

I think it's pretty telling that the team in 2018-19, apparently was much better than this team is right now. But whats the difference?

Dame is better now, CJ is better ( at least offensively). I refuse to accept that Aminu and Harkless are the difference between this team playing worse defense than my 90 year old grandfather would, and playing passable defense.

I will say this until I'm blue in the face, the players might like Stotts, but they don't play smart or hard for him anymore. If you're Jones, you went from playing on the Heat, going to the finals, to playing for a bumbling turd blossom.

It's a waste of so many players talents, because Stotts just forces them into what he thinks will work. They're not taking advantage of Jones athletic skills, Covingtons defense (although i think his defense is overrated), Simons altheticism and abilities or Trents skillset.

There is hardly any ball movement, and there seems to be no interest in coaching a defense this year. And I am so tired of hearing that the team didn't have a training camp...the season is 14 games old (18 counting pre-season). They've had time to implement a new defensive scheme...it's just that the defensive scheme they're implementing fucking sucks.

They have the athletes, they have the height...they're just playing a really outdated and often proven to be subpar defense right now. And they're doing absofuckinglutley nothing about it. Defense isn't hard to play. Unless you're immobile like Boban, there is no reason why you can't be a passable defensive player.

And that starts from the top of the coaching staff. until he's gone (or they actually get someone who is defensive minded to coach defense), we're going to just continue to be this mediocre team that will go no where.

5 straight games (or 4 out of 5, I don't remember if they were down double digits in the game vs the Hawks) where they were woefully outplayed, out hustled and out performed should be a red flag the size of Alaska.