Blazers best team in NBA?

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and they are 13-11....1 win above .500. That doesn't look like the best team in the league

I also question that supposed defensive rating. Not sure I believe it's accurate or true. That would be 24 games with a 102.6 defensive rating which should really shift their season rating way down. Yet, according to bbref, they are still 29th in the league with a rating of 115.9 68 games into the season. Portland's rating at the all-star break was 116.4. There have been 33 games since then and if in 24 of 33 games their defensive rating was 102.6, that 116.4 rating would have dropped a hell of a lot more than 0.5

so...here are the defensive ratings for Portland, game by game, since Powell became the starter. And remember, that guy in the tweet is saying Portland's had a rating of 102.6:

106.3
118.2
100.3
118.9
83.1
134.5
125.4
106.5
117.6
115.6
110.7
114.0
121.4
116.0
125.6
110.7
109.7
107.2
110.3
117.5
125.3
105.9
102.4
102.8

in that stretch, the Blazers only had 3 games with a rating below their supposed average. For chrissakes, they had 12 games with a rating more than 10 points worse than that 102.6 mark. There is no way in hell those work out to 102.6

I'm calling bullshit on those numbers in that tweet
 
wizenheimer said:
and they are 13-11....1 win above .500. That doesn't look like the best team in the league

I also question that supposed defensive rating. Not sure I believe it's accurate or true. That would be 24 games with a 102.6 defensive rating which should really shift their season rating way down. Yet, according to bbref, they are still 29th in the league with a rating of 115.9 68 games into the season. Portland's rating at the all-star break was 116.4. There have been 33 games since then and if in 24 of 33 games their defensive rating was 102.6, that 116.4 rating would have dropped a hell of a lot more than 0.5

so...here are the defensive ratings for Portland, game by game, since Powell became the starter. And remember, that guy in the tweet is saying Portland's had a rating of 102.6:

106.3
118.2
100.3
118.9
83.1
134.5
125.4
106.5
117.6
115.6
110.7
114.0
121.4
116.0
125.6
110.7
109.7
107.2
110.3
117.5
125.3
105.9
102.4
102.8

in that stretch, the Blazers only had 3 games with a rating below their supposed average. For chrissakes, they had 12 games with a rating more than 10 points worse than that 102.6 mark. There is no way in hell those work out to 102.6

I'm calling bullshit on those numbers in that tweet
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I think it's just the minutes that they've played, not the whole team overall.
 
The bottom line I think is it proves that this "3 guard" lineup can work defensively.
Assuming they play alongside a good PF and C. Offensively was never a question.
 
Scalma said:
The real question should be just how valuable is Nurkic and who are the morons that want to trade him
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I’d trade him. He can’t get any lift which results in fewer rebounds and more missed shots in the paint area. He looks to pass (I like this) however I’d take Towns over Nurkic in a heartbeat.

let’s trade CJ and Nurkic for Towns and a sign & trade of Rubio. Not sure if a sign & trade player can be dealt in a package trade? I’ll even through in a swap of number 1 picks in 2023 to sweeten things.

It’s not moronic to believe Nurkic would be ranked around 10th to 12th best centers in the league. But in no way is Nurk a top 5 center.
 
BoomChakaLaka said:
I’d trade him. He can’t get any lift which results in fewer rebounds and more missed shots in the paint area. He looks to pass (I like this) however I’d take Towns over Nurkic in a heartbeat.

let’s trade CJ and Nurkic for Towns and a sign & trade of Rubio. Not sure if a sign & trade player can be dealt in a package trade? I’ll even through in a swap of number 1 picks in 2023 to sweeten things.

It’s not moronic to believe Nurkic would be ranked around 10th to 12th best centers in the league. But in no way is Nurk a top 5 center.
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here’s one of them.
 
looking at Blazer lineups:

upload_2021-5-9_18-12-49.png

in terms of net points, which essentially has the same ratio's as ratings....Dame-CJ-Powell-RoCo-Nurkic has not been significantly better than Dame-Trent-Jones-RoCo-Kanter. Same minutes and only 0.5 points better

basically, the DNA is till the same: as Dame goes, so go the Blazers. Portland was struggling when Dame was misfiring and hobbled. Now that he seems to be himself, the Blazers are winning again

it helps to have Nurkic in beast mode a little more too. Nurk/Kanter is a pretty solid rotation
 
Scalma said:
here’s one of them.
Click to expand...

it’s just not nice Scalia. I don’t call anyone names.

That said, please tell me....you think Nurkic is a top 5 center? You can’t be serious if you say yes -
 
BoomChakaLaka said:
it’s just not nice Scalia. I don’t call anyone names.

That said, please tell me....you think Nurkic is a top 5 center? You can’t be serious if you say yes -
Click to expand...

He’s not elite at any one thing, but he’s at least average at almost everything. He’s absolutely one of the best all around centers in the league. I probably couldnt name five centers with a more varied skillset. And no, I don’t think the solution to one of the worst defenses in the league is to swap out Nurkic for KAT. I don’t know how much more evidence people need before they realize that Nurkic is the glue of this team.
 
Jokic, Embiid, Gobert, KAT, Adebayo, Sabonis, Vucevic....I'd probably rate all of then ahead of Nukic right now. KAT has been hurt a lot but so has Nurkic
 
Scalma said:
He’s not elite at any one thing, but he’s at least average at almost everything. He’s absolutely one of the best all around centers in the league. I probably couldnt name five centers with a more varied skillset. And no, I don’t think the solution to one of the worst defenses in the league is to swap out Nurkic for KAT. I don’t know how much more evidence people need before they realize that Nurkic is the glue of this team.
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I like Nurkic for several reasons myself - mostly intangibles like his spirit, willingness to make passes / try making passes. This year I’d give the “glue” award to either RoCo or Kanter however. Thus far anyway. That said, these final games of the season will give Nurkic plenty of opportunity to rise to the occasion! Go Nurk
 
BoomChakaLaka said:
I’d trade him. He can’t get any lift which results in fewer rebounds and more missed shots in the paint area. He looks to pass (I like this) however I’d take Towns over Nurkic in a heartbeat.

let’s trade CJ and Nurkic for Towns and a sign & trade of Rubio. Not sure if a sign & trade player can be dealt in a package trade? I’ll even through in a swap of number 1 picks in 2023 to sweeten things.

It’s not moronic to believe Nurkic would be ranked around 10th to 12th best centers in the league. But in no way is Nurk a top 5 center.
Click to expand...
Rubio is actually guaranteed 17.8M for next season but the trade does work as far as the cap goes despite us taking on an extra 5+M.

I honestly don't think Minny does that deal. CJ can't have much value to them with Russell being their. I do think however that @Scalma is a little nutty if he thinks that Nurk is the better fit for this team when compared to KAT. That's honestly laughable.
 
Rastapopoulos said:
This doesn't show that the Blazers are the best team, just that they have the best five-man lineup that has played more than 250 mins.
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There was a question mark in thread title. If starters are playing this well, could we be...
 
Scalma said:
Who asked?

Nurk is a far better defender, that alone makes him a better fit. Jog on.
Click to expand...
Those are some homer glasses you've got on. Seriously, you thinking that Nurk is a better player than KAT is incredible as in it makes you lack credibility. I love Nurk and he does bring things to the table that KAT doesn't but the fact is that KAT is more mobile and can cover the perimeter better than Nurk on the defensive end and their low post defense is close. Yeah, Nurk is the better paint protector but that's not all that there is in today's NBA. Then you get to the offensive side of things and the comparison becomes pretty much impossible to see your way (numbers and eye test).
 
blazerkor said:
Those are some homer glasses you've got on. Seriously, you thinking that Nurk is a better player than KAT is incredible as in it makes you lack credibility. I love Nurk and he does bring things to the table that KAT doesn't but the fact is that KAT is more mobile and can cover the perimeter better than Nurk on the defensive end and their low post defense is close. Yeah, Nurk is the better paint protector but that's not all that there is in today's NBA. Then you get to the offensive side of things and the comparison becomes pretty much impossible to see your way (numbers and eye test).
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KAT might be better than AD but you didn’t hear it from me.
 
wizenheimer said:
Jokic, Embiid, Gobert, KAT, Adebayo, Sabonis, Vucevic....I'd probably rate all of then ahead of Nukic right now. KAT has been hurt a lot but so has Nurkic
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KAT gives away as much as he gets you. He's historically good on offense and historically bad on D.
 
wizenheimer said:
Jokic, Embiid, Gobert, KAT, Adebayo, Sabonis, Vucevic....I'd probably rate all of then ahead of Nukic right now. KAT has been hurt a lot but so has Nurkic
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KAT gives away as much as he gets you. He's historically good on offense and historically bad on D.
 
Rastapopoulos said:
KAT gives away as much as he gets you. He's historically good on offense and historically bad on D.
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well, let's see...

* KAT's defensive rating is 2.1 points better than his team this season, and he's 3rd in DBPM
* last season, his rating was 2.2 points better than his team and he was 4th in DBPM
* the year before that, his rating was 4.9 points better than his team, and again was 4th on the team in DBPM
* the year before the year before, his rating was 4.1 points better than his team and he was 2nd on the team in DBPM

defensive stats are noisy, so those don't necessarily mean he's not bad at defense. But, they do indicate that calling him "historically" bad is probably over-stating the badness by quite a bit. He's likely better than Kanter

and, I kind of question how much Nurkic's defense actually means for Portland. I'm not saying it's not a factor, but just how big a factor is debatable in my view. I saw this yesterday in Portland's lineup page at bbref:

upload_2021-5-10_9-12-58.png

that would suggest that the step up defensively from Kanter to Nurkic, and from Jones to Powell, is only worth o.5 points. And we know Powell is a massive upgrade offensively from Jones, so maybe, there was no real positive impact from the offset of Nurk's defense over Kanter's offense. And, the minutes are nearly identical so there is no sample size skew

now, if you expand that list a little:

upload_2021-5-10_9-21-53.png

things get a little more complicated. To start with, the 3rd ranked lineup in minutes suggests that the addition of Powell's offense, not Nurkic's defense, was worth 8.2 points. Enough of a gap to tend to confirm that Powell over Jones has a lot more to do with differentials than Nurkic over Kanter

the 4th ranked lineup there seems to contradict a lot of the other assumptions. But we're getting into much smaller sample sizes so skew and noise are almost certain. It is kind of funny that the only change in #2 to #4 is CJ for Trent and that made Portland -25.0 points worse. I think CJ is overrated around here but he's not that bad

maybe the biggest factor for #4 is that is the period of time when CJ came back, before Nurkic, and Dame was playing about the worst BB of his career

so, a hypothetical upgrade from Nurkic to Kanter may not have the negative impact you imagine. It won't happen obviously and Portland would have to pay a much heavier price than just Nurkic or CJ
 
KSF-ERIC said:
KAT might be better than AD but you didn’t hear it from me.
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Might be better than AD?
As in
Andre Drummond?
Adrian Dantley?
Antonio Davis?
Antonio Daniels?
Andre Dawkins?

Not sure which one you are referring to?
 
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