GrandpaBlaze
Predictions Game Master
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I think all pretty much recognize there doesn't appear to be any real chemistry on the team. I'll toss out a few thoughts about potential causes for our lack of chemistry and would be interested to hear others thoughts.
As I think about it, the last time I felt like the Blazers had some chemistry, it was the year we made the finals. Sure, there were complaints about Aminu & Harkless but I felt that, overall, we played together as a team.
What has happened since then? We've had injuries. We've had significant roster change. We've had no defense (but that's nothing new - haven't had that for years). What is the cause?
Two things come to mind. Management/Coaching & "Leading players".
Management/Coaching:
Unwillingness to make the necessary changes to take us to the next level. This meant that two players with extreme overlap and widely recognized defensive deficiencies continued to play without accountability or being forced to change. Olshey was unwilling to make trades. Stotts was unwilling to force Dame & CJ to play defense and play more of a team game.
Leading Players:
Who is this? See the prior paragraph, Dame & CJ. Dame-time became a thing and, to a degree, he bought into it as part of every play rather than just a crunch time thing.
CJ is a good player in the right role but he hasn't been held accountable for either his shooting or lack of defense (or passing) and hence, just continues to shoot.
In Star Trek lingo, we have Kirk and Spock and a bunch of Ensigns that beam down to a planet and you know that nothing bad will happen to either Kirk or Spock but the rest of the "team" is fair game for getting killed, injured, etc.
In a "team" perspective, that means that from an outsiders perspective, it appears there is not accountability for either Dame or CJ but lots of accountability for everyone else (hence the constant references to Stotts pulling someone for some minuscule mistake while Dame or CJ may make more significant mistakes but get to play through it).
Conclusion:
The only way I see this changing is one of two ways: The "Rebuild Around Dame option" or the "Blow it All Up option".
The Rebuild Around Dame option means that CJ and ideally several others get traded and we have a fair amount of roster change that forces a new team makeup/"chemistry". If that doesn't work, we go down the blow-it-all-up path.
Much as I love Dame, he has to be held at least somewhat accountable for the current train-wreck of a team. Recall when we used to hear about Dame calling and inviting the and the team to get together prior to training camp starting so they could work together? I can't recall the last time I heard about that happening. Chemistry take effort. I don't see the effort. I don't see the chemistry.
I am more ambivalent about the this Blazers team then any since the Telfair/Monia, et al. era. Sad but I just have little expectation, hope, or for that matter, interest. They play boring ball. There is no chemistry.
Perhaps the loss of Paul Allen impacted the team more than we realize. Having an owner personally vested in the team builds the team. Having an unaccountable, untouchable Olshey driving the team has led to us having a team that seems to have no direction or willingness to sacrifice for the good of the whole - in short, they seem to have taken on the kind of personality often attributed to Olshey.
Here is to hoping for significant changes. What they are at this point, I don't really care. Whatever they are, the result would be difficult to be worse than what we are seeing now.
Gramps...
As I think about it, the last time I felt like the Blazers had some chemistry, it was the year we made the finals. Sure, there were complaints about Aminu & Harkless but I felt that, overall, we played together as a team.
What has happened since then? We've had injuries. We've had significant roster change. We've had no defense (but that's nothing new - haven't had that for years). What is the cause?
Two things come to mind. Management/Coaching & "Leading players".
Management/Coaching:
Unwillingness to make the necessary changes to take us to the next level. This meant that two players with extreme overlap and widely recognized defensive deficiencies continued to play without accountability or being forced to change. Olshey was unwilling to make trades. Stotts was unwilling to force Dame & CJ to play defense and play more of a team game.
Leading Players:
Who is this? See the prior paragraph, Dame & CJ. Dame-time became a thing and, to a degree, he bought into it as part of every play rather than just a crunch time thing.
CJ is a good player in the right role but he hasn't been held accountable for either his shooting or lack of defense (or passing) and hence, just continues to shoot.
In Star Trek lingo, we have Kirk and Spock and a bunch of Ensigns that beam down to a planet and you know that nothing bad will happen to either Kirk or Spock but the rest of the "team" is fair game for getting killed, injured, etc.
In a "team" perspective, that means that from an outsiders perspective, it appears there is not accountability for either Dame or CJ but lots of accountability for everyone else (hence the constant references to Stotts pulling someone for some minuscule mistake while Dame or CJ may make more significant mistakes but get to play through it).
Conclusion:
The only way I see this changing is one of two ways: The "Rebuild Around Dame option" or the "Blow it All Up option".
The Rebuild Around Dame option means that CJ and ideally several others get traded and we have a fair amount of roster change that forces a new team makeup/"chemistry". If that doesn't work, we go down the blow-it-all-up path.
Much as I love Dame, he has to be held at least somewhat accountable for the current train-wreck of a team. Recall when we used to hear about Dame calling and inviting the and the team to get together prior to training camp starting so they could work together? I can't recall the last time I heard about that happening. Chemistry take effort. I don't see the effort. I don't see the chemistry.
I am more ambivalent about the this Blazers team then any since the Telfair/Monia, et al. era. Sad but I just have little expectation, hope, or for that matter, interest. They play boring ball. There is no chemistry.
Perhaps the loss of Paul Allen impacted the team more than we realize. Having an owner personally vested in the team builds the team. Having an unaccountable, untouchable Olshey driving the team has led to us having a team that seems to have no direction or willingness to sacrifice for the good of the whole - in short, they seem to have taken on the kind of personality often attributed to Olshey.
Here is to hoping for significant changes. What they are at this point, I don't really care. Whatever they are, the result would be difficult to be worse than what we are seeing now.
Gramps...
