Does anyone seriously think we had a better roster than New Orleans?

[Rastapopoulos]

Seriously?
Davis > Lillard
Holiday > CJ (certainly on defense)
Mirotic > anyone else on the Blazers' roster (and for the series you can probably remove the "else")

I think the Pelicans were (even) better than their record. I think the Boogie/Davis pairing is stupid (maybe it would work in the '90s) and they had a double piece of fortune mid-season when Boogie went down and they got Mirotic (who was Chicago's best player by a mile) for a song. Mirotic PERFECTLY complements Davis, and Davis is best playing the 5. Without Boogie there was no friction to doing that.

Also: everybody forgot how good Holiday was because he'd been injured all this time. FINALLY we can say it clearly: New Orleans won the Holiday/Nerlens Noel trade!

Now, it's also true that the Blazers were slumping just as the season came to an end. I don't think you can necessarily pin that on Stotts - he wrung everything he could out of this roster. We are just talent-poor (with no clear route to improvement - unless we take advantage of things like the Mirotic fire-sale). But this season we won lots of games we shouldn't've - probably a good deal more than the games we lost that we should've won.

I expect New Orleans to be a real handful for Golden State. And if Curry is out for the series, they've got a real shot to beat them.

 

[BlazerBeav]

I expect New Orleans to be a real handful for Golden State. And if Curry is out for the series, they've got a real shot to beat them.

Seriously? Come on, you can't be. You think that defensive strategy of blitzing the guards and having AD roam all over the court will work when the bigs he's leaving open are Green and Durant? They are going to get filleted.

 

[jlprk]

Davis > Lillard
Holiday > CJ (certainly on defense)
Mirotic > anyone else on the Blazers' roster (and for the series you can probably remove the "else")

Hindsight. Before the series, most Blazer fans would have violently disagreed with that.

 

[julius]

the biggest thing is their coach out coached the Blazers.

Davis is a beast, but there was NO adapting to the defense thrown at Damian and CJ. A lot of that is the makeup of the team (to which you're right about their roster being better).

But the Blazers coaches made it easy for New Orleans. He didn't adapt or change the game plan, or even plan for it. Just figured "it worked before, it has to work now!"

That won't work against a team that actually has decent threats at the 3 and 4. Portland had nothing from the 2 positions.

 

[tykendo]

I know this much, every player on their bench hit their open looks. Pat Con, Shabazz, even Zach all missed key ops to put the Blazers ahead at key momentum times, and failed. Their bench didn't miss. It was like a perfect storm. The Blazers MUST add quality shooting on the bench this offseason.

 

[chris_in_pdx]

You think the Blazers could trade for Boogie?

 

[CupWizier]

Seriously? Come on, you can't be. You think that defensive strategy of blitzing the guards and having AD roam all over the court will work when the bigs he's leaving open are Green and Durant? They are going to get filleted.

Why do you think they will leave Durant open. If GS doesn't have Curry, Durant and Thompson will be the target of their defense. They will leave Green open and challenge him to beat them.

 

[CupWizier]

I know this much, every player on their bench hit their open looks. Pat Con, Shabazz, even Zach all missed key ops to put the Blazers ahead at key momentum times, and failed. Their bench didn't miss. It was like a perfect storm. The Blazers MUST add quality shooting on the bench this offseason.

Exactly tyk as that is what I called it, the perfect storm. They were hitting everything this series and we missed a ton of open looks.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Seriously? Come on, you can't be. You think that defensive strategy of blitzing the guards and having AD roam all over the court will work when the bigs he's leaving open are Green and Durant? They are going to get filleted.

Yes, let's assume their coach is a total moron and can't devise different strategies for different teams.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

You think the Blazers could trade for Boogie?

Isn't he a UFA?

 

[Rastapopoulos]

I agree!


...well, I would say Boogie has much more natural talent than Mirotic, which is not the same as being the better player

Article: https://hoopshype.com/2018/04/19/new-orleans-pelicans-anthony-davis-demarcus-cousins-free-agency/

New Orleans outscored opponents by 16.8 points per 100 when Davis was on the court with the same group but Mirotic instead of Cousins. This was the fourth-best net rating among all five-man lineups (minimum: 200 minutes) in the Western Conference.
This unit has a remarkable net rating (+35.3) against the Trail Blazers in the postseason, though just a two-game sample size. Among all lineups that have appeared in more than 16 minutes together, this is currently the second-best in the NBA.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Is signing-and-trading still allowed? Cuz if so, the Pelicans would be crazy not to ship Cousins out for more shooters/3-and-D types. We could probably land him for CJ and Nurk, but I don't think that would be a good idea.

 

[Phatguysrule]

The Pelicans have a better roster. No doubt about it. Neil needs to bring in a legit shooter/defender at the wing. 40% 3pt. Get it done Neil, we would have won this series with one or two of these guys. But get it done without gutting the team.

 

[Gronk Brady]

I agree!


...well, I would say Boogie has much more natural talent than Mirotic, which is not the same as being the better player

Article: https://hoopshype.com/2018/04/19/new-orleans-pelicans-anthony-davis-demarcus-cousins-free-agency/

New Orleans outscored opponents by 16.8 points per 100 when Davis was on the court with the same group but Mirotic instead of Cousins. This was the fourth-best net rating among all five-man lineups (minimum: 200 minutes) in the Western Conference.
This unit has a remarkable net rating (+35.3) against the Trail Blazers in the postseason, though just a two-game sample size. Among all lineups that have appeared in more than 16 minutes together, this is currently the second-best in the NBA.

This is the same point I have been trying to make about CJ with the Blazers... he is not a good fit. Maybe CJ is better than a player we would get in a trade but it would result in making Blaers a better team... like someone with more size that can play defense and move without the ball in their hands. Doesn’t matter who we add to tho team as long as we roll with Dame/CJ pairing, this team will go nowhere

 

[OneSport3]

Seriously?
Davis > Lillard
Holiday > CJ (certainly on defense)
Mirotic > anyone else on the Blazers' roster (and for the series you can probably remove the "else")

I think the Pelicans were (even) better than their record. I think the Boogie/Davis pairing is stupid (maybe it would work in the '90s) and they had a double piece of fortune mid-season when Boogie went down and they got Mirotic (who was Chicago's best player by a mile) for a song. Mirotic PERFECTLY complements Davis, and Davis is best playing the 5. Without Boogie there was no friction to doing that.

Also: everybody forgot how good Holiday was because he'd been injured all this time. FINALLY we can say it clearly: New Orleans won the Holiday/Nerlens Noel trade!

Now, it's also true that the Blazers were slumping just as the season came to an end. I don't think you can necessarily pin that on Stotts - he wrung everything he could out of this roster. We are just talent-poor (with no clear route to improvement - unless we take advantage of things like the Mirotic fire-sale). But this season we won lots of games we shouldn't've - probably a good deal more than the games we lost that we should've won.

I expect New Orleans to be a real handful for Golden State. And if Curry is out for the series, they've got a real shot to beat them.

The Warriors would win in 5 or 6 without Curry.

First, they have no one that can guard Durant. Holiday can't shut down Durant like he did Lillard.

Second, if they blitzed the Durant-Green high PNR, Klay Thompson would absolutely cook them. The Warriors are actually well-coached and know how to pass/move the ball around. They actually have guys that will knock down open 3s.

Third, the Warriors defense is light years better than anything we showed the Pelicans in this series.

Fourth, the Warriors have Kevin Durant.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

The Warriors would win in 5 or 6 without Curry.

Why do you say "would" instead of "will"?

And I guess we get to find out.

(Getting Curry back might not be an unmixed blessing - he tends to hit the ground running, but it wouldn't be surprising if they had to adjust a little.)

 

[BlazerBeav]

Why do you think they will leave Durant open. If GS doesn't have Curry, Durant and Thompson will be the target of their defense. They will leave Green open and challenge him to beat them.

That's the point. Unlike in our series, they won't be able to leave the wings to help with the guards. They dared our other pieces to make open shots, and they couldn't. GSW has too many pieces that can shoot.

 

[BlazerDuckSeahawkFan94]

 

[Charcoal Filtered]

Only one game separated these teams in the regular season. While we were pretty much the same team throughout the year, NO were evolving. Starting Feb 10th, each team only lost eight games. Of those eight games, Rondo was out for three of them. They had everyone healthy and were clearly the better club, coaching and player personnel.

Bad matchup for us but they probably only take a couple from GS.

 

[CupWizier]

That's the point. Unlike in our series, they won't be able to leave the wings to help with the guards. They dared our other pieces to make open shots, and they couldn't. GSW has too many pieces that can shoot.

Why would they target the "guards"? They will target their best scorers (Durant and Thompson). Now I agree that's no easy task, but that will likely be the game plan. If Curry plays that makes it more difficult. Green has been a limited offensive threat this year and has shown to be a sub par shooter as well. I have no idea how the series will play out, but I wouldn't sell the Pelicans short, especially if they continue the hot shooting they showed against us.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

...in fact, name a team in the top 9 in the West that DOESN'T have a better roster than ours? Possibly San Antonio without Kawhi, and they're also getting waxed.

 

[OneSport3]

Why do you say "would" instead of "will"?

And I guess we get to find out.

(Getting Curry back might not be an unmixed blessing - he tends to hit the ground running, but it wouldn't be surprising if they had to adjust a little.)

I say “would” instead of “will” just because the Warriors still officially have one more game vs. the Spurs. Just formality.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

That's the point. Unlike in our series, they won't be able to leave the wings to help with the guards. They dared our other pieces to make open shots, and they couldn't. GSW has too many pieces that can shoot.

Things seemed to work out for them a couple of weeks ago.

 

[CupWizier]

The Pelicans have a better roster. No doubt about it. Neil needs to bring in a legit shooter/defender at the wing. 40% 3pt. Get it done Neil, we would have won this series with one or two of these guys. But get it done without gutting the team.

A player that would have helped a lot this year and a suggestion I made early in the season would have been picking up Gerald Green, especially once Crabbe was dealt and we needed a replacement. He has been huge for the Rockets and was dirt cheap.

 

[OneSport3]

Why would they target the "guards"? They will target their best scorers (Durant and Thompson). Now I agree that's no easy task, but that will likely be the game plan. If Curry plays that makes it more difficult. Green has been a limited offensive threat this year and has shown to be a sub par shooter as well. I have no idea how the series will play out, but I wouldn't sell the Pelicans short, especially if they continue the hot shooting they showed against us.

Unless Gentry concocts something amazing to defend the Warriors, you can’t target Durant and Thompson. The Warriors actually know how to move the ball around and have shooters that can knock down shots. The shots that Connaughton, Turner and Collins were clanking will be made by the Warriors.

Jrue Holiday is not going to take Durant out of the series like he did Lillard.

 

[OneSport3]

Things seemed to work out for them a couple of weeks ago.

That was regular season Warriors that had been locked into the 2nd seed for much of the season playing against a Pelicans team fighting for a playoff spot. Have you seen what the playoff Warriors have been doing to the Spurs?

 

[CupWizier]

Unless Gentry concocts something amazing to defend the Warriors, you can’t target Durant and Thompson. The Warriors actually know how to move the ball around and have shooters that can knock down shots. The shots that Connaughton, Turner and Collins were clanking will be made by the Warriors.

Jrue Holiday is not going to take Durant out of the series like he did Lillard.

I would put Davis on Durant as he has the length, the strength and the quickness to make it more difficult. Without Curry their shooting ability goes way down as Green is very inconsistent and Livingstone is Turneresque in that he has an extremely limited outside game. The key will be if the Pelicans can continue their hot shooting. If they can, then I think this will be a good series, but GS has looked vulnerable at times this year, especially without Curry.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

That was regular season Warriors that had been locked into the 2nd seed for much of the season playing against a Pelicans team fighting for a playoff spot. Have you seen what the playoff Warriors have been doing to the Spurs?

Basically what the Playoff Pelicans did to a better Blazers team?

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Jrue Holiday is not going to take Durant out of the series like he did Lillard.

Mainly because he won't be guarding him?

 

[tlongII]

We have the better roster. We choked.