Early but to clear to call: We need change

[Bruno_Sabino]

Its early but its clear that this team cant compete in a high level at every night. In other words: we really suck.


First:

Tolliver cant play major minutes down the strech. Close minutes he needs to be off - he was killing us all game and only left the game at 4 min at 4 qr.

Second:

We playing small all the time. It looks like we're the shorter team. They double Dame and our game plan is complete inactive. We missing a lot of shots, CJ can make a 3 to save his life. Terrible defense - in all games! The only good win we had was vs Dallas. We could lost to Atlanta, we won in a heart game.

Third:

We need a trade. It's that simple. This roster can sustain.

Go for: LOVE, GALLO.

 

[illmatic99]

Love and Gallo will not help our defense.

 

[wizenheimer]

I don't think enough teams will be willing to trade yet and Dec 15, when a bunch of players will be tradeable, is still a month away

I'd also wonder how willing Jody Allen would be to consider even more tax for a team that is 4-7, and might be headed for an even worse record....and with the highest payroll already

 

[Sheldon Shape]

Trade might help a little but as long as Stotts is here we won't have a coherent game plan. Nothing will change. He wants to let the guards go 1 on 5 and see what happens.

 

[VanillaGorilla]

Are there really any trades we could realstically pursue that would significantly help us without Collins and/or Nurk playing?

Seems like that's still our main problem.

 

[Bruno_Sabino]

Trade might help a little but as long as Stotts is here we won't have a coherent game plan. Nothing will change. He wants to let the guards go 1 on 5 and see what happens.

yes.

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

Enes Kanter was our 6th man.

Holy shit, this year's roster is a ginormous downgrade.

Toliver, Jesus tapdancing Christ.

 

[Cugel]

A trade means nothing without a change in game plan and schemes. I say stay the course and win 30 games hopefully. Dump all the trash contracts and pray Nurk cames back better than before.

 

[Five Second Violation]

Trade might help a little but as long as Stotts is here we won't have a coherent game plan. Nothing will change. He wants to let the guards go 1 on 5 and see what happens.

Gregg Popovich, Red Auerbach, and Phil Jackson on their best days wouldn't be able to turn out much better results with our current personnel.

 

[Sheldon Shape]

Gregg Popovich, Red Auerbach, and Phil Jackson on their best days wouldn't be able to turn out much better results with our current personnel.

Pop REGULARLY has less on his roster than what I listed above and gets much better results.
I call complete bullshit. You have a top point guard in Damian Lillard. You have a top 10/15 shooting guard in CJ. You have a productive center. You have Ant Simons. Nassir Little. Skal. Kent Bazemore. Those coaches would have a MUCH better record and a completely different offense being ran. You couldn't be more wrong.

 

[AldoTrapani]

Well be fine we’ll run it back healthy next year and a lottery pick. Come draft time around June we’ll be happy to move forward and play with our options to add to our healthy team

 

[Five Second Violation]

I call complete bullshit. You have a top point guard in Damian Lillard. You have a top 10/15 shooting guard in CJ. You have a productive center. You have Ant Simons. Nassir Little. Skal. Kent Bazemore. Those coaches would have a MUCH better record and a completely different offense being ran. You couldn't be more wrong.

Lillard is about the only consistent factor you just named.

Little is a rookie who was glued to the bench as a freshman in college last year. Simons is 20 and still learning, and is faced with having to be Mr. Everything on offense for the bench now. It'll take him some time as games like tonight showed.

Skal is a castoff from a 30 win team (traded for Swanigan) as is Bazemore (traded for Turner). They're average role players at best.

CJ and Whiteside are veterans with a ton of bad habits who are less than consistent in their impact. They can each be part of a winning formula, but when they're surrounded by guys who literally aren't playable, it's easy to see where they fall short in terms of shouldering the load. Dame is the only guy capable of that.

You can't expect a team without any rotation-worthy forwards at the moment to be much more than mediocre.

 

[Stevenson]

Trade might help a little but as long as Stotts is here we won't have a coherent game plan. Nothing will change. He wants to let the guards go 1 on 5 and see what happens.

No coherent game plan with Stotts? What have you been watching?? If there is one thing this coach has, it's a plan. Rotations. Switches. Lineups. Plays. Development. One thing he does clearly is plan.

 

[Sheldon Shape]

No coherent game plan with Stotts? What have you been watching?? If there is one thing this coach has, it's a plan. Rotations. Switches. Lineups. Plays. Development. One thing he does clearly is plan.

If there was a plan we wouldn't be so putrid in assists every season. Hard to believe that we're even worse in assists than last season. When you think it couldn't get worse. If you think give Damian or CJ the ball to go 1 on 5 and make the plan is a plan than yeah... I guess the coach has a plan. Maybe a really really shitty plan I guess.

A coach with a plan isn't horrible at getting his team easy buckets and assists. We don't emphasize ball movement this season and we really didn't in the past either.

 

[Sheldon Shape]

Lillard is about the only consistent factor you just named.

Little is a rookie who was glued to the bench as a freshman in college last year. Simons is 20 and still learning, and is faced with having to be Mr. Everything on offense for the bench now. It'll take him some time as games like tonight showed.

Skal is a castoff from a 30 win team (traded for Swanigan) as is Bazemore (traded for Turner). They're average role players at best.

CJ and Whiteside are veterans with a ton of bad habits who are less than consistent in their impact. They can each be part of a winning formula, but when they're surrounded by guys who literally aren't playable, it's easy to see where they fall short in terms of shouldering the load. Dame is the only guy capable of that.

You can't expect a team without any rotation-worthy forwards at the moment to be much more than mediocre.

But yet, Popovich regularly gets more out of his team with much much less. These players can play regardless of what they were traded for, where they were drafted or their age. These are excuses. We have seen flashes from them. I think Bazemore or Nassir can more than hold the forward positions and give something we don't have. Too bad we'll just get more Mario and Tolliver...

 

[wizenheimer]

I'm not going to get into the debate about Stotts coaching strengths and flaws

but clearly Olshey made some major miscalculations about Tolliver, Hezonja, and Gasol. The first two aren't good, at all, and the other is on Medicare.

it was as clear as day that the Blazers could not afford any injury to Whiteside or Zach. There was nothing behind them

 

[Bruno_Sabino]

Oh man. That’s really suck. No playoffs this year

 

[wizenheimer]

if a trade was on the table: CJ + Little for Blake Griffin...would you take it? (yeah, I don't know why Detroit would)

 

[GDiama]

There is no flow offense or whatever. We just iso ball with nobody around Dame moving. This is as bad as an offense can get and we just have two elite iso players that sometimes save the night. This team is a mess right now because missing Nurkic has taken away the option of pick and roll. Whiteside cannot play pick and roll to save his life.

Right now i'm really sceptical of making a trade at all. I would just go for high lottery and just ease back Nurk so he gets some run and confidence back. But not use him to get better, we suck for once, just get a high pick.

 

[B-Roy]

CJ and Whiteside are veterans with a ton of bad habits who are less than consistent in their impact. They can each be part of a winning formula, but when they're surrounded by guys who literally aren't playable, it's easy to see where they fall short in terms of shouldering the load. Dame is the only guy capable of that.

You can't expect a team without any rotation-worthy forwards at the moment to be much more than mediocre.

This is the best representation of our season that I’ve read so far. Losing Zach sucked, he’s a 30+ mpg player on this team. Same with Hood. That’s 60 minutes they now need to fill with guys that should literally never sniff the floor.

 

[AldoTrapani]

@BonesJones

what’s good bro what you think we should do?

 

[TorturedBlazerFan]

But yet, Popovich regularly gets more out of his team with much much less. These players can play regardless of what they were traded for, where they were drafted or their age. These are excuses. We have seen flashes from them. I think Bazemore or Nassir can more than hold the forward positions and give something we don't have. Too bad we'll just get more Mario and Tolliver...

How does Pop get more with less? When has he actually had less? For most of his career in SAS he had 3 guys who will be in the HoF, one guy who's amongst the "greatest ever" discussions. Now he has Two "All-star"-ish level guys and they're mostly a mediocre bottom of the playoffs type team.

Nurk got hurt last year and they still managed to make it to the WCF's without him, the team that the Spurs had in the playoffs was basically in the same exact position against Denver that Stott's was, but CJ pulled out game 7, and LMA's head imploded.

I get the complaints with Stotts, but acting like Pop's somehow take these high school teams to great NBA success is just not true. Stotts right now basically has one good player, a few guys who think they're good, and a young guy that will be good someday. Could they get more out of it? Probably some, but besides Dame the Blazers just aren't good as a roster right now.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Love and Gallo will not help our defense.

The fact that I'm not even sure if that's true is the clearest indicator of how shitty our defense is.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

How does Pop get more with less? When has he actually had less? For most of his career in SAS he had 3 guys who will be in the HoF, one guy who's amongst the "greatest ever" discussions. Now he has Two "All-star"-ish level guys and they're mostly a mediocre bottom of the playoffs type team.

That's true, but we've also played them when they've had multiple injuries and the ball still zips around and they usually beat us behind 30+ points from Patty.

 

[TorturedBlazerFan]

That's true, but we've also played them when they've had multiple injuries and the ball still zips around and they usually beat us behind 30+ points from Patty.

https://www.landofbasketball.com/head_to_head_gl/trail_blazers_vs_spurs_game_log_season.htm

Our record vs them the last few years is pretty mediocre (not bad) 7L's - 5W's.

 

[kjironman1]

Absolutely "Meltdown Thread" worthy.
Because 10 games into the season always tells you what the team "Clearly" needs.

 

[kjironman1]

I'll just leave this here....

 

[oldmangrouch]

Absolutely "Meltdown Thread" worthy.
Because 10 games into the season always tells you what the team "Clearly" needs.

OK, I'll bite: what about the current roster are you expecting to dramatically change? Is Whiteside going to grow a new personality? Are Tolliver and Mario suddenly going to learn to play basketball? What is the mystery that is yet to be revealed?

Nurk and Zach are hurt, Chief and Kanter are gone, and their replacements are woefully inadequate. It's not that hard to figure out.

 

[Bruno_Sabino]

Absolutely "Meltdown Thread" worthy.
Because 10 games into the season always tells you what the team "Clearly" needs.

It’s very clear

 

[Chris Craig]

Starting 4-7 and 11th in the West is hardly what any of us imagined. We also didn't forsee a spate of Blazer injuries to start the season. We have yet to see the whole team play. Jusuf was going to be out till spring anyway. Gasol was supposed to return earlier, but his foot has not complied. Collins dislocated his shoulder. Hood seems to get injured whenever he is playing. Skal got a scare.

The Blazers are bare bones, they are relying on youth. Opponents are like sharks in the water. They smell blood. They know we are weakened from injuries and are forced to play inexperienced players and role players more minutes in our rotations.

There is no easy answer here. Stotts is not going anywhere for those blaming him. There is no one better to replace him for one. For two no one could do much better with this team as it is.

As for Trades, there aren't many that would fix our situation. Perhaps we could find a better fit than Bazemore or Whiteside. The same problem would persist. We would still be shorthanded. Too, many teams aren't going to be willing to make trades yet.

Can the Blazers file for an injured player exception? How does that effect their cap situation? Maybe an IPE is the best answer at this point.

All there is to really do is to ride it out at this point. See it as experience for our younger players. It's good development for guys like Simons and Labissiere. We've gotta hope the Blazers younger guys like little and GTjr can step up.

Tolliver is frustrating, but he has never had to play such a big role. He is having a pretty bad start, but us better than he has played. Whiteside has been off and on. He needs to get angry more. Angry Whiteside is like the Hulk to calm Whitesides Bruce Banner, all chill and avoiding conflict.

Dame has been playing his best basketball. He has also been playing more minutes than usual because of injuries. I feel bad for him that he often appears to have to do most of everything himself to get his team wins.

CJ had a terrible start to the season shooting. MeJ seemed to return. His shot looks to be coming back though. Hopefully he will be continue to find his shot and get out of his slump. Dame could use the help.

Simons has looked great. He still very young and he will only get better. It's exciting. Skal too.

The Blazers lack of size due to injury is killing them inside. Teans are attacking the paint knowing there is no one there to stop them. Blazers are getting dominated game after game at tge basket. This might not change much until bigs return from injury. The Blazers can do a better job closing off the lane.

The Blazers are also continuing to allow opponents to many three point attempts. Their perimeter defense continues to be lackadasical. They need to tighten it up if they are going to win games.

It is a tough early season, but it is early still. I know there are concerns about getting in a hole with such a competitive west. I have those too. We have to be patient. Radical acceptance.