Game Thread GAME# 13: BLAZERS @ SPURS - NOVEMBER 16, 2019 - SATURDAY, 5:30 PM, NBCSNW

[Orion Bailey]

For.the Record, I hope we retain Hassan this off-season. 5/5 FT, clutch.

will he be happy coming off the bench though? I think thats the biggest q

 

[riverman]

When it comes to our roster changes I've moved on.....no point in beating a dead horse....I'd have kept several players over the past few roster shifts but that's why I get the big bucks...people are going to replace their disappointments anyway...Chief and Mo become Baze and Hezonja for now and Meyers becomes Tolliver...Mo never played well first half of most seasons here...didn't play at all for Orlando before he got here and has gone to being a bench player now.....what we lost were defensive instincts with those guys...our new guys need to get on the same page. Melo should boost bench scoring for us...defense is team choreography. That is not going to happen overnight

 

[Orion Bailey]

He was being held back. What do you want him to do?

not come down with what looked like an attempted two fist hulk smash on the opponent. Gotta jeep your cool.

 

[riverman]

not come down with what looked like an attempted two fist hulk smash on the opponent. Gotta jeep your cool.

I think rookie big's like Nas have to make a statement about not budging when defending a vet...Nas is pretty fearless and the rule for young bigs is you earn respect in the paint by fouling people hard when they try to score in the paint. Rookie season Zach and Skal both would've been pushed out of the way like rag dolls....Nas held his ground. This kid is a keeper!

 

[Orion Bailey]

I think rookie big's like Nas have to make a statement about not budging when defending a vet...Nas is pretty fearless and the rule for young bigs is you earn respect in the paint by fouling people hard when they try to score in the paint. Rookie season Zach and Skal both would've been pushed out of the way like rag dolls....Nas held his ground. This kid is a keeper!

i agree aNd he got the foul. But at the very end he also got very lucky. He tried to change green for a moment.

 

[BonesJones]

There are two parts to this. Whose fault is it. How many games we gonna win. For the former, yeah they were boxed in $ wise and couldn't keep everyone. But isn't that their fault for overpaying Leonard & esp. Turner? For the latter I am using purely advanced stats BPM & RPM over multiple seasons, players out vs players in comes to around -9 to -11 wins. Some of that could be offset by Little. Nurk & Collins injury cost us at least -6 wins even if Nurk comes back on time & 100% which is unlikely. That's why I don't think we will come close to making the playoffs. Happy to be wrong though.

Basketball is played on hardwood, not paper.

 

[riverman]

i agree aNd he got the foul. But at the very end he also got very lucky. He tried to change green for a moment.

I think in his mind he'd take a tech to make the guy think twice about getting in his grill again. Like punching the schoolyard bully even though you get dentention for doing it..it was worth it

 

[Scalma]

not come down with what looked like an attempted two fist hulk smash on the opponent. Gotta jeep your cool.

fuck that, tired of having a bunch of Boy Scouts, we need more players with an edge that won’t take any bullshit.

 

[riverman]

will he be happy coming off the bench though? I think thats the biggest q

I think it's more would he rather tag team with Nurk or Skal…..one is going to tire his guy out more than the other for you

 

[riverman]

Basketball is played on hardwood, not paper.

It's definitely not played in hindsight or in print either

 

[gatorpops]

You got to look at the players too. It like it was the plan going in to have player and ball movement and the plan was was working until some our players decide to go back the old way doing that's not successful. I blamed it on the coach for not calling timeout and get on them about it but I also blame on CJ and Dame for not sticking with the plan. Due they are the leaders and due they got the ball in there hands majority of the time. They must get the ball to Hood because he also a player that when he gets rolling he by keep us in the game. Dame and CJ and the coach must regonize who has the hot hand. Especially when CJ and Dame has bad shooting night like Dame had last night. They also had Whiteside going to on the offense too. He doesn't have to be CJ and Dame lead us in scoring every night there couple other player can get rolling too.

Over all Dame had a good game last night with assist even though he did not shoot well. They were still box and one on him a lot and gave CJ openings.

 

[Orion Bailey]

I think in his mind he'd take a tech to make the guy think twice about getting in his grill again. Like punching the schoolyard bully even though you get dentention for doing it..it was worth it

fuck that, tired of having a bunch of Boy Scouts, we need more players with an edge that won’t take any bullshit.

okay. I gotcha. Our enforcer!

 

[bobf]

How can you make any qualified assessment of stats from 5 years of players playing on different teams with different coaches in different systems and different chemistry and different conferences?
Playoffs or not the Blazers needed to get a center. They also needed to get rid of Turner. They could not continue to play Aminu. Harkless was good for 2 out of 7 games at best(Same thing he is doing now in LA). Do I need to remind you Curry was gonna get paid? So okay i'll give you maybe they could have kept Nards.

I think you can make that assessment. Good players used properly are still good when traded, bad players are still bad. There can be exceptions and variation, esp for a niche player like Aminu, but in general it averages out. But we'll see. If we even come close to making the playoffs (say 45 games), then I'll admit I was wrong.

I disagree that you could not continue to play Aminu & Harkless. Little scored 5 points yesterday. Yet do we win that game without his defense & energy? I don't think so. Aminu & Harkless played a similar role on the Blazers. I think they were sorely underrated. We didn't need them to create shots with Nurk, Dame, CJ on the floor, and they were good enough from 3 and around the rim to represent a threat.

I agree with getting rid of Turner. If all we lost was Curry, that could be offset by Simons. But Kanter, Leonard, Aminu, Harkless, and throw in Layman basically for Whiteside + unkown Pau is a big loss, even though I like Whiteside as a player.

 

[bobf]

Actually they only one they let go was Turner Harkless Leonard. Curry and Aminu was FA and they already made there minds they wasn't coming back.

I dunno, I can't read their minds. I can see Curry wanting to go elsewhere, but Aminu, Magic... really?

 

[kjironman1]

Good players used properly are still good when traded, bad players are still bad. There can be exceptions and variation, esp for a niche player like Aminu, but in general it averages out. But we'll see. If we even come close to making the playoffs (say 45 games), then I'll admit I was wrong.

This is fair. But honestly i'm not trying to say you are right or wrong. My preseason prediction was 48 and the 6th seed. I'm going to stick with that. It's very obtainable at this point but they must start to put it together soon.

 

[Scalma]

This is fair. But honestly i'm not trying to say you are right or wrong. My preseason prediction was 48 and the 6th seed. I'm going to stick with that. It's very obtainable at this point but they must start to put it together soon.

I agree, only 69 games left.

 

[kjironman1]

I dunno, I can't read their minds. I can see Curry wanting to go elsewhere, but Aminu, Magic... really?

It's been said the money was important. Remember one thing about Aminu. They call him Chief for a reason. His name translates in Nigeria to "The Chief Has Arrived" and he is a Prince. Aminu works very hard both on the court and off. Off court he also works with the Nigerian national team and does a great many things in Nigeria to help his people. I've always felt Aminu had a much bigger world view about things when it came to basketball.

 

[bobf]

Basketball is played on hardwood, not paper.

Right, that's why NBA teams routinely ignore analytics. We did ignore analytics by grossly overpaying ET and look where it got us.

 

[SIeepwalker]

So pretty much the entire second half, Sean Elliot bitched about how Dame's FTs in the third were bullshit and the league has gone soft and it coddles stars like Dame. He was obviously blind on the other end when Gay was getting and ones with hardly any contact. Then his PBP partner took over the complaining about how Dame was constantly getting calls while the refs were so inconsistent on the other end.

I can't stand these fools. So glad we don't have to see them for a while, and damn you, Sling for forcing me to only watch these idiots.

Those announcers were so shit it's unbelievable. They made me want a Blazers win 10x more

 

[Blazers1977]

It's been said the money was important. Remember one thing about Aminu. They call him Chief for a reason. His name translates in Nigeria to "The Chief Has Arrived" and he is a Prince. Aminu works very hard both on the court and off. Off court he also works with the Nigerian national team and does a great many things in Nigeria to help his people. I've always felt Aminu had a much bigger world view about things when it came to basketball.

He was a dominant defender. He never got any credit.

 

[Blazers1977]

Right, that's why NBA teams routinely ignore analytics. We did ignore analytics by grossly overpaying ET and look where it got us.

we also ignored the analytics when drafting Dame, look where it got us

 

[TorturedBlazerFan]

Right, that's why NBA teams routinely ignore analytics. We did ignore analytics by grossly overpaying ET and look where it got us.

My point wasnt so much that I think you’re wrong. If you want to present it as, well the analytics make it look like making the playoffs is going to be tough. Ok I wouldnt question it, as much. IMO opinion you presented it as, well theyve got 0 chance, cancel the season. Its not about telling you how to talk, or how to form your arguments or whatever, I just dont get that mentality this early in a season, when so much basketball is left. Heck when Nurk got hurt last year I thought they may spiral out of the playoffs, bit they didnt, point is, I think its too early just quit on their chances.

 

[bobf]

It's been said the money was important. Remember one thing about Aminu. They call him Chief for a reason. His name translates in Nigeria to "The Chief Has Arrived" and he is a Prince. Aminu works very hard both on the court and off. Off court he also works with the Nigerian national team and does a great many things in Nigeria to help his people. I've always felt Aminu had a much bigger world view about things when it came to basketball.

Loved Chief... my most missed among all the players now ex-Blazers.

 

[kjironman1]

He was a dominant defender. He never got any credit.

He got credit around here.

 

[Blazers1977]

He got credit around here.

Err I’m not sure he did, at least not by the people who are posting currently. The consensus about his signing with the magic seemed overwhelmingly positive when I was talking about it 2 months ago.

 

[Tince]

Pop is a horrible coach. No good leader would all his team to lose to this depleated Blazers squad. Certainly all the Stotts haters would agree with this logic?

I for one think Pop is a fantastic coach depsite the Spurs record and poor showing last night.

 

[tester551]

we also ignored the analytics when drafting Dame, look where it got us

Why do you think we ignored analytics with drafting Dame.

I remember looking at his draft class & him standing out as a good prospect from an analytic standpoint. He ranked very high in the P&R.

 

[hoopsjock]

I mentally ruled out playoffs after a few games. With the Tolliver, Hezonja path we started on we were a low possibly even sub 30’s win team. Even with Little looking promising, we still are playing god-awful Hezonja, so I don’t expect 41 wins unless Little really pans out and we get Simons more involved than he is.

Hmmm, you hate playing Tolliver and Hezonja but are also against Melo. So they needed a change but you're mad about it?

 

[hoopsjock]

I “blame” them in this regard, I think they put ALL their eggs in the Zach / Simons basket which is fine they both have potential to be good players someday, but didnt account for what happens if pne of those guys gets hurt. They definitely are not very deep at PG or PF.

They did have a plan. That's why they kept the 15th roster spot open. You may not like what they did but they did do something.

 

[hoopsjock]

Sure. He is only in his 4th year. But he is on a Vets minimum contract. he was never anything but a project. The thing is like usual during the summer people got their hopes up that he would somehow blossom in a few weeks. 8-10 weeks is not gonna bring out huge changes. Now throughout the season he might find a niche that he fills and then he needs to get comfortable and start making the shots they are giving him.

There was a play that has been talked about widely on here that happened in the Toronto game. Mario with the ball at the top of the key. Everyone just looked lost. The reason has been said "It's because Stotts has no offense". This is complete and udder bullshit! It's because Mario has been scouted. They did the same thing to him they have done to Aminu for years. It was all the sudden 5 defenders guarding 4 guys and begging him to shoot. Mario though put the ball on the floor and drove. This was trainwreck time for Aminu. The ball usually ended up in the third row off his knee. Mario needs to find his shot or this will continue to happen to him every time he is on the court.

That play was NOT on Mario. Literally everyone was standing around. No screens being set. No cuts being made. No one coming to the ball.