Game Thread Game #19 - BLAZERS @ KINGS - NOVEMBER 24, 2021 - WEDNESDAY - 7:00 PM (PDT) ROOT SPORTS

[TBpup]

Where was all this CJ hate last game? Oh that's right - he was our best player in a win.

And everyone saying "trade him" but nobody comes up with remotely plausible trades that would improve the team.

Season after season after season after season. Bigger picture my friend. No one arguing that CJ can get hella hot at times and is an amazing shot creator. But the much bigger picture is how he fits with Dame when they are both ball dominant, smallish, poor defensive guards, and time after time, MeJ will continue to shoot ignoring teammates who are on fire....while he is bricking up a storm. Last night was just the last in a long line of examples.

 

[Fairly-Hard]

A bunch of people piling on CJ for a number of reasons and yes the criticism is warranted but it wasn't just him.
Roco- Played 15 minutes. (Less than usual). Got the "Total Zeros" on the box. Except for +/- which was -2
Nance really didn't well either but when he was on the court at least the team played pretty well. 5 points and 4 rebounds isn't blowing up a stat line.
Lillard didn't shoot particularly well either. He was getting to the line. Probably the saving grace for him. Without 15 points from free throws this is a blowout loss.
Snell played 5 mins and was a complete O fer on everything as well.
Zeller 10 mins and 2 points. Gotta give him credit for playing better and he grabbed 4 rebounds.
Smith Jr 20 mins 3 points.

Been the story all year. The rest of the team doesn't show up on the road. Nurk played a great game but you got to play a complete team game on the road.

 

[OneSport3]

A bunch of people piling on CJ for a number of reasons and yes the criticism is warranted but it wasn't just him.
Roco- Played 15 minutes. (Less than usual). Got the "Total Zeros" on the box. Except for +/- which was -2
Nance really didn't well either but when he was on the court at least the team played pretty well. 5 points and 4 rebounds isn't blowing up a stat line.
Lillard didn't shoot particularly well either. He was getting to the line. Probably the saving grace for him. Without 15 points from free throws this is a blowout loss.
Snell played 5 mins and was a complete O fer on everything as well.
Zeller 10 mins and 2 points. Gotta give him credit for playing better and he grabbed 4 rebounds.
Smith Jr 20 mins 3 points.

Been the story all year. The rest of the team doesn't show up on the road. Nurk played a great game but you got to play a complete team game on the road.

Maybe the less than usual 15 minutes that RoCo played was the result of him being ejected at the end of the 1st half…

 

[tester551]

And everyone saying "trade him" but nobody comes up with remotely plausible trades that would improve the team.

A major part if it is finding a team that would:
A) want him
B) will give reasonable value (something like Osman & Markkanen from Cleveland)
C) have contracts that will match trade restrictions

I've gone through the league rosters 3 or 4 time looking for something that I think both teams would entertain.... I haven't found a good solution

 

[TBpup]

Been the story all year. The rest of the team doesn't show up on the road. Nurk played a great game but you got to play a complete team game on the road.

"The rest of the team." What?

Powell, Nurk, Dame and Nas scored 98 points on 61 shots. Seems quite efficient from quite a number of the team. Not everyone is going to have a big game and you had plenty of players scoring very well. The problem is, CJ just HAD to jack up a team high, game high 20 shots thereby depriving TEAMMATES who were scoring very efficiently from getting shots that they were converting at a much higher rate.

 

[Sheldon Shape]

Once again we reverted to too much "hero ball" and forced bad shots from our guards late in the game. Nas hardly touched the ball on offense in the 4th qtr and he was playing such a good game and driviing to the hoop really well, Nurk and Norm had great games and when those 3 are playing so well why not keep them involved more and keep the ball moving? I just don't get Dame's and CJ's mentalities at times, IMO that likely cost us the game. Yeah the game before both were on fire

and how bout getting Nas some touches in the 2nd half and especially 4th qtr - he hardly touched the ball and was driving inside really well, hero ball pisses me off, so tired of it

100%. The three of Nurk, Nas and Norm needed more touches. They were great all fantastic. The only problem is that if Dame doesn't force it up, you have CJ who will. The only way to break this is by ending this unity.

We desperately need to trade CJ for Siakam or Simmons or even Ingraham.

 

[TBpup]

100%. The three of Nurk, Nas and Norm needed more touches. They were great all fantastic. The only problem is that if Dame doesn't force it up, you have CJ who will. The only way to break this is by ending this unity.

We desperately need to trade CJ for Siakam or Simmons or even Ingraham.

One of the reasons I think Simmons would be so good here is that he wouldn't demand so many shots. He is averaging 11.6 shots per game for his career vs CJ who is 18+ for the past 6 seasons. Simmons actually has a higher eFG% than CJ even though he can't shoot from the outside a lick.

His ability to be an elite decision maker (higher assist average than Dame) and elite multi-positional defender fits in perfectly with what Portland needs. Then take the 6 shots he isn't taking and distribute them to Powell, Nurk, Ant and Nas and we are a much more balanced team on offense and markedly better on defense.

 

[Buffalo Custard]

Where was all this CJ hate last game? Oh that's right - he was our best player in a win.

And everyone saying "trade him" but nobody comes up with remotely plausible trades that would improve the team.

Does that include the ones you have suggested? As you previously pointed out (Rubio trade discussion), a "plausible" deal might not be "palatable" to Olshey and/or the average fan.

 

[Sheldon Shape]

CJ was horrendous. Sucks he’s that selfish when Nukic is on fire.

Norman and Nassir too.

 

[James lamphear]

Majority of the people wants to trade CJ that's included me. But I want to trade for one reason he doesn't fit in Billups mold of player. Billups type player would a hard nose type player especially on defense and nothing against CJ I think he does what he capable of doing as volume shooter. But here the real problem what actually wants to trade for CJ a player volume shooter and below average defender and a big salary on top of things.

 

[THE HCP]

Oh no, I’m just a measly poster on the RipCityTwo forum. He should definitely hire BonesJones from the RipCityTwo forum who also has a YouTube channel which means he knows EVERYTHING about NBA basketball. You even had the audacity to tell Dame how to fix his jump shot a few weeks back. I’m glad Dame was watching and listened to you. Looks like his jumper is back now.

My family just had breakfast with him and his and the rest of the guys. His son was crawling all over him and he had the biggest smile on his face. Dame doesn’t give a shot what anybody on here thinks of him and his game. Too many important things in life going on. HA!

 

[Strenuus]

My family just had breakfast with him and his and the rest of the guys. His son was crawling all over him and he had the biggest smile on his face. Dame doesn’t give a shot what anybody on here thinks of him and his game. Too many important things in life going on. HA!

Wait... if you were with your family... then who was over here catfishing as Mrs. HCP?!

 

[Minstrel]

Dame doesn’t give a shot what anybody on here thinks of him and his game.

Dame doesn't give up too many shots, definitely. Never met a shot he didn't like (and, to be fair, hasn't hit at some point or another).

 

[Blazinaway]

ME-J’s game is based around his ability to create his own shot. He’s an absolutely fantastic shot creator. The issue, of course, is that our new coach is trying to help our team become more diverse on offense by moving the ball and in turn become a tad more difficult to guard come playoff time.

So until C-Chuck decides he wants to part of the future and not the past, this team is going to struggle

and we now have better and improving players to be a more diverse offensive team - Norm-Nas-Nurk-Ant can get the job done as was shown last night and in previous games. I was shocked when the game ended when I realized that Nas hardly touched the ball in the second half and he played a lot of that half, he will killing it on drives to the hoop, why not keep giving him some touches and keeping the defense off balance? Really dislike how we go so "guard" centric late in games

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Does that include the ones you have suggested? As you previously pointed out (Rubio trade discussion), a "plausible" deal might not be "palatable" to Olshey and/or the average fan.

My point exactly. So we're stuck with CJ, so everyone shut up about it. (Except me, when I come up with another genius idea.)

 

[blazerkor]

My point exactly. So we're stuck with CJ, so everyone shut up about it. (Except me, when I come up with another genius idea.)

If Olshey ends up being out, by no means are we stuck with CJ. I don't think we get back a star player for him unless we attach major draft assets and/or another starter quality player but that could be done. I think Philly would let Simmons and filler go for CJ, RoCo and somewhere in between one future first and two swaps and two firsts. The fact is that we as fans don't know who is available in this league but I think a lot of teams including Indy off the top of my head but also other teams, think they can do better with CJ than we have and would send back value for him. I don't think Olshey has ever just had CJ on the trade block (quite the opposite) and I bet if we did that their would be some real bidding for his services, even with his contract.

 

[Cugel]

Morey has no interest in CJ IMHO

 

[BBert]

you love to see aggressive nurk

I love to see slow down and play under control Nurk.

 

[BBert]

Wonder if we see more DSJ with Ant out tonight

DSJ really sucked in this game. So did Zeller and Snell, what little we saw of him. Missing Roco and Ant really hurt.

 

[BBert]

It worked but Nurk is not likely to finish that well going forward

Prophecy. When he went back in he was tired, his brain lacked oxygen, and he made a few too many bone head Nurk plays.

 

[BBert]

Nurk and Dame are rounding into form...good to see...Nurk has been great...I don't care what the haters say ....

I heard this to the tune of "Good Times Bad Times" hahahahaha

 

[BBert]

cj giving up so many straight line drives to the rim every damn possession. get nas in there

like a freaking red carpet for them out there and the Kings are attacking him like he's enes kanter. what's the use planning a defensive strategy when the on ball defense is non-existent.

Oh God I wish we could replace CJ in the starting lineup with NAS. Let him be a super sub.

 

[BBert]

He gently flung his mask towards the score table and it grazed the ref

Reminds me of that time in the playoffs when ball kicker Draymond Green was throwing one of his usual wild tantrums and he hit the ref so hard the ref was bleeding, and Draymond got ejected.

Wait, am I remembering that right?

 

[BBert]

it was a dumb decision in hindsight because dame got the board and we wasted a timeout to get Zeller out for the offensive possession.

we then got a 5 second count off a terrible ATO where someone screwed up. Kings broadcast didn't show too many angles, but i think it was either Dame trying his dumbass flop to draw a foul on the inbounds (that he NEVER gets) or Nurk not recognizing the clutter and clearing out

I was thinking before the free throw that if we get a miss and a rebound do not use the time out. Oof

 

[BBert]

When all else failed, CJ should have just gave the ball to Dame even though he was pinned to the sideline. At least don't just turn the fucking ball over.

In that situation is it okay to just bounce the ball off the other player's leg and get another out of bounds? I've never seen anyone do that.

 

[BBert]

which was not necessary. there was like 24 seconds left and we were down 4. i woulda saved my last timeout til the end.

timeouts and rotations, this is where i expected a first time head coach to struggle. scott brooks needs to get in billups' ear about this stuff. we haven't had too many close games

And push the ball with the other team off balance. I hate giving the other team a chance to talk strategy and set their defense.

 

[BBert]

One of the reasons I think Simmons would be so good here is that he wouldn't demand so many shots. He is averaging 11.6 shots per game for his career vs CJ who is 18+ for the past 6 seasons. Simmons actually has a higher eFG% than CJ even though he can't shoot from the outside a lick.

His ability to be an elite decision maker (higher assist average than Dame) and elite multi-positional defender fits in perfectly with what Portland needs. Then take the 6 shots he isn't taking and distribute them to Powell, Nurk, Ant and Nas and we are a much more balanced team on offense and markedly better on defense.

If only. Too bad we have nothing to offer.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

DSJ really sucked in this game.

And yet, strangely, he was our best +/- guy, with +10 in 20 mins.

 

[wizenheimer]

If Olshey ends up being out, by no means are we stuck with CJ. I don't think we get back a star player for him unless we attach major draft assets and/or another starter quality player but that could be done. I think Philly would let Simmons and filler go for CJ, RoCo and somewhere in between one future first and two swaps and two firsts. The fact is that we as fans don't know who is available in this league but I think a lot of teams including Indy off the top of my head but also other teams, think they can do better with CJ than we have and would send back value for him. I don't think Olshey has ever just had CJ on the trade block (quite the opposite) and I bet if we did that their would be some real bidding for his services, even with his contract.

I don't believe Philly wants anything to do with CJ. They are getting much better production from Maxey & Curry

points/game: CJ 21....Maxey/Curry 35
assists/game: CJ 4.4....Maxey/Curry 7.1
TS%: CJ .533....Maxey/Curry .615
winshares/48: CJ .085....Maxey/Curry .257

salary: CJ 32M....Maxey/Curry 11M

they do not need a 3rd small guard, especially when they have 6'5 Matise Thybulle and 6'5 Shake Milton

 

[wizenheimer]

And yet, strangely, he was our best +/- guy, with +10 in 20 mins.

yet another in an endless stream of examples why that stat is worthless for single games