Game Thread Game #21 - BLAZERS @ JAZZ - NOVEMBER 29, 2021 - MONDAY - 6:00 PM (PDT) ROOT SPORTS

[AldoTrapani]

That would be shortly before you tell us Simons is garbage. Or don’t you recall a few games ago you were telling us he’d fallen off. Remember?

He did. Now he’s doing well again. I’m not a Homer fam. I tell it how it’s going

 

[Buffalo Custard]

WHAT PART OF OLSHEY SAID IT WASN'T THE ROSTER ARE YOU NOT UNDERSTANDING?!?

The part where Olshey has not been drug into the street by fans and beaten with all the bricks the team has been laying.

 

[calvin natt]

1-10 on the road is completely pathetic my god.

 

[bobf]

Somebody on here had the nerve to tell me Nurk is better than this guy lmao

I think I also told you I might be in the minority on that opinion which means it's pretty close. Now instead of CHERRY PICKING a single game like someone who has no clue, how about their season stats: Nurk wins 9 of 11 categories including all the overall advanced stats.

 

[Buffalo Custard]

I am trying so hard to give Billups a fair chance - but every game like this makes it harder to be patient.

 

[AldoTrapani]

How did Simons play fewer minutes than Lillard and McCollum?
Simons was 10-15 and they were 11-29.

Salary

 

[AldoTrapani]

1-10 on the road is completely pathetic my god.

Dude even Stotts wouldn’t do that

 

[AldoTrapani]

I am trying so hard to give Billups a fair chance - but every game like this makes it harder to be patient.

Yea I loved the hire and even i’d admit he’s been a disaster

 

[wizenheimer]

Dame is being used as a human turnstile out there if he's going to be playing off ball most possessions. I think that experiment has run its course.

I agree. It seemed like a real questionable scheme when Billups said he was going to implement it. Getting the ball out of Dame's hands has been the goal of every team Portland has faced for 8 years and Billups was going to do it for free

I mentioned it earlier in the thread: in the 3rd Q it was around the 10:26 (est.) mark before Dame got his first touch, and he had the ball for about 2 seconds before passing it. He didn't touch the ball on the next Blazer possession. The next time he touched was about the 9:21 mark when he drove and passed. he didn't get his first shot till the 8:44 mark on his 3rd touch of the Q. Portland started the Q down 4; when Dame got his first shot they were down 13

we've all got theories for why Dame has struggled this season: 1st season as a married man; abdominal injury; short off-season; new rules; new coach; new ball. But maybe part of the problem is the scheme of playing him off the ball. It's not getting Dame any more open shot opportunities; his assisted FG rate hasn't increased much at all. But maybe it's making it hard for him to get back any consistent rhythm

 

[bobf]

Someone check to see if Neil is looking at a Texas move.

I need something to look forward to

Hey, stop that. I live in Texas.

 

[PCmor7]

My two cents ... maybe three cents with inflation ...

* This was one of those games where statistics really were misleading. Nurk finished with good numbers, but I thought he only brought it in spurts. For the most part, he seemed unmotivated and Gobert was his dad. It's very hard to win when Nurk isn't locked in for his 28 minutes.
* Ant shot the ball well, but I thought the game really turned on an easy play that he didn't convert in the first quarter when he boned the layup when the Jazz backed off on his baseline drive. We were rolling and had momentum, but the Jazz come down and hit a 3. Then C.J. comes down and wastes a possession trying for a style-point buck and the Jazz come down and hit another 3, and our nice early lead was gone. I think the Jazz thought Ant was going to flush it, but Ant seemed to be expecting a shotblocker there. Thing is, he has a clear path. He has to go hard and TRY to throw it down. He has these incredible hops but they're wasted on him. He plays like he thinks he's Steph Curry or Lou Williams.
* CJ, CJ, CJ ... smh. It's not that he is selfish and takes bad shots for me so much as WHEN he tries to play hero ball. I could feel that stretch after the Ant miss was a potential momentum-changer. We missed a bunny. They hit a 3. After that, I want to work the clock a bit and get a quality shot or get fouled. I don't want the opponent getting on a roll. Coming down in that situation and just running false offense is poor game sense. It's a lack of awareness. I think these are bad habits from all the years of Terry Stotts, who just let this stuff slide. Breaking him and Dame of that mentality probably isn't doable at this point, at least not to a great degree.
* A lot of people are going to probably think the Jazz's ball movement is what got them running downhill offensively. I think it actually was before that. It's our guards inability to keep the opponents' guards from driving into the paint to initiate thing. When that happens, someone has to help and then the defense has to scramble, recover and close out. That's often going to end up resulting in open 3s for any team that moves the ball quickly. When our guards were able to contest the initial penetrator on their own, Utah's offense completely broke down. It's not our guards' lack of height that's an issue as much as their on-and-off commitment to stopping the dribble.
* Almost all the teams we're competing with to get into the playoffs in the West are deeper than us. That's not misfortune. We blame Stotts or we blame Olshey. In reality, both created that situation. First, Stotts aversion to playing young players and his failure to develop those he did play. Then, the Blazers end up overspending assets on role players like RoCo. A guy picked just outside the lottery can be a rotation player, but it doesn't help you if you're trading away those picks. Both moves are attempts to tread water in the standings. Eventually, you run out of stamina and start to sink.
* Our supporting cast has to be able to do one thing on offense: Make open shots. Look at teams like the Jazz. Their non-stars at least make open shots. Our guys aren't nearly that sure to knock down an open 3 if Dame drives, draws and kicks, and that lets teams just swarm him and CJ with defenders. TBF, CJ and to a lesser extent Dame don't really set up their teammates particularly well on the drive. A lot of Dame's assists are on PnR. When those guys get a seam to the hoop, they're looking to score, not to create an even better shot for someone else.

 

[BBert]

My two cents ... maybe three cents with inflation ...

* This was one of those games where statistics really were misleading. Nurk finished with good numbers, but I thought he only brought it in spurts. For the most part, he seemed unmotivated and Gobert was his dad. It's very hard to win when Nurk isn't locked in for his 28 minutes.
* Ant shot the ball well, but I thought the game really turned on an easy play that he didn't convert in the first quarter when he boned the layup when the Jazz backed off on his baseline drive. We were rolling and had momentum, but the Jazz come down and hit a 3. Then C.J. comes down and wastes a possession trying for a style-point buck and the Jazz come down and hit another 3, and our nice early lead was gone. I think the Jazz thought Ant was going to flush it, but Ant seemed to be expecting a shotblocker there. Thing is, he has a clear path. He has to go hard and TRY to throw it down. He has these incredible hops but they're wasted on him. He plays like he thinks he's Steph Curry or Lou Williams.
* CJ, CJ, CJ ... smh. It's not that he is selfish and takes bad shots for me so much as WHEN he tries to play hero ball. I could feel that stretch after the Ant miss was a potential momentum-changer. We missed a bunny. They hit a 3. After that, I want to work the clock a bit and get a quality shot or get fouled. I don't want the opponent getting on a roll. Coming down in that situation and just running false offense is poor game sense. It's a lack of awareness. I think these are bad habits from all the years of Terry Stotts, who just let this stuff slide. Breaking him and Dame of that mentality probably isn't doable at this point, at least not to a great degree.
* A lot of people are going to probably think the Jazz's ball movement is what got them running downhill offensively. I think it actually was before that. It's our guards inability to keep the opponents' guards from driving into the paint to initiate thing. When that happens, someone has to help and then the defense has to scramble, recover and close out. That's often going to end up resulting in open 3s for any team that moves the ball quickly. When our guards were able to contest the initial penetrator on their own, Utah's offense completely broke down. It's not our guards' lack of height that's an issue as much as their on-and-off commitment to stopping the dribble.
* Almost all the teams we're competing with to get into the playoffs in the West are deeper than us. That's not misfortune. We blame Stotts or we blame Olshey. In reality, both created that situation. First, Stotts aversion to playing young players and his failure to develop those he did play. Then, the Blazers end up overspending assets on role players like RoCo. A guy picked just outside the lottery can be a rotation player, but it doesn't help you if you're trading away those picks. Both moves are attempts to tread water in the standings. Eventually, you run out of stamina and start to sink.
* Our supporting cast has to be able to do one thing on offense: Make open shots. Look at teams like the Jazz. Their non-stars at least make open shots. Our guys aren't nearly that sure to knock down an open 3 if Dame drives, draws and kicks, and that lets teams just swarm him and CJ with defenders. TBF, CJ and to a lesser extent Dame don't really set up their teammates particularly well on the drive. A lot of Dame's assists are on PnR. When those guys get a seam to the hoop, they're looking to score, not to create an even better shot for someone else.

That was at least 10 cents.

 

[TBpup]

Utah has played some garbage teams as of late.....but it took Portland's lack of effort, size, and ability to give a crap to score a season high 129 points.

If they aren't going to care, why should we? Honestly, this is apathy for the most part and it is embarrassing.

HOW THE F*CK LONG do we have to put up with this Dame/CJ nonsense? Over 1/2 a decade of proof over and over again that a smallish, scoring, non-defensive minded backcourt does not work. Shooting the majority of shots while asking endless rotations of teammates to cover up for them on defense gets so old and you can see the looks on other players faces and occasional soundbites that speak to what a crappy out of balance roster this is. Olshey is an idiot in putting this roster together, but the lack of effort is so UN RIP CITY it makes me feel worse than ordering late-night Taco Bell in college.

 

[MickZagger]

3 after 3 after 3 after 3. Lots of corner 3’s

Easy buckets in the paint because of bigs getting lost on switches.

Yikes

 

[Strenuus]

8 more games.... 8 more games....

 

[AldoTrapani]

Since the Dame/Cj era how many teams rebuilt and are already better than us?

 

[royo]

Billups should have some sayings in trades that hopefully will happen.
Olshey have to be gone first, cos he will never trade his golden boy.

 

[blazerfan11]

In the whole league, no team has fewer losses at home than the Trail Blazers (Golden State is tied with one loss).
And in the whole league, only one team has fewer road wins than the Trail Blazers. Houston has zero. Nobody is tied at one road win with Portland. The Pelicans drubbed the Clippers in LA so even they have two road wins.

 

[THE HCP]

30 games

 

[PCmor7]

That was at least 10 cents.

I thought about reading it over before I posted, but it was too long.

 

[Cugel]

what do you do, fire Billups at the end of the season?
I never imagined the team would be this bad. Lillard is at an all time low.
My only suggestion is to completely nuke this team. Save only Nas, Ant, Powell, and Nance. Everyone else just fucking go already. 70 mil a year for those two?
fuck me. Either Dame is a) done in the league, b) wants out so bad he is mailing it in, or c) is seriously injured. There are NO other options. Portland would be better off with just Norm, Ant, and DSJ, easily.

 

[wizenheimer]

I thought about reading it over before I posted, but it was too long.

lol...when you give a TLDR review to your own post, you have officially wasted part of your life while showing the good sense not to double down.

 

[AldoTrapani]

30 games

Meh it’s close enough fam

 

[AldoTrapani]

what do you do, fire Billups at the end of the season?
I never imagined the team would be this bad. Lillard is at an all time low.
My only suggestion is to completely nuke this team. Save only Nas, Ant, Powell, and Nance. Everyone else just fucking go already. 70 mil a year for those two?
fuck me. Either Dame is a) done in the league, b) wants out so bad he is mailing it in, or c) is seriously injured. There are NO other options. Portland would be better off with just Norm, Ant, and DSJ, easily.

Ahh finally you guys are seeing the light smh

 

[FlashWad]

what do you do, fire Billups at the end of the season?
I never imagined the team would be this bad. Lillard is at an all time low.
My only suggestion is to completely nuke this team. Save only Nas, Ant, Powell, and Nance. Everyone else just fucking go already. 70 mil a year for those two?
fuck me. Either Dame is a) done in the league, b) wants out so bad he is mailing it in, or c) is seriously injured. There are NO other options. Portland would be better off with just Norm, Ant, and DSJ, easily.

he had that 39 point game and some where like see how could you doubt him but then has multiple games like this and say nothing.

 

[bobf]

He did. Now he’s doing well again. I’m not a Homer fam. I tell it how it’s going

That’s variance not falling off. It’s normal ups and downs all players experience. That’s why he’s up again a few games after you said that. He’ll probably have some bad games in his next ten.

 

[THE HCP]

Well at least nobody can see the games anyway right?

 

[GDiama]

He did. Now he’s doing well again. I’m not a Homer fam. I tell it how it’s going

This is not either homer or i tell it how it's going. It's you being as inconsistent as Nurkic. You are clearly hot headed when this team is playing.

 

[FlashWad]

what do you do, fire Billups at the end of the season?
I never imagined the team would be this bad. Lillard is at an all time low.
My only suggestion is to completely nuke this team. Save only Nas, Ant, Powell, and Nance. Everyone else just fucking go already. 70 mil a year for those two?
fuck me. Either Dame is a) done in the league, b) wants out so bad he is mailing it in, or c) is seriously injured. There are NO other options. Portland would be better off with just Norm, Ant, and DSJ, easily.

I was excited for Billups but it seems he is not ready to be a head coach.

 

[TBpup]

Well at least nobody can see the games anyway right?

Still haven't seen a single one. An all time first for me, and sadly, bit missing much. I'll go back to vesting quality time and money when the franchise and the players give a crap.