Game Thread GAME# 41: CAVALIERS @ BLAZERS - JANUARY 11, 2017 - WEDNESDAY, 7:30 PM (PDT), ESPN & KGW

[TBpup]

When Aminu was healthy before. Completely tiny sample size. What 5-6 games? Very early in the season with Turner also trying to adjust? Not a fair take in my opinion.

Fair enough....yet some are giving credence for almost the same short time period for these better defensive results.

 

[Orion Bailey]

Fair enough....yet some are giving credence for almost the same short time period for these better defensive results.

True too. I suppose time will tell? Man I hope we are both wrong and the right answer is we don't know, don't care, just keep doing what we did last night! lol

 

[Wizard Mentor]

Now we could use a healthy Festus....

greedy bastard!!!

 

[BBert]

greedy bastard!!!

Yes. Yes I am.

 

[Nikolokolus]

I'm much more interested in their points per possession than raw points per game. Anybody know how to quickly look that up? (I'd do it, but work beckons).

 

[Strenuus]

Be consitent... Then ill take notice. Not enough of a sample size.


In b4 kingspeed 5 game sample size. I need more.

 

[BonesJones]

Aminu's return has help but they were playing terrible defense before he went out so it can't all be just him. Stotts finally decided to implement a more aggressive defense instead of just sitting back and letting teams do whatever they wanted. Glad he did that....just wonder why he waited so long?

Exactly - the increase in defense is 95% due to the massive change in defensive philosophy that Stotts FINALLY implemented. It just happened to roughly correspond to Aminu's return. Correlation does not equal causation.

The funny thing is, I got a lot of hate for saying that I would be a better coach them Stotts only because I'd implement these defensive schemes. I got a lot of hate when I said Stotts needed to be fired if he didn't switch his defensive schemes.

Well look at that...

 

[riverman]

I got a lot of hate for saying that I would be a better coach them Stotts

duh

 

[BlazerDuckSeahawkFan94]

Be consitent... Then ill take notice. Not enough of a sample size.


In b4 kingspeed 5 game sample size. I need more.

18-0! Get it done Neil

 

[Boob-No-More]

I'm much more interested in their points per possession than raw points per game. Anybody know how to quickly look that up? (I'd do it, but work beckons).

Basketball-reference.com includes DRtg, both individual and team. as part of their advanced box scores. DRtg is defined as points per 100 possessions.

For the season, our team DRtg is currently at 112.0 - which is 29th of 30 teams.

Although the tweet, mentions the last 8 games, I'm going to include the TOR game, as that's when the defensive schemes and improvement started.

Here's a list of our opponents and team DRtg for the last 9 games:

TOR - 96.6
SAC - 96.3
SAS - 119.2
MIN - 93.8
GSW - 120.1
LAL - 110.8
DET - 113.0
LAL - 93.1
CLE - 92.2
Nine Game Average Team DRtg = 103.9

As you can see, this is a work in progress and we're still a bit inconsistent. And, while a DRtg rating of 103.9 may not, at first glance look impressive, in today's NBA it actually is - very impressive. Here's a list of the top 4 defensive teams in the league (for the season to date):

SAS - 104.1
GSW - 104.2
MEM - 104.3
UTA - 104.4

9 games is a relatively small sample size, so it's yet to be seen if the team can maintain this level of defense for the remainder of the season. There are bound to be comments about the quality of our opponents over that 9 game stretch, but keep in mind, 4 of our 9 opponents during that stretch are among the top 5 offensive teams in the league, and even MIN is 10th in the league in ORtg.

Here's a look at our last nine opponents and their ORtg (for the season to date):

TOR - 115.4
SAC - 107.4
SAS - 112.9
MIN - 109.2
GSW - 115.9
LAL - 107.0
DET - 106.1
LAL - 107.0
CLE - 112.9
Nine Game Average OPP Seasonal ORtg = 110.4

The league average ORtg is 108.0. A team DRtg of 110.4 would be good for 8th of 30 teams.

For the last nine games, our average DRtg of 103.9, if sustainable, would rank us among the best defenses in the league. Furthermore, for those nine games, our opponents, as a group, have been much better than league average offensive teams.

In other words, we are playing great defense, and we're not doing it against a bunch of chumps. We are, in general terms, holding some very good offensive teams well below their seasonal average offensive output.

BNM

 

[SlyPokerDog]

Be consitent... Then ill take notice. Not enough of a sample size.


In b4 kingspeed 5 game sample size. I need more.

"Hey you kids, get off my snow covered lawn!"

 

[BonesJones]

duh

But I was right...

 

[blue9]

The funny thing is, I got a lot of hate for saying that I would be a better coach them Stotts only because I'd implement these defensive schemes. I got a lot of hate when I said Stotts needed to be fired if he didn't switch his defensive schemes.

Well look at that...

The really sad thing is that most any schmuck (not calling you a schmuck) could have seen what needed to be changed, yet it took Tater Totts, what?, 5 (FIVE!) years to finally get around to it. Pathetic. I do like that he finally did what was plainly obvious to so many of us, and hope that he has more adjustments up his sleeve. But I'm not at all sold on him being anything more than an average coach who does little to affect the team's W/L record.

 

[Nikolokolus]

Probably 80% of coaches in the NBA have marginal affect on wins and losses.

 

[Strenuus]

"Hey you kids, get off my snow covered lawn!"

Or is it cocaine?

 

[SlyPokerDog]

Or is it cocaine?

Where do you live? I'll be right over!

 

[riverman]

Where do you live? I'll be right over!

bad cold...right

 

[THE HCP]

Nobody mentioned seeing The HCP on the news the yesterday......

 

[riverman]

Nobody mentioned seeing The HCP on the news the yesterday......

View attachment 11841

of course they "cover" it....so no one will see it...that shadow shufflin' bags under the dark side of the plane looks like a road tripper though

 

[Orion Bailey]

Or is it cocaine?

hmmmmm...well for what its worth, I did just go out and try a sample and it made my nose numb.....

Where do you live? I'll be right over!

The cure for all colds!

bad cold...right

Right. Again. the cure for all colds!!!