Where has that gone? Other than an occasional Hezonja play where he tries to be aggressive we aren't running at all.
So I don't remember I think it was the clippers game, but Mario had a TO where he got a rebound and was looking to pass to the wing, it was either Simons or Bazemore I think, but they decided to turn away and he had a turnover that looked silly and embarrassing. I thought that displayed a lot of what's going on with the 2nd unit though. The best way to break is to pass, the ball will move faster than Mario can run his initial thought of pass it to the guy already running, made sense, but there was almost no cohesion there on if they should be pushing the ball or not. So he ends up with a TO everyone says what's wrong with that guy, but that's a matter of players not being on the same page, which sure may be partially on Mario but it seems to really point to a somewhat deeper problem, it seems like so far this year the team, in general, isn't on the same page. Makes you wonder at times what the focus was on during Camp, because offensively they're are guys who have been in the system and obviously sort of get it and a bunch of guys At least like 6 of them off the top of my head who seems to be not completely on the same page as to where they need to go.
I get there are injuries, and it's early but they seem so disjointed, Mario seems that way, but at times so Does, Simons, Whiteside, Skal, Bazemore, Tolliver they seem unsure of should we be pushing the pace should we slow down. There's been a bunch of times they're passing the ball around the perimeter and a guy just isn't where they believe they should be.
Then defensively they're a mess, feels like 10-15 times a quarter they're looking at each other like was that my assignment?
I think they and this includes Dame, made it to the WCF's, and said we have arrived, we don't need to do the process like we've been doing it. Dame acknowledged he wasn't going to do an SD trip to get people together outside of basketball he has done in the past. They all talked about oh this team was in the WCF's last year, the approach to this year seems to have forgotten that there is a lot that goes on to get people on the same page, and that starts at the top and ends at the bottom, that's a management/coaching issue. You never heard SAS say well we made it to WCF's, or the Finals we don't need to go about the same process we did last year, you never heard GS do that, or Lebron, and yes all those teams / players were great, but the Blazers have said there a Championship team, that in their minds it's kind of "Championship or bust", but they seem to think just making the WCF's last year proved something for this year, and it didn't.
I believe Dame is a great leader and a great player, and that he can will this team to a bunch of wins, but it looks like they're just in the last week realizing oh we need to be on the same page defensively and offensively and so a process that should have started a month ago, seems like it's being started a little late, and is becoming even more complex the more injuries and young players are being thrown into the mix.
Sorry for this soliloquy, just kind of vomitting out thoughts on the season so far.
