GAME THREAD: BLAZERS @ KNICKS - FEB. 5TH, 2014, WEDNESDAY, 5:00 PM, ESPN & CSNNW

[THE HCP]

He still makes dumb passes, though, HCP. Even the best assist people make 'em. Just pointing it out.

Just sit back and enjoy the fact that we have arguably one of the top 5 or 6 SF in the game.

 

[blue32]

blue32, please remember the POR/IND game is on ESPN as well. You don't want to fuck yourself twice in one week.

Heck yeah! locked and loaded! thank you.

 

[BBert]

Aldridge really stunk it up that game. I'm getting sick of him taking degree of difficulty "11" long turnaround fadeaways under pressure when Batum is standing wide open for a rhythm three. Is it my imagination or has Aldridge's shot selection and shooting gone into the toilet since he got named to the AS team? He had that huge game on national TV, and since then, it seems like it's been pretty bad.

Mo stunk too. That he scored late doesn't ameliorate that for me. It's like the guy with the Fatty Felton vid: just because Fatty made the one big shot doesn't negate all the shit he smeared all over the floor.

 

[Strenuus]

Aldridge really stunk it up that game. I'm getting sick of him taking degree of difficulty "11" long turnaround fadeaways under pressure when Batum is standing wide open for a rhythm three. Is it my imagination or has Aldridge's shot selection and shooting gone into the toilet since he got named to the AS team? He had that huge game on national TV, and since then, it seems like it's been pretty bad.

Mo stunk too. That he scored late doesn't ameliorate that for me. It's like the guy with the Fatty Felton vid: just because Fatty made the one big shot doesn't negate all the shit he smeared all over the floor.

I can't even be happy when Mo hits a shot... because there's so many negative things I remember him for that he most likely did the 6 or 7 consecutive plays before.

 

[THE HCP]

Aldridge really stunk it up that game. I'm getting sick of him taking degree of difficulty "11" long turnaround fadeaways under pressure when Batum is standing wide open for a rhythm three. Is it my imagination or has Aldridge's shot selection and shooting gone into the toilet since he got named to the AS team? He had that huge game on national TV, and since then, it seems like it's been pretty bad.

Mo stunk too. That he scored late doesn't ameliorate that for me. It's like the guy with the Fatty Felton vid: just because Fatty made the one big shot doesn't negate all the shit he smeared all over the floor.

Sucks that we lost huh? Maybe next time!

 

[riverman]

Well, unlike the Wolves, we tend to win close games..and that's a good thing. For the folks out there hating on the team and ranting about how we won, you might want to follow one of the other 29 franchises out there if one better suits your need for instant gratification..just sayin...Don't like Blazer defense or LaMarcus jumpshot? You can become a Pacers fan with just one click of a button! Go for it! Just please cease sucking the joy out of a win for the rest of the fanbase...make a choice! This is truly a season for enjoyment! Complaining is so 2012.

 

[maxiep]

You know you have arrived when we spend most of the thread criticizing the way we won. Ah, the luxury of being a good team.

 

[Natebishop3]

You know you have arrived when we spend most of the thread criticizing the way we won. Ah, the luxury of being a good team.

Dame sucks, LA takes too many jumpers, and Mo is the anti-Christ.

Did I miss anything?

 

[PapaG]

Aldridge really stunk it up that game. I'm getting sick of him taking degree of difficulty "11" long turnaround fadeaways under pressure when Batum is standing wide open for a rhythm three. Is it my imagination or has Aldridge's shot selection and shooting gone into the toilet since he got named to the AS team? He had that huge game on national TV, and since then, it seems like it's been pretty bad.

Mo stunk too. That he scored late doesn't ameliorate that for me. It's like the guy with the Fatty Felton vid: just because Fatty made the one big shot doesn't negate all the shit he smeared all over the floor.

LMA 15/12/5 with zero turnovers. Rotated the ball when doubled for open 3s.

+17 for the game.

Yeah, he "stunk it up." FFS, some of you just post ridiculous things.

 

[PapaG]

Dame sucks, LA takes too many jumpers, and Mo is the anti-Christ.

Did I miss anything?

CJ should be benched.

 

[PapaG]

You know you have arrived when we spend most of the thread criticizing the way we won. Ah, the luxury of being a good team.

That mindset just baffles me. BrianfromWA, Sinobas, and yuyuza excel at it.

 

[PapaG]

Sucks that we lost huh? Maybe next time!

Can you imagine how much bitching that guy would do if the Blazers had lost the game? Hilarious!

 

[Natebishop3]

CJ should be benched.

Dammit! I knew I forgot something.

 

[PapaG]

Dammit! I knew I forgot something.

That's OK. CJ was benched, so it was easy to forget him.

 

[Natebishop3]

That's OK. CJ was benched, so it was easy to forget him.

Well, he's a relatively new complaint. People have been bitching about LA, Mo, and Dame for weeks/months.

 

[PapaG]

Well, he's a relatively new complaint. People have been bitching about LA, Mo, and Dame for weeks/months.

You mean years for LMA, right?

 

[BrianFromWA]

That mindset just baffles me. BrianfromWA, Sinobas, and yuyuza excel at it.

Lots of things I say baffle you. Fortunately, you're not the intended audience.

 

[BrianFromWA]

LMA 15/12/5 with zero turnovers. Rotated the ball when doubled for open 3s.

+17 for the game.

Yeah, he "stunk it up." FFS, some of you just post ridiculous things.

For someone who uses things like "PER/USG" and "WS/48" in a 200-minute sample when talking about 9th men on the team, your obliviousness towards things like "efficiency" and "TS%" smacks of utter hypocrisy when it comes to one of the team's starters.

 

[PapaG]

For someone who uses things like "PER/USG" and "WS/48" in a 200-minute sample when talking about 9th men on the team, your obliviousness towards things like "efficiency" and "TS%" smacks of utter hypocrisy when it comes to one of the team's starters.

Oh, really? Tell me how CJ's WS/48 and PER/USG stack up to anyone else in a thread dedicated to a player 'we now have finally seen.'

Your anti-LMA bias is well-known. You have your fan club, since you're a mod and people are sheeple and typically don't like confrontation, but railing against LMA as much as you do seems silly, and once LMA started to hit some shots in this game, you disappeared from the game thread and/or didn't give LMA any credit for passing out of double teams by the Knicks.

You cherry-pick stats that you think help support your pre-conceived opinion. You then call those "facts." It's an obvious example of first having a conclusion, and then finding data to support it. You then write a lengthy post based on stats you find to support your premise, while omitting data that opposes it.

Dumb people may fall for it. I don't. Sorry.

 

[PapaG]

Oh, and Brian, CJ McCollum is playing so poorly right now that Stotts benched him. Yet I'm the idiot who thought he was playing like shit, and had you arguing against my thoughts on CJ.

 

[BrianFromWA]

I didn't think you were an idiot for saying CJ was playing like shit...he is not playing well, and I agreed on just about every count.

I thought it was incongruous that you were railing against CJ playing like shit while simultaneously saying that Mo shouldn't lose his minutes, when Mo's actually playing even worse than CJ is. And that incongruity is what I was pointing out to you, when you thought I was "arguing your thoughts on CJ".

FWIW, Stotts' benching of CJ neither validates nor invalidates any opinion I have of him. Unless you think that Leonard has twice justified taking all of Robinson's minutes as well, or that Mo's the best backup PG in the league solely because Stotts so opines to the media.

 

[BrianFromWA]

Oh, really? Tell me how CJ's WS/48 and PER/USG stack up to anyone else in a thread dedicated to a player 'we now have finally seen.'

You've already done the math on that, and I gave you credit for doing so. I don't pretend to rely on multiple-derivative stats in miniscule samples to buttress arguments. Everything I use can be found on basketball reference, 82 games or nba.com. I like when you bring them up, because it's an aspect that I generally don't look at (I don't feel the need to invent more stats, other than Tongue-in-Cheek ones like "Coin Ratio" for Mo), and you'll notice that I don't give you crap for doing so. What I was bringing up was the dichotomy between ignoring the "mainline" stats like FG%, eFG%, and TS% when comparing Mo vs CJ (CJ's winning in all of them) and using things like WS/48 to show he's horrible while Mo should keep his minutes; while when I bring up basic ones to discuss LMA, you stop discussing basketball and start making attacks. As you did after I answered about 43 of your questions with statistical proof, and you started your "JUMPSHOTJUMPSHOTJUMPSHOT! I didn't know LMA shot jumpshots! He shoots jumpshots?!" crusade.

Your anti-LMA bias is well-known.

The only reason this ridiculous premise is promulgated is because of your insistence on upping the rhetoric when proven wrong. You can't count how many times this year I've said something to the effect of "LMA's the best PF in the NBA not named LeBron" or "I hope he signs a max contract here".

You have your fan club,

That's refreshing.

since you're a mod and people are sheeple and typically don't like confrontation,

Or perhaps it could have nothing to do with being a mod, but being someone who attempts to use reason and statistics to back up opinion and hypothesis, whether complimentary to a player or no? I'm not the one who stated that he "posts to ridicule" in order to "bring an energy to the board". That's not "confrontation", because you're not making an honest argument.

but railing against LMA as much as you do seems silly,

I can see how it would seem that way, to someone who doesn't want to hear anything about it, but I'd point out that it didn't seem in the game thread that many others responded positively to the quality of play from the MVP candidate

and once LMA started to hit some shots in this game, you disappeared from the game thread and/or didn't give LMA any credit for passing out of double teams by the Knicks.

at my kids' bedtime I left for a while. My apologies for not giving LMA on-time credit for making 2 of the 4 shots he took in the 4th. Belatedly: Good job, LMA! As for your "didn't give LMA credit for passing out of double teams", you should probably revisit the game thread. Once again, your opinion is not backed up by fact. In fact, I deliberately left off the number of times LMA shot against a double-team and missed versus passing around for an open shot by someone else--something that I've been advocating for for a long time. I didn't notice you posting about WS/48 PER/USG or FG% when he was 1-10. IIRC it was something to the effect of "he has 5 assists! Sheesh, people". Even now you retort to BBert's opinion that LMA "stunk up the game" by pointing out his counting stats of 15/12/5. You don't seem to mention that 15pts on 17 shots isn't very good...in fact, it's 10% worse than CJ's "horrible" season shooting %. I can't think of too many greater incidences of "cherry-picking stats".

You cherry-pick stats that you think help support your pre-conceived opinion. You then call those "facts."

Yes, I call statistics "facts".

It's an obvious example of first having a conclusion, and then finding data to support it.

The original opinion was founded on "eye test" and supported by years of statistical proof. Each time someone attempts to use rhetoric to say "I told you so", I use 'facts" to support my opinion.

You then write a lengthy post based on stats you find to support your premise, while omitting data that opposes it.

It's not cherry-picking if every single one supports the premise that I've posted. Including ones that seemed to upset you, like "LMA shooting outside the paint gets as many points per shot as Andrea Bargnani" and "this isn't the best stretch of LMA's career" and "just about every offensive stat across the board for LMA is his career-worst, except for # of shots (21.1 vs. 17.8), ppg (24.4 to 21.8) and assists (2.9 to 2.6)". His FG%, eFG%, TS%, ORB%, TORB, are all the worst of his career.

Dumb people may fall for it. I don't. Sorry.

You don't have to attack other posters to get your point across. "Sheeple" and "dumb people" who may appreciate stats rather than invented rhetoric are posters with honorable intent and opinions.

 

[-Ace-]

you might want to follow one of the other 30 franchises out there

29.

 

[riverman]

29.

Good catch, my bad...29 it is! Fixed it

 

[PapaG]

You've already done the math on that, and I gave you credit for doing so. I don't pretend to rely on multiple-derivative stats in miniscule samples to buttress arguments. Everything I use can be found on basketball reference, 82 games or nba.com. I like when you bring them up, because it's an aspect that I generally don't look at (I don't feel the need to invent more stats, other than Tongue-in-Cheek ones like "Coin Ratio" for Mo), and you'll notice that I don't give you crap for doing so. What I was bringing up was the dichotomy between ignoring the "mainline" stats like FG%, eFG%, and TS% when comparing Mo vs CJ (CJ's winning in all of them) and using things like WS/48 to show he's horrible while Mo should keep his minutes; while when I bring up basic ones to discuss LMA, you stop discussing basketball and start making attacks. As you did after I answered about 43 of your questions with statistical proof, and you started your "JUMPSHOTJUMPSHOTJUMPSHOT! I didn't know LMA shot jumpshots! He shoots jumpshots?!" crusade.

The only reason this ridiculous premise is promulgated is because of your insistence on upping the rhetoric when proven wrong. You can't count how many times this year I've said something to the effect of "LMA's the best PF in the NBA not named LeBron" or "I hope he signs a max contract here". That's refreshing.Or perhaps it could have nothing to do with being a mod, but being someone who attempts to use reason and statistics to back up opinion and hypothesis, whether complimentary to a player or no? I'm not the one who stated that he "posts to ridicule" in order to "bring an energy to the board". That's not "confrontation", because you're not making an honest argument. I can see how it would seem that way, to someone who doesn't want to hear anything about it, but I'd point out that it didn't seem in the game thread that many others responded positively to the quality of play from the MVP candidate at my kids' bedtime I left for a while. My apologies for not giving LMA on-time credit for making 2 of the 4 shots he took in the 4th. Belatedly: Good job, LMA! As for your "didn't give LMA credit for passing out of double teams", you should probably revisit the game thread. Once again, your opinion is not backed up by fact. In fact, I deliberately left off the number of times LMA shot against a double-team and missed versus passing around for an open shot by someone else--something that I've been advocating for for a long time. I didn't notice you posting about WS/48 PER/USG or FG% when he was 1-10. IIRC it was something to the effect of "he has 5 assists! Sheesh, people". Even now you retort to BBert's opinion that LMA "stunk up the game" by pointing out his counting stats of 15/12/5. You don't seem to mention that 15pts on 17 shots isn't very good...in fact, it's 10% worse than CJ's "horrible" season shooting %. I can't think of too many greater incidences of "cherry-picking stats".

Yes, I call statistics "facts". The original opinion was founded on "eye test" and supported by years of statistical proof. Each time someone attempts to use rhetoric to say "I told you so", I use 'facts" to support my opinion.It's not cherry-picking if every single one supports the premise that I've posted. Including ones that seemed to upset you, like "LMA shooting outside the paint gets as many points per shot as Andrea Bargnani" and "this isn't the best stretch of LMA's career" and "just about every offensive stat across the board for LMA is his career-worst, except for # of shots (21.1 vs. 17.8), ppg (24.4 to 21.8) and assists (2.9 to 2.6)". His FG%, eFG%, TS%, ORB%, TORB, are all the worst of his career.

You don't have to attack other posters to get your point across. "Sheeple" and "dumb people" who may appreciate stats rather than invented rhetoric are posters with honorable intent and opinions.

LOL

You once again reached your conclusions, and then found stats to somewhat support them.

LMA is an All Star. Every coach in the West agrees with me. You tear his game apart. I'll take my opinion of his game, along with the coaches' opinions, over your cherry-picked stats.

What a weird post for a Blazer board, Brian. The Blazers are 35-14, and all you post about is your weird obsession with LMA and his jump shots. Being anti-LMA is deep inside of your head.

 

[Strenuus]

LOL

You once again reached your conclusions, and then found stats to somewhat support them.

LMA is an All Star. Every coach in the West agrees with me. You tear his game apart. I'll take my opinion of his game, along with the coaches' opinions, over your cherry-picked stats.

What a weird post for a Blazer board, Brian. The Blazers are 35-14, and all you post about is your weird obsession with LMA and his jump shots. Being anti-LMA is deep inside of your head.

To be fair, you are adding to it by continually bringing it up...

 

[BrianFromWA]

LOL

You once again reached your conclusions, and then found stats to somewhat support them.

It hasn't worked that way for 3 years.

LMA is an All Star. Every coach in the West agrees with me.

And I agree with you. See? Consensus!

You tear his game apart. I'll take my opinion of his game, along with the coaches' opinions, over your cherry-picked stats.

You're welcome to take whatever you like. I'm going to, until shown to be incorrect, maintain that shooting more shots than anyone in the league, and doing as well as Andrea Bargnani while doing it, is not helping the team. Perhaps we could be 38-11, which would be better than 35-14, no? I mean, if we'd have scored 2 more points against MIA, PHI, DAL and NOP, we might be 39-10 right now and in the #1 seed with Stotts coaching the ASG.

Don't get me wrong, I've posted many other stats that some might take umbrage with. Mo playing like garbage and not deserving anything close to 25 mpg, CJ playing about as bad as Mo, Wright shooting 35% from the field and 34% from 3 (but, due to the miracle of cherry-picking, still has an eFG% and TS% higher than the MVP candidate!), Nic making too many turnovers with bounce passes in traffic that don't get to their intended targets, Dame shooting 3s out of rhythm, etc. Somehow, (very reminiscent of your Outlaw campaign) you stop talking basketball and start lashing out whenever one of your favorites is shown to not be an MVP-level player or not to be in the "best stretch of his career". LMA doesn't care what I think. Stotts doesn't, either. I don't get paid for educating. I just think it's interesting to have something more than emotion to back up what I stand behind. To each their own.

What a weird post for a Blazer board, Brian. The Blazers are 35-14, and all you post about is your weird obsession with LMA and his jump shots. Being anti-LMA is deep inside of your head.

You're welcome to ignore the posts, PapaG. I notice you didn't refute any of them. At least you're now admitting that the stats "somewhat" support the opinion. Baby steps.

 

[PapaG]

[/B]

To be fair, you are adding to it by continually bringing it up...

To be fair, I didn't bring it up, other than to say BfromWA is consistently negative in game threads.

 

[PapaG]

It hasn't worked that way for 3 years.

And I agree with you. See? Consensus! You're welcome to take whatever you like. I'm going to, until shown to be incorrect, maintain that shooting more shots than anyone in the league, and doing as well as Andrea Bargnani while doing it, is not helping the team. Perhaps we could be 38-11, which would be better than 35-14, no? I mean, if we'd have scored 2 more points against MIA, PHI, DAL and NOP, we might be 39-10 right now and in the #1 seed with Stotts coaching the ASG.

Don't get me wrong, I've posted many other stats that some might take umbrage with. Mo playing like garbage and not deserving anything close to 25 mpg, CJ playing about as bad as Mo, Wright shooting 35% from the field and 34% from 3 (but, due to the miracle of cherry-picking, still has an eFG% and TS% higher than the MVP candidate!), Nic making too many turnovers with bounce passes in traffic that don't get to their intended targets, Dame shooting 3s out of rhythm, etc. Somehow, (very reminiscent of your Outlaw campaign) you stop talking basketball and start lashing out whenever one of your favorites is shown to not be an MVP-level player or not to be in the "best stretch of his career". LMA doesn't care what I think. Stotts doesn't, either. I don't get paid for educating. I just think it's interesting to have something more than emotion to back up what I stand behind. To each their own.


You're welcome to ignore the posts, PapaG. I notice you didn't refute any of them. At least you're now admitting that the stats "somewhat" support the opinion. Baby steps.

CJ is playing like dogshit. Compare him to Mo if you want, but he sucks right now. Mo sucks less than CJ.

As for the "could be" stuff regarding LMA, the Blazers could be 49-0 if LMA never missed a shot and dunked it every time. If the entire team shot 100%, they would be the greatest team ever. Your obsession with hating on LMA is noted by me, and yes, you do have a few fans who also hate LMA and his game. I tend to disregard those posters, because they don't have the balls to stand up to your anti-LMA bullying.

 

[PapaG]

I do refute your posts, Brian. When you say the Blazers could have a better record if LMA played better, I can counter that the Blazers could have a worse record if LMA played worse. Those are OPINIONS, though, and that's a concept that you seem to struggle with when someone challenges your opinions. When you're posting hypothetical records, those aren't facts, Jack.

Your constant derision of LMA should be called out by others, but instead, it's tolerated, and becomes the norm of the board, because you spend 45 minutes coming up with stats that seemingly back up your preconceived opinion.