Hero ball = top lottery pick

[Orion Bailey]

A - Our regular rotation players played a lot of minutes during pre-season. And pre-season is exactly for working on what I discussed (working together as 5-man units, getting prepared for the regular season). What we saw in pre-season was Dame/CJ scoring heavily - that's not a priority at all in pre-season.
B - I'll be shocked if Stotts has many plays. To this point in his Blazers career he's mostly gone with a free lance offense with very few set plays.

Your acting as though these are the only two that touched the ball. Harkless had a good preseason.

I agree with A. I disagree with B. If Dame and CJ are taking the bulk of the shots in the regular season, then don't we want our bigs to know their positions? How else to do that but to practice that in preseason? Again, its not about these two shooting, it about the rest of the team and what they do WHEN these two are shooting. The team must prep for that. Pretty common sense to me. Are you as Stotts hater?

 

[Reep]

Your acting as though these are the only two that touched the ball. Harkless had a good preseason.

I agree with A. I disagree with B. If Dame and CJ are taking the bulk of the shots in the regular season, then don't we want our bigs to know their positions? How else to do that but to practice that in preseason? Again, its not about these two shooting, it about the rest of the team and what they do WHEN these two are shooting. The team must prep for that. Pretty common sense to me. Are you as Stotts hater?

Stotts Hater? So if you like ball movement offense where Dame and CJ create, but everyone scores evenly then you are a hater because you don't like Dame and CJ taking 60% of the shots?

Stotts offense is a thing of beauty, and I believe, and hope and pray, that this last game was not really the goal. We will find out shortly, but I can't imagine anyone will be happy with the guards jacking up that many shots. It will lead to massive losses and discontent. Once the regular season starts I think this thread will die away and everyone will be happy with the balance. I think.

 

[blue9]

Are you as Stotts hater?

I'm a huge skeptic, and I can easily see myself becoming a hater this season. This is his chance to change my opinion of him. But it's gonna be a huge uphill battle for him to do so, because he has a lot of past stupidity to overcome.

 

[UncleCliffy'sDaddy]

I think Stotts has done the best he can with the players he's had the past three years. He's had a crappy bench so he had to play his starters major minutes, he had to use Aldridge about the only way anyone could effectively use him, and he had to cater to said prima donna rather than let the true leader of the team lead. I think Stotts is finally going to be able to coach to both his (Stott's) and Dame's strengths this year. And regardless, Stott's is 100% better than McMillian. Now there was some butt ugly basketball.....

 

[blue9]

I think Stotts has done the best he can with the players he's had the past three years. He's had a crappy bench so he had to play his starters major minutes, he had to use Aldridge about the only way anyone could effectively use him, and he had to cater to said prima donna rather than let the true leader of the team lead. I think Stotts is finally going to be able to coach to both his (Stott's) and Dame's strengths this year. And regardless, Stott's is 100% better than McMillian. Now there was some butt ugly basketball.....

Agree and disagree. I don't care enough at this point (I'll save it for later in the season when Stotts is failing the team) to get into it.
I'll just say in response to your Nate comparison that being better than Nate isn't something to hang ones hat on. I can dislike Nate and still dislike Stotts, even though Stotts is clearly better. It's a bit like comparing a fresh turd to a moldy turd.

 

[Orion Bailey]

Stotts Hater? So if you like ball movement offense where Dame and CJ create, but everyone scores evenly then you are a hater because you don't like Dame and CJ taking 60% of the shots?

Stotts offense is a thing of beauty, and I believe, and hope and pray, that this last game was not really the goal. We will find out shortly, but I can't imagine anyone will be happy with the guards jacking up that many shots. It will lead to massive losses and discontent. Once the regular season starts I think this thread will die away and everyone will be happy with the balance. I think.

Okay, were more on the same page than I previously thought.

I'm a huge skeptic, and I can easily see myself becoming a hater this season. This is his chance to change my opinion of him. But it's gonna be a huge uphill battle for him to do so, because he has a lot of past stupidity to overcome.

Please name some? All coaches experiment and some experiments fail. I think Stotts has kinda had his hands tied and this is the year he has free reign to develop this team. He needs to make sure he has the right assistants in place (obviously he better already or now is too late). And he needs to have a good handle on each players upsides, weaknesses and strengths. Fairly obvious what he needs to do after that. This is a big task for any coach and most premier coaches dont even bother with this kinda shit. They go join the Clippers or the Knicks or some place with an MVP already and a contender. With that said, I have not really seen anything since Stotts has been here that has been so glaring for me to say... WHOA... I think its safe to say that the WHOA usually comes from watching the coach try the same thing over and over and expect different results. However with the last team, he had little choice because of prima donna. The whole organization was trying to cater to him from the top down so he would resign. I think its unfair to say that any coach with their hands tied like that has done alot of stupid things... with exception of maybe not investigating the job enough before hand and then diving into a hands tied situation. He has coached two straight 50+ win seasons in a row with a team that we all know would never win a ring the way it was. Where has he failed so miserably in your point of view?

Agree and disagree. I don't care enough at this point (I'll save it for later in the season when Stotts is failing the team) to get into it.
I'll just say in response to your Nate comparison that being better than Nate isn't something to hang ones hat on. I can dislike Nate and still dislike Stotts, even though Stotts is clearly better. It's a bit like comparing a fresh turd to a moldy turd.

Totally different coaches not even worthy of comparing. With that said, again.. You have obviously fired Stotts in your mind already. Please lay out the reasons why? Maybe I missed something?

 

[THE HCP]

Players get hurt in practice all the time, should all the Blazers starters stop practicing?

The Cavs have done that with LeBron all preseason. Said they will do it this year.......

 

[Draco]

B - I'll be shocked if Stotts has many plays. To this point in his Blazers career he's mostly gone with a free lance offense with very few set plays.

Set plays don't work against a modern NBA defense; players are too skilled to defend a static look if there aren't a huge variety of options from the offense. Golden State, Altanta, Clippers, San Antonio all give similar offensive freedom to players.

 

[Draco]

I'm a huge skeptic, and I can easily see myself becoming a hater this season. This is his chance to change my opinion of him. But it's gonna be a huge uphill battle for him to do so, because he has a lot of past stupidity to overcome.

Who was the last Blazer coach that was better than Stotts?

 

[Draco]

Agree and disagree. I don't care enough at this point (I'll save it for later in the season when Stotts is failing the team) to get into it.
I'll just say in response to your Nate comparison that being better than Nate isn't something to hang ones hat on. I can dislike Nate and still dislike Stotts, even though Stotts is clearly better. It's a bit like comparing a fresh turd to a moldy turd.

It seems you dislike a great many things.

 

[Draco]

The Cavs have done that with LeBron all preseason. Said they will do it this year.......

30 year old who's been to 5 straight finals and played more minutes than any NBA player ever at his age. LeBron team is also favorite to make another deep postseason run. Yeah I think his practice schedule should be different than dudes in their early to mid 20 who've primarily played little NBA minutes.

 

[Reep]

Okay, Round 1: CJ 1; Reep 0. By first quarter TKO

CJ and Dame both chucked (20+ attempts) and it worked enough to get the win. We will have to see how this trend continues.

Pro:
Pick your poison: it's hard to cover both Dame and CJ, who have very similar games
Dame and CJ seemed to play passable enough defense to win the game, mostly in the first half, not so much in the second;
I don't remember seeing CJ take a bad shot

Con:
If CJ hadn't had his hair on fire this could have been a loss, easily
When CJ and/or Dame go cold, the whole team stalls and doesn't know what to do
Dame took a few outrageously bad shots. I have seen him make some of those in the past, but not for the last nine months.
If a good defensive team slows Dame and CJ, how is the team going to score and can they defend the Westbrooks and Pauls?

 

[TBpup]

Okay, Round 1: CJ 1; Reep 0. By first quarter TKO

CJ and Dame both chucked (20+ attempts) and it worked enough to get the win. We will have to see how this trend continues.

Pro:
Pick your poison: it's hard to cover both Dame and CJ, who have very similar games
Dame and CJ seemed to play passable enough defense to win the game, mostly in the first half, not so much in the second;
I don't remember seeing CJ take a bad shot

Con:
If CJ hadn't had his hair on fire this could have been a loss, easily
When CJ and/or Dame go cold, the whole team stalls and doesn't know what to do
Dame took a few outrageously bad shots. I have seen him make some of those in the past, but not for the last nine months.
If a good defensive team slows Dame and CJ, how is the team going to score and can they defend the Westbrooks and Pauls?

I didn't have an issue with the number of attempts until the 4th quarter. Dame was absolutely forcing bad shots in the 4th with almost no ball movement or passing. He was 0-for-his-first-6 in the 4th while the lead shrank. Most of those were ISO, step-back, poor percentage shots.

 

[Draco]

Dame played bad in the 4th but I have faith he's the type of player that will view game film, see how his teammates are playing and make corrections as the year goes on.

 

[Pinwheel1]

Okay, Round 1: CJ 1; Reep 0. By first quarter TKO


Con:
If CJ hadn't had his hair on fire this could have been a loss, easily
When CJ and/or Dame go cold, the whole team stalls and doesn't know what to do
Dame took a few outrageously bad shots. I have seen him make some of those in the past, but not for the last nine months.
If a good defensive team slows Dame and CJ, how is the team going to score and can they defend the Westbrooks and Pauls?

Yes if CJ and Dame both go cold we will lose. No doubt. But don't most teams lose when their top 2 scorers are shut down?
I think we are better off this year with having our top 2 scorers both being guards who have good handles.

But I also like that the other 3 players on the court are willing to attack the basket when our guards are being doubled. Last year when Dame got into trouble,....... Nic, Wes, LA and Rolo would try to help with screens, but none of them were aggressive to the basket. It wasn't really their strength. Hell this year I have already seen Plumblee drive the length of the floor trying to attack the rim. Aminu attacked last night as well. You know Henderson will.

No they can not shut the Westbrooks, Paul's, Curry's, or Hardin's by themselves. Again very few players (if any) can. It takes a good team defensive strategy. But what I have seen so far (including preseason) is that they seem to be much more active than last year in terms of help defense.

Also one possibility about Hero Ball, if your best shooter (in this case two best shooters) are jacking up a lot of shots, and the game is still close in the final 5 minutes........... there is a good chance they will be in a decent offensive rhythm by crunch time. Regardless of how they shot the rest of the game. How many times have we seen good scorers struggle all game against us.......and still get hot in crunch time? When you have the green light, you tend to shoot yourself out of slumps. If Dame and CJ are used to it all season long, I think their confidence will grow and we will be in good shape at the end of games.