How would other teams fair?
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OSUBlazerfan
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Is this what matters? to be in the hunt?
This whole season had a bad vibe about it to begin with, but this thread is related to other teams missing players and how it would affect them. Please stay on topic.
roydezlaw
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I'd rather be in the hunt than miss the playoffs. Screw the other teams.
LittleAlex
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I am of the opinion that the loss of a good player hurts Portland far more then most other teams.
With so few shots being attempted the value of each shot increases. So it is vitally important that the people taking the shots are good.
Right now Portland is playing only two guys who can score effectively big minutes. Other guys off the bench or starting are either streaky scorers or just flat out bad.
Further, Portland's offense lends itself towards guys who can create their own shots. Portland in the best case has 4 of these players (Roy, Outlaw, Rudy and Bayless). Two of the four guys are down while Bayless plays limited minutes. That makes Roy the only guy on the team who plays big minutes who can create his own shot. The offense turns to shit when that happens.
Defensively I haven't the slightest idea. Recent events and player breakdowns suggest I am less then clueless about NBA defense so it doesn't really make sense for me to speak on the subject.
With so few shots being attempted the value of each shot increases. So it is vitally important that the people taking the shots are good.
Right now Portland is playing only two guys who can score effectively big minutes. Other guys off the bench or starting are either streaky scorers or just flat out bad.
Further, Portland's offense lends itself towards guys who can create their own shots. Portland in the best case has 4 of these players (Roy, Outlaw, Rudy and Bayless). Two of the four guys are down while Bayless plays limited minutes. That makes Roy the only guy on the team who plays big minutes who can create his own shot. The offense turns to shit when that happens.
Defensively I haven't the slightest idea. Recent events and player breakdowns suggest I am less then clueless about NBA defense so it doesn't really make sense for me to speak on the subject.
maxiep
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My thinking is there isn't a single team in the league that could withstand these injuries, which is why I'm so bummed about the bad luck occurring to some really good people. I don't look at it in terms of positions or ranks, I look at it in terms of roles.
Greg Oden was an elite post defender. The ability to bring a player of Joel Przybilla's caliber as a backup was a strength few other teams in this league had. That's 48 minutes of tremendous rebounding from the five. Now we have to move LMA there or play Juwan Howard. That's a HUGE dropoff.
Nicolas Batum's contribution didn't show up in the stat sheet, but he was our best wing defender and kept defenses honest with his three point shooting. He also fit the starting lineup to a "T".
Travis Outlaw was the focus of our second unit offense. As a "stretch 4" he provided a constant mismatch. He had the ability to create his own shot and bail us out of bad sets. Rudy is our second option in our second unit.
Mills and Pendergraph were unlikely to make any contribution.
However, the loss of those four players not just robbed us of their specific role, but also messed with our rotations and chemistry. Could the elite teams still make the playoffs? Sure. Could they get to the Conference Finals or Championship? Not likely.
Greg Oden was an elite post defender. The ability to bring a player of Joel Przybilla's caliber as a backup was a strength few other teams in this league had. That's 48 minutes of tremendous rebounding from the five. Now we have to move LMA there or play Juwan Howard. That's a HUGE dropoff.
Nicolas Batum's contribution didn't show up in the stat sheet, but he was our best wing defender and kept defenses honest with his three point shooting. He also fit the starting lineup to a "T".
Travis Outlaw was the focus of our second unit offense. As a "stretch 4" he provided a constant mismatch. He had the ability to create his own shot and bail us out of bad sets. Rudy is our second option in our second unit.
Mills and Pendergraph were unlikely to make any contribution.
However, the loss of those four players not just robbed us of their specific role, but also messed with our rotations and chemistry. Could the elite teams still make the playoffs? Sure. Could they get to the Conference Finals or Championship? Not likely.
Public Defender
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It's hard to calculate a comparison, in part because we don't really know what the roles of all of these injured players were going to be... so where would we even start? Regardless, losing 6 players, including four key contributors would be really, really bad for most teams, and only really bad for a few.
