let's hear the S2 post game analysis: vs clippers

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Eastoff

Eastoff

But it was a beginning.
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Okay the rules are you must have watched at least 3 quarters of this game. Please enlighten us, you John Madden's of basketball.
 
good morning and god bless.
 
Wow you guys sounds worse that Dwight Jaynes.
 
I just put this on another site so i figured id put it here also.
Freeland has absolutely earned his minutes again. I have also noticed about 10-15 extra lbs of upper body muscle on Joel. Look at pictures of this guy 3 seasons ago. He is truly leaner and much stronger than he was no question. 10 pts and 7 rebs in 18 mins....Solid!

Meyers Leonard is a PF. Pretty simple. Folks get used to it. That is just the way the guy plays and Stotts has figured it out. His 14 pts and 7reb in 24 mins could have easily been 20/9. He had a couple 3's rim out and got called for two cheap fouls on rebounds. This kid is still a project but he is getting better. No wait...He is getting WAY better. There is no question. Again look at what he was doing 2 seasons ago. Kudos to Coach Stotts and the staff of coaches working with him.

Cj is a threat with the ball every time he touches it. He can score in a number of ways and is not afraid to do it. Teams are going to catch on to this pretty quick. What i really liked is his court awareness that leads to steals and easy baskets that the Blazers need. He is going to get schooled this year. However that is exactly what he needs to go through. At some point you are going to have Dame and CJ playing at the same time and when you do watch out! This is the future folks. This duo will score for sure.

The team is poised to have both the ability to go big or small. They can apply pressure defense and full throttle offense. There are players waiting to get in and play that can produce. Heck even Victor looked good for 4 mins he played. Get ready for an exciting season Blazer fans.
 
Eastoff said:
Wow you guys sounds worse that Dwight Jaynes.
Click to expand...

Did you hear that Jaynes fell and got hurt pretty badly. I don't know exactly what happened or what he injured but that's the reason he hasn't been writing or on CSNNW.
 
I only saw the first 2 quarters - so my analysis, per the rules above, does not matter. Because of this I will waive my usual $400 fee and give it to you for free.

1. Leonard is going to be a player. It will take some time, but the kid is starting to figure it out, and I actually liked his defense - Blake scored on him, but it was only on jumpers, not drives and that's OK with me - he did a very nice job on Hawes as well - and the offense is there. He will be a super-duper Hawes when all is said and done.

2. CJ is also going to be a player. That kid has the goods, he now needs the reps and I am willing to be that by the end of the year he is going to be a real weapon. I think there is a 25-30 points game in him for this year.

3. This team without LMA and with Kaman as the replacement will be a decent enough team, there will be no meltdown like last year when LMA was out.

4. Dame seems like he is still pissed about the cut from Team USA - and the NBA will pay.

I like this team a lot. I usually want to be more careful - but this team could be very special - and the much improved bench will do great stuff for the Blazers.
 
I love CJ, but let's not hurry Wes out the door. Wes is a lot more important to the team than CJ for the foreseeable future. Wes is habitually our top +/- guy, and when he's shooting like he is at the moment it just busts games wide open. I think a lot of our amazing start last year was down to Wes being on a tear.
 
Rastapopoulos said:
I love CJ, but let's not hurry Wes out the door. Wes is a lot more important to the team than CJ for the foreseeable future. Wes is habitually our top +/- guy, and when he's shooting like he is at the moment it just busts games wide open. I think a lot of our amazing start last year was down to Wes being on a tear.
Click to expand...

I absolutely agree, and I love Wes. I would love to see most of this team coming back for the next round of contracts - but CJ is going to be a very good player. He had some sequences where somehow he got to the rim in a way that reminded me of Roy. He slithers his way in there. Does not finish anywhere as good as Roy did - but he will get better and with Lillard and LMA - he does not need to.
 
I went to the game but did not make it into the arena until half time as I was watching the first half across the street at a sports bar while also watching the Oregon game and the world series. What a great night to be in a sports bar.

What I focused on most was finally watching CJ and Blake play together. I thought they showed potential. It was not mistake free but CJ continues to show he can guard the 2's. At least well enough that the match ups should work.

I also think Meyers is getting better with more playing time. Definitely a match up problem on offense for other 2nd units. Not liking TRob getting mop up minutes, but Joel and Meyers played pretty good together.
 
OK, I watched all 4 quarters, so multiply my comments x 1.33.

Chris Kaman was a PERFECT pick up, much better than Hawes would have been. The reasons:

Kaman fits with ALL our other bigs. He's an extremely versatile offensive player with a great combination of low post scoring and a jump shot that's money from mid-range. As you saw last night, you can put him at the 4 with Rolo at the 5. He's still damn effective in that role and seems very comfortable playing with Rolo. Put him at the five with Aldridge, or Leonard, and let him operate down low while Aldridge and Leonard spread the floor with their shooting. Last year, we saw how much playing next to a real center, in Lopez, helped Aldridge's game. Imagine how hard it will be to double team Aldridge when he's playing with Kaman, Lillard, Batum and Matthews. Sure, double team Aldridge and leave one of those guys wide open - I double dare you! We can now surround Aldridge with 4 other scorers. This will make us very difficult to defend in late game situations. And, like Rolo, Kaman is a good FT shooter for a big man (career 75%). So, regardless which center is in the game late, there will be no hack a Rolo or hack a Caveman.

The addition of Kaman also helps out younger bigs. We've seen Leonard's improvement in preseason. He spent a couple weeks working out with Kaman this summer, and Kaman has taken the kid under his wing and is serving as a mentor, both tough and patient. Getting Kaman was a twofer. It's like having a second big man coach, but one who also contributes on the court. Best of all, having a legitimate NBA center coming off the bench allows Leonard and Freeland to play their more natural power forward positions. Leonard can now play the stretch 4 role when he's in the game with Kaman (or Rolo) and Freeland can guard opposing 4s. Although Freeland gave a good effort guarding opposing 5s last year, before his injury, he was undersized in that role.

Speaking of Freeland and Leonard, they both looked good last night. They both produced well, but even more important, looked like they belong on an NBA court. They didn't just outplay the Clippers bench, they held their own against the Clippers starting big men. Freeland did a competent job guarding Blake Griffin. He made it difficult for Griffin to establish deep post position and forced him to settle for jump shots - which he can now hit at a good percentage. The Clipper announcers kept talking about how Griffin could potentially lead the league in scoring this year. Joel Freeland says, "I don't think so". Best of all Freeland did a great job boxing out and keeping Griffin off the offensive glass - which is where Griffin has gotten a lot of his points in the past.

In fact, the entire Blazers team did a GREAT job boxing out, limiting the Clippers to 5 ORB and held their starting big men to ZERO offensive rebounds. Yeah, our front line outplayed theirs and we did it without our best player.

Team defense also continued to look much better, both in transition and in the half court.

I already admitted I underestimated the Steve Blake acquisition (I was lukewarm; not any more). Like Kaman in the front court, Blake is a good fit in the second unit backcourt. Unlike last year, there is no drop off ball movement when our back up PG enters the game. If anything, the ball movement gets even better. Even when Blake doesn't get an assist, he keeps the ball moving. He doesn't dribble the air out of the ball and then look for his own shot. Another great fit for this team. I also hope his work ethic and game preparation wears off on the younger guys. Both Blake and Kaman fit well and will help our young guys develop - exactly the kind of veteran bench players this team needed.

Yep, it's just one preseason game, but I'm pleased with the tends I've observed: much better team defense, vastly improved bench play, and improvement of our young players, especially the bigs. And I didn't even mention Lillard. With two full years under his belt as a starter, I don't consider him a "young" player, but he already looks to be in mid-season form and seems bound and determined to get even better. He's putting in more effort on defense and his 3-point shot off the dribble looks better than ever.

Great way to end the preseason. I can't wait for the real games to begin.

BNM
 
Eastoff said:
Very nice!
That is a great catch and one dribble to collect himself and quick slam. Nothing fancy ala Trill Barton, just making sure it goes in the ring.
Click to expand...

Also notice there was no showboat afterwards. Maybe he learned his lesson?
 
Boob-No-More said:
OK, I watched all 4 quarters, so multiply my comments x 1.33.

Chris Kaman was a PERFECT pick up, much better than Hawes would have been. The reasons:

Kaman fits with ALL our other bigs. He's an extremely versatile offensive player with a great combination of low post scoring and a jump shot that's money from mid-range. As you saw last night, you can put him at the 4 with Rolo at the 5. He's still damn effective in that role and seems very comfortable playing with Rolo. Put him at the five with Aldridge, or Leonard, and let him operate down low while Aldridge and Leonard spread the floor with their shooting. Last year, we saw how much playing next to a real center, in Lopez, helped Aldridge's game. Imagine how hard it will be to double team Aldridge when he's playing with Kaman, Lillard, Batum and Matthews. Sure, double team Aldridge and leave one of those guys wide open - I double dare you! We can now surround Aldridge with 4 other scorers. This will make us very difficult to defend in late game situations. And, like Rolo, Kaman is a good FT shooter for a big man (career 75%). So, regardless which center is in the game late, there will be no hack a Rolo or hack a Caveman.

The addition of Kaman also helps out younger bigs. We've seen Leonard's improvement in preseason. He spent a couple weeks working out with Kaman this summer, and Kaman has taken the kid under his wing and is serving as a mentor, both tough and patient. Getting Kaman was a twofer. It's like having a second big man coach, but one who also contributes on the court. Best of all, having a legitimate NBA center coming off the bench allows Leonard and Freeland to play their more natural power forward positions. Leonard can now play the stretch 4 role when he's in the game with Kaman (or Rolo) and Freeland can guard opposing 4s. Although Freeland gave a good effort guarding opposing 5s last year, before his injury, he was undersized in that role.

Speaking of Freeland and Leonard, they both looked good last night. They both produced well, but even more important, looked like they belong on an NBA court. They didn't just outplay the Clippers bench, they held their own against the Clippers starting big men. Freeland did a competent job guarding Blake Griffin. He made it difficult for Griffin to establish deep post position and forced him to settle for jump shots - which he can now hit at a good percentage. The Clipper announcers kept talking about how Griffin could potentially lead the league in scoring this year. Joel Freeland says, "I don't think so". Best of all Freeland did a great job boxing out and keeping Griffin off the offensive glass - which is where Griffin has gotten a lot of his points in the past.

In fact, the entire Blazers team did a GREAT job boxing out, limiting the Clippers to 5 ORB and held their starting big men to ZERO offensive rebounds. Yeah, our front line outplayed theirs and we did it without our best player.

Team defense also continued to look much better, both in transition and in the half court.

I already admitted I underestimated the Steve Blake acquisition (I was lukewarm; not any more). Like Kaman in the front court, Blake is a good fit in the second unit backcourt. Unlike last year, there is no drop off ball movement when our back up PG enters the game. If anything, the ball movement gets even better. Even when Blake doesn't get an assist, he keeps the ball moving. He doesn't dribble the air out of the ball and then look for his own shot. Another great fit for this team. I also hope his work ethic and game preparation wears off on the younger guys. Both Blake and Kaman fit well and will help our young guys develop - exactly the kind of veteran bench players this team needed.

Yep, it's just one preseason game, but I'm pleased with the tends I've observed: much better team defense, vastly improved bench play, and improvement of our young players, especially the bigs. And I didn't even mention Lillard. With two full years under his belt as a starter, I don't consider him a "young" player, but he already looks to be in mid-season form and seems bound and determined to get even better. He's putting in more effort on defense and his 3-point shot off the dribble looks better than ever.

Great way to end the preseason. I can't wait for the real games to begin.

BNM
Click to expand...

Great summary. Remind me to get you some boob.
 
Our bench is basically CJ and 4 white guys. I could see Crabbe forcing his way in there if he shows he can guard SFs.
 
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