Notice Preseason Positives and Negatives

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sheed30 said:
To a extend, but in the grand scheme of things, 4 preseason games, where we didn’t play our starters in one and barely played them in others, is a very tiny tiny sample size in a full 82 game season.

I have a question for you, don’t you think with a new coach for Dame and Cj, and a completely different philosophy, that we are going to have some rough patches and bumps along the way ?
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Of course we will. That’s why I didn’t want a new coach. We needed to upgrade the roster.
 
andalusian said:
F1 is mostly a British based sport and in British slang a cracker means crazy or insane.
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I know. I was making a joke. A very American joke. You see, in America, "cracker" is derogatory slang for white people, which almost exclusively make up F1 racing.

Also Lewis Hamilton. ;)
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I knew that too, which is why I said "almost" entirely!
 
Minstrel said:
I know. I was making a joke. A very American joke. You see, in America, "cracker" is derogatory slang for white people, which almost exclusively make up F1 racing.

I knew that too, which is why I said "almost" entirely!
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I figger'ed ya knew, but this is a public forum and we need to educate the masses.
 
To me, the bench demonstrably got worse.

Say what you want about Kanter, but he is an offensive rebounding savant (and also an incredible teammate.) Carmelo didn't hog the ball and was a very reliable scorer (as well as a HOFer.)

Ben McLamore? Tony Snell? Cody Zeller? Nance is the only upgrade.
 
Stevenson said:
To me, the bench demonstrably got worse.

Say what you want about Kanter, but he is an offensive rebounding savant (and also an incredible teammate.) Carmelo didn't hog the ball and was a very reliable scorer (as well as a HOFer.)

Ben McLamore? Tony Snell? Cody Zeller? Nance is the only upgrade.
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Zeller is a really good offensive rebounding to and a noticeably better defender and passer.

Simons will be a better version of himself.

Three upgrades.
 
The fact is that people who say that we don't have the right personnel to run this defense are correct. There is a rumor out there that Morey offered Simmons for CJ, three firsts and three swaps and we turned that down. I think if that was the offer then we should be able to get Simmons for CJ, two firsts and I don't give a shit about how many swaps.

Simmons is the kind of defensive presence that would make the shit we're trying to run look good, he is also the kind of player on offense that likes to move the ball, drive and kick and scores at the hoop. The fact is that CJ needs to be traded if not for Simmons, for another guy that is a legit forward that plays both ends of the court.

If we keep the roster we have we will not be good enough this season to get a better result than the one that infuriated Dame last season and he will ask out. Then we can see if we blow it up (which would be preferable) or Olshey decides to build around CJ and whatever he can get for Dame, while Nurk and RoCo walk for nothing (which is my worst nightmare).

Positives, I like Chauncey's character and attitude... I hope that translates into good coaching and hope he gets a roster that can succeed. One that collectively makes sense. The other positive is that we have plenty of time to make the roster changes necessary, if Olshey will just fucking do it.
 
BonesJones said:
Zeller is a really good offensive rebounding to and a noticeably better defender and passer.

Simons will be a better version of himself.

Three upgrades.
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And I think Nas will be better as well, so that's four but my problem is the Dame/CJ back court and their duplicated weaknesses... maybe Billups' system can make them work together though.
 
Stevenson said:
To me, the bench demonstrably got worse.

Say what you want about Kanter, but he is an offensive rebounding savant (and also an incredible teammate.) Carmelo didn't hog the ball and was a very reliable scorer (as well as a HOFer.)

Ben McLamore? Tony Snell? Cody Zeller? Nance is the only upgrade.
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If the rest of Kanter's game matched up to his rebounding and paint scoring, then he'd be earning $20M+ a year. Alas he gives away as much as he brings, especially if we're seriously trying to improve our team defense. Zeller is very solid all round, except in his general physical makeup, it seems.
Meanwhile, replacing Melo with Nance is a parallel "overall competency over pure offense" move.
Supposedly 2021 Nas and Simons >> 2020 Nas and Simons. We shall see. I also think Snell will be useful (if he ever gets healthy). He's a better 3-point shooter than Melo and a significantly better defender. He actually makes sense as a 5th starter because he's a fill-in-the-cracks kind of guy. I'm just using my parallel-world-viewer to check on how Stotts is using his upgraded roster in the world where we didn't have to endure that whole Summer of Scandal. Hey, looks good!
 
Chris Craig said:
The Blazers don't have time. They have to win or Dame is gone. Time is no longer a commodity the Blazers have. They are out of time.
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When dame says he is bought in he is bought in. We have no reason to doubt his word. Hes not gonna whine if we're hovering around .500 come christmas.
 
TBpup said:
Stotts got a decade and Billups gets 30 games. That seems fair.
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This thread isn’t about Stotts or the old team. This is about Billups and our new roster makeup. I wasn’t happy with the Stotts hire either. I said I wouldn’t rush to judgement and wait 30 games which is more than enough sample size.
 
Stevenson said:
To me, the bench demonstrably got worse.

Say what you want about Kanter, but he is an offensive rebounding savant (and also an incredible teammate.) Carmelo didn't hog the ball and was a very reliable scorer (as well as a HOFer.)

Ben McLamore? Tony Snell? Cody Zeller? Nance is the only upgrade.
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Thank you. I’m glad somebody else feels what I’m saying.
 
Serious question: why exactly are folks convinced Simons and Little are going to show significant improvement? Little can't stay healthy and hasn't been that impressive when he does play. Simons can be useful, but he seems way too limited to be a break-out candidate.
 
Buffalo Custard said:
Serious question: why exactly are folks convinced Simons and Little are going to show significant improvement? Little can't stay healthy and hasn't been that impressive when he does play. Simons can be useful, but he seems way too limited to be a break-out candidate.
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I'm not in the camp that I'm confident either with show significant improvement this year either, so I am curious as well!
 
Buffalo Custard said:
Serious question: why exactly are folks convinced Simons and Little are going to show significant improvement? Little can't stay healthy and hasn't been that impressive when he does play. Simons can be useful, but he seems way too limited to be a break-out candidate.
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Who are these folks? You seem to have conversations with imaginary interlocutors. Nobody on this board has any more to go on than you do - ask people who've been in camp with them.
 
illmatic99 said:
When dame says he is bought in he is bought in. We have no reason to doubt his word. Hes not gonna whine if we're hovering around .500 come christmas.
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Neither am I - that would be fantastic, given current expectations.
 
Rastapopoulos said:
This IS the Stotts that coached us to the first WCF since Sheed was a Blazer, right?
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We got there - and got curb-stomped. How long does a coach get to slide on one pretty good post-season out of 9 years? What is his over-all winning percentage in the play-offs?

Edit: 23-44 for his career. Even if you choose to ignore the 0-4 record pre-Blazers, that is hardly anything to brag about.
 
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blazerkor said:
And I think Nas will be better as well, so that's four but my problem is the Dame/CJ back court and their duplicated weaknesses... maybe Billups' system can make them work together though.
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We'll get to find out. I felt like Stotts wasn't doing his best to try and make things work and Chauncey will. That being said, it doesn't necessarily mean it will, I'm just happy that it'll be a situation in which we'll be able to find out for sure if Dame and C.J. can coexist at a high enough level to be a contender or not. If not, then hopefully C.J. gets traded around the deadline for a guy like Siakam.
 
Buffalo Custard said:
Serious question: why exactly are folks convinced Simons and Little are going to show significant improvement? Little can't stay healthy and hasn't been that impressive when he does play. Simons can be useful, but he seems way too limited to be a break-out candidate.
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Serious answer: Because they should be able to get higher quality 3pt looks as well as higher quality creation opportunities. Neither guy will succeed off the dribble against a set defense, but get the defense moving and those guys driving lanes off the catch and they could. Also, both seem better suited for a more up-tempo offense. Simons also looked solid defensively the last month or two of the season so there's hope he'll extrapolate that into a full season of solid defense this year. I don't think anyone is fully convinced they're show significant improvement, more-so that they're optimistic they will for the reasons above as well as them following a natural progression curve.
 
A 12-10 start puts us on a 50-win pace IMO if accounting for strength of opponent. People will panic at the though of .500 going into December but it should set us up for a very strong 2nd half push once players are comfortable in the new system and the easier strength of schedule down the stretch.
 
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