Notice Preseason Positives and Negatives

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But it was Stotts who decided putting Kanter/Melo on the floor at the same time was a good idea. #epicfail

Stotts didn't have any real options to it unless he started Kanter and brought Nurkic off the bench with Melo. It wasn't Stotts that decided to make Portland the guardian of Melo's legacy and the only option to Melo was Giles
 
Absolutely. The roster was/is flawed nad that can't be debated unless your initials are N.O.
But it was Stotts who decided putting Kanter/Melo on the floor at the same time was a good idea. #epicfail

Last year Kanter played more games for the Blazers than any other player, followed by Roco with Melo 3rd. I think you are discounting how injured the Blazers were last year.

Despite the fact that these 2 were the #1 and #3 in games availability for the Blazers, as a pair, they were #10 among the pairs the Blazers played. TS tried hard not to play these 2 together.
https://www.nba.com/stats/lineups/advanced/?Season=2020-21&SeasonType=Regular Season&TeamID=1610612757&sort=MIN&dir=1&GroupQuantity=2

I would also like to point out that as a pair, when playing together, EK and Melo had a net-rating of 4.2 (positives). They also had a positive net-rating in 3 man units when they were with CJ or Dame.

The Blazers really suffered when Hoodie and DJJ were playing in net-ratings. It is easy to blame EK and Melo - and they are not great defensively - but they were not the biggest problem the Blazers had last year defensively. It was injuries, the fact that they played like starters instead of bench players - and the people that played as bench players behind them were much much worse. TS was dealt a bad hand with all the injuries and imho - it is amazing how well the Blazers did given the available bodies.

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Another interesting thing to look at:
https://www.nba.com/stats/lineups/a...1610612757&sort=NET_RATING&dir=-1&CF=MIN*G*36

These are all the 5 man units the Blazers played last year that had at least 36 minutes together.

EK and Melo appear in 6 of them, only 2 of them have a negative net-ratings, one with DJJ and one with Nas. The other 4 were a plus net-ratings. If you look at the data it is clear why Terry did not play DJJ after a while - and why he, GT3jr and Hoodie were traded. Terry's rotations seem to be pretty reasonable given that personnel.
 
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Premier League analogy: Watford were a below-average-but-safe-from-relegation team that decided the coach was the problem. They fired him and replaced him with a respected guy. They just lost 5-0 in their first game after the change.
Update: Watford just won 5-2 this week! Hope that's an omen!
 
Update: Watford just won 5-2 this week! Hope that's an omen!

They need a new coach?

iu
 
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.
SHHHEEEEEIIIITTTT! If we are .500 at Christmas we should be celebrating!

We're currently on 50 loss pace..
 
He's not afraid to answer tough questions. For example, Fentress pointedly asked if guys don't pick up his schemes fast enough will he dial things back. He said no, all it means is that he won't able to add the next level of changes till they get the first right.

they haven't got any of the changes right yet, so maybe the changes were wrong place, wrong time

or maybe Billups is a clever tank commander
 
Seems like their were some REALLY non realistic expectations thrown at this team.
I don't think any of us knew the extent of Dame's abdominal injury and that has really hurt or if we continue to tank helped our situation. Those that had us winning around 50+ games were being incredibly unrealistic. Those of us that had predictions with wins in the mid to low 40s were pretty realistic if Dame were healthy... we still would have struggled to make the playoffs, probably made them and been stomped in the first round without major trades being made.
 
Seems like their were some REALLY non realistic expectations thrown at this team.
Nobody saw Dame shooting 28% from deep early on or that we'd suck at freethrows as a team for the first time in a decade
 
reminds me of a Laker fan predicting we'd have 23 wins one year
But you like many always leave out the fact , I was spot on the next season. Let’s keep it real old man.
 
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