There's a lot to be positive about

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Whyachi said:
I listened to old man reporter Dwight Jaynes on the radio last night. He's really enjoying these Blazer games. The team plays intense defense and gives a lot of effort. That's all anyone should ask for. Then he finished his glitzy observation with; the Blazers simply need to draft about 15 more rookies over the next several years, and they'll be perfectly fine.
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Your first problem is listening to Dwight Jaynes at all.
 
Another positive sign is that guys who could potentially be on our bench (when we’re good) are all showing positive signs.

- Camara: great defender already, and will get better as he gains more NBA experience. Once his shot falls, he’s a great interchangeable forward. 3 years remaining after this season.

- Walker: the 3pt shot looks better and better, and he looks so much more comfortable playing his game. Starting to show the rebounding potential he flashed in college. I think he’s going to get better at guarding the perimeter and be another forward we can bring in to play either spots. 1 year remaining after this season, but should be easily retainable.

- Thybulle: let’s see if he continues his success coming off the bench. If he can average 10ppg+ on 37-38%+ shooting and is happy with his role off the bench, he’s very cost effective for 2 remaining years after this season. If Thybulle plays well enough to capitalize on his value though, do it.

- Mays: I think Mays is a great player to bring back on a multi-year cheap deal. I don’t imagine it being hard to keep him. He’s 6’3 barefoot, so not a small guy at all, and he plays his role well. He’s the reason I kind of hope Brogdon is gone sooner than later.

As long as Camara, Walker, and Mays keep growing, we have a large part of our bench locked up long term for very cheap. We are going to be able to keep filling the bench with vets that come back from various trades for guys like Brogdon and Grant. I think bench depth will soon be a thing of the past in Portland for the foreseeable future.
 
Whyachi said:
I listened to old man reporter Dwight Jaynes on the radio last night. He's really enjoying these Blazer games. The team plays intense defense and gives a lot of effort. That's all anyone should ask for. Then he finished his glitzy observation with; the Blazers simply need to draft about 15 more rookies over the next several years, and they'll be perfectly fine.
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I don’t even think we need that many. Give us some draft luck in ‘25. Any combination of rookies we get this year with the top 5 pick and Warriors pick next summer with Cooper Flagg in Summer ‘25, and I’m good.

Shae (year 4)
Scoot (year 3)
POR lotto (year 2)
GSW 1st (year 2)
Flagg (year 1)
DA (year 9)

And I’m sure trades for any of our vets will get another 1st or two in ‘24 or ‘25. That’s enough top-shelf talent that we should be optimistic about contending with in a couple years.
 
Mediocre Man said:
Did anyone mention that with each game coached Chauncey is one game closer to not being here any longer? That’s a positive
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Portland has quadrupled it's efforts to make Billups look like a terrific head coach. Fun to listen to war stories from the good ol' days. Easier post game interviews with excuses embedded in the questions. The camera zooms to Chauncey clapping exuberantly during timeouts.

Billups can't mess up, he can't get replaced. The GM steps in before the heat gets directed towards Coach. "I didn't deal Chauncey a good hand."

D-fence! clap clap, D-fence! clap clap
 
Whyachi said:
Portland has quadrupled it's efforts to make Billups look like a terrific head coach. Fun to listen to war stories from the good ol' days. Easier post game interviews with excuses embedded in the questions. The camera zooms to Chauncey clapping exuberantly during timeouts.

Billups can't mess up, he can't get replaced. The GM steps in before the heat gets directed towards Coach. "I didn't deal Chauncey a good hand."

D-fence! clap clap, D-fence! clap clap
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Did you catch that they mic’d up Shaedon last night and all they got was Billups coaching him and Sharpe saying “yeah.” That was it. Absolutely the most hilarious mic’d up ever.
 
I don't understand the Billups criticism; what do you detractors want him to do differently?

He's developed young players very well and the guys have really hustled hard all season long. Not sure I remember a harder working Blazers team since McMillians scrapy units.

Not saying he's a contending level coach but we're years away from that being a concern.
 
Rastapopoulos said:
I wish I could see the great defense some of you claim to be seeing. I just see the other team getting layups and wide open shots at will.
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We all have our own unique disabilities. Some, simply can't recognize good defense, and that's okay.
 
I noticed positivity has been ratcheted up around the Blazers offensive rebounding. Blazers are 8th in the NBA in Orb !!

Kinda skips the part about Blazers are dead last in FG% & 3pt%. They miss a lot, but do a good job scrambling for loose balls. Good hustle!

Opponents have been cleaning up their fair share of rebounds. Blazers are 28th in defensive rebounding.
Offensive rebounds for everyone !!

It's a mosh pit in the paint. Shots being clanked from every angle. Blazer games haven't been the prettiest thang lately, but I got a feeling Portland is going to win one of these slugfests any day now.
 
blazerfan11 said:
Another thing to be postive about. I expect more of this when Scoot returns.

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that slam sure got the crowd involved. I saw at least 8 people lightly clapping. Maybe even a "woohoo !!"
 
SharpesTriumph said:
I don't understand the Billups criticism; what do you detractors want him to do differently?

He's developed young players very well and the guys have really hustled hard all season long. Not sure I remember a harder working Blazers team since McMillians scrapy units.

Not saying he's a contending level coach but we're years away from that being a concern.
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- He needs more offensive structure. He needs to set players up in spots where they're strongest. His teams struggle to freelance off of each other. It's hard to find one clear positive with what he does offensively.
- They're have been fundamental flaws defensively with positioning, getting through screens and so forth that have lasted through multiple rosters and haven't been cleaned up.
- He runs his players into the ground, increasing chance of injury, which leads him to running his players into the ground even more...

Last postgame interview, after the Thunder shot 22-for-36 from three, the dude said he thought they did a good job contesting threes. They didn't. Not even close. Just a blatant lie/excuse, which this organization specializes in.
 
BonesJones said:
- He needs more offensive structure. He needs to set players up in spots where they're strongest. His teams struggle to freelance off of each other. It's hard to find one clear positive with what he does offensively.
- They're have been fundamental flaws defensively with positioning, getting through screens and so forth that have lasted through multiple rosters and haven't been cleaned up.
- He runs his players into the ground, increasing chance of injury, which leads him to running his players into the ground even more...

Last postgame interview, after the Thunder shot 22-for-36 from three, the dude said he thought they did a good job contesting threes. They didn't. Not even close. Just a blatant lie/excuse, which this organization specializes in.
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I agree with everything in this post except the last sentence which I don't agree with at all. The organization has made choices you don't agree with but that's not becuase of being untruthful at all. Chauncey isn't a liar either. He's just a coach with no success winning endgames and has serious time management issues with his core players. His playbook is anemic, but he's not dishonest. I think he'd be a decent defensive coordinator but not a head coach. I'd give Vanderpool a shot at head coaching but they're not paying two coaches back to back not to coach for the remaining years of their contracts....Stotts got the last of his 2 years of paychecks last spring.
 
BonesJones said:
- He needs more offensive structure. He needs to set players up in spots where they're strongest. His teams struggle to freelance off of each other. It's hard to find one clear positive with what he does offensively.
- They're have been fundamental flaws defensively with positioning, getting through screens and so forth that have lasted through multiple rosters and haven't been cleaned up.
- He runs his players into the ground, increasing chance of injury, which leads him to running his players into the ground even more...

Last postgame interview, after the Thunder shot 22-for-36 from three, the dude said he thought they did a good job contesting threes. They didn't. Not even close. Just a blatant lie/excuse, which this organization specializes in.
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Plenty of clear positives offensively.

Jeremy Grant is having by far the best offensive production of his career.

Ayton has been very effective and efficient.

Sharpe has made big offensive improvements and growth.

The Blazers try tons of different offensive actions. The problem is they have horrible offensive talent as well as some offensive injuries. I don't believe any coach could've got decent offense out of this roster.

Defensively I totally disagree, best Blazer effort and schemes in over a decade. Especially when you consider how bad offense puts your defense in a poor starting position.

I agree a bit on the minutes. Will hold back on criticism a bit as with some of the injuries it was justified. Hopefully this looks better over the next few months.

Appreciate your response but I'm just not seeing the bulk of these negatives you list.

I'd probably rank these as the most successful elements of the Blazers season;

1 Toumani
2 Shae growth
3 Billups coaching
4 Ayton good play and attitude
5 Grant
6 Brogdon
7 Walker
8 Mays
9 GSW
 
blazerfan11 said:
When the current available roster is healthy, the team is both competitive and fun to watch.
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They are a lot of fun to watch for sure, in wins and losses because we can see growth every game but what does "competitive" mean? I don't think Ant equals Markkanen and Clarkson so the Jazz are way more competitive than we are and they will fight just to make the playoffs. We aren't what I would call competitive and we should make the moves at the deadline to become less competitive while retaining the pieces that will help us become competitive in a few seasons.

I remember the first season that Cronin was GM and he very plainly said that he wasn't interested in being a team that was in the playoffs for a first round exit, he said he'd rather have a high pick. Now I think that was in the context of having Dame but I also think until Joe thinks he has there are pieces in place for a roster with a contending future, he's likely to have the same mentality. I hope.
 
blazerkor said:
They are a lot of fun to watch for sure, in wins and losses because we can see growth every game but what does "competitive" mean? I don't think Ant equals Markkanen and Clarkson so the Jazz are way more competitive than we are and they will fight just to make the playoffs. We aren't what I would call competitive and we should make the moves at the deadline to become less competitive while retaining the pieces that will help us become competitive in a few seasons.

I remember the first season that Cronin was GM and he very plainly said that he wasn't interested in being a team that was in the playoffs for a first round exit, he said he'd rather have a high pick. Now I think that was in the context of having Dame but I also think until Joe thinks he has there are pieces in place for a roster with a contending future, he's likely to have the same mentality. I hope.
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Uh, What? That last time Markannen and Clarkson played in Portland it was a wire-to-wire trouncing by the Blazers.

This graph represents a losing team that is not competitive, at least in this particular game.

upload_2023-12-4_0-21-43.png

"With the available roster healthy" the Blazers are 3-2 in the last 5 games, 1-0 at home (the Utah blowout) and 2-2 on the road.

The Blazers were obviously competitive in the 3 wins, and in the 2 losses were TIED with Milwaukee with 18 seconds left in the game, and the loss in Utah doesn't need any explanation as to whether the Blazers were competitive as it went into overtime.

I am not really interested in what Utah is doing, but since you think they are competitive, how many good road wins do the Jazz have? ZERO.

In fact, the Jazz have only ONE road win this season, over the Memphis Grizzlies.

In their last 4 road games, the Jazz have lost by double digits in each of them. 11, 14, 16, and 32.

I don't know if they had important guys missing or not, but I don't yet see evidence that this is a competitive team.

upload_2023-12-4_0-42-53.png
 
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