This season isn't about winning... (1 Viewer)

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I thought this season was going to be about making the playin/playoffs? So when did things change?
 
Norman Dale said:
Did anyone see Dame warming up on TV last night before the Clippers game? He is going to play again and he's not one to come in as a pinch hitter. His competitiveness won't allow him to be some role player. My wondering is - will he try to come back this year? He sure looked like someone who wants to come back this year and contribute.
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And this was the exact reason I didn't like the signing. I agree, his ego/pride won't let him be a role player, but it's also what has made him great for the better part of his career. Now comes the real test for Dame, with his body breaking down, can he accept that we won't be the star of the show and have everything tailored around him? You look at the older guys that have torn the achilles and it really is a two year recovery process. Look at Aaron Rodgers, he was a shell of himself last year, and only this season does he look like he's close to where he was pre-injury.
 
GrandpaBlaze said:
And where does Dame fit on a defensive team? He was never good at defense but is notably older now, coming off injury. I love seeing the team play defense and I'm not sure how Dame fits into a defensive team. He didn't play at the kind of pace we are playing now as well.

Kinda thinking round hole, square peg. We'll see.
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Honestly? Probably better than he fits on a team that doesn't play defense...
 
1 Eye Jack said:
I believed the biggest issue with our shooting right now is guys are still getting their legs under them.
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I would say our biggest issue with our shooting is we don’t have skilled outside shooters. We have to continue with this defense and pray we make enough shots. I say just take it to the rack every possession until Dame returns.
 
If there is a player you don’t need to worry about doing what’s best for this team, it’s Dame. Watching him shoot last night pregame….WOW! One of our new guys, don’t even know his name…LOVE?….. he was sitting behind dame on the bench copying Dame’s shooting stroke with his mouth just open in ahh of this guys ability. It was cool to see. Dame must have hit 30-35 from that right corner.
 
THE HCP said:
If there is a player you don’t need to worry about doing what’s best for this team, it’s Dame. Watching him shoot last night pregame….WOW! One of our new guys, don’t even know his name…LOVE?….. he was sitting behind dame on the bench copying Dame’s shooting stroke with his mouth just open in ahh of this guys ability. It was cool to see. Dame must have hit 30-35 from that right corner.
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I wonder how much more effective or ineffective Dame would be as someone who doesn't have to create for others, and if he'd benefit from being a guy who has things run for him, instead of through him.
 
julius said:
I wonder how much more effective or ineffective Dame would be as someone who doesn't have to create for others, and if he'd benefit from being a guy who has things run for him, instead of through him.
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Could he be some a RIP Hamilton/Ray Allen type playing off the ball? If he is playing with a Jrue level type PG, I think it’s possible.
 
Here's a look at the average PER by Age in the NBA from 2001 thru 2015. It gives you a perspective of the typical career arc of an NBA player -

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Sure, the Blazers need to start building that winning/competitive culture. But it's not about winning this year. With the core they have in place, they have a solid 5-year window in front of them.

I'm excited to watch this team continue to grow over the next few years.
 
42N8Bounce said:
Here's a look at the average PER by Age in the NBA from 2001 thru 2015. It gives you a perspective of the typical career arc of an NBA player -

View attachment 76425

Sure, the Blazers need to start building that winning/competitive culture. But it's not about winning this year. With the core they have in place, they have a solid 5-year window in front of them.

I'm excited to watch this team continue to grow over the next few years.
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Thanks for providing that. Yes players peak is about 25 with a big drop off after 28.

Posters here always greatly overestimate how long players prime is and how effective players will be after 30.

Also posters greatly ovet estimate what a "young" NBA player is. 24 is not a young developing player with a bunch of potential. That would be the equivalent of someone about 45 out in normal careers like most of us have.

LBJ and Steph are rare exceptions.
 
THE HCP said:
I would say our biggest issue with our shooting is we don’t have skilled outside shooters. We have to continue with this defense and pray we make enough shots. I say just take it to the rack every possession until Dame returns.
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Except that gets stopped when they pack the paint. You got to have someone who can make a 3.
 
julius said:
I wonder how much more effective or ineffective Dame would be as someone who doesn't have to create for others, and if he'd benefit from being a guy who has things run for him, instead of through him.
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I have never seen Dame move without the ball like Rip did or Steph does, not in Portland, nor in Milwaukee, I am not saying he will never do it or can't work on it, but that certainly has not been a great strength of his throughout a pretty long career.

There are two elements here.

1. Catch and shoot statistics, Dame's career percentage of these is in the 36-37% - decent, but not outstanding. His super power has always been shooting tough pullup shots.
2. Movement. This might be system related, in Portland he mostly had the ball in his hands, in Milwaukee he often was stationary when Giannis was running the offense, if this is a system issue or not, I can't tell. Anyway, coming back from his injury, movement is the biggest concern with his efficiency moving forward, with or without the ball.

But, if Dame's biggest contribution going forward to this team is off the ball, I would be shocked if it was anything more than a good role-player level.

Just a comparison, last year, the good catch and shoot players were shooting in the 45%+ from 3, KAT at 47%, Norman Powell at 46.5%, Durant at 45.5%, Jokic at 45.1%, Curry at 44.5%
 
SharpesTriumph said:
Thanks for providing that. Yes players peak is about 25 with a big drop off after 28.

Posters here always greatly overestimate how long players prime is and how effective players will be after 30.

Also posters greatly ovet estimate what a "young" NBA player is. 24 is not a young developing player with a bunch of potential. That would be the equivalent of someone about 45 out in normal careers like most of us have.

LBJ and Steph are rare exceptions.
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some of what you say is probably true, but I think that graph may need more context

for starters, the last year of that graph was 10 seasons ago. The view could have changed in the last decade. Further, the career arc of marginal players and role players will not track the career arcs of elite players. And there are a lot more marginal NBA players than elite ones. Something I've noticed about PER numbers is that the stat pretty accurately assesses the comparative value of players who average more than 30 minutes, But once you start dropping under 30 minutes and get closer to 20 minutes, and below, the more noise and outliers you'll find

in other words, I think PER is a good stat for comparing high minutes starters with each other. But it's a noisy stat for comparing role players who play less than 30 minutes, especially comparing them to starters. Somebody can be a garbage-time all-star and have skewed number because of it. Last season, Tony Bradley was 15th in PER after logging 113 minutes in 14 games. Moritz Wagner was 22nd in PER after averaging 19 minutes and posting a better mark than Haliburton, Tatum, & Curry

Dame had his highest PER at 29; his 2nd highest at 32; third highest at 30. Jimmy Butler had his best PER at 33, and 2nd best at 31. Which brings up a little more context: that being that the career arcs for players who enter the league at 22 is probably a lot different than for players who enter at 19

I agree about the narrative of what a young player is. The average age in the NBA is 26. Camara will be 26 a month after the season ends; Murray will turn 26 next summer. I also think many overvalue the average age of the roster. Just being young doesn't mean the team will get a lot better. Portland had the 5th youngest roster in 2023-24; so playoffs here we come, right? Except the 2nd youngest roster was OKC and the youngest was the Spurs. The following season, Portland had the 2nd youngest roster (Wizards youngest); OKC went from 2nd youngest to 7th youngest and won rings. Spurs went from the youngest to 16th youngest and won 12 more games. This season, Blazers are 15th youngest while Spurs are 7th and OKC is 9th

this season, so far, 31 year old Grant leads the Blazers in PER at 23.9 and 21 year old Clingan is 2nd at 23.6. Actually, Duop is 1st with a PER of 36.0 but he's played 4 minutes
 
kjironman1 said:
Except that gets stopped when they pack the paint. You got to have someone who can make a 3.
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I was joking, of course you have to have outside shooting. Thus my 30 something win prediction. I don’t think we can count on Jrue putting up these kinda numbers at his age. Hoping he can stay healthy.
 
THE HCP said:
I was joking, of course you have to have outside shooting. Thus my 30 something win prediction. I don’t think we can count on Jrue putting up these kinda numbers at his age. Hoping he can stay healthy.
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Scoot will come back and take some of the load. Nice to see Williams at least working in Remix. That might help a bit also.
 
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