Time to start Simons

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mook said:
I still wonder if Philly will eventually give up on Ben Simmons. In Portland he'd probably play center until Nurk or Zach returns. He'd be a terrible fit next to Whiteside, so we'd have to somehow move him. I can only imagine the shots he'd create for Dame and Ant.

Simmons is the exact same player he was as a rookie, so maybe Philly makes the move to have a bona fide go-to guy at the end of games. We'd probably have to include our 1st round pick.
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Headline 1: To find minutes for Simons, Blazers acquire Simmons for McCollum.

Headline 2: Calabro quits. Says calling plays got too hard.
 
royo said:
You know, putting words in someone's mouth is not, how you discuss things. So, no, I'm not going to make it 5 pages rant.
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5 page rant? Why? I didn't put words into your mouth as I simply asked a question that you didn't answer. You don't like iso ball and I simply pointed out that Lillard has statistically more iso plays than anyone on the team.
 
CupWizier said:
5 page rant? Why? I didn't put words into your mouth as I simply asked a question that you didn't answer. You don't like iso ball and I simply pointed out that Lillard has statistically more iso plays than anyone on the team.
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You did. You asked if I want Dame "gone as well". "Gone as well"? Look up and find the post when I said, I want anyone "gone". Good luck. I swear, this forum is full o 12yo.
 
royo said:
You did. You asked if I want Dame "gone as well". "Gone as well"? Look up and find the post when I said, I want anyone "gone". Good luck. I swear, this forum is full o 12yo.
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That's not putting words into your mouth. That's asking a question so I can understand what you want. You still haven't answered it and knock off the personal attacks if you really want a discussion. You could have easily said you don't want anyone gone or I want so and so gone, but you didn't cause you never answered me.
 
This is a lost season. If winning a championship in Dame’s window is truly the goal, then Blazers need to start Simons right now and get him ready for next season while looking to flip CJ for a SF/PF to balance the roster and make the team a true contender. My fear is Neil’s ego is too big and hell bent on making Dame/CJ work. How can he honestly sit there after 7 seasons and feel good about a team that is DEAD LAST in the entire NBA in assists. He has to look in the mirror and admit the Dame/CJ pairing is not working. Dame is too good to waste any more time on this failed experiment. If nothing else, these injuries show that CJ is not a number 2 on a championship team, else the 2 of them alone should be better than 5 games under .500... especially when you add Whiteside AND Melo to the equation.
 
Neil O. Shyster said:
This is a lost season. If winning a championship in Dame’s window is truly the goal, then Blazers need to start Simons right now and get him ready for next season while looking to flip CJ for a SF/PF to balance the roster and make the team a true contender. My fear is Neil’s ego is too big and hell bent on making Dame/CJ work. How can he honestly sit there after 7 seasons and feel good about a team that is DEAD LAST in the entire NBA in assists. He has to look in the mirror and admit the Dame/CJ pairing is not working. Dame is too good to waste any more time on this failed experiment. If nothing else, these injuries show that CJ is not a number 2 on a championship team, else the 2 of them alone should be better than 5 games under .500... especially when you add Whiteside AND Melo to the equation.
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Here's an interesting stat for you. Last year we were 25th in assists and made it to the WCF and 13th out of 16 playoff teams. Obviously assist numbers don't necessarily translate to team success all the time.
 
Lanny said:
The two Mikes were our best TV announcers ever with Snapper Jones coming in a close second to Rice.
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I agree... I really miss those guys. They were very authentic and very Portland. I can’t stand Calaboro... almost to the point where I want to turn volume off to watch games.
 
Neil O. Shyster said:
I agree... I really miss those guys. They were very authentic and very Portland. I can’t stand Calaboro... almost to the point where I want to turn volume off to watch games.
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Callabro makes a blunder every single game. Lamar Hurd is pretty good.
Never listen to the radio so I have no idea about the new announcer. I do believe that the radio announcer needs good color man.
 
royo said:
You did. You asked if I want Dame "gone as well". "Gone as well"? Look up and find the post when I said, I want anyone "gone". Good luck. I swear, this forum is full o 12yo.
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Perhaps the better question, as you have not advocated anyone being traded, but have suggested Ant play instead of CJ due to the ISO ball would be should someone else play instead of Lillard since he has more ISO plays than CJ?

Just trying to determine if you are hating the style of play and those associated with it or have just singled out CJ for your diatribe.
 
GrandpaBlaze said:
Perhaps the better question, as you have not advocated anyone being traded, but have suggested Ant play instead of CJ due to the ISO ball would be should someone else play instead of Lillard since he has more ISO plays than CJ?

Just trying to determine if you are hating the style of play and those associated with it or have just singled out CJ for your diatribe.
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I don’t think ISO ball is bad in moderation. Having a star like Dame pick his spots is ok. I think the problem is having 2 such players who play that way really kills the flow of the offense. I like CJ as an individual player, but pairing him with Dame and watching them take turns while everyone else stands around and watches is not fun to me as a fun and I don’t believe will lead to a championship in Dame’s window. There are better ways to use your resources around Dame than 30-35 mil per year on CJ for the next 4 years.
 
GrandpaBlaze said:
Perhaps the better question, as you have not advocated anyone being traded, but have suggested Ant play instead of CJ due to the ISO ball would be should someone else play instead of Lillard since he has more ISO plays than CJ?

Just trying to determine if you are hating the style of play and those associated with it or have just singled out CJ for your diatribe.
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for info, a breakdown in rate of play types/ppp:

isolation: CJ 13.7%/0.92....Dame 18.2%/1.13 (CJ 69th percentile....Dame 89th percentile)
hand-off: CJ 6.2%/0.96....Dame 4.1%/0.94 (CJ 61st percentile....Dame 58th percentile)
PnR ball handler: CJ 36.5%/0.93....Dame 51.7%/1.13 (CJ 72nd percentile....Dame 95th percentile)

those strike me as the 3 types of plays most prone to one-on-one basketball, even though PnR is a two man game

I'm assuming that those PPP numbers include FT's since they track FT frequency as part of the play data

what they might not track since I don't see any allowance for it is the frequency of assists from different play types by different players. That's an important factor
 
Fuck it. Trade CJ and start Simons
 
CupWizier said:
Here's an interesting stat for you. Last year we were 25th in assists and made it to the WCF and 13th out of 16 playoff teams. Obviously assist numbers don't necessarily translate to team success all the time.
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There have been multiple studies about the correlation between assists/wins and assists/offensive efficiency. None of them were able to come up with a strong correlation that more assists are better. However, growing up we were all told otherwise, just like we were told to throw the ball in the post. It's difficult for us to come to grips that the stories we were told may not have been true.
 
Houston has the second highest offensive rating in the league and they run more isos than any team I can remember.

Even if we do run too much ISO, when exactly are we supposed to practice new schemes? When Hood, Skal, Zach and Nurk are healthy? Should we have been practicing it in the preseason with Carmello? You know, a month before we added him to the team? Maybe we should design more complicated stuff for the kid who was in high school 2 years ago? Or perhaps we should put the ball in the hands of Gary Trent, Tolliver and Hezonja and rely on their creative passing?

You go down the options Stotts has right now, and they are all bad. The least bad is to give the ball to Dame and CJ and Ant and hope they can create off the pick and roll. Dump it into Mello occasionally so he stays on board. Give Whiteside 2 or 3 post ups a game if he has a mismatch or great position.

This team has been hit by an iceberg of injuries. The incompetence of Hezonja/Tolliver has been eye-gouging. Ant seemed to be in an early slump that he's kind of working his way out of. Dame and CJ were never a great pairing, but it kind of worked if you had the exact right role players around them (which we don't). And the Western Conference is just really, really good.

I'm a big fan of Stotts. I think he's doing what he can to make the best of a bad situation. But there's no offensive scheme that's going to right this ship.
 
Tince said:
There have been multiple studies about the correlation between assists/wins and assists/offensive efficiency. None of them were able to come up with a strong correlation that more assists are better. However, growing up we were all told otherwise, just like we were told to throw the ball in the post. It's difficult for us to come to grips that the stories we were told may not have been true.
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I'm curious, so, NBA champions and their assist/game ranking:

2000-01 - Lakers 9th (Shaq, Kobe)
2001-02 - Lakers 9th (Shaq, Kobe)
2002-03 - Spurs 22nd (Duncan, Robinson, Manu, Parker)
2003-04 - Detroit 15th (Thomas, Dumars)
2004-05 - Spurs 17th (Duncan, Manu, Parker)
2005-06 - Miami 17th (DWade, Shaq)
2006-07 - Spurs 11th (Duncan, Manu, Parker)
2007-08 - Boston 8th (KG, Pierce, Allen)
2008-09 - Lakers 2nd (Kobe, Pau)
2009-10 - Lakers 15th (Kobe, Pau)
2010-11 - Dallas 2nd (Dirk, Kidd)
2011-12 - Miami 21st (Lebron, DWade, Bosh)
2012-13 - Miami 7th (Lebron, DWade, Bosh)
2013-14 - Spurs 1st (Duncan, Manu, Parker, Kawhi)
2014-15 - Warriors 1st (Curry, Klay, Green)
2015-16 - Cleveland 13th (Lebron, Kyrie, Love)
2016-17 - Warriors 1st (Curry, Durant, Klay, Green)
2017-18 - Warriors 1st (Curry, Durant, Klay, Green)
2018-19 - Raptors 13th (Kawhi, Gasol, Lowry)

the lowest ranked team in assists was that Spurs team in 2002-03. But they had 2 HOF big men and the one-on-one skill of Parker and Manu (who got to the FT line a lot). That was also a different era. The 3rd Miami championship team only ranked 21st, but Lebron and DWade were just dominant in iso and Chris Bosh was a perennial all-star big man

In the last 13 seasons, there's only been one champion that wasn't in the top half of the league in assists; in 8 of 13 seasons, the champion was in the top-8 in assists; and in 6 of 13 seasons, the champion was either 1st of 2nd in assists. The NBA has evolved and it has become more and more important that a team be good at passing offense. They don't necessarily have to be top-5 but it sure helps. And for damn sure, they can't be as crappy at passing offense as Portland is

But what's even more apparent, and just about everybody knows this, is that to be a champion you need elite talent. Forget about all-star talent, I'm looking at that list and I only see one team, Cleveland, that didn't have at least 2 Hall-of-Fame players on the team; sometimes they had 3 or even 4.....

and that points at what the hell are the Blazers are doing....? Every single one of those teams had at least one player that was better then Dame. Dame is close to the level of a couple of them, and certainly on the level of several of the sidekicks. But none of those champions had a #2 or even a #3 with as little talent as CJ and Portland has locked up CJ for 5 more seasons. They are settling for mediocrity. It might be higher-level mediocrity, but no team with CJ as the 2nd option is winning a championship, especially not when Portland sacrifices passing offense in order to feature CJ and his one-on-one-dribbling extravaganza
 
wizenheimer said:
I'm curious, so, NBA champions and their assist/game ranking:

2000-01 - Lakers 9th (Shaq, Kobe)
2001-02 - Lakers 9th (Shaq, Kobe)
2002-03 - Spurs 22nd (Duncan, Robinson, Manu, Parker)
2003-04 - Detroit 15th (Thomas, Dumars)
2004-05 - Spurs 17th (Duncan, Manu, Parker)
2005-06 - Miami 17th (DWade, Shaq)
2006-07 - Spurs 11th (Duncan, Manu, Parker)
2007-08 - Boston 8th (KG, Pierce, Allen)
2008-09 - Lakers 2nd (Kobe, Pau)
2009-10 - Lakers 15th (Kobe, Pau)
2010-11 - Dallas 2nd (Dirk, Kidd)
2011-12 - Miami 21st (Lebron, DWade, Bosh)
2012-13 - Miami 7th (Lebron, DWade, Bosh)
2013-14 - Spurs 1st (Duncan, Manu, Parker, Kawhi)
2014-15 - Warriors 1st (Curry, Klay, Green)
2015-16 - Cleveland 13th (Lebron, Kyrie, Love)
2016-17 - Warriors 1st (Curry, Durant, Klay, Green)
2017-18 - Warriors 1st (Curry, Durant, Klay, Green)
2018-19 - Raptors 13th (Kawhi, Gasol, Lowry)

the lowest ranked team in assists was that Spurs team in 2002-03. But they had 2 HOF big men and the one-on-one skill of Parker and Manu (who got to the FT line a lot). That was also a different era. The 3rd Miami championship team only ranked 21st, but Lebron and DWade were just dominant in iso and Chris Bosh was a perennial all-star big man

In the last 13 seasons, there's only been one champion that wasn't in the top half of the league in assists; in 8 of 13 seasons, the champion was in the top-8 in assists; and in 6 of 13 seasons, the champion was either 1st of 2nd in assists. The NBA has evolved and it has become more and more important that a team be good at passing offense. They don't necessarily have to be top-5 but it sure helps. And for damn sure, they can't be as crappy at passing offense as Portland is

But what's even more apparent, and just about everybody knows this, is that to be a champion you need elite talent. Forget about all-star talent, I'm looking at that list and I only see one team, Cleveland, that didn't have at least 2 Hall-of-Fame players on the team; sometimes they had 3 or even 4.....

and that points at what the hell are the Blazers are doing....? Every single one of those teams had at least one player that was better then Dame. Dame is close to the level of a couple of them, and certainly on the level of several of the sidekicks. But none of those champions had a #2 or even a #3 with as little talent as CJ and Portland has locked up CJ for 5 more seasons. They are settling for mediocrity. It might be higher-level mediocrity, but no team with CJ as the 2nd option is winning a championship, especially not when Portland sacrifices passing offense in order to feature CJ and his one-on-one-dribbling extravaganza
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Boom!
 
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