"Trail Blazers players say the words that could change season: ‘Enough is enough’"

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I saw a couple times in the past couple games where Powell pushed the ball and scored on like a one man fast break. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Hadn’t seen someone do that in years in a Blazers uni

You have to attack defenses. Put pressure on them. Make them work. Tire them out
 
We miraculously win a playoff series and Stotts is re-signed to a multi year deal
 
MickZagger said:
We miraculously win a playoff series and Stotts is re-signed to a multi year deal
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Could happen! I think whoever is healthy, and hot could get on a roll. I could see (not inluding us) 4-7 teams that could win it all. Utah, Lakers, Nets, Sixers, Cippers, Suns & Bucks.
Utah & nets finals with Utah winning their first Championship.
 
Rastapopoulos said:
So what exactly are we doing differently these past two games? Anyone?
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The easiest thing a b-ball team can do to improve is to cut down on what I call bone-headed pkays. Easy because it requires zero basketball skill or practice.

1. Don’t foul jump shooters. We are pretty good at this but still do it. Get a hand up to contest but quit trying to block a jump shot. You’ll foul way more often than you will block the shot. You’ll also take yourself out of the play for boxing out and rebounding.

2. Value the ball. Don’t throw or give the ball to the other team. Nurk did it yesterday carelessly dribbling up the floor as if he’s a point guard. CJ apparently had words with him immediately. Good. Don’t throw high risk passes that even when completed leave the guy one on three... compounded by him feeling obligated to go one on three. We do this a lot in the name of “pushing the ball”. Quit it.

3. Shot selection. Don’t settle for shittty mid range contested two pointers early in the shot clock. Or if you’re Nurk don’t settle for wide open long twos (and probably threes unless he’s vastly improved). Dame, Nurk, Melo, CJ are all guilty of this. Powell isn’t. We score about 1.2 ppp on threes and at the rims... and about 0.9 on mid range twos. Over the course of 100 possessions that’s 120 to 90.

4. Stay in front of your guy. This does require skill of course, but some of it goes hand in hand with #1 - overcontesting or trying to block jump shots leads to getting pump faked and torched off the dribble. For example when guarding Ja Morant... do you really need to hyper contest a 3 point shot when he’s 30% from there? No priority is stay in front of him and contest as best you can without sacrificing dribble penetration. Not staying in front of your guy leads to wide open threes any way. Saying in front takes precedence over contesting shots imo. We do this way too much.

These are all decisions and poor decisions in these areas by my observation & reckoning probably costs teams at least 5 points per game.
 
What a loser Team. Sorry i dont buy anything of this "enough is enough" bullshit. They beat Indiana without half their roster and a young Memphis team on a off-night, who cares? Why did it take so long? They may play better for couple of games but we all know who this Blazers Team is, we saw it the whole season that they can beat garbage teams but don't have a chance against good teams, let alone contenders. I won't fall again for this bs
 
MickZagger said:
We miraculously win a playoff series and Stotts is re-signed to a multi year deal
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Pretty sure he has another year left on his contract. No reason for a new contract this offseason if they went that route. Although it would be pretty funny watching a large portion of this forum explode.
 
bobf said:
The easiest thing a b-ball team can do to improve is to cut down on what I call bone-headed pkays. Easy because it requires zero basketball skill or practice.
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I agree with everything you said except for this part.
It most definitely require basketball skill.... which is probably one of the most undervalued skill (BBIQ). And it takes practice & COACHING to improve it.
 
I think it's fair to say that my interest in the rest of the Blazers' season is going to be directly proportionate to Dame's interest in playing defense. If he trusts CJ, Powell, Ant, RoCo, Melo, Nurk, and Kanter to provide solid contributions on the offensive end, and he is willing to lead on defense, they might actually be able to finish strong.

That's a big if.
 
Biggest and most obvious change i have seen is the way they are reacting to the Refs.

No more arguing a call unless it is absolutely outrageous (Which a couple have been).

All the rest of the calls they need to continue to let them go and play the game.
 
tester551 said:
I agree with everything you said except for this part.
It most definitely require basketball skill.... which is probably one of the most undervalued skill (BBIQ). And it takes practice & COACHING to improve it.
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Yes it definitely requires BBIQ. I think we agree just using the term “skill” a bit differently. It does take practice to say fully ingrain your brain to resist the temptation to haphazardly try to block a shot but you can make significant immediate improvement without thousands of reps by just a decision “instead of trying so hard to block a jump shooter’s shot I’m going to get a hand up, under control and then focus on boxing him out”.
 
RoseCityRebel said:
A veteran team that was coasting got some energy from Simons and Little and realize their rotation sports aren’t set with Stotts as coach.
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*one* player realized their rotation spot wasn't set with Stotts and coach. the other guys didn't lose jack.
 
I rarely buy into these types or stories. Teams have players only meetings or their superstar setup up and challenge the team multiple times every season. The only time you hear about it is after a losing streak is snapped or retro-actively after a long winning streak.

If this team ends up playing great to finish the year and advance to the 2nd round, I'll eat crow, but I expect this story to be a nothing-burger in two weeks.
 
Tince said:
I rarely buy into these types or stories. Teams have players only meetings or their superstar setup up and challenge the team multiple times every season. The only time you hear about it is after a losing streak is snapped or retro-actively after a long winning streak.

If this team ends up playing great to finish the year and advance to the 2nd round, I'll eat crow, but I expect this story to be a nothing-burger in two weeks.
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Yes. This is yet another Jason Quick dramatized feel-good creampuff concoction to boost his online hits.
 
jlprk said:
We have a custody dispute over who gets the giant framed portrait of Canzano.
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Who wants it?

iu
 
What does it take to get over the hump? Ask the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I believe the answer would be mindset. We need that.
 
ABM said:
What does it take to get over the hump? Ask the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I believe the answer would be mindset. We need that.
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They need LeBron James to play in Portland?
 
ABM said:
What does it take to get over the hump? Ask the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I believe the answer would be mindset. We need that.
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That's weird because I thought the Bucs got over the hump by acquiring the greatest QB of all time and him bringing along players like Gronk and AB.
 
kjironman1 said:
Biggest and most obvious change i have seen is the way they are reacting to the Refs.

No more arguing a call unless it is absolutely outrageous (Which a couple have been).

All the rest of the calls they need to continue to let them go and play the game.
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This is one of the things that I have always really liked about this team, and Dame. Those crybaby Doc Rivers/Clippers teams drove me crazy.
 
blazerkor said:
That's weird because I thought the Bucs got over the hump by acquiring the greatest QB of all time and him bringing along players like Gronk and AB.
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Yeah, and he's how old?

Again, mindset. Does Dame have what it takes in that department? Hard to say in my mind.
 
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