What is the core issue with this team?

[tester551]

Back to the Jazz. There's no way they should be 10+ games ahead of us in the standings. You can't tell me their roster is significantly better than outs. Yet, they've blown us out by 20 twice already this year. Why? They play sound basketball. Phoenix does too. All of the elite teams do. When I watch other top teams play, rarely am I left scratching my head at their shot attempts compared to the Blazers hoisting up quick, contested jumpers on the regular because "we want to shoot more 3's this season."

This is exactly correct!

 

[Scalma]

You think that's shitting on him?

Yes. I wanted to trade him, but not for another shooting guard who is a UFA. Why trade a young asset and get nothing in return?

We got a better player, what are you talking about? Are you talking about free agency? The majority of the league will be over the cap, and the ones with space probably won’t be planning their summers around Norman Powell. If Powell doesn’t stay, good chance there will be sign and trade opportunities. But that’s a long ways away. A lot can change, we might not even have the same front office/coaching staff. Can cross that bridge when we get there.

 

[illmatic99]

coaching.

coaching.

coaching.

put even an average NBA coach on this roster and we'd be better. I really think our personnel is not significantly worse than any of the western teams above us. the only two reasons why we sustained those injuries earlier were because of Dame and our depth. people have conveniently ignored this.

 

[UKRAINEFAN]

Now, the optimist might look at the acquisition of Powell and say - Olshey has finally realized this, and is auditioning CJ's replacement. But is Powell that much better? He draws more fouls and he plays SLIGHTLY better defense, and he's more athletic, but on the down side, he's been more injury prone in his career, and he's gonna want a huge pay raise. And if CJ could keep up his performance from the beginning of the year, he's better than Powell even given Powell's D.

No, Powell is not that much better and still undersized but I think CJ may have more value in a trade for somebody bigger. And CJ and his salary need to go out if we want to afford a bigger star.

 

[e_blazer]

Exactly. This is a huge factor, probably the largest (no pun intended). In fact, in this sense, the roster is upside-down. It's small at every position except center and at center they have a huge lumbering man when that's really not what you want anymore. A correctly constructed roster would have taller players at nearly every position and a lighter, more fluid player at center.

Even if the team has a few isolated good defenders on the roster, the Blazers are poorly constructed overall to defend and, in addition, they also have awful defenders who have to be key reserves (because they have no real talent beyond them). It's not Stotts' fault for playing Melo and Kanter--the roster forces him to play them significant minutes. You can complain about playing them together, sure, but it's not clear whether it's worse to play them together or to separate their minutes and essentially ensure one of them is on the court at all times sabotaging the defense.

I don't think Stotts is a great coach, but I also don't think Popovich or Thibodeau would be getting significantly better defense out of this roster. When it comes to defense, it's broken at the construction level.

It's interesting to think about what could be done with the roster if Zach Collins could ever get healthy. Then you could either go big with a lineup of Nurk, Collins, RoCo, Powell, and Dame, or decide to go small and use Zach at center with RoCo and the 3-guard lineup. There are endless options to vary the roster between those extremes. A healthy Zach, or another player with his size and skill set, would make a huge difference for this team.

 

[Hoopguru]

Back court defense. Its like owning a Corvette and expecting to haul ass through deep dry sand. Wont happen. So, you get the best four wheel drive with power.
If Portland had at least one lock down defender and another decent defender in the back court with the rest of the team as is, it would work much better. The other guys could offset some scoring lost by giving up scoring guards.
We also, need a true point guard as a back up.

 

[royo]

Exactly. This is a huge factor, probably the largest (no pun intended). In fact, in this sense, the roster is upside-down. It's small at every position except center and at center they have a huge lumbering man when that's really not what you want anymore. A correctly constructed roster would have taller players at nearly every position and a lighter, more fluid player at center.

Even if the team has a few isolated good defenders on the roster, the Blazers are poorly constructed overall to defend and, in addition, they also have awful defenders who have to be key reserves (because they have no real talent beyond them). It's not Stotts' fault for playing Melo and Kanter--the roster forces him to play them significant minutes. You can complain about playing them together, sure, but it's not clear whether it's worse to play them together or to separate their minutes and essentially ensure one of them is on the court at all times sabotaging the defense.

I don't think Stotts is a great coach, but I also don't think Popovich or Thibodeau would be getting significantly better defense out of this roster. When it comes to defense, it's broken at the construction level.

I call bollocks. Pop and Thib would not let this kind of lazy effort from any players. It seems like they - Stotts, CJ and Dame are frustrated about all this stupid basketball questions when they have such an interesting live after games are over.

Why don't we have a posts about CJ and wine on this forum? We probably should.
CJ would probably be more involved than in reading about defense again.

You probably rite about the roster, but how can you be competitive if you don't really care? Our core is Dame and CJ. They seem to be slightly smarter than... some other players. That is the problem as well.

 

[UKRAINEFAN]

I defy the best defensive coach in history to do much with this bunch. You'd have to completely bench Kanter and Carmelo, and then you'd probably be losing games 85-80 instead of 130-110.

I always waver on how Melo came to be here this year. Is Stotts so clueless that he actually told Olshey that Melo would be a helpful addition? Or is Olshey determined to get into the lottery and not lose that valuable pick this year in a good draft? The thing is, Olshey signed Melo before Nurk got injured and Zach re-injured so I think at that time he intended to go for it all. So, the signing of Melo seems to be just a massive talent evaluation mistake.

 

[Chris Craig]

No, Powell is not that much better and still undersized but I think CJ may have more value in a trade for somebody bigger. And CJ and his salary need to go out if we want to afford a bigger star.

It would be great to trade CJ for a star forward but most star forwards out there aren't being traded right now.

Maybe we could get Jaylen Brown

I would trade CJ and Nurkic in a package to get KAT but it's not happening.

It's easy to say let's trade CJ in a package for another star player. How many star players are available and gettable with CJ's value?

 

[Natebishop3]

We got a better player, what are you talking about? Are you talking about free agency? The majority of the league will be over the cap, and the ones with space probably won’t be planning their summers around Norman Powell. If Powell doesn’t stay, good chance there will be sign and trade opportunities. But that’s a long ways away. A lot can change, we might not even have the same front office/coaching staff. Can cross that bridge when we get there.

Yes. I'm talking about free agency. It's the same problem we were facing with Trent. If we bring him back while keeping CJ, we're sinking a huge number of our cap into three guards. If we trade CJ, problem solved.

 

[Hoopguru]

Back court defense. Its like owning a Corvette and expecting to haul ass through deep dry sand. Wont happen. So, you get the best four wheel drive with power.
If Portland had at least one lock down defender and another decent defender in the back court with the rest of the team as is, it would work much better. The other guys could offset some scoring lost by giving up scoring guards.
We also, need a true point guard as a back up.

Example: A healthy Butler and Dragrich? would be much more effective than the current stating back court. Im not saying go get those guys as dragic is old and injury prone.

 

[Natebishop3]

It would be great to trade CJ for a star forward but most star forwards out there aren't being traded right now.

Maybe we could get Jaylen Brown

I would trade CJ and Nurkic in a package to get KAT but it's not happening.

It's easy to say let's trade CJ in a package for another star player. How many star players are available and gettable with CJ's value?

This is the main issue. The league feels very short on star small forwards right now.

 

[Hoopguru]

I always waver on how Melo came to be here this year. Is Stotts so clueless that he actually told Olshey that Melo would be a helpful addition? Or is Olshey determined to get into the lottery and not lose that valuable pick this year in a good draft? The thing is, Olshey signed Melo before Nurk got injured and Zach re-injured so I think at that time he intended to go for it all. So, the signing of Melo seems to be just a massive talent evaluation mistake.

There were a few players that wanted him too.

 

[Hoopguru]

Go get Butler and Ball.

 

[UKRAINEFAN]

There were a few players that wanted him too.

That's why they are players and not GM's.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

I call bollocks. Pop and Thib would not let this kind of lazy effort from any players.

Wishing every coach to be "old school" makes you an old crank. There's a reason Thibs never lasts long at any place: the players either get sick of him or just all injured because he never plays any bench players. The reason Pops has lasted is that he's adapted. But also because nobody is going to fire Pops after what he's done for the franchise. But I don't think Pops would do better with this roster.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

I would trade CJ and Nurkic in a package to get KAT but it's not happening.

Let's see: we bitch about a mediocre team underperforming despite our star player, and you want to target the star player whose team has underperformed the most of any star player ever? The player whose team only ever won when they had Jimmy Butler, who trashed him on the way out the door?

 

[B-Roy]

I don't think Stotts is a great coach, but I also don't think Popovich or Thibodeau would be getting significantly better defense out of this roster. When it comes to defense, it's broken at the construction level.

Can pretty much guarantee you that both Melo and Kanter would never see a minute of non-garbage time minutes under Thib. Maybe our offense rating would tank (doubt it, there's enough evidence to show that Melo is actually a negative on that end), but our defense would be significantly better no matter who you replaced them with.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

coaching.

coaching.

coaching.

put even an average NBA coach on this roster and we'd be better. I really think our personnel is not significantly worse than any of the western teams above us. the only two reasons why we sustained those injuries earlier were because of Dame and our depth. people have conveniently ignored this.

I just completely fail to understand how anyone could think this. Stotts isn't wonderful, but he's probably top 20% of NBA coaches. He's coached more wins out of weirdly unbalanced rosters than I would ever have predicted. It's funny: every game we lose, I'm disappointed, so clearly deep down I believed we could win it. But for the past 6 or 7 seasons I always look at our roster and think "there's no way we make the playoffs this year" and the team always outperforms my expectations.

 

[Natebishop3]

I just completely fail to understand how anyone could think this. Stotts isn't wonderful, but he's probably top 20% of NBA coaches. He's coached more wins out of weirdly unbalanced rosters than I would ever have predicted. It's funny: every game we lose, I'm disappointed, so clearly deep down I believed we could win it. But for the past 6 or 7 seasons I always look at our roster and think "there's no way we make the playoffs this year" and the team always outperforms my expectations.

Point of order - what if Dame is so good that he has been carrying this heaping pile of crap on his back into the playoffs every year? Why does Stotts get any credit when Dame is basically just going super ISO and willing us to wins, but he's injured now and can't do it?

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Poor Stotts has had to pay the price for all those idiots creaming their jeans over Olshey's offseason, whose one really solid move was acquiring RoCo. And even that came at a cost of two first rounders, one of which could've been any of this bunch of really exciting rookies:
1 16 Isaiah Stewart PF/C

United States Portland Trail Blazers (traded to Detroit via Houston)[a] Washington (Fr.)
1 17 Aleksej Pokuševski SF/PF

Serbia Minnesota Timberwolves (from Brooklyn via Atlanta,[C] traded to Oklahoma City) Olympiacos (Greece)
1 19 Saddiq Bey SF

United States Brooklyn Nets (from Philadelphia via L.A. Clippers,[D] traded to Detroit)[c] Villanova (So.)
1 20 Precious Achiuwa PF

Nigeria Miami Heat Memphis (Fr.)
1 21 Tyrese Maxey PG

United States Philadelphia 76ers (from Oklahoma City via Philadelphia and Orlando)[E][F][G] Kentucky (Fr.)
1 22 Zeke Nnaji PF/C

United States Denver Nuggets (from Houston)[C] Arizona (Fr.)
1 25 Immanuel Quickley SG

United States Oklahoma City Thunder (from Denver,[J] traded to New York) Kentucky (So.)
1 26 Payton Pritchard PG

United States Boston Celtics Oregon (Sr.)
1 28 Jaden McDaniels SF

United States Los Angeles Lakers (traded to Minnesota via Oklahoma City)[f] Washington (Fr.)
1 29 Malachi Flynn PG

United States Toronto Raptors San Diego State (Jr.)
1 30 Desmond Bane SG

United States Boston Celtics (from Milwaukee via Phoenix,[L] traded to Memphis)[g] TCU (Sr.)
2 34 Théo Maledon PG

France Philadelphia 76ers (from Atlanta)[O] ASVEL Villerbaunne (France)
2 35 Xavier Tillman PF

United States Sacramento Kings (from Detroit via Phoenix,[P] traded to Memphis) Michigan State (Jr

 

[Natebishop3]

Poor Stotts has had to pay the price for all those idiots creaming their jeans over Olshey's offseason, whose one really solid move was acquiring RoCo. And even that came at a cost of two first rounders, one of which could've been any of this bunch of really exciting rookies:
1 16 Isaiah Stewart PF/C

United States Portland Trail Blazers (traded to Detroit via Houston)[a] Washington (Fr.)
1 17 Aleksej Pokuševski SF/PF

Serbia Minnesota Timberwolves (from Brooklyn via Atlanta,[C] traded to Oklahoma City) Olympiacos (Greece)
1 19 Saddiq Bey SF

United States Brooklyn Nets (from Philadelphia via L.A. Clippers,[D] traded to Detroit)[c] Villanova (So.)
1 20 Precious Achiuwa PF

Nigeria Miami Heat Memphis (Fr.)
1 21 Tyrese Maxey PG

United States Philadelphia 76ers (from Oklahoma City via Philadelphia and Orlando)[E][F][G] Kentucky (Fr.)
1 22 Zeke Nnaji PF/C

United States Denver Nuggets (from Houston)[C] Arizona (Fr.)
1 25 Immanuel Quickley SG

United States Oklahoma City Thunder (from Denver,[J] traded to New York) Kentucky (So.)
1 26 Payton Pritchard PG

United States Boston Celtics Oregon (Sr.)
1 28 Jaden McDaniels SF

United States Los Angeles Lakers (traded to Minnesota via Oklahoma City)[f] Washington (Fr.)
1 29 Malachi Flynn PG

United States Toronto Raptors San Diego State (Jr.)
1 30 Desmond Bane SG

United States Boston Celtics (from Milwaukee via Phoenix,[L] traded to Memphis)[g] TCU (Sr.)
2 34 Théo Maledon PG

France Philadelphia 76ers (from Atlanta)[O] ASVEL Villerbaunne (France)
2 35 Xavier Tillman PF

United States Sacramento Kings (from Detroit via Phoenix,[P] traded to Memphis) Michigan State (Jr

Do we really need more rookies? You know Stotts won't play them, right?

 

[tester551]

It would be great to trade CJ for a star forward but most star forwards out there aren't being traded right now.

Maybe we could get Jaylen Brown

I would trade CJ and Nurkic in a package to get KAT but it's not happening.

It's easy to say let's trade CJ in a package for another star player. How many star players are available and gettable with CJ's value?

Currently - there's none.
However, there have been opportunities in the past... PG13 & Jimmy Butler come to mind. However, rumors have always been that Olshey indicated that CJ was 'off limits'

This off-season, I was advocating for a CJ <-> Julius Randle + '21 pick trade.... but that ship has sailed as well.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Unfortunately his loyalty to Stotts and CJ will kill all his chances of winning a Championship in Portland.

Just like his loyalty to [name every player Dame has been close to who got dumped unceremoniously, from Will Barton on]?

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Can pretty much guarantee you that both Melo and Kanter would never see a minute of non-garbage time minutes under Thib. Maybe our offense rating would tank (doubt it, there's enough evidence to show that Melo is actually a negative on that end), but our defense would be significantly better no matter who you replaced them with.

What if it's Anfernee?

 

[royo]

Wishing every coach to be "old school" makes you an old crank. There's a reason Thibs never lasts long at any place: the players either get sick of him or just all injured because he never plays any bench players. The reason Pops has lasted is that he's adapted. But also because nobody is going to fire Pops after what he's done for the franchise. But I don't think Pops would do better with this roster.

Was referring to the post. Having Stotts as a coach is like having constantly drunk boss at work. Any coach that is not constantly drunk will do. Don't have to be Tib or Pop.

 

[B-Roy]

What if it's Anfernee?

What about Anfernee? He would never play either. (Nor should he)

 

[Minstrel]

Can pretty much guarantee you that both Melo and Kanter would never see a minute of non-garbage time minutes under Thib. Maybe our offense rating would tank (doubt it, there's enough evidence to show that Melo is actually a negative on that end), but our defense would be significantly better no matter who you replaced them with.

I'm sure you're right, but Thibs also has a reputation for running players into the ground. That, though, leads us back to the point that this roster leads to a lot of no-win choices. Sure, you could excise two players from your rotation which leaves you with virtually no bench at all (Jones might just about be it--Thibs probably wouldn't be that interested in Little, as he's famous for not playing young players, and Simons is also not his type of player).

I don't like Melo at all, and I'm not that enamored of Kanter, but this roster really isn't set up to simply not play them. I'd like to see a roster that makes sense before I worry too much about whether a coach is maximizing a broken roster.

 

[Tince]

It would be great to trade CJ for a star forward but most star forwards out there aren't being traded right now.

Maybe we could get Jaylen Brown

I would trade CJ and Nurkic in a package to get KAT but it's not happening.

It's easy to say let's trade CJ in a package for another star player. How many star players are available and gettable with CJ's value?

I think this is a very good point.

It's also why it's important to have players on team friendly deals and have as many draft picks as possible. Unfortunately, CJ isn't on a team friendly deal (discount required) and we've traded away 4 1st round picks for Collins & Cov. No way we could turn around a trade those two back for 4 1st round picks, so we went backwards in value there.

Our highly desired assests are getting less and less, not greater and greater. Puts us at a major disadvantage trying to obtain an all-star forward.

 

[Chris Craig]

Do we really need more rookies? You know Stotts won't play them, right?

He played Trent Jr and Collins, but yeah for the most part our rookies and youth go wasted because Stotts is beholden to veterans