Who/What Is The Culprit To Our Current State

[mook]

Olshey.

We really should have traded CJ a few years ago for someone who fits better with Dame. He tried picking through the NBA scrap heap and came up with Tolliver and Hezonja.

 

[Blazers Roy]

tRAde cJ i d0Nt kN0w f0R wH0

 

[HailBlazers]

clearly the answer was “we didn’t have Melo” and now that we do have Melo clearly the answer is "Melo."

Ftfy

 

[tlongII]

not a surprising development considering he was a 39 year old big man who had recently had surgery for a broken foot

It must be surprising to the Blazers since they and Pau indicated he would be ready by the start of the season.

 

[STOMP]

Be it taxes, African-American entertainment shortcomings, keepin' it weird, or whatever, FA's generally cross this city off their respective lists.

I'd put some practical reasons up higher then any of your listed reasons for the Blazers inability to lure FAs of note. #1 Smaller market = far less endorsement dollars & no star treatment from officials. #2 Most traveling miles of any team in the league. #3 cold & wet

STOMP

 

[STOMP]

I don't always buy this argument. Do you have any idea what it's like being non-white, non-Mormon in Salt Lake City? Or Oklahoma City? Those cities land some great FAs and the market "culture" lends nothing to an NBA player's culture.

Remind me of some of the great FAs either of those teams have landed as I can't think of any. Drafting, trading for & resigning, sure.

STOMP

 

[TorturedBlazerFan]

Remind me of some of the great FAs either of those teams have landed as I can't think of any. Drafting, trading for & resigning, sure.

STOMP

I'm not totally sure the OKC one is all that fair they've only been around a decade and had some really highly paid players that have kept them from having a ton of salary cap space.
Besides that the Jazz signed Boozer, and maybe Joe Johnson but I'm not sure if that was a signing or a trade, off the top of my head? So not a great track record either.

 

[bobf]

Name the very good player we let go

Aminu

 

[TorturedBlazerFan]

Aminu

Aminu isn't good though... This is his averages through 11 games with Orlando.
4.1 ppg, 4.6trb, 0.9 assists, 30.4% fg%, 30.0% 3point fg%, 37% efg. This has been his first year being an elite defender though his DPBM is 3.2. People talked like he was a great defender, was never above a 2 in his years in portland.

 

[kjironman1]

Jeff Gillooly

Tawnia approves of this message.

 

[bobf]

Aminu isn't good though... This is his averages through 11 games with Orlando.
4.1 ppg, 4.6trb, 0.9 assists, 30.4% fg%, 30.0% 3point fg%, 37% efg. This has been his first year being an elite defender though his DPBM is 3.2. People talked like he was a great defender, was never above a 2 in his years in portland.

But I wouldn't use an 11 game sample, and Aminu has to be used correctly. He has have sufficient offensive threats around him so he can stand in the corner and shoot 36% from 3 and never have to shoot a mid-range shot. Here's a large sample. I took average RPM/BPM for the past 5 years weighted more towards recent years. RPM and BPM are "points above an average player per 48 minutes". Each +1 point translates into a bit under 3 wins/season if a player played 48 minutes. So for wins I scaled according to MPG of each player. "Both" is average of RPM and BPM. "Wins" is "Both" x 2.8 x MPG / 48.

Bottom line, we netted -9 wins per 82 games. But it's really more like -11 because the players on the right are playing less minutes than those on the left and we are having to fill in with other scrubs/raw players. We are seeing this play out on the floor.

 

[TorturedBlazerFan]

But I wouldn't use an 11 game sample, and Aminu has to be used correctly. He has have sufficient offensive threats around him so he can stand in the corner and shoot 36% from 3 and never have to shoot a mid-range shot. Here's a large sample. I took average RPM/BPM for the past 5 years weighted more towards recent years. RPM and BPM are "points above an average player per 48 minutes". Each +1 point translates into a bit under 3 wins/season if a player played 48 minutes. So for wins I scaled according to MPG of each player. "Both" is average of RPM and BPM. "Wins" is "Both" x 2.8 / MPG.

Bottom line, we netted -9 wins per 82 games. But it's really more like -11 because the players on the right are playing less minutes than those on the left and we are having to fill in with other scrubs/raw players. We are seeing this play out on the floor.

View attachment 28511

You left out turner.

 

[bobf]

You left out turner.

I left out turner because I was happy for him to leave. So Turner will bring it down some, but then Tolliver is probably way over-rated since he's falling off a cliff and Curry is probably underrated as an improving player.

 

[kjironman1]

Why the slow starts each of the previous 3 seasons without "umpteen" new guys then?

Slow start?????
Last year they started 10-3
8-6 the year before
I'll give you 16-17 at 7-7
15-16 was miserable 5-9. The 7 game losing streak hurt bad. 4 losses in the last 30 seconds one OT was tough to handle.
14-15 was 11-3

Seems like slow start isn't really a Stotts problem. Seems like maybe it has something to do with team cohesiveness.

 

[kjironman1]

I blame HCP.

No reason.

Whoa there now.... There are always plenty of reasons to blame HCP. This post seems lazy and unmotivated!

 

[kjironman1]

I'd put some practical reasons up higher then any of your listed reasons for the Blazers inability to lure FAs of note. #1 Smaller market = far less endorsement dollars & no star treatment from officials. #2 Most traveling miles of any team in the league. #3 cold & wet

STOMP

Could add Taxes as well.

 

[TorturedBlazerFan]

I left out turner because I was happy for him to leave. So Turner will bring it down some, but then Tolliver is probably way over-rated since he's falling off a cliff and Curry is probably underrated as an improving player.

I'm not really sad about any of the departures. I think Harkless and Aminu were a pretty awful pairing as starters (I think a contending team could be ok starting one or the other), not both, even last year in the playoffs their minutes dropped. The real issue is the Blazers banked on Zach being the man at PF. The role players sure maybe they got worse, but they did basically nothing to shore up that position if anything happened to Zach.

 

[Chris Craig]

All the above

It's mostly injuries, or at least it starts with injuries. If Portland was completely healthy to start the season, they would have a winning record right now. As it is they started the season without their starting center. Pau was supposed to be ready, he is still injured. Whiteside came in injured and hasn't had the best start (some of that is him playing in a new system that doesn't involve him and learning how to exist in that system...acclimation, part of it is effort). Hood got hurt. Skal got hurt.

The Zach went down. Portland was 2-1 with Zach. His injury killed them. It left the Blazers with a huge hole in the front court. It forced them to play younger/role players who are 1.) New to the team and 2.) Not meant to play so many minutes. More acclimation issues to go with youth. The Blazers are starting rookie Nassir Little for goodness sake. (He looks good by the way, but still...acclimation) They were starting Tolliver. Hezonja has disappointed. He has had some good moments, but he hasn't played up to expectations. (Part of that is he is playing more minutes than anticipated). It's like throwing a kid in the water and telling him to swim or sink. The Blazers are sinking.

Stotts has some blame here, but for the most part it's out of his hands. He has been up to some of his old habits of allowing teams to build leads into double digits before taking timeouts, not bringing players back into the game late who are effective, not to mention the issues with his system. He has help Portland win a few using the coaches challenge late to get calls overturned.

Olshey deserves some of the blame too. He is the one who put the roster together as it is. He traded/signed all of these players and created a signifigant turnover which has affected the start of the season negatively. He must be feeling the pressure though. He just signed Carmelo Anthony. It is a move that reeks of desperation.

Oh and The HCP because he is a Laker fan.

 

[tlongII]

I blame Trump.

 

[Ripcity4life77]

I am going to combine my Melo reaction into this thread to save time --- So who is to blame for this complete mess a few factors but ....

I am going to say it's NeO but what i am trying to figure out if this was on purpose and / or NeO miscalculating the impact of certain players added and i am sure some are scratching there head at the 1st part of this statement.

What i mean is for better or worse the Blazers let go 2 good or solid wing defenders in Hark and Aminu go and brought in a avg replacement in K Bazemore and one who is a hybrid SG/SF with more of a SG game but cannot defend worth crap in Mario. This is what i think most feared would happen but were hoping to be wrong in the fact this team can now put up points but for most part cannot stop anyone. Now why i think this might have been on purpose is this puts more spotlight on CJ and how while he is a star he and Dame need to be split up. However NeO kind of knowing this but maybe there is someone who has a say who has stepped into the meddling owner type role who told NeO that CJ needed to stay for now . I know it's crazy but anyone with half a brain could see this coming with how they built this team. It's only real defenders are Whiteside ( inconsistent ( headcase ) , Collins ( young but now injured ) , Bazemore ( Avg Defender ) and of course Nurk ( solid defender but injured )

This is not a surprise and now this Melo signing reeks of desperation with hopes of maybe bringing in someone with name rec and maybe who can summon 60 to 75 % of what he once was to spark this team into something more. If that is the case then while there is a chance it could happen ( longshot - like Jim Carey quote from Dumb and Dumber ) but destined to fail. This feels like they need a little time to kill before just throwing in the white flag and hoping to get a 6 to 10 (maybe better) lotto pick to help in the rebuild around Dame.

I really do not know what to say about this team right now it's built like crap and there is very little hope unless Collins and Nurk can magically heal faster and show up in Mid January or so and maybe sneak into the playoffs. Unless Neo makes a bold trade and that is hard to do IN SEASON but unless he can do something bold the rest of this season kind of seems like a throw away cept for seeing what they have in Little and Simons. I really hope i am wrong but i do not think i am

 

[bobf]

I'm not really sad about any of the departures. I think Harkless and Aminu were a pretty awful pairing as starters (I think a contending team could be ok starting one or the other), not both, even last year in the playoffs their minutes dropped. The real issue is the Blazers banked on Zach being the man at PF. The role players sure maybe they got worse, but they did basically nothing to shore up that position if anything happened to Zach.

I think they were good, not awful. They’re just the kind of players that don’t look good. Marginal offensive players with good defense who do little things that matter but are hard to notice. Better to have Zach + Aminu than just Zach. Zach could have continued increasing minutes from Aminu with either coming off the bench, whatever worked better chemistry-wise. Aminu being awkward and looking not as good as he is is an added bonus really - undervalued, underpaid.

 

[TorturedBlazerFan]

I think they were good, not awful. They’re just the kind of players that don’t look good. Marginal offensive players with good defense who do little things that matter but are hard to notice. Better to have Zach + Aminu than just Zach. Zach could have continued increasing minutes from Aminu with either coming off the bench, whatever worked better chemistry-wise. Aminu being awkward and looking not as good as he is is an added bonus really - undervalued, underpaid.

The problem is they didnt do a lot of small things to win especially Harkless. Aminu had moments. I dont think keeping Aminu was ever really in the plans because of money. I probably overall liked Aminu better than Harkless. However I dont really miss either that much.

 

[bobf]

The problem is they didnt do a lot of small things to win especially Harkless. Aminu had moments. I dont think keeping Aminu was ever really in the plans because of money. I probably overall liked Aminu better than Harkless. However I dont really miss either that much.

The players we replaced them with are much worse. What’s the point of letting go of a player who is “not good enough” when the replacement is utter trash. Advanced stats say they did something good and it wasn’t offense. Both are above average players and above average is not so easy to come by.

 

[TorturedBlazerFan]

The players we replaced them with are much worse. What’s the point of letting go of a player who is “not good enough” when the replacement is utter trash. Advanced stats say they did something good and it wasn’t offense. Both are above average players and above average is not so easy to come by.

Sure the replacements havent been good. Heres the issue Meyers, that horse was long since dead, he needed a change of scenery and so did most Blazer fans. Aminu / Harkless we had seen that Merry go round for years and seen that when the playoffs came it just didnt work. It was bordering insanity to just keep doing it with the same results. Nurkic broke his leg, and they didnt have a center. Whiteside on paper seemed like a good addition to a position they needed. Tolliver was definitely a head-scratcher, Mario was a lot like when they brought in Moe and Aminu, a young athletic guy who had way underachieved from expectations, they were wanting to get something out of him.

ET, Baze are kind of a wash to me.

I still go back to the main issue being A)Stotts defensive doesn't work with a lack of size. They don't pressure the ball, they play purely reactive defense they don't force teams or game plan for teams much. B)Zach, he was their answer at 4 and they did nothing to have quality minutes behind him, especially if someone had to start. All they did was bring in guys who were Bench players, and its really thrown the whole team out of whack.

 

[wizenheimer]

It must be surprising to the Blazers since they and Pau indicated he would be ready by the start of the season.

yeah, right....because a stress fracture of a foot severe enough to require surgery has a very predictable recovery timeline, especially for a 39 year old, 7' basketball player. I mean, we've never seen recoveries from foot surgeries take longer than anticipated. That was all sarcasm by the way

my question is, why risk it when the front office had the Ezeli example to use as a template?

 

[Jade Falcon]

yeah, right....because a stress fracture of a foot severe enough to require surgery has a very predictable recovery timeline, especially for a 39 year old, 7' basketball player. I mean, we've never seen recoveries from foot surgeries take longer than anticipated. That was all sarcasm by the way

my question is, why risk it when the front office had the Ezeli example to use as a template?

I'm not expecting Pau to play at all as of right now. What's the point of playing a senior citizen on a losing team?

He's here strictly for a paycheck and nothing else.

 

[HailBlazers]

A.) 2016

B.) Injuries

C.) Stottsfense

 

[riverman]

Name the very good player we let go

Chief is missed the most...he was our defensive floor general and actually an elite defender...great rebounder and great help defender