Zach Lowe: "Twenty-three reasons to enjoy the wild Blazers-Nuggets series"

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Malik Beasley, a stalwart in these playoffs, slides away from Maurice Harkless under the rim to account for Kanter. Torrey Craig shifts down from Al-Farouq Aminu to block any pass to Harkless but remains in position to dart back to Aminu. This is the past four seasons of Portland basketball: Teams leave Harkless and Aminu open, and the Blazers often win or lose based on how many 3s they hit. They are 4-of-22 against Denver.
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This is exactly the reason I wanted to go after Otto Porter. It was crazy how people were balking at his contract.

I haven’t looked up the numbers, but it feels like Portland wins almost all the games where Aminu or Harkless can hit open 3s. So replace them with a reliable shooter that can defend and you have a nigh unstoppable offense. Replace them with one that can also attack close outs and it’s game over...

I feel like that was the rationale behind Hood, but Hood is streaky as a catch and shoot guy, and doesn’t defend as well as Harkless. He is also more of a catch and iso guy rather than someone who can decisively attack closeouts...

I think Zach is also right that we can experiment more with Curry or Hood instead of Harkless with Dame/CJ, problem is we really get killed on the glass without Harkless rebounding. Hood is a bad rebounder for his size and Dame and CJ refuse to box out.
 
Speaking of refusing to do something. Would it kill our guys to follow their shot once in a blue moon? I know Terry's defense is predicated on getting back on D quick, but it's extremely frustrating when a shooter vacates a spot where the ball bounces whithin feet of.
 
HailBlazers said:
Speaking of refusing to do something. Would it kill our guys to follow their shot once in a blue moon? I know Terry's defense is predicated on getting back on D quick, but it's extremely frustrating when a shooter vacates a spot where the ball bounces whithin feet of.
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On the flip side, can our guards please crash the glass sometimes? It’s so frustrating to see Seth or Dame just stare at a shot or start running the other way before the shot even hits the rim. News flash, Denver misses a lot of open shots so stop letting their guards get offensive rebounds????
 
B-Roy said:
This is exactly the reason I wanted to go after Otto Porter. It was crazy how people were balking at his contract.

I haven’t looked up the numbers, but it feels like Portland wins almost all the games where Aminu or Harkless can hit open 3s. So replace them with a reliable shooter that can defend and you have a nigh unstoppable offense. Replace them with one that can also attack close outs and it’s game over...

I feel like that was the rationale behind Hood, but Hood is streaky as a catch and shoot guy, and doesn’t defend as well as Harkless. He is also more of a catch and iso guy rather than someone who can decisively attack closeouts...

I think Zach is also right that we can experiment more with Curry or Hood instead of Harkless with Dame/CJ, problem is we really get killed on the glass without Harkless rebounding. Hood is a bad rebounder for his size and Dame and CJ refuse to box out.
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It's not coincidence that we have won when Hood plays well.

Harkless is not a true scorer. He's an opportunistic scorer. Hood actually has the skills to abuse Murray consistently.
 
HailBlazers said:
Speaking of refusing to do something. Would it kill our guys to follow their shot once in a blue moon? I know Terry's defense is predicated on getting back on D quick, but it's extremely frustrating when a shooter vacates a spot where the ball bounces whithin feet of.
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I have said that so many times during these games. Not only follow their own shot, but follow a teammates shot. I know they want to get back on defense but I have seen so many rebounds land in open space where either the shooter or a teammate was standing one second earlier, before they sprinted back on defense.

One play that really killed me though was when we had two guys (forget who: Mo and Aminu?) standing under the basket and Jokic missed a layup. They just stood flat footed on the ground waiting to take the ball out of bounds before he'd even released the shot. The layup missed, they were glued to the floor with their arms to their sides, so Jokic just grabbed the ball and put it in. We need better effort than that.
 
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B-Roy said:
On the flip side, can our guards please crash the glass sometimes? It’s so frustrating to see Seth or Dame just stare at a shot or start running the other way before the shot even hits the rim. News flash, Denver misses a lot of open shots so stop letting their guards get offensive rebounds????
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Exactly
 
Haven't finished it yet; but here is a second guy (first O'Connor with the Ringer) who thinks we need a third shooter on the court and thinks Hood and Curry need more minutes. (and I agree!) Also talks about how we are a defense rotation mess, often going to the wrong guy or two guys going to the same guy. Of course we are a mess at this; we never doubleteamed during the last five seasons and so guys don't have practice rotating.
 
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Also talks about what I also saw; something a little off with Lillard; very passive even when he is a decoy. What is going on?
 
It was educating to see how many different little things Blazers are trying to do to make things work offensively (i.e. to make up for only having two shooters on the court). and notes that Stotts has given up on lineups that don't have Lillard or Mc Collum in them. I truly think Stotts is working hard and making a lot more adjustments than in the past. I hope that next season he will decide to let guys improvise more on defense as he does on offense. The only way to develop those skills is to practice in real games.
 
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BBert said:
I have said that so many times during these games. Not only follow their own shot, but follow a teammates shot. I know they want to get back on defense but I have seen so many rebounds land in open space where either the shooter or a teammate was standing one second earlier, before they sprinted back on defense.

One play that really killed me though was when we had two guys (forget who: Mo and Aminu?) standing under the basket and Jokic missed a layup. They just stood flat footed on the ground waiting to take the ball out of bounds before he'd even released the shot. The layup missed, they were glued to the floor with their arms to their sides, so Jokic just grabbed the rebound and put it in. We need better effort than that.
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It's maddening. Free Layman.
 
I wonder if Tony Kornheiser is eating crow right now?
 
B-Roy said:
On the flip side, can our guards please crash the glass sometimes? It’s so frustrating to see Seth or Dame just stare at a shot or start running the other way before the shot even hits the rim. News flash, Denver misses a lot of open shots so stop letting their guards get offensive rebounds????
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CJ followed his shot, snatched the rebound and mid flight/catch he kicks it out to Rodney Hood for the Show-N-Go three.

Game blouses.

It happens.
 
dviss1 said:
No but Jusuf Nurkić starting and a healthy Kanter off the bench does.

It doesn't make sense rag on our rebounding when our best rebounders are devastatingly injured.
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Im ragging on the guards, not the bigs. You would think with our best rebounders out there should be more of an emphasis to help on the glass. Or at least box out your man so he doesn't come in from the 3 point line to grab rebounds. I don't understand why our guards even feel the need to cherry pick by running back on offense. The Blazers don't get a lot of fast break opportunities and don't convert on them well enough when they get them, so why not help the guy with an injured left shoulder battling someone who he's giving a few inches to in the first place?
 
dviss1 said:
No but Jusuf Nurkić starting and a healthy Kanter off the bench does.

It doesn't make sense rag on our rebounding when our best rebounders are devastatingly injured.
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and......their's succeeded on both ends of the court. Millsap and the Joker wasted us.
 
B-Roy said:
Im ragging on the guards, not the bigs. You would think with our best rebounders out there should be more of an emphasis to help on the glass. Or at least box out your man so he doesn't come in from the 3 point line to grab rebounds. I don't understand why our guards even feel the need to cherry pick by running back on offense. The Blazers don't get a lot of fast break opportunities and don't convert on them well enough when they get them, so why not help the guy with an injured left shoulder battling someone who he's giving a few inches to in the first place?
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When Robin Lopez came to our team what happened?

Rhetorical.

All 5 starters had career years in rebounding.

LaMarcus finally averaged a double double.

When you have a big who can box out as well as Lopez does everyone reaps the benefits.

We have 2 of those guys and they're both injured.
 
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