Are we overreacting?? Just how much is wrong and how can we fix it.

by nima on Dec 1, 2009 10:21 PM PST

Look last year the Blazers played over their heads. I did not expect them to do as well as they did. It required a huge season end push to get them there. They raised my expectations. There's no doubt the Blazers have more talent this year than last-chemistry be damned. So what gives? Why are we losing/not looking like the team we used to? *We have injuries we are underrating: Batum is H U G E. While Cunningham will (guaranteed) be light years better than Outlaw, we are sorely missing Outlaw right now. He may not look good doing it but he's one of the best recipients of a FBP and manages to create in spite of stagnant offense. Hell, he may be the only player that thrives when our offense stagnates. *We did better than expected last year, especially given our youth. *Teams are adjusting to our offensive sets. Just like players who come into the NBA with 1 solid weapon (Rudy's 3 comes to mind), we thrived until the defense adjusted to our strengths. Now its on us to take the next step and add to our repetoire. Which leads to.... *Greg Oden. Man is a monster. He is the X-Factor. But we still aren't used to playing with him. It will take time to iron out the bugs. When he comes out of the game, the offense is all of the sudden confused. Suddenly you have both Blake and Przy as offensive non-starters and teams take advantage and collapse extra on Roy. *Speaking of Roy, anyone else think that time he took away from bball this summer may have been a mistake? He looks sloppy dribbling, a step slow, and like he expected to be able to come back and just 'turn it on' like Nate said at season's start. Roy would do well to realize how much work they put in last season to get where they did. And for god's sake, 1/2 from the line is not acceptable. *But back to Nate, he needs to show flexibility and creativity. Flexibility in playing the hot hand (kudos for giving Oden 30+ this game vs Miami, even if we lost, he looked great and it was the right move) and creativity in offensive schemes. He could do the latter by trusting Andre more. *Andre has a knack for the "super assist". He needs more time and looser reigns. He is bringing Oden out of his shell and motivating him. Sure Oden was OK with not touching the ball, but do you see how his eyes light up now? I mean, come on, he says "my bad" to Roy for not aiming his block into Roy's hands. Let Andre's creativity come to the forefront and shine. There's a lot more that could be said but I have a lot of work to get back to so I'll open it up to comments. We are on a 3 game losing streak but so what. 12-8 is still above the BS line.

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people seem to underrate injuries

batum, outlaw and aldridge missed the game. I think things will correct themselves over time. Chemistry is the problem on offense and that can be fixed through repetition.

Defense, however, is well, juwan howard cant guard michael beasley. but yeah, we got to work on defense

bayless leaves over my dead body
Start Andre (in a 2 guard lineup)
"Good defense always beats bad offense."-Al Iannazzone, Yes Network

by thomasikehara on Dec 1, 2009 10:26 PM PST reply actions

I have nothing bad to say about Juwan Howard, but...

Getting him to fill the backup 4 position was like buying a band-aid for a cut that needed stitches. KP should have brought in Freeland instead of letting him sign another Euro contract. There were probably other viable options as well but KP did not get it done. So here we are.

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by LaMarvelous on Dec 1, 2009 10:43 PM PST up reply actions

And you gotta love what he did in the presesaon

I'm sick of all these Dean Demopolis fanboys screaming for Nates's head

by tominhawaii on Dec 2, 2009 9:16 AM PST up reply actions

Agree with your point on Roy's off-season

Your best players normally work hard to improve their game in the summer (Kobe, Jordan etc.) I think it was a big mistake; too much time off.

by Wotan on Dec 1, 2009 10:33 PM PST reply actions

yes, overreacting

Let’s just let the team play, the season will have ups and downs. The losing streak won’t last. We’ll have winning streaks. When we’re winning it doesn’t mean we’re unbeatable, when we’re losing it doesn’t mean we’re headed for the lottery. Tonight we missed shots and didn’t get out on open shooters (QRich, Beasley and O’Neal), not really rocket science. They’ll work through it, they just need to keep playing hard.

by BrailleTaser on Dec 1, 2009 10:35 PM PST reply actions

Yes, we are overreacting. Its what we do after a horrible loss. It is our right as fans.

There is plenty wrong and no WE can’t fix it – we are just fans.

Can Nate fix it? Only if he pulls his head out!

Can the players fix it? Only with a lot of effort and Nate getting out of the way.

If you get the felling that I am blaming a lot of this on Nate then you are reading me correctly.

by LaMarvelous on Dec 1, 2009 10:36 PM PST reply actions

Coaching

2 things about tonight’s game:

1. Only two players on the blazers hit any baskets. Roy and Webster. 1st player subbed out Webster. No one else had a bucket. Cunningham had one made free throw. Otherwise, at that point Roy had 8 or 10 and Webster had 5. Everyone else zero. Why is Webster the first to the bench? (same thing in Utah)

2. We get the game down to 2, really pretty amazing given how we started, Pryz picks up his third foul, oden jumps up gets almost to the scorers table and Nate pulls him back. Over those last 3 minutes we drop back to 10 down. Game over. Why not keep a center in? Saving him for what exactly if you give it away. That was a big blow in this game, instead of tying, or even taking a lead before half we get turned back.

Ugh

"Oh Yeah!" ~ Kool Aid Man

by PDXBuckeye on Dec 1, 2009 10:44 PM PST via mobile reply actions

Did you see those guys' shooting percentages?

They only hit baskets because they took so many shots.

by GMan83201 on Dec 1, 2009 10:59 PM PST up reply actions

Websters percentage was bad

By game end, but it wasn’t awful early, when he was benched and then got cold.

"Oh Yeah!" ~ Kool Aid Man

by PDXBuckeye on Dec 1, 2009 11:12 PM PST via mobile up reply actions

Excuse me? What about Oden, Miller and Howard? Check the box score again.

by LaMarvelous on Dec 1, 2009 11:10 PM PST up reply actions

no no

I mean when the game started. the first player subbed out was webster. I am only talking in the 1st quarter. Roy and webster were the only two scoring when Nate pulled webster at that point. Webster never warmed up again the rest of the night.

Other scored later of course. I just hate hot players getting subbed for, particularly early like that. It makes no sense, particularly given no one else AT THAT POINT IN TIME is scoring other than Roy.

"Oh Yeah!" ~ Kool Aid Man

by PDXBuckeye on Dec 1, 2009 11:57 PM PST up reply actions

Sorry I misunderstood you.

by LaMarvelous on Dec 2, 2009 12:37 AM PST up reply actions

no worries

"Oh Yeah!" ~ Kool Aid Man

by PDXBuckeye on Dec 2, 2009 7:12 AM PST up reply actions

Now is the logical time to start Andre

There are a couple of days to make the change. The slow starts are killing the Blazers. Watching Oden develop makes up for the poor recent play.

by Jacksonville on Dec 1, 2009 10:45 PM PST reply actions

Oden

Poor guy is getting hammered and held all night long and no whistles. I mean he drew plenty of whistles but really only about 1 in 4 get called. On the other hand, he gets called for 2 quick fouls, the first on a screen. Maybe he did foul there, not sure, but compared to what oneal did to him with no call it is just ridiculous. The 2nd foul was not on oden. Oneal had odens arm hooked. Oden pulls it out of oneals arm a gets a foul.

I don’t really want to blame the officials for this loss, just want to share in odens frustration.

"Oh Yeah!" ~ Kool Aid Man

by PDXBuckeye on Dec 1, 2009 10:57 PM PST via mobile up reply actions

Nate did a good job of complaining

it seemed to work as Oden didn’t get another foul until late in the game. It was a good use of a “T”.

by Jacksonville on Dec 1, 2009 11:27 PM PST reply actions

Thank you for reminding me of the fact that Nate did earn a T and rightly so...

that ref deserved a royal reaming out by Nate. I hope that Nate does that more often…..when it is deserved of course.

by LaMarvelous on Dec 1, 2009 11:33 PM PST up reply actions

i agree, good use of a T there

"Oh Yeah!" ~ Kool Aid Man

by PDXBuckeye on Dec 1, 2009 11:58 PM PST up reply actions

Weak T imo

You want to see some passion watch Jerry Sloan when he gets mad. Also Sloan teams get a lot of calls. Coincidence?

Blazer Fan

by leeroyjenkins on Dec 2, 2009 8:23 AM PST up reply actions

Every game is a new opportunity to nit-pick

I hope you all look at the long term picture and not the game by game: ‘this person is wrong’, ‘this person is not meshing’, and ‘this and this are whats wrong’. Like it was said, we have a few key players hurt, its early in the season still and everyone’s panties are all in a jumble because we lost a few games. When do we win a championship? It surely isn’t in the regular season.

by Allen M. on Dec 1, 2009 11:32 PM PST reply actions

I'll take nit-picking over apathy any day of the week.

Have you been to many of the SBN blog sites for the other teams? A lot of them are ghost towns with very few people showing even the slightest interest in those teams. BlazersEdge is one of the most exciting SBN sites because we are “over the top” passionate about every single detail. I for one am proud to be called a Bedger!

by LaMarvelous on Dec 1, 2009 11:40 PM PST up reply actions

It's not that early

1/4 of the season is gone

Blazer Fan

by leeroyjenkins on Dec 2, 2009 8:22 AM PST up reply actions

I am bummed a little that we arent blowing everyone out but....

Nay to firing Nate just yet. He will come around to the fact that Miller should get a chance to start. I chalk tonites loss to not having LMA in the lineup. With him in, this woulda been a whole different game. I will say that I feel Nate hasnt made the same decisions with the lineup that I would, but the 3 guard did work. Since we ditched it, its been all down hill. I wasnt a fan of the 3 guard but it did work. I still feel Miller deserves a start, and Blake can try his hand with the 2nd unit. Trust me, todays my birthday and I really, really, really, wanted a win, but firing Nate will put us in deeper doo doo. Even though im bummed were not destoying teams, being reallistic to myself I say we are missing 2 starters (Batum and LMA) and one of the best 6th man in the NBA in Outlaw. Nates deck is missing some face cards and some aces and we expect him to win it all Maverick style. (I always use cheesy movie analogies) Trust me though, I hate to lose any time. I think all of our players are playing under or below what they could be, and that is primarily up to Nate and our “big 3”to fix. But its also time for our “kids” to grow up, and play some ball. And I will say Nate isnt getting these guys to play at their full potentials, and so my patience with him is running thin. But lets not fire him yet.

The Dude: Hey, careful, man, there's a beverage here!

by cavejunctionblazer on Dec 1, 2009 11:37 PM PST reply actions