It's Time

the Blazers would monopolize the auto parts industry.

give Detroit a call now KP

I’m thinking all the blazers just hurt their trade value tonight. Bummer effort. They are paid waaaaay too much to be turning crapy teams into playoff teams. There’s something going on with the team chemistry that noone is telling us about.

It’s pretty easy to rail on Greg for lack of rebounds but I suppose it’s pretty easy to ignore the fact that he’s getting boxed out by two guys because the other team knows the rest of his teammates generally wont stick behind with him to get the rebounds he tips out. That was also one hell of a run on sentence there.

This has been happening pretty regularly since the Christmas day game against Dallas. Everyone freaked out at Greg (and at one point Joel too I believe) because JJ Barrea because he got eight rebounds and I think Greg got four. What everyone seemed to want to ignore in that game is Greg literally had two people hanging on him (at one point Dampier was on him holding one of Greg’s arms down and no call was made and I believe Brandon Bass was on him as well, it was quite hilarious) but Greg still managed to tip the ball up and out towards a teammate. Too bad Steve, Travis and even Brandon decided to stand there flat-footed and watch JJ and other 6’5 and under Mavericks run right by them and get the rebound.

It would also help if Nate didn’t have the team switch on the pick and roll (everyone can keep saying he doesn’t advocate that but the team switches between 80-90% of the time and every team Nate has had has done this including his Seattle veteran teams. In addition he’s never had a team finish above 17th in defensive rating his entire coaching career so either he’s really bad at drawing up defensive schemes or his players don’t listen to him and neither is endearing to Nate as a coach) and leave Greg out there (you know a rookie still learning to retrust his knee after major knee surgery) against guys 7 inches shorter (at least) and 5x as fast as he is (or in Paul’s case 1023910231x as fast). I know Nate says he doesn’t want Greg to drop back like Shaq did and instead learn to guard on the perimeter and avoid ‘bad habits’, but isn’t switching 80-90% of the time implementing bad habits in another way and on the entire team?

And finally if Joel starts on this team in the playoffs, and if we fail to continue to properly utilize Greg on offense we will not win a playoff series. I’d be surprised if we won a game. Shooting the amount of jumpers we do in the playoffs will be immediate failure especially without a post threat (since we don’t seem to want to establish LaMarcus very often) to make the perimeter defenders sag off. Greg, as an unpolished rookie who is being misused by his own coach, already is getting doubled team because the majority of the centers in the league do not have the strength to keep him out of the post. We should be working on this in every game as Greg even now is able to draw fouls and double teams and that works to the advantage of not only Greg’s development but our other jump-shooting starters on the floor. But I guess shooting jumpers and ignoring the 7’0 280 pound guy literally standing wide open under the basket jumping and waving for the ball (go watch the start of the New Orleans game against, David West and Hilton Armstrong left Greg wide open at one point in the first five minutes to double/shadow LaMarcus) only to have Brandon, Sergio, Travis etc completely ignore him and pass it around the perimeter for a contested jump-shot.

I lied, that isn’t finally.

Finally, I’d really appreciate it if someone in the ‘media’ besides Dwight Jaynes would publicly speak about the questionable substitutions, play-calling, offensive and defensive schemes, and the fact that Nate himself has PUBLICLY conceded a matchup to another team before the game EVEN STARTED. A lot of people want to point out the short comings of all the players so I’m curious as to why everyone but apparently Dwight Jaynes wants to ignore Nate’s questionable coaching (and his impressive throwing his players under the bus after some games without taking responsibility. The Laker game to start the season was in particular quite impressive for under the bus throwing).

Not too often do I read something Dave has written and think, “this guy is just reacting”, but he managed to suprise me. This loss was not Oden’s fault, the slow starts the Blazers have had in the past few games are not Oden’s fault, hell even most of the fouls he has picked up are not his fault. I have said this many many times this year, as much as my fan side wants to believe, this team is not built to have any playoff success in the NBA. They might make it, but they will get swept most likely and still get good tee times. The reasons for this were the same on opening day as they are today, only they are now way more visible.

1.) Defense, the perimeter defense is still the Blazers biggest weakness, none of the Blazers, (yes not even Batum) is an above average one on one defender. The fact that Batum, a 20 year old rookie is considered the teams best wing defender speaks to this. He does his best, and has good instincts but he lacks muscle, and experience, both of which are more important when it comes to the playoffs. Interior defense is not much better, and some of that can be placed right at Oden’s feet. He was suppose to anchor this team on the interior, blocking shots and filling space to prevent penetrating guards from doing too much damage. However he has been slow to rotate and react, causing him to pick up more fouls than blocks. LMA is equally to blame, he spent all preseason talking about improving on defense, yet he has done nothing to actually improve. He still had bad defensive posture, and gives up inside position too easily, and he is still soft on the defensive end.

But finally the biggest problem with the Blazers defense, is Nate’s inability to coach this team and make them understand and execute what he knows they have to do. Nate was a good defender, and obviously he can coach defense, (as he did for Team USA) but he has been woefully bad at communicating to this Blazer team the type of defense he expects to be played. In Quick’s story about pick and roll defense Nate told Jason exactly what he wants the team to do, yet the team does nothing even close to that, infact they do the exact opposite most of the time. That is a failure in coaching, either the team has tune him out, (I don’t think this is the case) or the delivery of his defensive message is causing the message to get lost.

2.) Nate’s attempt to coach Oden this year like he “thinks” he will be able to play in 5 years. In that same story from J. Quick, Nate talked about Oden at length, and gave insights into why we constantly see Oden out guarding the Chris Paul’s of the NBA. Basically Nate wants Greg to be able to step out on an opponent PG, while still recovering to the paint to block a shot or rebound the ball. Greg might very well be able to do this in his 5th NBA season, but asking him to do it his rookie year is too much, infact I believe this coaching decision is 50% responsible for not only Greg’s fouling problem, but 100% responsible for Greg’s lack of blocks. Nate wants Greg to be able to do something that he just can’t do yet, and no matter how much he wants it to happen, it won’t this year. One of the hallmarks of good coaches is that they put their players into situations where they can succeed, but Nate is doing the exact opposite with Greg, he is putting him impossible situations, which causes Greg to pick up fouls, be out of position for rebounds, (this is why he is better at offensive rebounding than defensive rebounding) and out of position for blocks. Instead of benching Greg, maybe Nate should let Greg be Greg, let him camp in the middle and be the clog everyone hoped he would be last year. Stop trying to make Greg into someone else before he has even established himself in the NBA. If I had a time machine I would go back and make KP select Durant in the draft, but not because I want KD, I would do it to show the NBA what Oden can be like if he given confidence by his coach, and allowed to be himself. My guess is Oden would be a much more effective player on both ends of the court. Speaking of offense…

3.) This team’s lead leading offensive is masking the larger problem, (they might not lead the lead in offensive efficiency anymore, but they are still up there) They don’t get many easy shots, because they don’t work for them. Roy is amazing at one on one basketball, Outlaw is as well, but one on one basketball is taken away in the playoffs, so that won’t get you very far. With two post players like LMA and Oden, this team should be a league leader in Points in the Paint and dunks, yet if I looked those stats up I am sure the Blazers would be in the bottom half of the league. All of that is coaching. There is no excuse for Oden averaging only 6 shot attempts per game, he should have 6 attempts per half minimum! And when he goes out, LMA needs to stop shooting 18 foot fade-a-ways and take it inside. One thing LMA has done is developed his inside game, and the team needs to force him down there and force feed him the ball. And everything he fades away from contact, Nate needs to call him over and punch him in the gut, to remind him that this is a physical league, and if he wants to be and All-Star he needs to dish out and take that punishment.

This team should also be pushing the ball up the court looking for easy buckets. Every good NBA team does this, even the Spurs and Hornets do and they play just as slow of a pace as the Blazers. Easy baskets are the key to consistant scoring in the NBA, no team will be on every night and shoot 50%. But by getting to the rim consistantly any team can be consistant. The Blazers currently live and die many nights by the 3 point shot, the problem with this is that even on a break away, we see Roy, Outlaw and especially Rudy fade to the 3 point line instead of the rim. I half expect to see one of those 3 make a steal then race down court on the break away 1 on none, stop and take a 3 instead of dunking it, and yes it is THAT bad. There are 2 reasons a player should go to the rim instead of the 3 point line, A) It is a higher percentage shot, and B) the player is more likely to get fouled, which causes not only freebee’s from the line, but possible foul trouble for the opposing team. Shooting the 3 should only be there on the secondary break.

The amazing part of the Blazers offense to me is their low turnover rate, because this team has only a few above average passers. Rudy, Sergio, and Roy. I can’t think of another player on this team who is above average, not Blake, Bayless, LMA, Oden, Joel, Batum, and for sure not Outlaw. This is shown so obviously in the teams inability to make a simple post entry pass, and a little less obviously by the teams inability to make the lob pass. If Oden had been drafted by the Hornets, he would have been an All-Star the first season he played just from Chris Paul lobs.

I really want to go on and on, but this is already too long and buried in a thread, so it won’t even be read by many. This was a terribad loss, and was the closest I have come this year to turning my tv off during a game. The thunder are bad, very bad, but the Blazers made them look like the champs tonight, I can only hope the team learns from this butt-whoppin and matures.

even though the Thunder run started after we brought in Bayless.

I’m assuming that’s your point about how we need to get Blake back?

from Roy and Aldrige. This should be unacceptable and that message should be loud and clear. I dont see them taking that stance

It was a lousy game. Rookie – itus broke out all over, and Segio couldn’t buy a bucket either. It also high-lighted the recurring issues we have. Batum is a starter at SF because Outlaw isn’t. And Batum is too inexperienced to be a starter. Game after game the SF position just doesn’t produce the results a team needs – which isn’t Batum’s fault. He’ll be good one day, but he was thrown into the fire. Sergio is not ready to be a starter, and neither is Bayless. Some nights they give a good effort – and on others – they just disappear. Oden seems to have an energy problem. He’ll go through a good streak – and then a bad one. One night he looks quick and effective – the next he forgets to take his cement shoes off. It’s one thing to have a tough time against Shaq or West – quite another against nobody and nobody.

The problem is, there isn’t much you can do about it – and that includes Nate. Swapping Pryz for Oden may be the only option. Blake will solve one problem – but he’s not back. Webster would help on the other, but he’s out til mid-March. In fact, for all practical purposes, he’s lost a year, because there won’t be enough games left to play himself into shape.

So, we’ll enter next year with the same group – and the same questions. We won’t know if Webster is the answer at SF until mid-way through next year, and the Sergio-Bayless issue will still be around.

But, the bottom line is that we certainly learned Blake’s value last night. If Sergio or Bayless are not in the game flow – the entire system bogs down.