Season in Statistics:  Offense

As we learned in the playoffs, we are still going to struggle against teams that don’t have to double Roy and can limit our offensive rebounding. I didn’t expect us to struggle as badly as we did in the playoffs, but its not surprising we were limited. In a matchup like that, we need another guy who can create his own shot or set up teammates. Maybe Rudy can be that guy next year. Also, getting Oden to the point where he’s a reliable option would help a lot.

This team is going to be fantastic on offense in the coming years though.

that is our great strength on offense. the way we rebound is what allows us to force our pace on the other team so that we can be mediocre in all these offensive fields but be successful because we are above average when the pace is considered., but none of this is possible if we don’t control the glass so for me rebounding is the single most important thing about the offense.
Also, i know this has been said a thousand times before but a team this athletic should be much better in the fast break category, and i know the pace atributes to that but they have been many chances for them to run but they didn’t for no apparent reason besides blake’s overall inability to be effective on fast breaks.

Offensive boards will be a trump card,Greg is going to box out lots rebounds that dont show up in his stats but not to worry ,we will rule.We have Brandon and LMA which aint chopped liver but need to use the perimeter passing skills of the Euro’s better and spend less time dribbling out the clock in isos

2nd in the league? That is a great reflection of our organization. Efficiency. No wasted moves.

Dominant rebounding and low turnovers = jealous protection of the ball. This is an excellent starting point, now we can operate from a position of strength and begin to run selectively. Towards the end of the season we saw the 7 seconds or Roy offense and I really enjoyed it. We’ve got to take advantage of LMA’s mobility. I’d like to see more off ball cuts to the basket, but we’re much better than last season.

Negatives: Need a 3rd scorer who can attack the rim/get to the foul line. Maybe Bayless or Oden will help out in that area, maybe KP will go get one.

Oh, slight pet peeve, when LMA posts up on that left block, there needs to be a shooter outside the 3pt line on the same side moving from corner to angle. Make them pay for doubling! I know they are often working it like a clear out, but a same-side shooter/cutter might take advantage of LMA’s great passing.

Second in the league is great. It means that above all else, even with mediocre stats in everything else, we are STILL scoring. A mediocre but efficient offense with a great defense sounds like a nice solid winning strategy to me. Simply being able to convert often when you have the ball is a GREAT building block to a solid defense. Now if only we could continue growth of defense and attack the paint more often. The one on one and jump shooting is just too…unpredictable to really lead us to a championship.

It’s a good plan from Nate, who was that type of player in the first place. While most people think we need Oden to work up his offense, I disagree. I think that he could become a great defensive center with blocks and rebounds and not score much and still be worth it. As long as we can get someone like a, I don’t know, a Jerryd Bayless on the team who plays a very strong, athletic defense to go along with Batum’s great defensive prowess as well as not being afraid to drive and drive and drive some more.

I wonder how much a Bayless would cost to get in the offseason? :)

like so many people, it feels like the pace could increase a bit.. more than really worrying about whatever is technically defined as fast break points – it feels necessary to see the blazers generate more field goal attempts and more free throw attempts. Of course, if you can’t do this without maintain offensive efficiency, it is not worth it. But it feels like so much of basketball always comes down to the proportion of easy points that your team can rely on. Portland is getting better but is still not generating enough of those easy points… and not by enough players consistently.

I think free throws will be the place to start. Part of it is getting more consistent post presence from Greg and LaMarcus. Then they need a second reliable penetrator to emerge who is enough of a threat to finish that he’ll get fouls like brandon – Rudy or Bayless (both would be nice) feels like the best bets here.

Has there ever been a more capable team which was more reticent than this one to take the ball to the hole? Oden is the only player on this team who seems to enjoy dunking the ball and even he tends to play under the rim more than he should.

One change I really want to see next season is more playing above the rim. More authority.

I’d love to see the team try to run more next season. Not to become a run’n’gun team, but an opportunistic fastbreak team — sort of like Boston last season, when they ran off of stops and rebounds.

I felt the team didn’t push the ball hard enough this past season.

dipped slightly – why is this? More emphasis on ball movement? Players hoping for a higher percentage shot? Are there stats available for shot clock violations? (It seems like we force more than we commit, but that’s just my perception.)

The higher % of makes is good, but I’d like to see that in conjunction with more attempts rather than a drop off, esp. since we’re in the bottom third in attempts.

because… “we didn’t hold anything back”

how im on blazersedge, and supposed to be paying attention in a sharepoint class. haha.

We have a good one two punch, but we have lots more potential that is not being used. We have LMA and BRoy that can score inside and kick it out. But when the 3’s and the jumpers are not going in which seems much too often. the opponents plugs the middle and dare us to shoot outside. We need to change our offense once in a while to confuse the opponent’s defense. More pick and rolls with Greg or Joel. Joel has proven he can hit an uncovered dunk time and time again but they don’t use him. Greg is new, but if he makes 5 out of ten dunks that is still 50%. But our mind set of the guards is to keep the ball and create which every team in the NBA knows. Our success is that they can’t stop BRoy. Now, they stop everybody else and let BRoy and LMA beat us. 50 to 70 points between them looks great, but if everybody else is 0 than we still lose the game. We need more plays to release the talent of all the other players.

hg

im at work till 4, and the MAVS moneyball website is blocked for some reason, so im posting on the game thread.

any thoughts of rooting for the NW, or personally i want the mavs to win, i dunno.

That will really cut down on the other teams defensive rebounds. Of course that will mess up the team’s offensive rebounds but it will give fans something to complain about. Everyone wins.

I doubt if there are any sites that track standard deviation of teams’ offensive efficiency, but I would be curious as to whether the Blazers’ is higher than other teams who top ten in offensive efficiency.

When the Blazers were clicking, this year, they were unstoppable at times. But they also went through fairly regular stretches where buckets seems impossible to come by. I know to some extent that’s true of most every NBA team – every team has hot and cold runs – but it seemed more pronounced with the Blazers on both sides. Their highs were very high and yet their lows were very low.

For the most part, it had to do with ball movement. When the ball stopped moving, and teams could effectively gang up on Roy and LMA, the Blazers were typically in big trouble.

The Blazers’ offense is highly effective when they are hitting outside shots. Their offense tends to be established from the outside-in rather than from the inside-out. This starts with Aldridge. If he hits his first couple of shots, which tend to be of the mid-range variety, it opens up his inside game and the entire offense. If not, the inside becomes packed with big bodies and the Blazers rely on their jump shooting to unpack the paint. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t.

So what is the solution? Or, more accurately, what are the possible solutions?

Can Oden become an inside presence that can get into the paint even if it is packed? Can Aldridge change his game from outside-in to inside-out? Can Martell and Rudy add penetration and finishing to their ability to hit the 3? Can Nate add more motion into his offense and trade the couple of inevitable extra turnovers for some chances at some easy baskets? Can Blake be effective pushing the ball up the floor to take advatage of Aldridge’s ability to beat just about anybody down the floor?

was 3pt shooting. This created space on the floor, which allowed Roy to thrive in isolation situations. That combination/synergy was Portland’s greatest strength.

The greatness weakness has to do with personnel and coaching. No other player except Roy was able to take advantage of this synergy(I presume), so the Blazers will need to add another slashing combo guard to keep Roy fresh and create another threat.

If that doesn’t happen, the least the coaches can do run is implement sets for Roy that allow him to work off-the-ball, diversifying the offense. Cleveland did this successfully this year w/r/t Lebron to remedy last year’s 1-on-5-style offensive problems.

Rookies played 27% of the total team minutes and 23% in the playoffs. The offense could not mature in this one year.

The loss of Martell was bigger than many think because he was becoming consistent and even starting to get his own shot. He can also muscle with the Battier/Artest types as well.

Figure Batum will shoot much better under pressure next year. We can afford to bench Travis on 0-9 shooting nights and still have options with Batum and Martell. Perhaps Bayless learn more than one move and get his shooting woes behind him.

Another banger who can score down low to relieve LMA and/or another shooter may be added this summer.

Working together all summer this team can take a huge jump forward next year. Are they dedicated to putting in the time this summer? My hope (and bet) is yes. We should move beyond being a jump-shooting team and run an even more efficient and consistent offense.

but it’s hard when our offensive efficiency was so stellar. Overall, we are a jump shooting team, and we’re pretty good at it. Unfortunately, resting primarly on jump shots does not usually translate to championships. I feel like we are going to have to get even more points in the point (in the halfcourt set) or run a bit more (or a certain level of both) to be able to roll out a championship caliber offense.