a truly baffling season

by skott75 on Feb 12, 2012 1:29 PM PST

what is going on with this team? the season started like we all expected. A fast, long, and exciting team of talented athletes came storming out of the gates announcing there intentions of being a team to watch in this lock-out shortened season. They, defended the hell out of every position and the ball was zipping around. This was going to be a fun season. We got a look at some of our new toys, still a work in progress, things were going to come together just fine. But something along the way has went horribly wrong. Its impossible to put a finger on it because it is literally everything, outside of LA.. Our teams second best player starts having some incomprehensible road struggles and layup problems, our speedy guard forgets how to dribble and shoot, our best deep threat some how loses any touch or awareness of what he does well, and our backup gunner does what we expected but far worse than we expected. How do you explain an entire rosters ability all of the sudden falling off dramatically? Its hard not to look at the coach, but all a coach can do is put you in position to succeed, and from the looks of things he is doing that. This team gets quality shots for the most part, they just cant hit anything. Its easy to blame a point guard that is having the worst season of any point guard in the league, but is Felton really doing anything different than he has his whole carreer? he's taking open shots and passing to open teammates but neither are hitting. I feel sorry for anyone associated with this team right now because there are seemingly no answers besides MAKE SHOTS, and the longer you struggle at that the harder it becomes. A player is always susceptible to a bad season, but an entire roster? This is a truly baffling season.

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Lockout-ball

Minus Aldridge, who works out pretty heavily over the summer, and Batum, who played in France, these guys don’t seem very conditioned, have somewhat forgetten how to shoot, and often forget about others on the court. We came out with energy, but we didn’t have the endurance for the long haul, plus over the summer Felton went from average point guard to just horrible.
In a regular season, after having practiced together, this is at worst a one-and-done playoff team with how well Aldridge is playing (probably at best as well, excluding some lucky matchup). But Felton has gone from decent to manure-pile, and that means Crawford has to play the point, which doesn’t work because he looks for his own shot.

"Wide, girthy. Just like a Rhino. Sometimes my horns are visible."

by YoniRap on Feb 12, 2012 1:52 PM PST reply actions

Basically, it's all Evil David Stern's fault for smashing 66 games into this ridiculous season.

"Wide, girthy. Just like a Rhino. Sometimes my horns are visible."

by YoniRap on Feb 12, 2012 1:54 PM PST up reply actions

good point

the schedule may actually affect us more than most because of how important effort and energy already were to this teams success.

by skott75 on Feb 12, 2012 2:35 PM PST up reply actions

Yeah. The early game winning was based on energy and high pace,

Which was unsustainable when you had players that weren’t conditioned. Definitely wasn’t the only factor for sure, and this team still wouldn’t be elite if a regular season (or a lighter schedule) had occurred, but definitely a part of our troubles.

"Wide, girthy. Just like a Rhino. Sometimes my horns are visible."

by YoniRap on Feb 12, 2012 2:52 PM PST up reply actions

Your expectations were too high and not realistic.

"You're not too smart, are you? I like that in a man." - Matty Walker in Body Heat (1981)

by BlazerFanSince1970 on Feb 12, 2012 2:28 PM PST reply actions

that does'nt explain

the dramatic drop off our players have taken in efficiency and ability. My expectations should not effect the teams ability to make layups and open shots.

by skott75 on Feb 12, 2012 2:33 PM PST up reply actions

Sorry, but I think it's your expectations.

I wrote before the Blazers acquired Thomas and Crawford that this team wasn’t talented or deep enough to make the playoffs. Adding Thomas and Crawford just pushed them into the playoff hunt, nothing more. Thomas is the oldest player in the NBA and Crawford is having a typical Crawford year, only slightly below his career averages (39% FG% vs 41% career, 32% 3-pt vs 35% career). His assists per minute are actually significantly above his career average by 18%, and even higher compared to the last few years (37% higher than last year for instance).

Camby is playing better than expected (his rebounds per minute are up and his minutes are only 2 less than last year), and most importantly he has been injured must less than last year. I expect he will miss far more games as this season goes on, and achieve his career average of missing 28% of all games. So far this year he has only missed 11% of the games. It is unlikely to continue to be that good. So he is doing much better than historically expected.

Batum’s 3-pt shooting is up by 6 percentage points above last year and overall his FG% is only down 2%. His defense is better this year, with more steals and blocks per minute than last year.
His rebounds are up slightly. So overall, he is just what you should have expected.

Matthews is an undrafted, over-hyped, backup SG that can’t dribble or pass. What did you expect from him, Brandon Roy?

Aldridge is having his best year but we have no backup power forward. Wallace is not a power forward. Never was, and never will be. Craig Smith is a minimum contract 10th guy off the bench player.

Wallace is playing about to his career averages. He is shooting 50% vs a career 48% and rebounding at about his normal clip (6.9 per 36 minutes vs 7.3 career). Did you expect him to get better after 10 years with his playing pace and style?

The only surprise on this team is that Felton is even worse than expected, but except for 3-pt shooting not much worse than expected. His assists per minute are actually over his career average, and his FG% (37%) is just 4% below is career average.

So the team is performing about as it should be expected to perform. Except for LA, it is a very mediocre team performing very mediocre basketball (15-13). Your expectations were simply too high, and not realistic for a team with poor shooting, no backup PG, and no big man depth.

"You're not too smart, are you? I like that in a man." - Matty Walker in Body Heat (1981)

by BlazerFanSince1970 on Feb 12, 2012 3:14 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs