FanPost

Melo is over now what?

Harkless Aminu and Turner, you will be hard pressed to find a more incompetent shooting and shot-creation trio. Crabbe made them being on the court 2 or all 3 at a time a lot more palatable with his almost league leading 3 point percentage. Even if he didn't put up a lot of them he made the defense commit to defend and spaced the floor.

This definitely made the job easier for Nurk Cj and Dame. Gives Nurk more room to operate and CJ and Dame less slack to pickup and less 3s to force. Not to mention it let Harkless (35% on a minimal attempt rate where for the last 5 games of the season he attempted only 1 three for fear of his bonus, 4 of those games were very important playoff clinching ones.) Aminu and Turner all get ample playing time even though they were a liability outside that shrunk the lanes for our all star guards.

Now we started the last 2 seasons very poorly before figuring things out in Feb and March, due soley to defensive concerns. While without Nurk our team at times looked good on defense last year and very good with Nurk it seems that problem won' tbe basement of the league anymore and maybe we won't have another 2 win month to start the season.

However we seem to be manufacturing another problem one that is pretty easy to solve, one that has left my laughing at teams that couldn't solve it in the past (Minny, Mem, Milwuakee, OKC) SHOOTING!!! How did we let this happen and how do we solve this? Internal development? Meyers renewal aside I have little faith he'll do anything of note this season or any season, Pat--who I like--couldn't hit the side of a barn the past 3 summer leagues Collins showed in Summer league he couldn't bang with the big boys yet and Swanigan has yet to prove he can shoot well from NBA 3. So how I ask will we solve this problem that has even Terry Stotts concerned?

The give and take is that you have more good defenders on the court," Stotts, Portland's coach, told ESPN.com. "But we do need to find another shooter." (The Blazers are confident Harkless and Aminu can stabilize as at least average 3-point shooters; Aminu shot 36 percent from deep two seasons ago, and better than that after returning from injury last season. We'll see. It will be awhile before anyone guards them.)