Portland Trail Blazers Thread

[Apple iCup]

Apparently Portland and Steve Blake have come to an agreement for a 2 year, $4 million deal. Welcome back Blake...again

 

[Apple iCup]

The Chris Kaman deal is now officially in ink.

 

[Apple iCup]

Summer League Game 1 Notes:

C.J. McCollum;
1st Quarter:
Intercepting and contesting passes and being rewarded with 3 steals, which was good to see. Both C.J, and Barton, pushed the tempo early, trying to force the Knicks unbalanced, but this created turnovers in the first.
2nd Quarter:
McCollum tried to take on two defenders on a fast-break, with an open Barton waving his arms on the wing. Perhaps a selfish attempt to get out of his cold streak. This just resulted in 0. His perimeter defense remained solid. Despite hitting nothing from the field, C.J. was able to make the line a couple of times.

Will Barton;
1st Quarter:
Like McCollum, Barton has switched back and forth playing the point. There seemed to be a little more composure from Barton's passing compared to what we are use to. There was a lot of double-teaming against The Thrill. Despite that, his dribbling and shooting looked very confident. The only major fault; his 8-second violation late in the quarter.
2nd Quarter:
Looked a little unconvinced on what passing option to go with, looked very flustered with where to go and what to go (apart from attacking the lane or shooting the jumpshot). Cut off some passes, chewing down the Knicks shot clock.

Allen Crabbe;
1st Quarter:
Crabbe played 4:00 in the first quarter with 2 turnovers. Still believe he should stay as a 'catch-and-shoot' guard. His ball-handling skills looking VERY rusty.
2nd Quarter:
DNP

Thomas Robinson;
1st Quarter:
Robinson looked very jumpy to begin with, with three turnovers in the first quarter. His offensive transition was a little rusty early, looking like he was asleep on a few passes.
2nd Quarter:
Much like the T-Rob we're use to, Robinson attacked the boards and succeeded. Finishing the half with a team-high 4 rebounds. The second was also a successful quarter for him offensively, hitting those mid-range jumpers as well as getting it down low. I would like to see him throw it down more rather than softly try a standing lay-up. Defense isn't that weak in the actual league (Ibaka does the same though).

Joel Freeland;
1st Quarter:
Joel was rather solid off the ball, setting good screens and scoring low on the block. Contended in every possible play,
2nd Quarter:
Freeland continued his pressure against the other bigs on the court, kept his hands up and feet set. His offensive rotation was still effective, it was just unfortunate that some guards were reluctant to attack the basket off of a pick. Joel also tried to use exercise his range with a Pick-And-Fade as well as Rolling to the rim.

Meyers Leonard;
DNP; Instead was coaching.

 

[Apple iCup]

Sorry guys, my internet died during the third quarter. Got to head off to the Football.

What I saw in the third;
Robinson continued his hard work, using his athletisim to get to the rim via driving. This rewarded him with shots at the charity strip. He missed 2-4 of his first free throw shots in the quarter, but shook off the dust after that. Also blew a open fast break lay-up, which I believe he thought he was going to get fouled/blocked on and the guy chasing kind of got in his head.

Bartons passing got real slick by this time in the game. Made some very sexy passes to Joel Freeland and T-Rob in the key.

Overall; There were way too many turnovers commited (by both teams), and though the team was switching and rotating offensively, you could see that the lack of a real point-guard effected execution via plays. The isolation game worked though. Defensive intensity was there and although there was a lot of intent and the team didn't go at it half-assed, there were times they were a step behind off of perimeter defense.

 

[Swan4Brownlow]

One of my hopes with the younger brigade of Blazers coming through (Will, CJ, AC and to a lesser extent Meyers), is that they can become solid enough rotational players that our starters won't be so worried about getting in foul trouble. The one thing that made Portland's defense appear worse than it was was the fact they forced so few turnovers. So even though they kept the opposition to a reasonable FG%, the fact that opponents were taking so many FGA ultimately hurt them. If the young guys can play to a solid level then guys like Wes, Dame and Nic can go after it more aggressively on the defensive end knowing it won't be a disaster if they have to sit a few extra minutes with foul trouble.

Good to see T-Rob playing well, he made good strides in the second half of last season. Also good to see that other than the Clippers adding Hawes, none of the teams that finished above us in the regular season have added significant pieces.

 

[Apple iCup]

One of my hopes with the younger brigade of Blazers coming through (Will, CJ, AC and to a lesser extent Meyers), is that they can become solid enough rotational players that our starters won't be so worried about getting in foul trouble. The one thing that made Portland's defense appear worse than it was was the fact they forced so few turnovers. So even though they kept the opposition to a reasonable FG%, the fact that opponents were taking so many FGA ultimately hurt them. If the young guys can play to a solid level then guys like Wes, Dame and Nic can go after it more aggressively on the defensive end knowing it won't be a disaster if they have to sit a few extra minutes with foul trouble.

Good to see T-Rob playing well, he made good strides in the second half of last season. Also good to see that other than the Clippers adding Hawes, none of the teams that finished above us in the regular season have added significant pieces.

I know it is still early days in free agency, but Bosh leaving Houston at the alter gave me a lot of pleasure.

 

[Spanish Sahara]

Pretty decent first up performance in the end. Cold in the first half from distance but that picked up in the 3rd and 4th with some nice wide open looks.

Kaman impressed me in his first game. Hopefully he can become a consistent 10-12/5-6/1/1/1 guy off the bench.

Our second unit offense ran so much better with Blake instead of Mo. Yeah we lost the scoring punch that Mo could provide, but as a second unit they should get much more consistent looks with Blake running the show. Kaman and Lopez at the 4 and 5 seemed to work, with kaman able to provide some of the scoring lost while LMA is on the bench.

I fear Batum is going to get burnt out, as we only really have Wright to back him up. We could go small with Wes at the 3 and a combination of Dame, Cj and Blake.

Cj had a stinker. Need a big year from him. Hopefully continuity with his minutes should see some solid production

 

[Swan4Brownlow]

F*ck today was frustrating. Blazers have such a great chance to win the division this year with OKC's injuries and wrap up home court advantage for the playoffs and we let Rudy ******* Gay go for 40. That ******* chucker tore us a new one and they absolutely raped us on the glass. LMA with 7 rebounds in 2 games better pull his finger out on the glass, completely got out hustled by the likes of Evans and Landry.

On the plus side, Kaman will be huge for us off the bench and Blake has been very solid running the second unit. Tough little stretch of games coming up with Golden State, Cavs, Dallas, Clips and Denver. Need to win at least 3 of these games.

 

[LeightonB]

Blazers had eight players with eight or more points today and Nicolas Batum had a near triple-double with 8p 9r 9a. Good signs and a good win against a strong opponent in Dallas.

 

[Swan4Brownlow]

Amazing to see us with some bench scoring!

 

[HODGEYROAD]

Maybe No LMA & no Batum vs BKN today, Hopefully we can scrape out the W

 

[smashh]

Maybe No LMA & no Batum vs BKN today, Hopefully we can scrape out the W

Last time we played BKN without LMA we won by 44. Interesting to see what happens today. Looks like Meyers will get the start.......
Damn

 

[HODGEYROAD]

Last time we played BKN without LMA we won by 44. Interesting to see what happens today. Looks like Meyers will get the start.......
Damn

Please start T ROB ahead of Meyers, Meyers is so s**t it ain't funny.

 

[stewie griffen]

Meyer's played well the other day in the big comeback

 

[HODGEYROAD]

Meyers And Crabbe play over 30 mins and we beat a probable East playoff team... Gee the East is sad. Good win blazers.

 

[Swan4Brownlow]

Meyers And Crabbe play over 30 mins and we beat a probable East playoff team... Gee the East is sad. Good win blazers.

Meyers was more than serviceable today. He cleaned up the defensive glass, made a couple of shots, and generally did ok on defense. Only knock was that a couple of times he passed up wide open looks when he should have pulled the trigger, although that's understandable given that he wouldn't want to be seen as taking shots out of place. Definitely think that like Crabbe, if he gets a few more starts with LMA missing then he will settle in and have the confidence to take those shots. Personally, I think it's a bit frustrating that Blazer fans seem intent on bagging him out for his struggles in earlier years and refuse to acknowledge that he's actually making some strides in terms of development. As a 7 footer who has range out to the 3pt line he already has 2 assets which are highly sought after in this league, length and shooting range. On the other hand, t-rob has is both undersized and lacks an outside shot. Don't think he can flourish in the Stotts offense if he can't make a shot. Remember, the Blazers went after Hawes as their number 1 off season target, a 7 foot outside shooting big man, so if Meyers can somewhat immitate what Hawes brings then I think we should be happy that he's showing improvement.

 

[HODGEYROAD]

Meyers was more than serviceable today. He cleaned up the defensive glass, made a couple of shots, and generally did ok on defense. Only knock was that a couple of times he passed up wide open looks when he should have pulled the trigger, although that's understandable given that he wouldn't want to be seen as taking shots out of place. Definitely think that like Crabbe, if he gets a few more starts with LMA missing then he will settle in and have the confidence to take those shots. Personally, I think it's a bit frustrating that Blazer fans seem intent on bagging him out for his struggles in earlier years and refuse to acknowledge that he's actually making some strides in terms of development. As a 7 footer who has range out to the 3pt line he already has 2 assets which are highly sought after in this league, length and shooting range. On the other hand, t-rob has is both undersized and lacks an outside shot. Don't think he can flourish in the Stotts offense if he can't make a shot. Remember, the Blazers went after Hawes as their number 1 off season target, a 7 foot outside shooting big man, so if Meyers can somewhat immitate what Hawes brings then I think we should be happy that he's showing improvement.

Can see what your saying, but he needs a lot of improvement. Did play well yesterday though, also our defence seems to have improved so far this year so lets hope that continues.

 

[The Casey Cat]

Bench not there yet but contributing OK this year. Would like it if McCollom would stop getting injured! >:-/

 

[Swan4Brownlow]

Next 18 games we have a 5-13 home away split. Going to show us just how good this team is, especially a brutal final 4 in 5 that includes houston, okc, pels and spurs

 

[HODGEYROAD]

Big time performance from LMA in Denver today on to 14-4 we go.

 

[rooboy_07]

16-4

 

[HODGEYROAD]

16-4

A back to back @detroit & @Minny hopefully gets us to 18-4

 

[rooboy_07]

disappointing result today. nice to see we are on ESPN this weekend

 

[Spanish Sahara]

disappointing result today. nice to see we are on ESPN this weekend

Disgusting performance. Even worse as it is a Division game

Need to bounce back against the Bulls

 

[The Casey Cat]

McCollom back but Lopez out for 6-7 weeks. Lucky Robinson had such a huge game or may have lost again. Just a nice team making up the numbers in a stacked West this year.