Portland Trail Blazers Thread

[Swan4Brownlow]

Shattered. To think we've really been in the position where a few things go our way and we could be up 3-1. After thinking (and hoping) this season would be all about the tank, it has been so much more enjoyable watching the heart this team plays with rather than pinning our hope on some lottery balls. Still a lot of work to do in the offseason to make sure we continue to improve and take the next step. Cant wait until the silly season news starts to roll in. Surely our performance means there's some FAs who will look long and hard at us

 

[HODGEYROAD]

Shattered. To think we've really been in the position where a few things go our way and we could be up 3-1. After thinking (and hoping) this season would be all about the tank, it has been so much more enjoyable watching the heart this team plays with rather than pinning our hope on some lottery balls. Still a lot of work to do in the offseason to make sure we continue to improve and take the next step. Cant wait until the silly season news starts to roll in. Surely our performance means there's some FAs who will look long and hard at us

Pretty much my thoughts exactly. I got home form work with a minute left, was just gutting watching Steph do that to us in Overtime. Overall what a season though, we need a quality big interior defender and another wing scorer.

 

[Swan4Brownlow]

Pretty much my thoughts exactly. I got home form work with a minute left, was just gutting watching Steph do that to us in Overtime. Overall what a season though, we need a quality big interior defender and another wing scorer.

I think we actually need more defensive help out on the perimeter. We're one of the better sides at defending the interior, but we're the 28th best side at defending the 3 (saw someone post some interesting stats about this on the Portland RealGM board that I'll try and dig up). Part of that no doubt is because CJ and Dame are undersized compared to most backcourts. If we could get a bigger hardnosed 3&D SG/SF and add a big who can score I think thatd be great. Imagine being able to throw someone like Iggy or Courtney Lee or Danny Green at Curry when he starts going off. Of course Vonleh and Crabbe could be those guys but they may also not be. Vonleh especially, while I hold high hopes for him, think hes still maybe 2 years away from being a consistent starter

 

[HODGEYROAD]

I think we actually need more defensive help out on the perimeter. We're one of the better sides at defending the interior, but we're the 28th best side at defending the 3 (saw someone post some interesting stats about this on the Portland RealGM board that I'll try and dig up). Part of that no doubt is because CJ and Dame are undersized compared to most backcourts. If we could get a bigger hardnosed 3&D SG/SF and add a big who can score I think thatd be great. Imagine being able to throw someone like Iggy or Courtney Lee or Danny Green at Curry when he starts going off. Of course Vonleh and Crabbe could be those guys but they may also not be. Vonleh especially, while I hold high hopes for him, think hes still maybe 2 years away from being a consistent starter

Very interesting statistics.

 

[Swan4Brownlow]

From Portland's RealGM board stats guru:

On the Blazers Plumlee ranks:
* 4th in steal %
* 2nd in block %
* 1st in defensive rating (tied with Davis)
* 1st in defensive win shares
* 1st in defensive box plus/minus
* 2nd in defensive real plus/minus

Further, while Portland is 2nd in the NBA in opponent FG% at the rim, they are 28th in opponent 3ptFG% and dead last in opponent FG% in the 16' < 3pt zone. Portland is dead last in the NBA in opponent FG% from 16' and beyond. In other words with their perimeter defense being the worst in the league, adding a defensive specialist to strengthen our interior defense won't make much difference because we already rank well in that aspect of team defense.

 

[HODGEYROAD]

Dame finished 8th in mVP voting, behind Steph, Kawhi, LBJ, RW0, KD, CP3, Draymond.

 

[Swan4Brownlow]

Dame finished 8th in mVP voting, behind Steph, Kawhi, LBJ, RW0, KD, CP3, Draymond.

Not an all star

 

[HODGEYROAD]

Another heartbreaking loss to end our season, couldn't be more proud of the competitive Basketball we played though. Really didn't deserve to lose that series 4-1.

 

[Kakkle]

Played a lot better than the 4-1 status of that series. Can't help but feel real proud.

 

[Deemanding]

Yep agreed. We led for least 80% of games 2, 3, 4 and 5, and as Stotts said, they were all basically 4th quarter games.

Some of the shots Klay and Steph hit...especially the 3 with 25 seconds left...un*******believable.

 

[HODGEYROAD]

I wonder how many changes to our roster for next years campaign.

 

[Spanish Sahara]

Hopefully a 2-3

 

[Swan4Brownlow]

I wonder how many changes to our roster for next years campaign.

Hopefully we either dont resign leonard or only sign him to his qualifying offer. With the bung shoulder i cant imagine he'll attract that much interest. Bit disappointed we didn't buy an earlier pick and draft a decent 2 guard, if Crabbe gets crazy offers it might leave us a bit light on in that regard. Just want us to do everything possible to land a difference making PF/C and then add a defensive presence in the guards and I'll be happy. Bring back Harkless also

 

[Spanish Sahara]

Looks like we are offering Chandler Parsons the max. He has some serious injury concerns

 

[HODGEYROAD]

Looks like we are offering Chandler Parsons the max. He has some serious injury concerns

96 million 4 year deal for Parsons, that deal has me pretty depressed to be honest.

 

[Spanish Sahara]

96 million 4 year deal for Parsons, that deal has me pretty depressed to be honest.

From a playing point of view I think he will be a perfect fit in Stotts system. Not sure where this leaves us with Crabbe, Harkless and Henderson now though. I think we might be playing more small ball with Aminu at the 4 next season

My only issues are his injury problems and also the price. But given Mozgov just got 15m per year (lols) 24 for Parsons is looking quite good..

 

[HODGEYROAD]

From a playing point of view I think he will be a perfect fit in Stotts system. Not sure where this leaves us with Crabbe, Harkless and Henderson now though. I think we might be playing more small ball with Aminu at the 4 next season

My only issues are his injury problems and also the price. But given Mozgov just got 15m per year (lols) 24 for Parsons is looking quite good..

He's a good fit for the system and would improve us offensively, he's pretty poor defensively though.

 

[Spanish Sahara]

He's a good fit for the system and would improve us offensively, he's pretty poor defensively though.

Hes a legit third option which is what we needed. We had two positions to upgrade ( sf/pf and c). Realistically Parsons is probably the best option at sf/pf as its looking unlikely we would have been able to sign Whiteside or Dwight to upgrade the C spot.

Team defense is going to have to improve next season. I hope we still re-sign Harkless, he is the one who has shown the most defensively from the trio.

 

[HODGEYROAD]

Parsons has backdoored us for Memphis anyways.

 

[HODGEYROAD]

Evan Turner 4 years 70 mill, so it looks like going forward we are just aiming to be a 1st Round playoff team during Dame's prime.... Thats a pretty disappointing deal but it shows no quality Free agents are interested in coming to Rip City.

 

[Swan4Brownlow]

Evan Turner 4 years 70 mill, so it looks like going forward we are just aiming to be a 1st Round playoff team during Dame's prime.... Thats a pretty disappointing deal but it shows no quality Free agents are interested in coming to Rip City.

What a depressing reality.

 

[HODGEYROAD]

What a depressing reality.

Yeah after such an optimistic season, this is really hard to cop.

 

[Kakkle]

I think for me, this just makes me even more frustrated that we could never get proper run at it with our 14/15 core.

 

[HODGEYROAD]

I think for me, this just makes me even more frustrated that we could never get proper run at it with our 14/15 core.

The biggest blow was how Injuries ruined the careers of Oden & Roy, those 2 with LMA was pretty much our only chance of being a serious contender IMO.

 

[Spanish Sahara]

Evan Turner 4 years 70 mill, so it looks like going forward we are just aiming to be a 1st Round playoff team during Dame's prime.... Thats a pretty disappointing deal but it shows no quality Free agents are interested in coming to Rip City.

At least Turner will provide another ball handler and play making which we sorely lacked, especially in the post season when teams were just trapping Lillard/CJ and forcing the ball out of their hands. The less I see Aminu driving out of control the better. This should help with that.

Crabbe 4/70 with the Nets. Doubt we match that and instead sign Harkless and maybe even Henderson.