Subscribe Feed (RSS)There were a ton of comments yesterday and I still haven’t had a chance to address some that need to be addressed. This blog set records this week for traffic, driven by the Blazers’ playoff run, of course.
So rather than go back and comment within the comment section, where many might miss the responses, here are a few statements in response to comments left on yesterday’s posts:
– Yes, I picked Portland to win the series in five games. Yes, I was wrong. I’m sure YOU picked the Rockets in six. What was I thinking, figuring that the higher seed with the homecourt advantage could win a series???
I think I was wrong for the right reasons, though. I said the Blazers had the better talent. I said I thought as the series went along the Blazers would learn how to better play against Yao and the Rockets and improve. I said the younger team would have fresher legs as the series moved forward.
I believe I was correct about the talent part. Always will believe that. But Houston had the better team. You draw your own conclusions as to why — you can explain it in many ways. I’ve got all summer to talk about it. I think I was looking very right about all the other things I said about the series until Game 6, when the Blazers fell off a cliff. I cannot figure that one out, but the effort level just wasn’t what you would expect in a situation like that.
– Yes, many weeks ago I said I thought Houston would be the best first-round matchup for Portland. That was prior to Manu Ginobili going out for San Antonio, which later made the Spurs the most attractive matchup. But of all the teams left, I think the Rockets have the least amount of talent. They sure play well together, though.
– And “Sam,” you’re trying to use “usage rate” as a measure of how often Brandon Roy and Michael Jordan had the ball in their hands. That’s not what usage rate measures. It measures production — which players best utilize their time on the court.
– When I wrote about the Trail Blazers using too much one-on-one stuff, too many isolations, I mostly heard this: “Hey, it was good enough to win 54 games” and “One-on-one is the best end-game strategy” or something of that nature.
Here’s the deal: I wrote earlier about this, but scouting and preparation in the regular season, with 82 games hitting you like bugs on a windshield, is nothing like playoff preparation. That’s the reason teams have great home records in the NBA — the home team always has more time to prepare than the road team. In the playoffs, when you’re easy to prepare for, teams lock in on you, the way the Rockets did on the Blazers.
Second, I have no problem with Brandon Roy isolations with 22 seconds left in the game. But the Blazers are running isolations in the first quarter and have all season.
– I recommended Alonzo Mourning as a mentor for Greg Oden as much for his mental approach to the game as the style he played. I also figured he might be available to do it. There are plenty of others who could, including David Robinson, but I’m not sure he’d be willing to leave the church and family for such a project. Robinson, by the way, proved you don’t have to be a fire-breathing dragon to prosper as an NBA center.
– At this point of my career, I’m not going to start identifying sources for anonymous quotes I use. They’re solid, trustworthy and time tested — and very candid because they know I’m not going to “out” them. The choice is yours, you can either trust me or not. And if you don’t, why are you here? Go somewhere else. You may believe my ego is sizeable, but it’s not at all intertwined with the number of visits I get to this blog.
– Blazers Edge got all geeked up about how “harsh” it was of me to say the Blazer offense was predictable and easy to prepare for. Honestly, I never thought twice that anybody would disagree with that. You’re saying it’s NOT predictable? Come on, it didn’t take inside sources for anyone to notice that.
– Folks, you’re going to hear more about this later, but don’t be too enamored with Portland’s great “chemistry.” That stuff’s important but it’s not the entire picture. I’ve been around a lot of very successful teams and they all had decent chemistry. But they didn’t all have great chemistry. It’s OK for players on a successful team to not all get along. It’s OK for them not to like the coach. Man, you think all the Bulls liked Jordan? Or Dennis Rodman? You think all the Pistons liked Isiah Thomas? Do you think all of Phil Jackson’s players enjoy playing for him? How about Pat Riley’s players?
Just don’t be deceived into thinking Portland can love itself into a championship. Deals will be made and there will be changes that come with them. Chemistry will change. But that big banger or star point guard everyone wants to bring in may not be the most lovable player on the squad. It’s just the way it is.
Tags: Alonzo Mourning, Blazers Edge, Brandon Roy, Dwight Jaynes, Greg Oden, Portland Trail Blazers
Dwight you are not a YES MAN…and that is why I read this blog. I don’t always agree with your thoughts and opinions, but what fun would that be. Everyone needs to stop and just appreciate the great season the Trail Blazer’s just had and take a break.
My favorite story about team chemistry is from Reggie Jackson when he was with Oakland – a team that won 3 straight World Series but frankly, couldn’t stand each other.
A woman outside the ballpark asked Reggie for an autograph and he said no. So she said, “Maybe you can get your friends on the bus to sign one.”
Reggie said, “Ma’am, this is the Oakland A’s. There are no friends on the bus.”
There’s nothing here to argue with. Great post.
Houston really was the better team. They were all year. The only reason they had the same record as us is the injury to Tracy. It takes time to form a new identity after your team changes from a major star getting injured.
I’m as big a Blazer honk as you will ever see. I think I’ve only missed a few games in the last 10 years… but I posted here a few weeks ago, Houston in 6. Why? because we didn’t have the passion and purpose needed to escape the 1st round. After years of failure, Houston had that missing ingredient. You can call it Blazer youth or inexperience, but it comes down to wanting it more… and that is what Houston did, they wanted it more (as a team).
Good post Dwight. Spot on. I originally thought the Blazers would win in 6, but after the first game I changed to Houston in 6. The only way I thought the Blazers could win in Houston was to be ahead in the series. I am excited to see what Pritchard pulls off during the summer. I hope he goes for it and makes the necessary changes.
During this past season the shear number Blazer fans have made their presence known on blogs like BlazerEdge and Dwight’s. And for a lot of us it has been a mother and father relationship when it comes to the respective blogs. Go to mom (BE) when you want some reassurance or a band-aid on scrape. Go to dad (DJ) when you want it told like it is or to get some sage advice. Stellar work all season long Dwight!
Let’s be real, I know Dwight said that he’d have an offseason wishlist later, but… We can make moves and still get high character guys that will fit our locker room. We don’t necessarily have to get a guy that’s the second coming of ‘Sheed to win (although I think a little nasty would be a good thing–I’m looking at you Bayless!). We could go out and get a guy like Andre Miller or Mike Bibby (my vote is Miller), I think we could attempt to get Ray Felton or Augustin now, we could attempt to get Caron Butler, Gerald Wallace, or Tayshaun Prince. We need Outlaw and Sergio to go and I don’t think Frye is coming back. There will be moves made to be sure, and it’s not going to be for Ricky Rubio. It’ll be for proven players with playoff experience, which is what we need on the team to at this point to further develop the young guns like Oden, LMA, Rudy, and Bayless. Dwight was absolutely right about how predictable this team is. One-on-one night in and night out, it seems like it would be quite a bit different if we had that other scoring option that works off the ball or off the dribble. I hate to say this, but maybe getting rid of Jarrett Jack wasn’t the best idea. He’s always played better as a starter, and the numbers back that up…I digress. It should be another very active offseason. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Tyler Hansbrough in P-Town next year, but I think that’ll be the only rookie we bring in if he’s the one. We’ll see…great year this year all things considered and we are only going to move up from here. Pretty exciting stuff.
Let’s face it, the Blazers just don’t have very much talent. They’re a great group of guys, yes, but except for Brandon and Rudy, they’re all average NBA players who are just trying to put food on their families (to quote former President Bush). LaMarcus is capable of putting up some good offensive stats, but he’s inconsistent and he seems to disappear into the woodwork when the pressure is on.
Also, outside of Brandon, who on this team has the passion to win? All the rest of the players look like they’re working at a 9 to 5 job and can’t wait for the games to be over. We need to acquire some players who have fire in their bellies.
“But that big banger or star point guard everyone wants to bring in may not be the most lovable player on the squad.”
Nor should he be. The Blazers totally lack toughness, especially at the 3 and 4. As much as I dislike these guys in particular, we need someone *like* Ron Artest or Kenyon Martin to get this team over the first-round hump next year. Either that or hope Oden can learn to stay out of foul trouble over the summer and play the twin towers at the same time.
Inexperience had nothing to do with losing this series…<<<insert sarcasm
I guess that deer in the headlights look in game 1 was about how good the blazer dancers looked
You got nothing right about this series…now take your lumps like a man
It is baffling why anyone would argue that the team is not predictable. It is most true that they have been all season long. They were even more so in the series w/Houston. Not only were they so predictable that it made an east prep for Adelman. But it was predictable to the point that it gave Houston the ability to hone and sharpen their game plan game to game. That is the biggest thing in this series to me. A playoff series is all about preparation, adjustment and attitude. I saw very little of any the whole series long. Nate made a small, obvious adjustment from game one to two in fronting Yao. Other than that it was very much the same game plan game to game. A very, frustratingly, easy prep and game plan for Adelman. Did we get out coached or out executed. The wishy washy would say a little of both. In truth I don’t know. I hope KP does. I hope KP is willing to sacrifice a few sacred cows to make the team better. Alonzo as a mentor for Greg sounds like a very good start. I have been saying all season long they need to get some ex big man to help coach up Greg. Buy Kareem away from LA. Teach Oden how to sky hook, rebound and get his foot work right.
There is nothing wrong with predictable, ask Stockton and Malone or Taylor and Hornung. The difference is if you are going to be predictable you better be able to execute. Portland’s execution is not where it should be, and like you said Dwight, be predictable in crunch time not every trip down the floor. Part of Stockton and Malone was that they had Byron Russell who was deadly when left open. Second was that they had a distributor who scored as the initiator of the pick and roll. Portland does not have that, hence there are limited options off of predictable. As far as being wrong on predictions, that is part of sport. We can reason all we want why team A will beat team B, but they have to play it out. Then when they lose we have the fun of wondering why we wee wrong, and that is the fun of sports. I will admit I am a partisan Blazer fan (since day one), but I can handle the truth. Just because I do not agree does not make it any less truth, so keep it up Dwight.
I trust Dwight’s sources and opinions. For my money Dwight Jaynes and Bob Ryan are the two best NBA writers in the history of the league.
I am just thrilled Dwight is writing daily about the “league” again, instead of that piece of crap tribube. Dwight please give some play to some of the other play-off series a little.
Comments on comments on comments . . .
Now we hear that Brandon’s new “grind” is to win the championship. Great. And it is good that he will push his teammates, but let’s also hope that Roy is open to coaching and neither he nor Nate revert to even more ball control by Roy.
There has to be more ball/player movement and more assists for the Blazers to be successful. As much flak as people give Steve Blake I’m not sure that having a super point guard (e.g., Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Tony Parker) would have worked all that much better if the ball is always in Roy’s hands. And, yes, that is predictable and can be stopped. Even when Roy scored 30+ points, the Blazers lost because others weren’t involved.
As noted, there will be changes in Portland’s roster (the RLEC is, afterall, an expiring contract; Ruffin was added to get a trade exemption; Randolf is just an insurance policy for injury). Everyone but Roy, Aldridge, and Oden (and maybe Rudy) may be on the trading block, but regardless of who is added, they will all play second fiddle to Roy (again, not necessarily a bad thing).
So, the big off-season challenge is not landing a super point guard or even the proverbial veteran leader (whether PG, SF, or PF) but finding the most complementary player to Roy and for Roy (and Nate) to have a team approach rather than having Roy run iso after predictable iso.
I’ve been reading this blog for only a couple of days, and I think it’s great! But one thing is confusing to me: I have read so many comments about Brandon Roy handling the ball too much and needing to learn to trust his teammates. It seems to move in a direction that he is not a great team player, and I think that’s a huge load of bull. Every team needs a leader, and he’s the one we have, and I think we are fortunate to have a player who has blossomed so much after only 3 years.
I believe the first issue (Roy has the ball too much) is obviously a function of the offensive options we have as a team at this point, particularly in the second half of games. I would hope that would change, and I wouldn’t expect Roy to be against that.
The second issue (trusting teammates) comes with both maturity on his part and established teammates who can consistently knock down open shots out of a double-team (Rudy fits that bill the most right now).
Panama — Everyone, including the players themselves, says the Blazers were just not prepared for game 1… so you’re saying THAT was inexperience? OK. Maybe.
So now what? Blazer season is over.
Will you shift to other items? NFL draft came and went. Portland guy has horse in Kentucky Derby. Who will be q-backs at OSC and that other school. PSU lost their bb coach
Merrit Paulson is getting stiffed by your PDX loose mayor. A bunch of architects may bring whole plan down. I don’t blame Paulson, if I had all that money I would not put in Lents. If mayor and architects want Lents they need to up the public contribution.
I think it is important we have blogs so we can keep our eyes open to other points of views. We all get to have our opinions. There are some opinions that seem to be very close to others. Portland does not have the perfect system nor does anyone else? I think, we can all agree on that we were just not ready for playing beyond the first round…..WE can hope and think but realistically we were not mentally prepared as well as physically prepared for the task. You cannot have the mind-set “Gosh, we have made it this far” and expect to carry that with you through the playoffs. You have to earn the right to be there in the Championship. Portland has a lot of work to do in their preparation. Honesty, if you look at the big picture our team was not confident at the end in their own game.
Players passed up shots they normally take and make. We were watching more than playing.
Love the site, been here most of the season. Don’t always agree but know you’ll tell it like u see it and I appreciate that.
Other than Roy, LMA and maybe Oden, no one else should be untouchable, that includes Rudy. If we can get a consistently reliable low post scorer and it takes Rudy so be it. Because in my opinion that’s what we need. You’re not going to have success in playoffs shooting jumpshots, and we seem to have nothing but jumshooters on this roster.
And Dwight is right on on our predictable offense, even my wife who just started watching this season mentioned that everyone seems to be standing around watching Roy dribble.
Trust in KP.
hey Dwight,
I’ve always looked forward to your game notes after every game and respected your opinion including these two postmoetem posts. But you’ve got to admit that most of the time in the Houston series, Blazers haven’t played like they have during the regular season, right?
During the regular season games they’ve done a much better job at moving the ball, spacing the floor, running plays to get outside shooters open and basically played simple but structured team offense. They also relied much less on Roy and Roy was also better at setting up & creating opportunities for teammates.
To me the problem in this series is “execution”. When they just couldn’t get their offense going, Roy had to do a lot of ISO stuff. When nobody stepped up to take pressure away from him, Roy would stop looking for his teammates.
In other words, the fact that we ran so many 1-on-1 for Roy this series is NOT because of the lack of offensive structure, but due to the failure to execute under strong defensive pressure.
(It’s funny because Dwight, I once heard you on “Courtside” saying that Blazers’ offense was very efficient.)
However, I do agree with you in that they need to change the style of play next season in order to get to the next level. The biggest problem to me is that it’s too much perimeter-oriented. Players are good at creating/finding opens for outside shooters, but not for inside opportunities. It’s partly due to the coach’s scheme, but it’s also because of the lack of inside socring talents in our team. (this was elaborated in my comments on your previous post: http://www.dwightjaynes.com/the-trail-blazer-postmortem-begins-after-an-ugly-season-ender/comment-page-1#comment-16766) In the Houston series we witnessed how their perimeter-oriented offense – without consistent inside scoring – collapsed under the great Houston defense.
Lastly, I am wondering what the definition of “isolation” or “1-on-1″ plays are? Because most of the time when Roy has the ball, even during the Houston series, somebody would set a screen for him and he either tried to score by himself or passed to a teammate. It’s not just window dressing, Roy would mostly look for an open teammate unless it’s end-of-game or end-of-quarter situation. I don’t know. If that’s considered as “isolation” or “1-on-1″ plays then why was Stockton-Malone pick & roll considered differently??
Dwight – you have the best coverage/opinions/commentary in PDX, it’s just sad there are some folks here that either don’t know much about your background or have a crush on the team to the point of becoming apologists for the Blazers’ let down in Game 6.
Why does Nate insist on playing at such a slow pace? That is my big question! He has the second youngest team in the league and Portland was one of the slowest paced teams in the league.
I love writers like Dwight who is not afraid to call it as they see it. We don’t need anymore homers supporting and covering the blazers. We need people like Dwight who are not afraid to tell it LIKE IT IS. It’s why I have been a fan of his for so long even on topics I might disagree with. Keep up the good work Dwight. I’ve said it before and I will say it again. We see things very similarly. And when I want something said that I feel needs to be said, I can usually count on you to say it in regards to the blazers.
Chris in PA…couldn’t agree more. I’m not sure if Nate will ever feel comfortable trusting his players enough to pick up the pace. He is VERY controlling, and it’s just not in his nature.
With that said, this team is built to run. I’m not talking about a D’antoni pace…but at least a top 5 fast break team. LMA runs the floor as well as any big in the league, and seemed to be figuring it out towards the end of the season. I’m not going to suggest that Nate is replaced, but maybe we can bring an assistant in that is a bit more offensive minded. I know it’s a bit UofOish…but I don’t think that Nate has the range to adapt to his teams strength.
Godfather dropping K bombs all over this article.
Hey Dwight,
It’s an absolute pleasure to read your blog. Don’t change a thing but do have a relaxing summer. Go Blazers!
Luanne
Blazer’s Edge, sadly, has become Homerville. Used to be a great place to talk candidly about the Blazers, but now it’s just a bunch of delusional fanboys.
Dwight great stuff as always.
In my mind I didn’t think the blazers could win. I’m no expert, hell I’m barely a novice…I just thought that a team playing such good team ball and such good D with the biggest center in the league, we wouldn’t be able to shoot them to a series win. My 2¢.
The biggest offseason move by the Blazers should have nothing to do with the roster. KP will find the players to fill the really obvious gaps. It is the coaching and the lack of creativity of Nate McMillian. Running iso plays too much, relying on Roy, seemingly only looking for LaMarcus at the start of the game, not trusting Rudy/Sergio in particular, unwilling to just let Greg play until he fouled out (especially during regular season games), lack of running and fast break points. Between Rudy, Sergio, Travis, LaMarcus, Nic and even Steve there is enough speed to get 15-25 points every game in the fast break (we were afterall the best rebounding team), yet Nate refuses to push the ball. It doesn’t help that the best player on the team wants to play at a slower pace as well.
I posted this before during the Houston series but it may be true. The reason we lost the series is more likely due to the lack of adjustment and lack of creativity of Nate than any of the players. He has been a great coach for the regular season and instilling a system, consistency, and discipline in a very young team. His job has always been to prepare this team for greatness. But, it is very possible that he is not the coach to take this team to the finals. Perhaps as much as finding a player or 3 who are prickly and not lovable but who play hard is the importance of finding that type of coach. You can bet players for Pat Riley, Phil Jackson, KC Jones, and even Jerry Sloan don’t like them, but they played hard and got to championships or won them.
Just a thought about what the Blazers should spend more time considering. They won’t because of the bond between Roy and Nate, but if KP gets the right combo of players and they get bounced in the first or second round next season, it will be very clear that Nate has to go.