Ducks Attack Message Board Forum

28 other teams in the NBA are asking the same question, this is what G.S. has been doing for five straight years now. They come out in the third and outscore teams like crazy, blazers double team G.S. and Warriors find the open guy and when G.S. double teams Portland the Blazers force tough layups. This is why the Warriors are one game away from their fifth straight finals and one win away vs Cleveland for going for the fifth straight title. It's frustrating watching knowing they get double digit leads, but G.S. has done this so often it's expected to happen once the second half starts.

I've been kind of wondering if Lillard was injured, or if the long minutes he has played all year and especially in the playoffs are finally getting to him. For whatever reason, he is not rising to the occasion in this series. The last two games were very winnable, but Dame and C.J. have been shooting very poorly.

Oh well, house money, I guess.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/damian-lil ... 26613.html

Nice call Phalanx, he looks tired for sure since it's the longest he's played in the NBA Sucks to lose these two games with double digit leads, but most of the credit goes to G.S. defense cause you don't see the blazers team as a whole getting too many open shots.

thomas time wrote:https://www.yahoo.com/sports/damian-lil ... 26613.html

Nice call Phalanx, he looks tired for sure since it's the longest he's played in the NBA Sucks to lose these two games with double digit leads, but most of the credit goes to G.S. defense cause you don't see the blazers team as a whole getting too many open shots.

Yep, it's like this; after a marathon, the winner doesn't feel nearly as tired as the runner that finished second...and has separated ribs:

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Blazers get swept after losing another large lead and then dropping Game 4 in OT 119-117. Based on how the series went, Portland really needs to upgrade at the F spots as they only got two double-digit scoring performances from Aminu and Harkless throughout the series.

On to the draft. I have never in my life advocated for Portland to take a Duck alum, nor can I even recall a time where I've advocated to sign a Duck in free agency. But taking into consideration the unlikelihood of drafting a star at 25, I am intrigued by Louis King. Especially if Portland could trade back and pick up a second rounder along the way (NBADraft.net has King currently sitting at #31, trading back may not be a possibility by the end of June. He looks like he's rising up the mocks).

King's length and shooting ability could be assets. I appreciated the grit he showed playing through pain in the Pac-12/NCAA tournaments. Looks like a prototype 3&D kid. Give him a year in the G-League, let Moe's contract expire in 2019-20, see what we've got in 2020-21.

I wonder if there is an analytic on shooting percentages when holding a big lead but the other team has closed the gap to lets say 8 points. Curious to see Portlands' individual shooting percentages in that instance. Seems like they have a habit of nutting up in that situation. We need people who can shoot under pressure...

It's been an interesting season. The Blazers went further than expected, thanks to some surprisingly-creative moves from Olshey, coupled with Paul Allen's family's willingness to go over the luxury tax. Signing a bunch of cheap guards and then jettisoning all but the best one was a great move that left them with Seth Curry, who performed well this season. Olshey then turned around and converted the refuse (Baldwin and Stauskas) into a Rodney Hood rental, and then signed Kanter out of the blue for the minimum. Even the biggest Olshey hater has to admit those transactions were unbelievable, and all done while under the restrictions put on teams over the tax.

The Blazers are likely to get worse next year. With the luxury tax at $132 million and the Blazers already up to $126 million with 10 guys, they stand to lose Kanter, Hood, Aminu, Curry, and Layman while only gaining whomever they pick at #25, which will eat up another $1.5 million or so. They need to hope that Nurkic will heal and be ready to start at center, Collins is ready for major, possibly starting minutes at the four, and that Myers Leonard can back up both positions. If Harkless starts at small forward, Turner will probably be playing a lot of 3 and 4 like he did in the playoffs. I also expect more minutes from Simons and Trent. I agree that the draft pick needs to be a forward, but getting scoring and defense out of the #25 pick is a tall order.

Now that the dust has settled...
If after Nurk went down you told me that the Blazers would make it to the WCF I wouldn't have believed it. They overcame odds against 2 very good teams in OKC and Denver. Golden State has like 5 all-stars, didn't play a couple of them and still had 2 more than Portland. That team is stacked whether fair or not. They are fun to watch and what I really appreciated is GS and Portland seemed to have a ton of mutual respect for one another...no chippy fighting and disrespect like the last couple of series. Hats off to this team because even with the glaring inadequacies they still make it to the final four.

What a year though!

Yahoo is reporting that Lillard is expected to be signed to a super-max extension this summer:

https://sports.yahoo.com/sources-damian ... 16480.html

Lillard has two years and approximately $62 million remaining on his current deal. The extension would put him under contract for the next six years, and he’d be 34 years old by the time the deal expires, perhaps solidifying his status as arguably the greatest Trail Blazer of all time.

Olshey has apparently learned nothing. If this happens, the Blazers will be doomed to be first or second-round playoff fodder for real contenders for years to come. This year was an aberration, based on some very fortunate player-rental deals that popped up with Hood and Kanter. Lillard is a good player, but has proven again and again that he cannot carry a team. He needs help, and you can't give him help if he is getting all the money. Best Blazer in history? The dude disappears for entire games. He has a lifetime 40.6% playoff field goal percentage. That is awful. Clyde was 45% and Terry was 48.4% during their time in Portland. We are talking about multiple standard deviations better than Lillard in terms of making shots. Even CJ was a significantly better shooter in these playoffs than Lillard.

I really hope this report isn't true and that somebody with a brain stops Olshey before he does 2016 all over again.

Meh, even if we had say 45 million in cap space available all of those years instead of Lillard, there's no chance we fill that with a player close to his caliber. Realistically, we have to hope to win a: Zion, Lebron, AD type draft lottery. Those are once a decade so I'm fine with the 3-5 seed for the next 6 years and hoping to catch fire or make a lucky trade/draft pick here or there.

If as expected Collins jumps into the starting line-up, and he develops a consistent jumper (where he's automatic at 15-18 feet), the 2019-20 starting 5 seems solid. He'll provide the spacing Aminu just couldn't consistently give the team. Collins has the tools to do it, we'll just have to wait to see if he puts in the offseason work. Keeping the fouls to a minimum is also a high priority, but he's young and that should get better with maturity.

I've heard that there are a lot of big expiring deals around the NBA (which makes sense, as Portland was not the only team to spend wildly in the summer of 2016) so jettisoning some of these contracts may not be as easy as it sometimes would be in years past. The positive side of being forced to hang onto Moe/Turner/Leonard one more season is that hopefully they'll be motivated by being in a contract year, and we see better production out of them. No sure thing, obviously, but we can hope.

I second the notion that we need to see more Simmons on the court. Hell -- we'll probably be forced to play him, as Hood was always a rental and Curry likely priced himself out of our meager ability to pay him. Simmons looked like he had all the potential in the world in limited rookie minutes. He reminds me a little of what they envisioned when they originally drafted CJ -- a scoring machine 6th man. I'm not expecting the complete package, but I do expect him to put the ball in the bucket.

Our position in the West depends so much on other teams it's really hard to say where the team will land. Denver looks primed to make further strides, their two best players are both under 25. Houston messed around for half the season and they won't make the Carmelo mistake twice, so they'll likely have a much better regular season. Utah and Oklahoma City are both talented, if inconsistent. The Spurs are the Spurs. The West can be so jumbled we don't have to slip much to finish 7th.

Phalanx wrote:Yahoo is reporting that Lillard is expected to be signed to a super-max extension this summer:

https://sports.yahoo.com/sources-damian ... 16480.html

Lillard has two years and approximately $62 million remaining on his current deal. The extension would put him under contract for the next six years, and he’d be 34 years old by the time the deal expires, perhaps solidifying his status as arguably the greatest Trail Blazer of all time.

Olshey has apparently learned nothing. If this happens, the Blazers will be doomed to be first or second-round playoff fodder for real contenders for years to come. This year was an aberration, based on some very fortunate player-rental deals that popped up with Hood and Kanter. Lillard is a good player, but has proven again and again that he cannot carry a team. He needs help, and you can't give him help if he is getting all the money. Best Blazer in history? The dude disappears for entire games. He has a lifetime 40.6% playoff field goal percentage. That is awful. Clyde was 45% and Terry was 48.4% during their time in Portland. We are talking about multiple standard deviations better than Lillard in terms of making shots. Even CJ was a significantly better shooter in these playoffs than Lillard.

I really hope this report isn't true and that somebody with a brain stops Olshey before he does 2016 all over again.

The logic in this post is impossible to ignore, the view on Lillard's "Greatest Blazer Ever" is more subjective, but I also agree. The one thing I've come to admire about Lillard, in this era, is his attachment to Portland, of course that would be eroded, not necessarily by him if this deal comes about. But, the GBE is still Walton for me.

Two avenues:

Dump salary, suck for the indefinite future, bet all chips on winning through the draft.

Show loyalty to guys who have done the same, knowing it is an extremely long shot to make the NBA Finals.

They both suck, to be frank. If you're passionate about one over the other, good on ya. I'm certainly not. But I will say this was a fun season.

#F***RussellWestbrook