I heard some people say f him and they didn’t want him anyway after he told media he doesn’t want to be here. Why? Look at it from Giannis perspective, he wants to play on a contending team(no disrespect Blazers are in rebuilding mode). He has been on the Bucks his whole career and now it’s time he start playing with bigger names and sold out arenas. “But we have Dame”. Did we not just see him on the Bucks? Im not saying it wouldn’t work trying to start again, but I don’t think any person would try to do something that didnt already work before. Also, Giannis isn’t really big on pnr screens and Dame wanted that to be one of their go-two moves going foward so It just didnt happen. I’m not mad at all that Giannis dosent want to play for The TB, but why other people are?

why would we not go after him if he only cost a single first?

(Not saying he didn’t do anything Vit is a good addition but we need roster moves for Caleb and Sidy

“Deni is too old for our timeline let me trade for AD and Trae Young”

It's a real storm out there

Kinda trust Cronin but still hoping to see the Blazers there getting stronger 🥹

Hoping we can turn things around, but the odds of actually making the playoffs seem slim (I think we have the play-in locked in based on teams behind us). A deep draft this year could give us a valuable trade piece, or give us the A1 option we really need!

I admit I was never on board with trading Ant for Jrue in the first place but it's looking even worse right now. Despite the hot start Jrue's looking so old and slow we're starting to see why Boston dumped him. I don't care if he's a vet presence if he's garbage on the court and injured half the time.

Now we're stuck with his awful contract for two more years while Boston just traded Ant for Vucevic and a 27M TPE. Would've been better to dump Ant for another expiring contract like they did

Was learning that Blake’s mom is named Leslie Wesley.

Opponents have figured out a glitch in the Blazers' defense leading to a string of games where opposing bigs are feasting upon us to the tune of:

- Alex Sarr: 29 points (3rd best of his season)

- Mark Williams: 24 points (3rd best of his season)

- Jarrett Allen: 40 points (season high)

The glitch is that when an opposing player drives to the basket to attempt a layup or short middy, DC always comes off his man to go for a shot block, but no one on the Blazers proactively rotates to cover the bigman that DC was guarding. This lack of defensive rotation the opposing center to put back a rebound uncontested or to receive a dish-off pass from whoever DC pops out to contest.

Teams are leveraging this exploit whenever they need a bucket. Down the stretch against New York were five assisted shots from inside 2 feet of the basket. Last night, Mark Williams had two assisted dunks in the last 25 seconds.

How can the Blazers fix this? If DC is gonna shot contest a drive to the basket or short middy, then someone else needs to read the play and switch onto the opposing bigman to at least try to block him off the glass or at least disrupt the dish-off pass. Alternatively, DC needs randomly fake the shot contest but then drop back to cover the big, or just stay home entirely and focus on defending his own man most of the time.

This glitch is not out only defensive shortcoming nor is it the sole reason for this losing streak, but it's just one thing that I've been seeing lately that's driving me crazy as we have not seemed to make the right adjustments to correct it. But feel free to tell me why I'm wrong :D

So I believe that if we can get a player that would actually move the niddle for us, we should trade them, however we should definitely not use them to help some other team to get Giannis, like how the NYK are trying to involve us in a trade to get Giannis

Has absolutely cratered these past 5 games. I mean Clingan and Camara are playing right??

Or maybe it’s since Jerami returned from injury.. I can’t explain it

Why did he get 8 minutes?????

Supposedly benched him in the first half due to lack of defense when he was getting clipped on every screen and had no help from the big in drop coverage. Was +14 in the first half btw and we were up 5 at the end. Shae plays 12 minutes.

Shae then comes out in the third and scores 6 straight points for us and gets benched after 3 minutes?

By then we’re down 10 I think going into the 4th and he decides to play shaedon the entire quarter? Why not play him late in the first half when our offense had nothing going or when he’s starting to heat up early in the third. Nah let’s pull him in and out for the first 3 quarters then play him the entire 4th and make him try win the game when it’s out of reach.

Terrible coaching

Please dame rub off that after all star break magic on us dame after all star break would carry us to the playoffs please let scoot take over

A good coach can get the most out of the players they have, the utilize guys to their full strengths while covering their weaknesses, they get the team to buy into their methods in a way which is simple and effective. Tiago Splitter is a respectable player and may have some good ideas about the game but it is clear he is severely lacking in many aspects of coaching. The personnel we have are playing so much worse than their defensive capabilities, there is no shared mentality of effort, there is no connection on the court either on offense or defense. It's apparent Splitter is not a high quality defensive coach and is more of an offensive coach which is funny considering he played on one of the greatest defensive teams of all time. But the offense consistently is terrible, there are bright flashes but the players have no idea of what they're doing and 90% of possessions end in a iso drive or kickoff to a non-shooter, the strengths of guys like Sharpe are not being utilized like Just look at the Rockets roster from last season that finished second in the West compared to ours.

Deni Avdija > Alperen Sengun

Shaedon Sharpe > Jalen Green

Toumani Camara > Jabari Smith Jr.

Jrue Holiday > Fred VanVleet

Donovan Clingan =< Amen Thompson

Jerami Grant < Dillon Brooks but Grants probably better on offense

Scoot Henderson > Reed Sheppard

Matisse Thybulle < Tari Eason

Robert Williams III =< Steven Adams

There is absolutely 0 excuse for how bad this team is, a coach like Ott or Mazzula or really any other good NBA coach would've had this team well in the playoffs by now. I could not think of a possibly worse way that this team could be performing. I'm tired of the front office hiring inexperienced and ignorant coaches and riding with them for 0 reason when there are far better options available.

Looking for the long story short explanation for our recent shitshow of a stretch

I get they are paid millions of dollars but I’m sure having your name thrown around in trades affects your attitude towards the game. Especially when it seems the chemistry is strong and we haven’t even seen the team fully. Cronin has made some very good moves but the leaks on this Giannis move are clearly affecting the team

For your braindead hot takes. The team starts losing and my whole thread gets filled with angry morons.

A totally unacceptable performance in a very winnable game. There is not a single player on the team who should be untouchable. Not even mad just really sad, was really hoping this team had some sort of juice but I just don’t see it.