NBA/Blazers 2026-27 Thread

[pezsez1]

Yeah, Dame is cold tonight. That travel call was lame, that's my least favorite call in basketball. They let guys get away with walking into the paint, but the smallest little stutter at the start of the dribble gets called every time. Either Dame or Ja needs to heat up in this fourth quarter, or someone else needs to help Deni out.

[Phalanx]

Man, that was a terrible game. Lillard was just awful. I know he said he took 100,000 shots last summer, but I didn't realize they were tequila shots. He looked like he needed an intervention or something. I was just watching him miss terrible shot after terrible shot and begging someone, ANYONE to make it stop.

The rest of the starters looked okay, but they couldn't make up for Lillard's awful shooting like they did the last few games. He is a liability and he should be coming off the bench. I've been saying to put him in at the end of games for free throws, but since he is only 73% at the charity stripe this season, I'd say just bring in Clingan or RWIII instead.

Clingan was good tonight until the 4th quarter. I think he got tired. This team really needs RWIII in the lineup. Hopefully he comes back soon.

[pezsez1]

but they couldn't make up for Lillard's awful shooting like they did the last few games

Dude.

Dame played great in the first game and was good against the Lakers. Tonight was a stinker, but a few extra makes by Dame (to exceed Ja's production, which also wasn't great at 6-14) wouldn't have made a difference in this one. The bench sucked and the Grizzlies killed us on the boards, especially offensive rebounds. Not having RWIII was the difference. In fact, Clingan was the only Blazer with a positive +/- rating, with the two worst (by far) being Jrue Holiday and Toumani Camara.

Jrue has been a bit underwhelming this season. He's doing a great job of facilitating, but his ability to create shots seems to have diminished from last season. With Scoot struggling the second unit doesn't have a whole lot of punch right now.

[Phalanx]

Dame played great in the first game and was good against the Lakers. Tonight was a stinker, but a few extra makes by Dame (to exceed Ja's production, which also wasn't great at 6-14) wouldn't have made a difference in this one. The bench sucked and the Grizzlies killed us on the boards, especially offensive rebounds. Not having RWIII was the difference. In fact, Clingan was the only Blazer with a positive +/- rating, with the two worst (by far) being Jrue Holiday and Toumani Camara.

Yeah, 6/14 is bad production. That's nearly identical to Lillard's field goal percentage for his entire NBA career. If Lillard went 6/14 tonight, you would be trumpeting his praises from the rooftops.

+/- is basically a worthless stat in judging an individual player. It should be embarrassing for anyone to say that Lillard was better than either Toumani or Jrue tonight.

By the way, Jrue came into this game tied with Lillard in +/- for the season. This is multiple times you have called him underwhelming. What does that say about Lillard?

[pezsez1]

What was Jrue's +/- tonight though compared with Lillard? Just curious, maybe I saw it wrong when I looked. He didn't really do a whole lot. Just because he didn't shoot as much doesn't mean he played better. He's been underwhelming on offense this year, maybe age is finally taking a toll.

Ja was 2-5 from 3 and just 4-9 from the inside the arc. That's not bad, but not great either. He needs to be getting to the rim and finishing at a higher rate if he's not going to take more 3s. Needed more from someone, and when Dame can't give it, someone else needs to step up. Simple as that.


EDIT: Looks like the Grizzlies bench outscored our bench 56-30 or something close to that. That probably matters just slightly more than Dame being 3-13 instead of 6-13. (And apparently shooting 6-13 is fantastic.) Unless, of course, you just irrationally hate Dame, in which case it's all Dame's fault lol.

[Everythingsducky]

Blazers bench did them no favors tonight. Seems like coach wanted to test, and go deep, and it was futile. Dame’s FT shooting is off to start the season unfortunately. But they have been awful from the line as a team so far. Hope this loss sparks a better effort. How Vit wears an NBA uniform is amazing. I think the Congo or North Korea is calling more for someone of his abilities. Blazers lost almost every stat category, assists, rebounds, TO’s, steals…total team loss.

[pezsez1]

Blazers bench did them no favors tonight. Seems like coach wanted to test, and go deep, and it was futile. Dame’s FT shooting is off to start the season unfortunately. But they have been awful from the line as a team so far. Hope this loss sparks a better effort. How Vit wears an NBA uniform is amazing. I think the Congo or North Korea is calling more for someone of his abilities. Blazers lost almost every stat category, assists, rebounds, TO’s, steals…total team loss.

Dude, Vit only missed two shots, that makes him better than the entire starting lineup!

[Boom]

Cedric Coward would have been the perfect SG for this Blazer team. He's everything Shaedon isn't.

[Phalanx]

Needed more from someone, and when Dame can't give it, someone else needs to step up. Simple as that.

'When Dame can't give it' appears to be a nightly occurrence. He is currently 10th on the team in efg% and 4th in assists. Behind Jrue and Ja in both categories, despite playing more minutes than either. The self-proclaimed 'Second best shooter in NBA history' is currently tied for 6th on his own team in three point accuracy - and this is a team that finished 28th in the league last year in 3pt shooting.

The dude can't break down defenses anymore, and that is the primary job of a point guard. Nori needs to yank him from the starting lineup before he ruins the season.

[pezsez1]

Dame is our starter and one bad shooting night won't change that. The fact he is out there is why others are getting wide-open looks. Coach Nori is too smart to have irrational knee-jerk reactions.

[bellsduck]

It's almost not worth arguing over a game like this where nothing much went correct. But having said that, until the 4th quarter, this game still could've been won by either team which I'd say is a positive cause that's hopefully about as bad as they can play with a mostly healthy roster. Scoot played better in this game than any of the previous 3. DC was pretty good for the 2nd game in a row. The questions about this team as I see them are these,
1) Defense, take away a brutal performance by Phoenix and they're giving up 125 ppg. You're gonna have to score a lot to win games (ie not miss 37 3 pointers and 10 FTs) giving up that many points. We knew this was a problem coming into the year.
2) 82 games. We're in game 4. How will Lillard and Holiday hold up over the course of a full season? Holiday and Lillard are 36. Jrue probably has lost a step and at this point relies on old man knowledge more than athletic ability. Lillard after his injury is going to need nights off and will be interesting to see just how his role changes as we get deeper into the season.
3) Backup Center - It's clear RWIII is a great option as a backup, but his injury situation already is showing as a problem. The dropoff from him to Yang is significant, even though Yang looks better this year than last.

[pezsez1]

Per Shams, Ja Morant has a Grade 2 hamstring injury and will be out at least 4 weeks.

Phalanx, you'd better light your Damian Lillard prayer candle.

[Phalanx]

Well, that was a fun three games. I guess Scoot will finally get his chance to play; maybe he can do something with it. Shaedon out, Ja out, and Robert Williams with soreness in his knee. Following sports in Oregon is always so character-building. Learning humility all the time.

P.S. I knew Lillard sold Toyotas and pre-season hype; I didn't know he sold prayer candles. Do you keep some in your Lillard lunchbox?

[Phalanx]

It's almost not worth arguing over a game like this where nothing much went correct. But having said that, until the 4th quarter, this game still could've been won by either team which I'd say is a positive cause that's hopefully about as bad as they can play with a mostly healthy roster. Scoot played better in this game than any of the previous 3. DC was pretty good for the 2nd game in a row. The questions about this team as I see them are these,
1) Defense, take away a brutal performance by Phoenix and they're giving up 125 ppg. You're gonna have to score a lot to win games (ie not miss 37 3 pointers and 10 FTs) giving up that many points. We knew this was a problem coming into the year.
2) 82 games. We're in game 4. How will Lillard and Holiday hold up over the course of a full season? Holiday and Lillard are 36. Jrue probably has lost a step and at this point relies on old man knowledge more than athletic ability. Lillard after his injury is going to need nights off and will be interesting to see just how his role changes as we get deeper into the season.
3) Backup Center - It's clear RWIII is a great option as a backup, but his injury situation already is showing as a problem. The dropoff from him to Yang is significant, even though Yang looks better this year than last.

Good post. A lot of people talking about the ridiculous glut at point guard, but at the moment Portland has two 36-year olds and a 22-year old with issues covering both guard spots. I'm pretty confident that there will be more injuries from here and that Vit is going to be logging significant minutes this season at guard. I am starting to wonder if they will even re-sign Scoot now. Too many injury-prone guys on what is becoming a shallow roster.

[pezsez1]

We'll still have a very good starting lineup assuming it's Dame and Jrue in the backcourt. In fact, this should be our best-possible starting lineup, and perhaps it's a blessing in disguise that we'll be forced to run it for several weeks now. But our bench scoring is going to come from... where? We will likely see a lot more games like last night where our starting unit keeps it close but our bench gets left in the dust. Although getting RWIII back should help with that.

Also, this may be one of Scoot's last BIG opportunities to really prove he belongs here. He'll get plenty of minutes over the next month. It's now or never.