[Post Game Thread] The Portland Trail Blazers (0-1) fall to The LA Clippers (2-1) 99-101
October 12, 2024
[Post Game Thread] The Portland Trail Blazers (0-1) fall to The LA Clippers (2-1) 99-101
28 comments
Good: Toumani looks like he has improved from his impressive rookie season. Clingan looks like an absolute unit.
Bad: Scoot’s poor decision-making is still there, resulting in low efficiency and turnovers. Hopefully, he can improve throughout the season.
Awesome final play coach
Game recap number 1 let’s go!! Basketball is back!
* I don’t really love what I saw from Scoot tonight. He’s still finishing with the right hand from the left side, and he seems to have lost a ton of confidence in his scoring ability – he got a wide open floater pretty much every time he came off a pick tonight, but he kept trying to force lobs to the roll man or cross court passes to the corner which were telegraphed. In order to be a good primary ball handler in today’s NBA you have to be at least a 2-level scorer and right now scoot is a 0-level scorer – that absolutely needs to change, and fast. Also, it felt like he was dropping every single dribble handoff – not a great sign for his touch lol.
* it seems like he was more patient than last season, which is partly good. However, I don’t love how he was walking the ball up after missed shots.
* he’s one of the fastest guys in the league and thrives in the open court, so he should be looking to push. There was a possession in the second quarter where after he missed a shot he hit the gas and got fouled – we need to see more of that.
* Kris badly missing wide open corner threes is not a good look
* Toumani looks a bit more comfortable doing things on offense, shooting without hesitation and attacking some close outs. I like what I see there.
* I know Ant is out, but spacing is going to be a real problem this season. None of these dudes besides Reath and Grant can shoot the ball.
*Clingan looked pretty good. I loved that he hit a three, and the defense is as advertised. Not too many people who can make Zubac look small. He also made some great passes out of the short roll and set great screens, unlike a certain someone. On the minus side, his finishing looked pretty….Nurk-like at times and not in a good way.
*Ayton hit two threes which is awesome – if he’s making those consistently it’ll really open up our offense. On the flip side he sets the worst screens I’ve ever seen.
* Offense still looks unbelievably basic even though we dont have any new players really…kind of disappointing despite the continuity we had. I still don’t love how we are playing so slow possession after possession despite having a young athletic team that all thrives in the open court. Just look at the clippers second unit – they were pushing the ball up and getting lots of easy bucks that way. When you have a young team that struggles in the half court, that’s what you have to do to manufacture points. Every year Chauncey says we need to play faster and we never do – I hope this is the year it actually happens.
*speaking of the half court offense, I feel like every possession someone brings it up and passes it to Ayton at the top of the key and then he spends about 5 seconds looking around trying to pass it to someone. We did it last season too and that never made any sense to me because all it does is waste time from the shot clock.
*when Grant catches the ball and dribbles a couple times you just know it’s going to end in a horribly off balance shot or a turnover and definitely not a pass 😭
Toumani was the best player on the floor by far tonight.
19/9/3/1/1 on just 9 shot attempts plus his usual defense.
Scoot gotta hit that last layup mannn
Clingan is going to be really freaking good.
Also shout out league pass for DEFINITELY NOT MISSING THE END OF THE GAME 😐
We shot a better FG%, 3 PT%, more assists, more rebounds… but also 7 more turnovers, that’ll do it.
I’m not saying Scoot is bad, but maybe if he stopped shooting like he was going to turn into Damien fucking Lillard we might get a better idea of how he actually fits into this team.
Good game. Hope all games this season are like that.
So is Billups going to finally be let go after this season? Dude is just ass lol
4/16 and 7 turnovers
I’m trying to be optimistic, it’s only preseason, but I am worried.
what was that last possession??? hahaha someone tell chauncey you don’t have to tank in the preseason
Toumani is the only feel good part of this game for me. He looked so much more in control & calm than last year. Looks like he really put in effective work this offseason.
At this point in time scoot’s closest player comp is Bronny James
I’d like to introduce yall to 3pt specialist Deandre Ayton🔥. Seems to me like it’s an emphasis for him to get up some shots from deep this year. Would be a real boost if that becomes a consistent part of his game.
Wish Sharpe was out there. Excited to see Deni in the mix. I’m really worried about Scoot. I’ll continue to wait and see with him, but guard might be a position of need in this upcoming draft. It is what it is.
When Chauncey tells Scoot to be aggressive after a timeout, it’s like night and day in the way he plays. We really need a coach that is going to be harder on Scoot, and who will actually pair him with winners like Tou and Clingan more often. I’m convinced Scoot’s weaknesses in decision-making and his infuriating inability to just go at people, is not completely unfixable with a stricter coach.
Also, Camara and Rupert are clearly putting in development hours. Trading JG and rolling Tou next to Avdija is the obvious mid-season move. Unleash him, he’s ready. Rupert is a bulk season away from contributing valuable minutes too.
I’m trying to stay positive on Scoot but damn I was surprised by his FG tonight.
i know we lost but that felt like the first time we’ve been competitive in a preseason game in years
Random thoughts as I’m 3 drinks in:
-People love to love Dalano Banton but I’m telling y’all, he is only on this team as a 3pt tank commander. Wish the best for him or whatever, but after this season (where we should be tanking harder than ever before), I hope he is not on the roster.
-Didn’t see as much improvement from Scoot as I would’ve liked. I echo Kazekid’s thoughts. I’m also not going to overreact as I think he’ll improve. The kid is still 20 y/o and 5-6 years away from his prime, and realistically that is probably a similar timeline we have before we will be a relevant playoff team. I think Ant gets traded either mid-season or next off-season, which means there is a real possibility where we draft another promising PG in a year or two, depending on how Scoot looks. People will freak if that happens, but whatever.
-Clingan 3 ball was fun, as well as Ayton’s two. Why not experiment with all of that when we don’t want to win anyways. I was crazy about him when we drafted him and am excited to watch him develop. A young, defensive-minded big is something to be excited about. Forget all that noise you heard about this draft class being shit.
-I thought Toumani looked awesome. I think he’ll continue to be someone talking heads will feel super smart mentioning as our season goes on. His defensive prowess is real, although we already knew that. We need to lock this kid down financially down the line (aka sooner than later).
Clingan sets monster screens. I didn’t like what I saw from Scoot out there tonight, but the biggest glimmer of hope came from the separation he got in the pnrs with Clingan.
13/4/3 from Scoot! You love to see it!! Can’t wait to see his progress over the course of this year.
Maybe Scoot needs his goggles again, just like last season!
Watching this game late but if anyone has one of the Pokémon shirts that I’m seeing I will buy it from you
Did Taze not play? I swear that dude is a beast when ge finds an opening
I really think Scoot needs to work with a shooting coach and figure out his mechanics. He also doesn’t think before he drives to the hoop. Can’t afford to trade away Simons. If Scoot doesn’t figure it out he may be traded before Simons. Hope he can figure it out this season
This was as good as I could have hoped for from Toumani. Just absolutely awesome to watch him play tonight. My entire hope for Toumani was for his offense to be good enough that he won’t be net negative when he was on the court. Today he was a genuine plus offensively. There was still some awkward drives, but he looked so much more smooth, in control, confident, and actually looked like a GOOD nba player on that end. He was really rough to watch offensively last season, but he was a joy today. Not only that, but I think it was maybe the best he’s ever looked defensively. I liked him on defense last year, but thought he was a tad overrated, and was more of a specialist, as a guy who could full court press and use length all over the court. He was a total monster tonight, looking like the future DPOY that a lot of people saw that I honestly didn’t last year. Couldn’t be more excited.
I am a huge Clingan fan, and am obviously not even close to worried, but honestly thought that that was a pretty rough performance. Team worst -9. His screens were awesome, his passing was great, that 3 was awesome, but I actually thought he struggled defensively. He’s huge, but looked like a liability on pick n rolls, as he seemed to stay on the ball handler for too long, letting an athletic big like Kai Jones to have a lot of time to get a big head start on the roll. He also just didn’t jump at all, and I know he’s huge and he played that same way in college, but NBA guys are much more atheltic, and he missed out on some easy rebounds and let some shots get over him that if he just elevated a bit more, he could have easily affected. He can rely on his height, but not as much in college, and I have no doubt that he’s going to realize that and adjust. Love his game and can’t to see what he becomes.
Scoot was absolutely terrible tonight. I was really disappointing by his rookie year, but was excited by a couple games at the very end of the season, and was really hopeful to see Scoot’s progress after the summer. This was one of his worst games against what was mostly the Clippers bench. His shot looked terrible both off the driblbe and in spot ups. His finishing still looks terrible, and he made some of the most unforced errors of turnovers that I’ve seen him make. 4/16 with 7 TOs. At times, his defense looked a little better, but there were still plays like a PnR with Harden where he get compeltely lost on a screen, recovered by doubling an off ball offensive player, leading to Harden being wide open for the majority of the play. It was as bad of a defensive play as it gets. He also just has no idea what to do coming off screens, no matter who is setting the screen. I was so excited to see him with a screener like Clingan, but Scoot looked clueless and indecisive. This was such an easy game for Scoot to show something. A pressureless game where he got to have to ball as much as he wants, against a bench unit, and he looked really bad. My only positive, was that I really liked some of the passes he made, he loves looking for his teammates, but the point is moot when he gets 7 turnovers.
I love that DA made some three’s, but he looked aggressively mediocre tonight. Still a horrible screener, it was also the most he’s stayed out of the paint from what I’ve seen, since he got here. He still rebounded well, but for better or worse, looked like Channing Frye on both ends. I don’t want him stretching the floor to stop him from using his touch around the rim.
I loved Jerami tonight. It’s wild to see the difference between the reactions from Blazers fans and Clippers fans when he plays. Blazer fans are calling him a black hole, Clippers fans see him as the only hope in a struggling offense. I am am absolutely on the latter. There were 2 plays, from my count, where he forced up a shot that should have been a pass. But, he was the only people on this team capable of shot creating tonight. I don’t know how you can watch the plays he’s not involved in and say that he should be sharing the ball more. The young guys all have good usage rates. Throwing more their way and making them play bad basketball is more likely to develop bad habits than it is to give them reps. Having a real NBA making real NBA plays is better for them than making Scoot and Rupert struggle their way to a bad shot attempt.
Kris didn’t show anything meaningful tonight. His numbers don’t look bad, and I really like his length in those lineups with Toumani, but he just brings absolutely nothing else, and had some just awful turnovers tonight.
Jabari looked mostly the same. Love his rebounding and effort, but was still a little slow defensively with not much of a shot on offense. If he’s gonna be the tough bruiser on this team, he’s gotta be a high FG% guy too.
Dalano looks so much like an NBA player in the way he moves and handles the ball, but just wasn’t making winning plays. He moves well into good shots, but misses them. Runs a good pick n roll and gets guys in the right spots, but whiffs the pass. I like him, but he doesn’t actually positively impact the game.
Rupert looked much more confident and fluid tonight, moved really well. Still doesn’t have a skill that will get him minutes in the future.
I loved our length and effort defensively, and I’m hoping that keeps up once we have Ant, Deni, and Sharpe back, because we could be a top 15 defense with what we saw tonight. I am still really excited, as I think Ant, Shaedon, Deni, Toumani, Jeremi, DA, Clingan, Matisse, and Jabari can all make a winning impact.
Am I crazy for thinking that if we upgraded PnR partners for Scoot that he would look a million times better but instead he’s got the wimpiest finisher in Ayton?
Billups might be great for the tank but I don’t think he’s what Scoot needs
28 comments
Good: Toumani looks like he has improved from his impressive rookie season. Clingan looks like an absolute unit.
Bad: Scoot’s poor decision-making is still there, resulting in low efficiency and turnovers. Hopefully, he can improve throughout the season.
Awesome final play coach
Game recap number 1 let’s go!! Basketball is back!
* I don’t really love what I saw from Scoot tonight. He’s still finishing with the right hand from the left side, and he seems to have lost a ton of confidence in his scoring ability – he got a wide open floater pretty much every time he came off a pick tonight, but he kept trying to force lobs to the roll man or cross court passes to the corner which were telegraphed. In order to be a good primary ball handler in today’s NBA you have to be at least a 2-level scorer and right now scoot is a 0-level scorer – that absolutely needs to change, and fast. Also, it felt like he was dropping every single dribble handoff – not a great sign for his touch lol.
* it seems like he was more patient than last season, which is partly good. However, I don’t love how he was walking the ball up after missed shots.
* he’s one of the fastest guys in the league and thrives in the open court, so he should be looking to push. There was a possession in the second quarter where after he missed a shot he hit the gas and got fouled – we need to see more of that.
* Kris badly missing wide open corner threes is not a good look
* Toumani looks a bit more comfortable doing things on offense, shooting without hesitation and attacking some close outs. I like what I see there.
* I know Ant is out, but spacing is going to be a real problem this season. None of these dudes besides Reath and Grant can shoot the ball.
*Clingan looked pretty good. I loved that he hit a three, and the defense is as advertised. Not too many people who can make Zubac look small. He also made some great passes out of the short roll and set great screens, unlike a certain someone. On the minus side, his finishing looked pretty….Nurk-like at times and not in a good way.
*Ayton hit two threes which is awesome – if he’s making those consistently it’ll really open up our offense. On the flip side he sets the worst screens I’ve ever seen.
* Offense still looks unbelievably basic even though we dont have any new players really…kind of disappointing despite the continuity we had. I still don’t love how we are playing so slow possession after possession despite having a young athletic team that all thrives in the open court. Just look at the clippers second unit – they were pushing the ball up and getting lots of easy bucks that way. When you have a young team that struggles in the half court, that’s what you have to do to manufacture points. Every year Chauncey says we need to play faster and we never do – I hope this is the year it actually happens.
*speaking of the half court offense, I feel like every possession someone brings it up and passes it to Ayton at the top of the key and then he spends about 5 seconds looking around trying to pass it to someone. We did it last season too and that never made any sense to me because all it does is waste time from the shot clock.
*when Grant catches the ball and dribbles a couple times you just know it’s going to end in a horribly off balance shot or a turnover and definitely not a pass 😭
Toumani was the best player on the floor by far tonight.
19/9/3/1/1 on just 9 shot attempts plus his usual defense.
Scoot gotta hit that last layup mannn
Clingan is going to be really freaking good.
Also shout out league pass for DEFINITELY NOT MISSING THE END OF THE GAME 😐
We shot a better FG%, 3 PT%, more assists, more rebounds… but also 7 more turnovers, that’ll do it.
I’m not saying Scoot is bad, but maybe if he stopped shooting like he was going to turn into Damien fucking Lillard we might get a better idea of how he actually fits into this team.
Good game. Hope all games this season are like that.
So is Billups going to finally be let go after this season? Dude is just ass lol
4/16 and 7 turnovers
I’m trying to be optimistic, it’s only preseason, but I am worried.
what was that last possession??? hahaha someone tell chauncey you don’t have to tank in the preseason
Toumani is the only feel good part of this game for me. He looked so much more in control & calm than last year. Looks like he really put in effective work this offseason.
At this point in time scoot’s closest player comp is Bronny James
I’d like to introduce yall to 3pt specialist Deandre Ayton🔥. Seems to me like it’s an emphasis for him to get up some shots from deep this year. Would be a real boost if that becomes a consistent part of his game.
Wish Sharpe was out there. Excited to see Deni in the mix. I’m really worried about Scoot. I’ll continue to wait and see with him, but guard might be a position of need in this upcoming draft. It is what it is.
When Chauncey tells Scoot to be aggressive after a timeout, it’s like night and day in the way he plays. We really need a coach that is going to be harder on Scoot, and who will actually pair him with winners like Tou and Clingan more often. I’m convinced Scoot’s weaknesses in decision-making and his infuriating inability to just go at people, is not completely unfixable with a stricter coach.
Also, Camara and Rupert are clearly putting in development hours. Trading JG and rolling Tou next to Avdija is the obvious mid-season move. Unleash him, he’s ready. Rupert is a bulk season away from contributing valuable minutes too.
I’m trying to stay positive on Scoot but damn I was surprised by his FG tonight.
i know we lost but that felt like the first time we’ve been competitive in a preseason game in years
Random thoughts as I’m 3 drinks in:
-People love to love Dalano Banton but I’m telling y’all, he is only on this team as a 3pt tank commander. Wish the best for him or whatever, but after this season (where we should be tanking harder than ever before), I hope he is not on the roster.
-Didn’t see as much improvement from Scoot as I would’ve liked. I echo Kazekid’s thoughts. I’m also not going to overreact as I think he’ll improve. The kid is still 20 y/o and 5-6 years away from his prime, and realistically that is probably a similar timeline we have before we will be a relevant playoff team. I think Ant gets traded either mid-season or next off-season, which means there is a real possibility where we draft another promising PG in a year or two, depending on how Scoot looks. People will freak if that happens, but whatever.
-Clingan 3 ball was fun, as well as Ayton’s two. Why not experiment with all of that when we don’t want to win anyways. I was crazy about him when we drafted him and am excited to watch him develop. A young, defensive-minded big is something to be excited about. Forget all that noise you heard about this draft class being shit.
-I thought Toumani looked awesome. I think he’ll continue to be someone talking heads will feel super smart mentioning as our season goes on. His defensive prowess is real, although we already knew that. We need to lock this kid down financially down the line (aka sooner than later).
Clingan sets monster screens. I didn’t like what I saw from Scoot out there tonight, but the biggest glimmer of hope came from the separation he got in the pnrs with Clingan.
13/4/3 from Scoot! You love to see it!! Can’t wait to see his progress over the course of this year.
Maybe Scoot needs his goggles again, just like last season!
Watching this game late but if anyone has one of the Pokémon shirts that I’m seeing I will buy it from you
Did Taze not play? I swear that dude is a beast when ge finds an opening
I really think Scoot needs to work with a shooting coach and figure out his mechanics. He also doesn’t think before he drives to the hoop. Can’t afford to trade away Simons. If Scoot doesn’t figure it out he may be traded before Simons. Hope he can figure it out this season
This was as good as I could have hoped for from Toumani. Just absolutely awesome to watch him play tonight. My entire hope for Toumani was for his offense to be good enough that he won’t be net negative when he was on the court. Today he was a genuine plus offensively. There was still some awkward drives, but he looked so much more smooth, in control, confident, and actually looked like a GOOD nba player on that end. He was really rough to watch offensively last season, but he was a joy today. Not only that, but I think it was maybe the best he’s ever looked defensively. I liked him on defense last year, but thought he was a tad overrated, and was more of a specialist, as a guy who could full court press and use length all over the court. He was a total monster tonight, looking like the future DPOY that a lot of people saw that I honestly didn’t last year. Couldn’t be more excited.
I am a huge Clingan fan, and am obviously not even close to worried, but honestly thought that that was a pretty rough performance. Team worst -9. His screens were awesome, his passing was great, that 3 was awesome, but I actually thought he struggled defensively. He’s huge, but looked like a liability on pick n rolls, as he seemed to stay on the ball handler for too long, letting an athletic big like Kai Jones to have a lot of time to get a big head start on the roll. He also just didn’t jump at all, and I know he’s huge and he played that same way in college, but NBA guys are much more atheltic, and he missed out on some easy rebounds and let some shots get over him that if he just elevated a bit more, he could have easily affected. He can rely on his height, but not as much in college, and I have no doubt that he’s going to realize that and adjust. Love his game and can’t to see what he becomes.
Scoot was absolutely terrible tonight. I was really disappointing by his rookie year, but was excited by a couple games at the very end of the season, and was really hopeful to see Scoot’s progress after the summer. This was one of his worst games against what was mostly the Clippers bench. His shot looked terrible both off the driblbe and in spot ups. His finishing still looks terrible, and he made some of the most unforced errors of turnovers that I’ve seen him make. 4/16 with 7 TOs. At times, his defense looked a little better, but there were still plays like a PnR with Harden where he get compeltely lost on a screen, recovered by doubling an off ball offensive player, leading to Harden being wide open for the majority of the play. It was as bad of a defensive play as it gets. He also just has no idea what to do coming off screens, no matter who is setting the screen. I was so excited to see him with a screener like Clingan, but Scoot looked clueless and indecisive. This was such an easy game for Scoot to show something. A pressureless game where he got to have to ball as much as he wants, against a bench unit, and he looked really bad. My only positive, was that I really liked some of the passes he made, he loves looking for his teammates, but the point is moot when he gets 7 turnovers.
I love that DA made some three’s, but he looked aggressively mediocre tonight. Still a horrible screener, it was also the most he’s stayed out of the paint from what I’ve seen, since he got here. He still rebounded well, but for better or worse, looked like Channing Frye on both ends. I don’t want him stretching the floor to stop him from using his touch around the rim.
I loved Jerami tonight. It’s wild to see the difference between the reactions from Blazers fans and Clippers fans when he plays. Blazer fans are calling him a black hole, Clippers fans see him as the only hope in a struggling offense. I am am absolutely on the latter. There were 2 plays, from my count, where he forced up a shot that should have been a pass. But, he was the only people on this team capable of shot creating tonight. I don’t know how you can watch the plays he’s not involved in and say that he should be sharing the ball more. The young guys all have good usage rates. Throwing more their way and making them play bad basketball is more likely to develop bad habits than it is to give them reps. Having a real NBA making real NBA plays is better for them than making Scoot and Rupert struggle their way to a bad shot attempt.
Kris didn’t show anything meaningful tonight. His numbers don’t look bad, and I really like his length in those lineups with Toumani, but he just brings absolutely nothing else, and had some just awful turnovers tonight.
Jabari looked mostly the same. Love his rebounding and effort, but was still a little slow defensively with not much of a shot on offense. If he’s gonna be the tough bruiser on this team, he’s gotta be a high FG% guy too.
Dalano looks so much like an NBA player in the way he moves and handles the ball, but just wasn’t making winning plays. He moves well into good shots, but misses them. Runs a good pick n roll and gets guys in the right spots, but whiffs the pass. I like him, but he doesn’t actually positively impact the game.
Rupert looked much more confident and fluid tonight, moved really well. Still doesn’t have a skill that will get him minutes in the future.
I loved our length and effort defensively, and I’m hoping that keeps up once we have Ant, Deni, and Sharpe back, because we could be a top 15 defense with what we saw tonight. I am still really excited, as I think Ant, Shaedon, Deni, Toumani, Jeremi, DA, Clingan, Matisse, and Jabari can all make a winning impact.
Am I crazy for thinking that if we upgraded PnR partners for Scoot that he would look a million times better but instead he’s got the wimpiest finisher in Ayton?
Billups might be great for the tank but I don’t think he’s what Scoot needs