by Lamrock on Sat Apr 21, 2018 8:24 am
Portland can continue to make the playoffs every year for the foreseeable future, but 50 wins and sneaking into the second round is pretty much their ceiling. He's a decent coach, but after six seasons, it might be time to move on from Terry Stotts. He's been soundly out-coached by Alvin Gentry (who is underrated in my opinion, he just gets a bad rap) and hasn't made any adjustments in this series. Lots of fans like him, and I'll admit that he's done some great work, but it might be time to get rid of his down-on-his-luck used car salesman ass.
Damian Lillard has been pretty bad this series. I do think his "gravity" has led to some other guys getting more buckets than usual, but he really struggles when teams focus on him specifically. Playoff Lillard died when Aldridge left the team, as now opposing defenses can just double team him, knowing that he struggles to pass out of them and isn't good playing off the ball. And with all this adversity, he went back to not playing defense. He's my favorite player in the NBA, but when I saw him not even try to contest Rondo's dagger three in game 2, I was ready to trust the process.
McCollum's gotta go. He's very talented, and when he's on, he's ON. But his shot selection has been terrible, and him and Dame will always be a problematic back-court defensively. I also hope they let Nurkic walk. He's younger than I am, and has been integral in the team's defensive transformation, but he is also injury prone, a diva, bad on offense, and not a good fit in today's game. Hassan Whiteside is better than him, and he's not seeing the floor much for the same reason.
So I wouldn't be opposed to seeing them blow it up this Summer. In all likelihood, rebuilding will lead to another roster that peaks at 45-50 wins, but that's how the NBA goes, and at least with a rebuild there's some hope at being a serious contender. The 2015-16 season was a fun ride, but they probably would have been better off sucking.