Trail Blazers players won’t be thinking about saving coach Terry Stotts‘ job when they open their playoff series with the Nuggets tonight, CJ McCollum tells Jason Quick of The Athletic. Stotts is rumored to be among a handful of coaches who are in jeopardy if they suffer an early exit in the postseason. He has one year left on his current contract with a salary of more than $6MM.
McCollum made it clear that the players support Stotts, but there are other motivating factors.
“You have no control over those things,” he said. “I like Terry. Terry has been great for me, my career, my development, he’s given me a chance. I will forever be grateful for everything he has done for me. But your job as a player is to play. And his job as a coach is to coach. Like, you can’t worry about what could happen. That’s every year. Every year, I could be traded. Every year, a coach could lose his job. There is enough pressure to perform on its own.
“… I don’t need any extra motivation to help Terry keep his job. I’m gonna go hoop and do what I do no matter what. And I think that’s Terry’s mentality. If something happens, Terry is OK. He’s gonna be all right, and he’s probably going to get another head coaching job.”
There’s more Trail Blazers news to pass along:
- Damian Lillard discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic affected him and players in general in an in-depth interview with Sam Amick of The Athletic. He also addresses a recent column by Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports calling for Portland to add more top-level talent during Lillard’s prime years. “People love to hear, ‘Oh, this guy might want out of here or out of there.’ I’ve constantly mentioned what my commitment to Portland is,” Lillard said. “I don’t think I need to keep going in on that. But over the course of a season, everybody gets frustrated, you know? And I’m not a person who fakes it for nobody. Not the media. Not my teammates. Not the fans. Not for nobody.”
- The 2017 trade that sent Jusuf Nurkic from Denver to Portland helped the Nuggets and Blazers both improve, writes Kyle Fredrickson of The Denver Post. Portland needed an upgrade at center, and Nurkic had just lost his starting job to Nikola Jokic.
- Zach Collins is the only player listed on the Trail Blazers’ injury report as the playoffs begin. Collins hasn’t played all season after undergoing surgery to fix a stress fracture in his ankle, but a recent story by Quick said the big man hasn’t given up hope of returning if Portland makes a long playoff run.
Blazers will still be blazers next year
I believe that Clippers and Lakers will decline
Lakers would miss the playoffs if they pay less than $50 million luxury tax next year
Clippers and Lakers draft picks have little trade value
Portland will unfortunately not accomplish anything in the post season asking as they have McCollum and Lillard together.
Currently they are one of the worst defensive teams, and also have a lot of players with injury concerns. Playoffs are about long minutes, physicality, grit and grind stuff.
I love Dame and I like Portland but I think it would actually be best if they really make some huge moves in the offseason. Already over the past couple years the young teams such as the Jazz, Mavs, Suns and so on have overtaken them as threat in the west. It won’t be long until the Grizzlies, Pelicans and TWolves make that jump too.
I know it would be very unlikely but I’d love to see this..
CJ McCollum, Jusif Nurkic, Nassir Little and a first round pick for Brandon Ingram and Steven Adams.
Portland would have a 5 of Lillard Powell Ingram Covington and Adams, with Simons Jones Jr Melo and Kanter making up the bench.
Lillard would be a leader with Ingram would be the future, and second star of this team. Defensively Ingram and Covington are both great and Adams also is pretty good. Offensively Lillard is a threat anywhere on the court, Ingram can score inside and out or be a creator, Adams is one of the best screen setters which would be great.
They would match up a lot better against any team in the playoffs.
The Pelicans, I’ve always questioned Ingram and Zions fit together. Both can score inside and out but both thrive driving and getting 2’s. Pelicans know Zion is the future and best player, they need to build around him by getting shooters and versatility. McCollum is a great ball handler and shooter and Nurkic would be an upgrade at the 5. Nurkic doesn’t block the lane completely for Zion, he’s a good passer and also gets boards.
I’d let Lonzo walk in FA and try bring in Markeneen to give you even more spacing, have a line up of Bledsloe McCollum Zion Markeneen Nurkic and then lots of youth on the bench like Lewis Hart NAW Little Hayes aswell as cap space from James Johnson, cap space from the trade and this years 8th overall pick.
I have favored trading Ingram & McCollum too but the GMs have been stubborn about keeping them.
Commas are a thing. Use them.
Simmons certainly wasn’t better than Russ today. The Sixers barely won at home against a 34-38 team in round 1, that’s not good. Even with home-court advantage Philly won’t win more than once or twice against the Nets.
They might not even get past the winner of the Knicks/Hawks series.
That’s a joke right. Sixers are 10-2 in our divisions this season. Our division contains the Nets, Knicks, Boston and Toronto.
Our average for an against is, we score 113 and they score 108 for a difference of +5.5. We won by 7, that with Embiid having some foul trouble early.
I think wouldn’t be surprised if the Wizards took 1 game cause Beal can go off, Russ can go top gear and stuff but it’s going to be an easy dub.
In the second round we will have the Knicks or the hawks both really easy match ups. Simmons locks up Trae, Trae can’t defend for his life. Against the Knicks Embiid locks up Randle and Randle can’t stop Embiid.
Once we make the ECF it’ll be either Bucks/Heat or Nets. That’s where things get tough and I think whoever makes it our the east wins the championship this year
Thats a lopsided trade. Cj for ingram straight up maybe…. Cj is one of the best scoring 2’s in the league. You dont grow those on trees. Blazers absolutely have a hole at the 4. Their front court is to small. The idea of a sabonis or ingram is needed but through a blazers yard sale. Nurk and Adams is a bad trade for blazers. Little is a excellent piece he on the cusp of bing a starter for any team. No Deal on that trade.
No way, CJ is 29 and Ingram is 23. Ingram has also made an all star team and CJ hasn’t. Ingram plays both ends of the floor and CJ doesn’t. CJ is a great player but he’s not got the same value as Ingram.
I really do rate CJ, he’s got an excellent handle, he’s an amazing scorer, he’s always improving and working on his craft. I just think the gig is up between him and Lillard. Ingram would add more to the defence, he would fit better as a complementary scorer next to Lillard offering a completely different skill set. Plus the age factor Ingram could eventually take over as the face of the franchise.
So without giving up multiple firsts, you sweeten the deal by trading Nurkic and Little for Adams. Nurkic is clearly the better player and evens out the deal, but actually in theory Adams would be the better fit for the blazers anyway. Nurkic does a lot and is great but Adams defence, his screen setting, and his presence in the locker room would be big assets.
Little would be a small loss in the grand scheme of things. Cause at the 3 spot you now have Ingram and DJJ, Little would hardly have a role behind these two, especially if you play big with say Melo or Covington at the 3 aswell.
You say no deal but I disagree with what your saying.
Doubt the Celtics are trading Smart, but Portland is one of several non-Boston teams I’d like to see him join.
If Bazers loose in the first round and that means they get a new head coach that can coach both offense/ defense and motivate, thats a huge win for the Blazers.