The Blazers Are THRIVING Under New Coach Micah Nori

Let's talk about your favorite team, your former team, one of your former teams, the Portland Trail Blazers, one of the most unexpected success stories in the NBA this season.

Blazers 6-1 as we record this going to the game on Friday against the Lakers.

They have the number one offense in the NBA.

They are number one in net rating.

They have, they are top 10 in rebounding and assists.

They are just outside the top 10.

In defensive rating.

Uh, they played 7 games, ET, 5 of them have been on the road, and they're still 6 and 1.

Their defensive rebound well.

Their offense is modern, we can get into that.

Um, what do you think of the way Portland is playing and how sustainable do you think it is?

I think they're playing unbelievable.

I think they're playing at a high, high level.

I believe it's sustainable because we don't talk about the depth that they have.

Like I just brought up Donovan Klingon.

He's averaging 1210 shooting over 50% from the 3.

He's shooting like 60% from uh the field.

He's averaging like 2.5 blocks per game.

That's a, a, a very good starting big right there.

How, how he does his job and accepts his role is, is somewhat second to none.

I think he kind of, you know, incites spirit into the team.

Rob Williams just came off the bench the other day, 16 minutes, 9 points, 8 rebounds.

Like there's guys that are unbelievable and enroll.

Drew Holiday, either starting or stepping up.

He's still a, a, a, a, a problem guard to have.

I feel as though their top 8 or 9 are unbelievable.

I love how Dame has uh stepped up and told Denny to beat a horse.

Like, hey, bro, like, I know where I'm gonna step into.

Dame knows his game, he knows his gravity, and he knows like, yo, I'm the wild card that can go get you 20 or 25 on any given night, but we need that dominance from you, Danny, to ball out.

And I feel as though they're all working together.

They're all working collectively and And I think it's sustainable, man.

I think it's a very, very tough team, and we haven't even mentioned Toumani Kamara, who's an all defensive player, and he's shooting upper 30s as well.

They're, not only are they long, versatile, but they also have skill and they have shooters now.

And, and, and if you're a worst shooter or maybe you're, you're questionable as John Morant, that is, that's a pretty good team.

Yeah, uh, shout out to to Micah Nori, uh, who came into this situation under a big cloud.

Everybody was kind of looking at him going, Why did you sign that contract?

The, the NBA Coaches Association.

He was killing him for it , but he really has, you know, given that offense an identity and modernized it in a way .

Like they don't shoot a lot of mid-range jumpers anymore, ET like that was something they did last year.

They don't do that a lot this year.

They are threes.

They are shots at the rim.

They get to the free throw line, putbacks, things like that.

They have a much more modern.

NBA offense and they've got guys that are delivering, you know, Damian Lillard looks like Damian Lillard.

Uh, before the injury, John Morant looked great in a brief period of time.

Uh, I mentioned the assist number.

I think that's a big key for this team because you kind of wonder with all those guys in the backcourt, like, would they share the ball?

Would it be kind of your turn, my turn?

Would it be too selfish?

Would it work?

Well, it's worked.

It's worked great.

They're sharing the ball and moving it around, and they've got a very Efficient offense, uh, going in Portland right now.

I think a big key for them though, I mean, Klingon and Rob Williams, like it is a great luxury to have 2 7-footers who are active, who can rebound, who can block shots, like to be able to go 48 minutes.

With that, those type of guys is huge for this team because they still aren't, you know, Kamar is a great individual defender, but across the board and Holiday too.

But across the board, they don't have a ton of elite individual defenders.

And when Morant comes back, what he brings to the offense, he'll give you something back on defense.

You've got to have that backline of defense, healthy and playing these kind of minutes.

Now, I don't see any reason to believe why Klingen.

is not gonna keep doing this like that.

This is just a natural ascent for Donovan Clay.

His rebounding has been outstanding for this team.

Rob Williams is always hurt.

That's just kind of his MO.

He's always hurt.

He's always hurt, but if he can stay out on the floor and be a twenty-ish minute per game guy.

You know, are they gonna be 6 and 1 with the #1 offensive rating in the NBA?

No.

Uh, can they be, you know, a top, you know, 18 team?

Yeah, yeah, I think they can.

I, I, I, I think there's a lot of what I'm seeing in Portland right now that's sustainable.

And I also like too, man, like, I, I, I look at OKC obviously they're they're a peak you know, in Houston as well.

So it's all about how they match up a little bit, but I just, I just think that versatility is going crazy.

And just to have Damian Lillard as just a random wild card, like you can count on his 25 a night, like, you know what I mean?

Or at least 20 around there.

But I just love how Denny Ovivia hasn't taken a step back.

Like he hasn't taken a step back.

He, he continues to get downhill, figure out his spots, but he's also playing with a different type of tenacity .

When I went to game one, I, I paid most attention to him cause I'm like, man, I wonder how he's gonna ball out tonight.

And it was like, man, he went blue collar, like 18 and 10 .

He was getting, got 4 or 5 assists, but it was like he was crashing the boards, he was getting physical, and, and I feel as though that's been their mentality.

They've been playing tenacious.

But if a team does that well, what does that do for coaching now?

Like, Like , does that mess up the coach in the sense of like everybody's gonna try to get their coach for a million dollars?

Like, is that, I'm asking like, is, is, like, do, is that a recipe for disaster, quote unquote for the homies like.

I doubt it.

I still think there's , you know, when, when there's, when there's competitiveness like in the Blazers, like this is no disrespect to Micah Nori, but like they had a lot of coaches that passed because the contract was not good.

Uh, Micah Nori did not.

He, he wanted the opportunity.

He jumped on it .

Um, I think the problem is you, you, you know, coaches are always gonna be the good ones are gonna be sought after and there's gonna be competition out there for them.

Um, I, I do want to talk about the rebounding though for a second, like, and, and we brought this up with Denver.

Among the reasons Denver is struggling.

It is because their rebounding, particularly the defensive rebounding, has fallen off.

Portland last year was 25th in defensive rebounding.

This year, they're 3rd as we tape this, like huge jump there.

I mentioned the Nuggets getting killed in terms of attempts from 3-point range.

Portland has a 9-attempt advantage per game from 3 this season.

9.

It's a big number.

If you make half of them, you're , you're in business at 1214, or 15 points per game.

So, like, I, I give Mike a lot of credit for, for how he's built out this offense and the players obviously credit for executing it because they, You know, the, you know, they're gonna have to keep making shots, especially 3-point shots, but their efficiency numbers have been really good this season.

And, and just the last thing, but they, they, if you notice, they're playing really, really hard, bro, like.

Like, it seems like that's starting to be their calling card.

It's just like blue collar.

Like, you know what I'm saying?

Yeah, yeah, they're, I mean, they're playing hard.

They seem to like each other.

Uh, Again, I think Dame coming back and him, uh, You know, being back in that locker room is a huge benefit.

Having that voice, uh, is big.

I'm just looking, I'm, I'm pausing because I'm looking at the Blazers' 3-point numbers.

They're averaging 44 attempts per game, that's top 5, making about 15.5% per game.

They're 35.

5%, that's top half of the NBA in 3-point percentage.

Uh, percentage of all field goal attempts from 3, they're almost 50%.

That's number 2 in the NBA, uh, and they're taking, as I said, 46 3-pointers per game.

Dame's at almost 9 threes per game, not shooting a great percentage yet, but still 9 threes per game.

Uh, Kamara, you mentioned Kamar shooting, like you said it was high thirties.

He's 47.1%. Golly, 47.

1%, and we don't, we don't talk about him at all.

That's, that's elite three indeed.

Like if he would still be in OKC if he was shooting like I, I'm not saying like if he was Lou Dorks, he would still be in OKC, you understand what I'm saying?

That would be elite.

Now look at Donovan Klingon.

Look what Donovan Klingon is doing.

Yeah, big numbers as well.

Defensive rebate numbers are high.

Kamara, by the way, if he's shooting mid-40s from 3, he's an all-star.

That's, that's what he is like.

And this, again, I keep talking about the attempts with guys.

This is not an insignificant number of attempts.

Shooting 7.3 threes per game, uh, going into this game on Friday.

Uh, tremendous start to the season.

So if they're, if they're jacking up that many threes, almost 50%, only one other team, I don't know who it is, but one other team is ahead of them in three-point range, uh.

It's, it's remarkable, remarkable, and I watched them last year.

I felt like I, they got a lot of misses out the way last year too.

Like I feel like they've been developing.

Like just even using Kamara for example.

I'm still a big Scoot Henderson fan just in, in regards to just his body.

Like, you know what I mean?

That's a good body to have in your top 8 or 9.

But there's a lot of guys I feel as though, like I said, Donovan has, that's been developing, and I feel like they paid their dues, and they're gonna, it's gonna be sustainable, bro.

I feel like it's going to be really sustainable because the others are ready.

The others are stepping up.

Yeah, Scoot Henderson, I, I, you know, I don't know what he is at this point.

He's not, he just, I, I just think when he gets, whenever he shows up is good for you, like good enough for you, but when you have Drew Holiday or a Ja or a Dame on the court at the same time as him, or even some, some more developed players, like it, it's always a firepower, but it could either be 12 1 night or it could be 5, like, you know what I'm saying.

That's, you know, and not, not, we, we've said a lot of positive things about the Blazers here, uh, passing on both Thompson's for Scoot Henderson is That, that hurts.

That hurts.

Where would this team be with like Ahmed Thompson or Oser Thompson?

You wanna know what was, uh, what hurt the most.

Man, you, that draft day looked crazy.

Like, like the passing of the torch, quote unquote, and the draft, yeah, the rings and the hat cocked and like, like that was, they better be lucky Dame is, uh, they didn't take that, that was like, you know what I mean, a nice guy.

I mean they, they kinda, and look, I guess the jury is still out on scoot, but we're now what in his 4th year, um.

They got the one guy in the top 5 that might not pan out and might not be the guy out there because Bull Thompson's, we know what they are.

Brandon Miller, All-Star caliber wing and Wendy's Wemy .

That's tough.

That's tough there like that's, I say it all the time, man, but you gotta, you gotta hit on these picks, you know.

I know just as much as anybody else, man.

Like when it come down, I mean, you still have a chance to be like a Chris Dunnish.

Oh for sure, for somebody else, yeah, yeah, I mean right now Scoot's at, uh, under 9 points per game, 33% from the floor, 20% from 3.

That's that's bad.

That damn, geez , even in my baddest like times I've never shot 30%.

I don't even know how you get to play shooting 30%.

Like you think like sometimes I look and I'll be like, man, shooting 40% was an option.

Like shit, I would have.

I would have went 4 for 10 every night.

I know, I know .