But when he came into a game, he totally changed the tenor: he was an absolute terror on defense, probably the best on-the-ball perimeter defender outside of Gary Payton. That's selling him way short. Apart from anything else, when he came in, Stoudamire went out. Win/win!
Ford is a terrible talent evaluator, but his sources are usually pretty accurate, so his mocks tend to be pretty close.
There is a difference between blowing it and only being effective in games in which you play a fair amount of minutes. Bayless did have problems when he only played a few minutes of a game because of the amount of time it took him to get up to game speed. The facts were, Nate was only going to play the guy behind Blake for spot minutes in the playoffs, and you can't have a guy taking 5 minutes to come up to speed in a playoff game. That is why Sergio got the minutes in the playoffs. Blew it? Hardly.
The only thing that made go wtf was Hill falling to 10, but you are right, plus Lawson is tough to gauge.
Perhaps a "project" big man like Lawal? We got almost nothing out of Frye last season, so I can see the Blazers deciding to spend that roster spot on a guy who *might* turn into something pretty good with a little patience. Of course, you could also go the other way. If the team doesn't envision someone like Lawson as a future starter, why not grab a guy who is better suited to being a career back-up? Just to pull a name out of the air, how about Collison? Unselfish, passes better than Bayless, plays better "D" than Sergio or Blake, can hit an open shot. No star potential at all.....but has the maturity/mental approach to make a nice career for himself anyway.
I'd probably take Collison over Lawson. His ceiling is probably a shade lower, but he's played in a very slow system under Howland for 4 years so I have little doubt that he'd be able to transition to Nate's half-court oriented grind-it-out style of offense. If we're drafting for emergency depth or a career backup you could sure do a lot worse than Collison.
Perhaps during his 1st season with the Blazers (I loved the way he man-handled John Stockton in the playoffs that year), but the seasons after that, he had definitely lost a step or two. Part of that was injuries, but some of it was just age. Like I said, I loved what he brough off the bench. But pretty much anyone would have looked good compared to Damon - especially on defense. Ironically, Damon's defense improved with age. He no doubt picked up some veteran tricks from Anthony in practice. BNM
Someone blew it alright, when they were watching Anthony it appears. [video=youtube;4pXfHLUlZf4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pXfHLUlZf4[/video]
