Yep and having him play extended minutes should speed up the process of fixing that woe. Most rookies just don't get enough playing time to learn from their mistakes. Even the last couple games, his defense is getting better. Maybe in a uear or two; he can become a decent one, as long as the coaching staff puts focus on it.
And to be honest, I'm not worried much about his defense; his DRtg doesn't correlate to wins or losses. His ORtg, though, really does. So if that means we seek out a defensive backup PG, we could get the best out of the position holistically.
and he'll likely never be a "good" defender, but he should become decent which IMO is significantly better then where is is now.
Yep. If I'm Stotts, I just tell Dame to focus on running the team well (if he gets 8 assists or more, we win, though the 8 assists is more a symptom of streaky teammates being hot) and getting himself going offensively (Dame has never scored less than 20 when he gets 8+ assists); then I'd make sure Matthews guards the more offensively potent of the two guards.
Hahaha..how did I miss this thread before today? This is why I try not to make predictions on players, because I'd totally and absolutely miss the boat on everything I'd predict.
I think it's safe to say, at least in respect to this season, he was drafted below where he should've been.
What was so outlandish about me saying that Lillard wasn't going to be as good as Terry Porter? IMO TP was the greatest pg in Blazer history.
because in his rookie year, he's putting up #'s and stats close to that which TP did in his prime (outside of assists). Yeah, TP was good, but I don't think it's unrealistic to say that Lillard could end up being a lot better than TP.
This is a rebump of an already bumped, bump. Not many remember Blaze01's late night drunken tirade on here after that draft. He's pretty embarrassed and hasn't shown face since. He wanted us to draft Marquis freakin Teague over Lillard.
I posted that on June 18th. Again, what was so outlandish of my thinking that Lillard wasn't going to be as good as the greatest pg in Blazer history before he ever played a NBA game?
Let's talk about unflappable: http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/l/lillada01/splits/2013/ Look at Damian's Home and Away splits. A lot of players, especially young players, do much better at home than on the road. (see Terry Porter's FG% in these splits as an example: http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/p/portete01/splits/1987/) Damian, however, shoots exactly as well on the road as at home, and his stats are basically the same. He's in the same mental headspace game to game, no matter where that game is. Another interesting stat: he's better on the second game of a back to back than with 1 day rest. The small sample size and Friday's game probably skews this a bit, but it's good to point out. And his month to months: excluding his one game in November, Damian's been improving steadily month to month. In fact, so far in January, his FG% has improved a lot too. He takes the game very seriously, and you can see it in his steady improvement *despite* being scouted so heavily *and* nearing the "rookie wall".
