Plumlee would look so much better with a rim protector next to him. He gets a lot of criticism, and defensively it's mostly deserved, but a lot of the criticism isn't fair, because he's probably playing out of position. Offensively he's probably our must underrated player.
I've been wondering what it would be like if Plumlee played PF. They would need a center that plays good defense and provides spacing and I don't think there are any on the market. It would definitely be better for Mason though.
Visions of Joel Pryzbilla closing out the first half. Reminder of how an intimidator at the rim can mask a lot of team defensive warts. It also brings up to question why he doesn't play defense like that all the time? Still, a nice game from him.
Is plumlee an undersized center or power forward? Can he play next to Ezili for instance when his range is so limited? I have my doubts, but I loved how he played "large" tonight. Some great work against Blake and Jordan on both ends.
Problem with playing next to Ezeli will be that Ezeli is not going to play. I reckon Plumlee could work fine as a power forward but his lack of shooting range will inevitably hurt us.
Last season, he was our 2nd-best player. This season, he's at least 3rd. Lillard and McCollum can take crazy shots only because Plumlee chases down the offensive rebounds far from the basket. Plumlee is a power forward. Make it so. Get a center who isn't as mobile as him, but is bigger. (I've said that many times, and suggested Ezeli back when others said, who?) This always leads into others saying that a "modern" PF has to be a shooter, and me saying you've watched Aldridge for too long.
I don't think spacing would be a problem with Plumlee as a power forward, even if he's not much of a shooter. Leaving a playmaker like that wide open is not really a great strategy. Remember the clipper playoff series? Imagine all the loooobz to someone like Noel.
I mean, I guess in the end it's not really Plumlee's fault that Stotts plays him like a traditional rim protecting center on defense. You know, for all the freedom he gives guys on offense, it's kind of funny he doesn't play to his players defensive strengths.
How is Plumlee supposed to play defensively exactly? We literally have no other options. Should we leave the paint open? Davis is a PF as well. Leonard is the closest thing we have to a center, but he's a mess.
And Green. And Love. And Ibaka. And Millsap. And Griffin. And Bosh. Power forwards tend to be capable shooters in this NBA.
Good for them. Most of those guys don't bring Plumlees playmaking and ability to make decisions with the ball though.
Those are the best in the NBA. Sure I'd like to have them, but if you can't get a top-level one, Plumlee would make a good 2nd-level PF. What you're saying is like, don't play Harkless at SF because he isn't as good as LeBron. We don't have a gold-plated PF who can shoot, yet you're against Plumlee converting to PF (after adding some bigger slug at Center like Ezeli) because we already have an invisible golden PF? I don't get it.
You just proved the point. JaMychal Green, their starting PF, would have been less of an opponent than Gasol. Plumlee was overmatched.
Well if we are considering making the best of current resources then yes, we could try him at PF. Then again we couldn't because we don't have anyone to play center in that scenario. Ultimately I'd prefer someone better than him at C and then we could move him to PF and try that. Long term he will also be best as a back up in both positions because we'll probably look for a better power forward. If we can get Noel, a combo of Noel + Plumlee should be workable for the rest of season. Both have some skills for PF.
Plumlee was tremendous last night but this is not new against the Clippers. For the most part, they flat out ignore him on offense and have Jordon play a zone waiting for Dame/CJ to penetrate at all. That however does not take away at all from what he did on defense. He was so much more active....where has that been? Can you imagine the type of high/low offense the Blazers could run with Plumlee and Cousins? Teams couldn't leave to help because of Dame/Crabbe/Harkless on the outside. (assuming it would cost them CJ).
What do we do with him though? He's one of the only guys still on a cheap contract, and he will be a free agent this summer. I have a feeling Mase is about to get paid.
