Caleb Swanigan

Before going on about pre-season, sample size, etc, consider this: Noah Vonleh has played 162 regular season games for the Blazers. How many of those games has he looked as good as Swanigan did against Phoenix in his first game ever? I'll grant that the number is not zero, but it's certainly less than 10.

Last year Vonleh, with 41 starts and playing 72 games, never once scored more than 12 points in a game. Caleb beat that number after playing around 12 minutes, going on to get 18.

Noah had 9 games last year where he pulled down more than 9 rebounds. Caleb grabs 6 his first night. Noah pulled down 6 or more rebounds in just 24 games, or 1/3 of the games he played last year. Rebounding and hustle is supposed to be his calling card. .

Swanigan (age 19) is way, way ahead of a 3rd year vet (age 22) who was our starting PF for most of last year. It's just plain as day.

The big question in my mind is if you want a really young Zach Randolph-type at PF (Swanigan) or more of an Andre Kirelenko-type (Collins). Who fits this team better in the long-term? How do those piece line up with our Big 3? Aside from (hopefully) the emergence of Nurkic, I think this could be the big defining story of this season.

 

I thought he had 7 rebounds..and shut up HCP

 

This is Vonleh's 4th year.

 

Honestly the computer is ON POINT recently

 

I'm going to hold judgement on any bigs Portland has until I see them play against other quality NBA bigs.
The Suns do not have any sort of quality in their bigs. Chandler is their best big and he can only play 10 minutes a night.
Remember, last preseason everyone on this board after the Phoenix game thought Vonleh was going to make a jump.
Calm your tits.

http://www.nba.com/blazers/forwardcenter/vonlehs-sweat-equity-pays-versus-suns/

 

Yes, and he played one season elsewhere and 2 seasons here. I was only counting completed seasons here (because it's what I've seen).

Learn the math then post.

 

Great counterpoint. I completely forgot that game under the deluge of Vonleh sub-mediocrity.

 

Fun Facts:
We traded a 2nd round pick and ate Anderson Varejao's contract (waiving and stretching) for a 2018 first rounder.
Then traded the 2018 1st for a 2017 1st.
We used that pick to draft Swanigan.

It's actually a lot to give up for a late 1st rounder (AV's contract is still on our books), but Neil turned it into gold.

 

Noah had 14/14 in a preseason game vs PHX in just 20 mins last year.

http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/id/400899186

 

Len is their best center. He will be starting soon enough.

 

Does Chandler fit in the TPE?

 

Or, you know.....Oden.

 

Nah, it was about @HCP. That's low hanging fruit.

 

Swanigan is 20, not 19.

I do like him, but you are cherry picking a bit here. Swanigan has shown no signs of being as mobile as Vonleh on defense. If he can come close to Vonleh there, then I agree Biggie is better. I'm not sure we will truly see that.

I do also agree with others that down the road I could see Collins as starting PF and Swanigan coming off the bench.

 

when you get burned by bgd

 

Great post! Oh that's right you have me on IGNORE. you can't see the compliment I just posted.

 

Thank goodness. Calabro called him "Methuselah" the other day.

 

Shit, I'm getting so old. I remember watching Chandler play in the Les Schwab Invitational late 90s!

 

Great, now he's bragging about his age