Sorry, Should have said glaringly valid. Those thaT I highlighted stood out the most. No offense? Team has lots of offense. It needs to maintain good defense. Oh wait. You cant offend me mofo!! Dont add that shit to our convos.
No way I want to see 5 second unit guys on the floor at the same time, unless it's a blowout in the fourth quarter. Especially on this team that has so much youth. I think the key is to have multiple players that can play multiple positions. Substitute depending upon who is playing well and mismatches that you can take advantage of. Good teams only go 8-9 deep at most. If a couple of those reserves play multiple positions, the more flexibility the team has to take advantage of mismatches. I like how our roster is being built. We have a lot of flexibility. We've had one of the youngest teams in the league in the last few years. Now we just need to upgrade some of the talent. If not thru trade, then we need to see internal development. This is the year the guys will have the opportunity to grow and prove they deserve the minutes. Redoing my depth chart to indicate the guys that can play multiple positions - I think only 6 of these guys have 'guaranteed' minutes. That second unit is wide open.
Stauskas is not my concern. I think he can hit an open 3. He and Curry are both upgrades. The two rookies are not a worry either, because I have low expectations that they will play. Depth with our bigs is an issue. Relying on Leonard and Swanigan worry me. At least one of them needs to surprise me.
Collins should be included as well, at least offensively speaking. I don’t see any easy buckets from the second unit, especially if Collins can’t even score over a wing.
Tbh Baldwin playing in a 3 guard lineup with the starters makes me feel a lot more comfortable than when we did it with Bazz. At least Baldwin can guard 1-3 (some 3’s)
As long as he stays healthy, Curry is going to be one of the better sixth men in the league imo. Definitely the best one we’ve had since...Outlaw? Rudy?
You just watched him play in 2 meaningless preseason games and you already have him pegged as one of the best 6th men in the entire league? I don’t even think he will be the 6th man on our team. Maybe 8th or 9th.
Hes had a full seasons worth of production that would’ve qualified him for best sixth man (or bench player, whatever you want to call it) we’ve had since the guys I mentioned.
Call me Crazy I know Ed didnt shoot and rack up the stats a guy like Curry will, but he was a great bench player and I dont think we can say if Curry is better.
Apples:Oranges In the last 14 years, only one non-guard has won 6MOY (Lamar Odom in 2010-11). The award typically goes to a high scoring, instant offense kind of player, who typically averages between 15 - 20 ppg. Lou Williams averaged 22.6 ppg last year, the 2nd highest scoring average in the history of the award (Ricky Pierce averaged 23.0 ppg in 1988-89), but Lou also averaged nearly 33 MPG (32.8 MPG, 4th highest among 6MOY award winners). Curry's last year in DAL, he averaged a career high 12.8 ppg, but he also started 42 of the 70 games he played and averaged 29.0 MPG. In order to receive consideration for 6MOY, Curry would need to have a career year and average at least 14 ppg just to get a few 3rd place vote. To be a serious contender, he'd need to average at least 18 ppg (especially if Lou Williams is going to continue to be the No. 1 option for the Clippers in spite of "coming off the bench"). Can Curry get enough minutes and shots to be in the running? Probably not, at least not as a serious contender for the award. Our roster is just too guard heavy. Dame and C,J. will continue to be our No. 1 and No. 2 scoring options, and even if they play fewer minutes this year, I can't see Dame averaging less than 34 MPG (36.4 MPG career average, 36.6 last year) and C.J. averaging less than 33 MPG (36.1 MPG last year). Turner and Curry will probably be the two leaders in MPG off the bench at the guard/wing positions, but Stauskas looks like he will be a rotation guy, at least initially and then Trent Jr, Simons and Baldwin will see spot minutes here and there. So, not sure if I see Curry averaging the same 29 MPG he did in DAL. Crabbe came close (28.5 MPG his last season in POR). Curry is a better player than Crabbe, but we are deeper at guard now. Curry's last season in DAL the Mavs were ranked dead last in the NBA in scoring (97.9 ppg) and they had a LOT of churn at the guard positions due to mid-season trades, injuries, etc. All of Wesley Matthews, Deron Williams, Yogi Farrell, J.J. Barea and Curry saw significant minutes at guard. Last year, POR's offense dropped off from 107.9 ppg (8th of 30) to 105.6 ppg (16th of 30). If we can get our team scoring average back up into the 108 ppg range where it used to be (and an improved bench will help), and Curry can average 26 - 28 MPG, I could see him averaging > 14.0 ppg, enough to get a few 3rd place votes for 6MOY, but I just don't see him playing enough minutes and getting enough shots to push him into the 18 - 22 ppg rage where he would challenge Lou Williams and Eric Gordon to actually win the award. As far as Ed Davis goes, the 6MOY voters seem much more seduced by scoring than rebounding these days. Ed did come in 8th in 6MOY voting his first season in POR (6.5 ppg/7.4 rpg), but didn't get so much as a single 3rd place vote the past two seasons (5.3 ppg/7.4 rpg last season). The lowest scoring average of any 6MOY award winner was Bill Walton at 7.6 pg in 1985-86. The last time anyone won the award while averaging less than 10 ppg was Anthony Mason in 1994-95 at 9.9 ppg. BNM
well I literally pointed out that Ed didnt score. I know the PF/C vs guard thing. It wasnt really apples to oranges imo as it was just a comment on best 6th men. Id rather have Ed elite offensive rebounders who are great in your locker room is harder to find than guards are. Was never claiming that they were similar types of players. Sure Curry has a better shot at getting the 6th man of the year award because they value scoring more than anything with that award. My comment was never aimed at who had a better shot to get the 6th man award though, because thats not about the best player on the bench as much as it is about best scorer off the bench.
Yeah that’s what I think of when I hear sixth man; bench scorer. And curry is the best one we’ve had since outlaw/Rudy. I also think Curry will end up playing pretty heavy minutes, relatively speaking. He’s the only dependable scorer we have outside of Dame and CJ. CJ also runs more than anybody in the NBA, so scaling his minutes back wouldn’t be the worst idea, especially when you have a guy who’s capable of doing a lot of the same things.
For the record you and @Boob-No-More are right. Curry will definitely garner more attention as a 6th man of the year type than Davis ever did. I understand what you’re saying. My original comment was just about who is the better player overall. I think Ed was pretty tragically under-rated in terms of his on the court ability to just play his role well and off the court work ethic. Curry could be very good for the Blazers in fact I think he will be. I bet we will miss Ed though.
You should congratulate Boob for 3 strawmen in one post. Ed was tragically underrated in SHOOTING. People on this board think that shooting is the same as shooting range. He consistently completed nifty 5-footers with a couple of tall opponents between him and the basket. Nurkic and Plumlee missed most of the same shots.
Caleb and Meyers are not NBA players, they belong in the DLeague, and I'm not certain they could command a rotational spot there. Ed Davis was a stud, terrible letting him go. I understand we need more shooters... He is more valuable than Turner as our non shooter. We are going to sorely miss him over the regular season and the only benefit to letting him walk was luxury tax. All the fanboys who claim there was zero cost to Meyers and others shitty contracts since we are over the cap were wrong. Ed Davis is one of the costs. There are other costs too.
