Jake Layman

Discussion in 'Portland Trail Blazers' started by Five Second Violation, Jun 30, 2018.

  1. Five Second Violation

    Five Second Violation Well-Known Member

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    As I understand it, today was the deadline to clear his salary before it becomes guaranteed for the 2018-19 season.

    There may be a few more hours so we may hear differently, but with no news yet I take it as a sign that our front office is now planning on keeping his $1.5 million on the books for next year.

    This a player who has shot 29% from the field to this point in his career and, to put it nicely, resembles a deer in headlights most of the time he is on the floor.

    Beyond his raw physical frame, can anyone explain the logic of keeping Layman on an NBA roster?
     
  2. santeesioux

    santeesioux Just keep on scrolling by

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    We may never know since Woj has bigger fish to fry and Quick and Freeman are on vacation.
     
  3. riverman

    riverman Writing Team

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    I don't see this at all...he plays well, just hasn't been able to shoot to his abilities...that's also considering he barely gets to break a sweat on the court...he plays decent defense...rebounds ok...not afraid of contact....CJ rode the bench his first two seasons...at his price they must think he's ready in his 3rd year to make the leap...his shot form is great. Meyers will need a buddy at the end of the bench anyway
     
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  4. BBert

    BBert Weasels Ripped My Flesh

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    In case his salary is needed for a trade is one potential reason.
     
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  5. Five Second Violation

    Five Second Violation Well-Known Member

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    I think he's been stupefyingly bad at most every facet of the game in the minutes that I've watched. Bad shot selection, low basketball IQ, panicked defense, no handles.

    I think he had one fluky good game his rookie season against the Warriors and one fluky good game this past season in that garbage time comeback against Houston. Otherwise he has looked out of his depth in nearly every minute that I've observed.

    CJ and Layman aren't remotely comparable.
     
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  6. BonesJones

    BonesJones https://www.youtube.com/c/blazersuprise

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    His salarybcould be needed to match incoming salary in a trade. We don't have any small contracts other than his and Swanigans.
     
  7. Five Second Violation

    Five Second Violation Well-Known Member

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    I'd rather see an open roster spot. I don't see his fairly minuscule salary being a meaningful filler in a trade and he almost certainly has zero trade value on his own.
     
  8. Five Second Violation

    Five Second Violation Well-Known Member

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    Well we also have Trent, Simons, Collins, Papagiannis, Baldwin, and then the TPE. All of which probably hold a little more trade value than Layman.
     
  9. BonesJones

    BonesJones https://www.youtube.com/c/blazersuprise

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    But Simons and Trent don't count as outgoing salary until 3p days after the sign. I'm talking about salary for matching purposes.
     
  10. Five Second Violation

    Five Second Violation Well-Known Member

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    Yes, in the short term their role as trade assets is limited (just draft rights at this point) but by August that would't be an issue. Of course by that point the Crabbe TPE will be kaput.
     
  11. BonesJones

    BonesJones https://www.youtube.com/c/blazersuprise

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    We don't want to have to include a rookie to match salary because we didn't guarantee Layman's contract...

    We could take the $1.5M hit down the line and waive him.
     
  12. Five Second Violation

    Five Second Violation Well-Known Member

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    Rookies get traded all the time. If it helped us get a good player, I'd be down.

    I just think it's a needless risk to keep salary on the books for a guy who we pretty much know isn't worth a roster spot and who you're apparently just hoping to trade anyways. We would have been better off just extending the QO to Pat, since it was virtually the same amount of money and there's at least a sliver of a chance that someone else might want him down the line.
     
  13. tester551

    tester551 Well-Known Member

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    Exactly. Completely agree. But Riverman tends to be a NO apologist.

    That makes no sense. The $1.5m cap hit turns into a $4.5m cap hit just for the *possibility* of including him in a trade (that is not going to happen).
     
  14. Scalma

    Scalma Well-Known Member

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    Didn’t want to start a new thread so I just bumped this one.

    Layman so far this season

    14.9 PER
    .575 % FG
    .438% 3PT
    126 ORTG (third on team behind Lillard and Collins)


    per/36 numbers:

    13.4 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 1.2 spg.

    I can go on, he’s graded out favorably in most categories. The point I’m making isn’t even necessarily that he should play more (although he should) but that when he’s on the court, he should be used more. He has a skill set we could take advantage of. He moves REALLY well off the ball. Remember when Nurk would often hook up with Harkless on backdoor cuts? Could easily run that with Layman as well, but I’ve literally never seen it attempted, not once.

    The starters seem to run the same two, three plays, and largely just ignore Layman. Even Aminus looks are mostly just set threes or broken play drives. It’s cool now during the regular season, but in the playoffs we need to be more diverse. We need to start leaning on our role players more, and Layman is one example. They’re not rookies anymore, put some trust in them.
     
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  15. BonesJones

    BonesJones https://www.youtube.com/c/blazersuprise

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    I talked about this in the Mailbag that I'm in the process of uploading, and in previous videos. I don't understand why we don't use a Layman/Collins frontcourt off the bench instead of resorting to Meyers and Swanigan. Especially against a smaller, quicker team like the Lakers.
     
  16. Scalma

    Scalma Well-Known Member

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    Or the starting lineup bang bang.
     
  17. JDC

    JDC Well-Known Member

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    Layman just doesn't have the length, strength or general defensive acumen to play 4. He's not strong on the boards either which is an important skill for a small ball 4 playing next to Collins.

    More Aminu/Collins is what I'd like to see in these situations.
     
  18. Scalma

    Scalma Well-Known Member

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    You seen some of the guys that play the 4 these days?
     
  19. JDC

    JDC Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, and they'd still destroy Jake.

    And it's not like the offense is getting a huge boost either. Layman is a very limited ball handler / scorer on the move / playmaker.
     
    Last edited: Nov 5, 2018
  20. Scalma

    Scalma Well-Known Member

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    Jake was playing the four with the second unit last night. His rebounding has improved. He’s put on muscle. I don’t think anyone is saying start him at the four, but I don’t see why he couldn’t play it with the second unit.
     
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