Okay, that's a good take. I would think he's going to be spending a ton of time in the weight room this summer. Hopefully, he puts on enough muscle to address your concerns.
The real elephant in the room isn't about the PF or PG positions. With zero cap flexibility, Neil was still able to flip half the roster - the year after Paul died. Coincidence? I don't like to think about it, and many won't want to talk about it, but was Paul holding Neil back because he was in love with his players? It's an interesting question.
Is it that or the fact that the Warriors aren't the same and the league is wide open (as long as Kawhi doesn't go to the Lakers)? If Paul was still alive though he might have not wanted to trade Meyers after his performance in the final playoff game.
Another OT but fun thought for you: Kawhi - creator or destroyer of LAL. The best thing to happen for LAL is for him to sign with them. The worst thing to happen for LAL is for him to take forever deciding, and then choose someone else.
Absolutely. Could also be that he now has expirings. Could also be that getting to the WCF has moved us out of what Neil calls the "asset accumulation phase." Could also be all of the above.
If Kawhi goes back to Toronto and never had any intentions of signing with the Lakers he'd instantly become my favorite non Blazer player of all-time.
I was thinking the same thing this morning. Every day that goes by, more quality free agents that the Lakers could have signed are being taken off the board while Kawhi keeps the Lake Show in suspense. I hope he takes another week.
I've been thinking this, too. The longer he takes, the harder it's going to be for the two teams he doesn't pick to judiciously fill their respective rosters. That's the worst for the Lakers and the Clippers, but the absolute worst for LAL, which has four players on its roster at the moment.
I don't know how good Simons and Hezonja will be at running an offense, especially this coming season but it sure seems like a lot of people are putting a lot of faith into a 1 game sample size for Simons and a 3 game sample size for Hezonja. What has taken Portland out of the playoffs for 4 straight seasons is opposing defenses coming in completely focused on Dame and Portland having nobody else to consistently run the offense and get enough good shots for everybody else that it punishes that dame-centric defense and forces adjustments. CJ hasn't been able to do it; Turner wasn't able; Napier and Curry couldn't. But now Simons and Hezonja will?
I'm hesitant to crown either of them as a play-making solution outside of Dame either but those other players had specific reasons that kept them from doing so which Simons/Mario might not be encumbered with. CJ - I actually think he could be a playmaker....on his own team. But with Dame, he seems to be stuck/buried in ISO/hero mode most of the time. Turner - Tough to be much of a playmaker when you are just as likely to drop an ill-timed Turnerover and teams play off you so far because you can't shoot that it messes with other passing lanes. Napier - Not sure her really ever had it in him to be much of a playmaker. Always seemed like more of a shoot-first guy. Curry - Never been a PG before so not sure why he would be one here. He's a legit scorer and dead eye shooter but not a playmaker. It's like when Sarge tried to have Crawful be a PG for Portland...was never going to work. Simons to me is most like Napier (of those four) with WAY more athletic ability and more natural instincts to be a passes. The almost no-look, left-handed bounce pass from 25' to a cutting Meyers Leonard against the Kings is a pass not a lot of players in the NBA make ever. Hezonja is most like Turner with the size and handle but much more explosive to the basket, and a much better shooter, even though he isn't that good. Who knows if either of them work out but I like what I see from them and the potential for it working than anyone outside of CJ...who just seems to not want to do it.
Let me offer a slightly different spin on the situation. As I understand it, Jody never really paid any attention to the Blazers - but she has a son who is an NFL FO guy. This sort of aggressive roster reworking is very common in the NFL, not so much in the NBA. Maybe this is less about Paul than it is about Jody? And no - I am not suggesting some conspiracy theory where Jody's son is secretly running the Blazers!
All of his moves consisted of expired or expiring contracts and he had to take care of Dame and Hood's extensions as a priority. It's scary to take Turner on a 2-3 years deal ,yet it's tolerable to take him as a veteran mentor after you've seen you can't get anything good for Bazemore. Allen Crabbe's extension was known to be Paul Allen's decision, yet one year later he was sent to Brooklyn while Paul was still alive. Neil Olshey's comments on PA's aggressive approach at draft nights sounds accurate ,though.
I’d rather have another ball handler than layman at this point to be honest. I hope Simons goes ape shit but he did his work against SAC and he’s 20 years old.
