Hmm... I think play-making in transition is his floor. That's what we get no matter what. Then we might get lucky and get even more (Good defense ? Play making in half-court ?)
Is it crazy of me to want to bring Dame off the bench. Instant 6th man of the year material. #45WinsFAMS
I have a hard time seeing how Hezonja is going to get any significant minutes at SF you've got Dame & CJ; neither will get a minute at SF. So they get about 70 minutes a game leaving 26 backup guard minutes and 48 SF minutes. About 75 minutes. And you've got Hood, Bazemore, & Simons. Hood got 24-25 last season. So there's 50 minutes left. Bazemore will be getting half that. 25 minutes for Simons & Hezonja. After all the ridiculous chatter and hype about Simons, you'd think he'd get at least 20 minutes; Curry averaged 19 last year. besides that, starting Hezonja at SF leaves he and Collins as the starting forwards and that's worse 3 point shooting than Portland had with Aminu and Harkless. I thought the point of the off-season was to try and upgrade Portland's floor-spacing (which I'm skeptical they accomplished)
Sorry for the off topic. Wait. No I'm not. Lol. Are things cool, weather wise with you? Sounds like things got kinda nasty....
You guys are just worried because of suns game. We play jazz and win you guys will be fine. Respect our team.
Hood and Bazemore both can handle it enough. There’s really no point guard on the second unit. Between those two and Simons they’d be fine. Offense can run through Gasol as well.
Personally, when you run out a back court of Dame and CJ I think the best thing for the starting lineup is to have a wing capable of doing what Harkless has done the last couple seasons with being able to guard the other team's best perimeter offensive player. I saw Hood be more than adequate in that role in the playoffs and watching Bazemore over the years I'm pretty confident in him playing that role on defense but Hezonja just doesn't have the necessary quickness to do this as a starter in this particular lineup, even though I think he's underrated overall on defense.
I I I heard Neil mention in a very recent interview that Baze would be coming off the bench. I think Hood can be better offensively when at the 3 and we certainly need that. His D isn't bad either.
I doubt he starts but I agree he fits best with the first unit. Which is why he will finish a lot of games with them. My guess is at PF with 3 shooters and a center.
It’s my opinion that the players that will be in at the end of close games are going to be the players that can play defense and hit a three. The Blazers have both Dame and CJ and they will want the ball and the shot. That player clearing the floor has got to be a threat to hit a shot. Mario probably isn’t that guy. It’s exactly why Aminu and Harkless are gone.
Aminu and Harkless had no handles what so ever. When teams trap the Blazers in the 4th quarter (Like Doc does every time) then having a PF on the court who can dribble, pass, and attack the basket will come in handy. Keep in mind I said he would be in there with 3 other shooters. (Dame, CJ, and Hood) Harkless and Aminu often were in there with just Dame and CJ. Huge difference. As for defense...tell me what player currently on the team is better at covering a spread 4? (And Little at this point in time is not an option) The bar may be low, but none the less most of our PF's are not perimeter guys on D.
My look going small would be Dame CJ Baze and Hood with either whiteside or Nurk. Bigger would be Collins instead of Hood or Baze. Depending on who is playing well and matchups? This is really tough just yet. This team has not played yet. We also are not talking about a specific opponent. I did pregames for literally almost a decade and the beginning of the season is a crap shoot until you get at least an idea how the Blazers are playing and of course how the team coming in is doing. It’s fun just talking about it but for the first 10 games we are all just making guesses albeit some are very educated guesses.
