Rank our players

[Further]

I was listening to The Ringer NBA show and they were talking about who the third best players were, and one of them said “For Portland, I guess that’s Robert Covington.”

got me thinking, who is second, third fourth...

Dame (undisputed #1)
Nurk (2)
Covington? (3)
McCollum (4)
Trent (5)
Hood (6)
Collins (7)
DJJ (8)
Enes Kantor (9)
Harry Giles (10 very health dependent)
Little (11) in time could rise
Melo (12)
Ant (13)
CJE (14)
Dames cous (72)


Dang, that’s a pretty deep roster on paper, if they stay healthy

 

[tester551]

1) Dame
2) Nurk
3) Covington
4) McCollum
5) Kanter
6) Hood (if healthy)
7) Jones
8) Trent
9) Giles
10) Collins
11) Melo
*** These guys have a chance to jump up the ranks ***
12) Little
13) Ant
14) CJ#2

 

[Natebishop3]

If CJ is our fourth best player, please trade his ass.

 

[Tince]

If CJ is our fourth best player, please trade his ass.

How many picks and young assets would you be willing to give up for him in return? Teams aren't going to give us a talented player for him and his contract.

 

[Tince]

1. Dame


2. Nurk
3. CJ

4. Covington
5. Trent

 

[THE HCP]

You people crack me up ranking Melo so low..... you understand he is starting this season and will be our 3rd leading scorer. I know there are other aspects, but these asshats have him as the 11th or 12th best player, C'Mon FAMS!

 

[theprunetang]

1. Dame
2. CJ
3. Nurk
4. Covington
5. Melo
6. Hood (if he's actually normal after Achilles injury)
7. Kanter
8. GTJ
9. Collins
10. DJ Jr
11. Ant
12. Giles
13. Little
14. Doesn't matter one bit.

 

[THE HCP]

1. Dame
2. CJ
3. Nurk
4. Covington
5. Melo
6. Hood (if he's actually normal after Achilles injury)
7. Kanter
8. GTJ
9. Collins
10. DJ Jr
11. Ant
12. Giles
13. Little
14. Doesn't matter one bit.

This is more like it.

 

[Further]

You people crack me up ranking Melo so low..... you understand he is starting this season and will be our 3rd leading scorer. I know there are other aspects, but these asshats have him as the 11th or 12th best player, C'Mon FAMS!

You might be right, especially if I were ranking offense, but defense isn't his calling card. He's very important to the team unity, offensive threat and he can be counted on in clutch moments. But he is getting older and was never a defensive stalwart. If the team is healthy I doubt he finishes the season playing starter minutes even if he does keep the ceremonial starting spot. This isn't a slam on Melo, it's a statement of age and inevitable decline.

 

[Natebishop3]

How many picks and young assets would you be willing to give up for him in return? Teams aren't going to give us a talented player for him and his contract.

Are you trying to make me cry? Because it’s working

 

[damianlillard]

You people crack me up ranking Melo so low..... you understand he is starting this season and will be our 3rd leading scorer. I know there are other aspects, but these asshats have him as the 11th or 12th best player, C'Mon FAMS!

He’s not starting this year according to Neil. He said that melo understand that he need to come off the bench and be a featured scorer for the second unit. Essentially Neil said that DJJ will start alongside with the other starters

 

[damianlillard]

1. Hall of Fame Point Guard Damian Lillard

2. Borderline All-star Nurkic
3. Borderline all-star in a stars studded conference McCollum

4. super role player Covington
5. Future Starter Gary Trent
6. 6th man of the year candidate Melo
7. Best iso defender DJJ
8. Rebound machine Kanter
9. Can he bounce back Hood
10. Need to stay healthy Collins
11. Backup PG Anfernee Simons
12. An exciting developing Nassir Little
13. A diamond in the rough Giles

 

[illmatic99]

Dame

Nurk
CJ

Roco
Hood
Collins
Melo
Trent
Jones

Kanter
Ant
Giles

Little
Elleby

 

[Scalma]

Dame
Nurk
Covington
Trent
CJ
Hood
Jones
Collins
Melo
Giles
Kanter
Little
Simons
Ellebe

 

[blazerkor]

Dame
Nurk
CJ
RoCo
Gary
DJJ
Hood (if he is 3/4 the player he was before the Achilles)
Zach
Enes
Melo

Giles
Nas
Ant
Elleby

This is what I think of the guys in terms of overall/trade value not how productive for our team they can be. If that were the case I would have RoCo, Gary and DJJ in front of CJ. Those guys just don't stall the ball on offense and play really good defense. CJ is honestly a liability on both ends for us, obviously an incredibly talented scorer and ball handler which unfortunately is to our detriment when playing with the starting lineup and then he's an atrocious defender. Hood is an unknown I was just giving my best guess with him. I put Melo last among the rotation players because he's a lot like CJ but way way out of his prime and honestly if I had to give up one of those ten guys I'd give up Melo.

I do not think that CJ, even with his contract, has negative trade value. I think we could move him, Ant and possibly a pick for Oladipo, McConnel and one of their end of the bench guys to make the trade work. I know that is a big gamble because we would then have to re-sign Oladipo and possibly McConnel or try our hand at free agency which hasn't been too kind to us. The other trade I pretty much know we can do is CJ for Tobias Harris and that one might net a pick coming back to us. So there are teams out there, likely more than the two I just mentioned that would give us positive trade value for CJ.

 

[Big Dog]

Dame
Nurk
CJ
RoCo
Gary
DJJ
Hood (if he is 3/4 the player he was before the Achilles)
Zach
Enes
Melo

Giles
Nas
Ant
Elleby

This is what I think of the guys in terms of overall/trade value not how productive for our team they can be. If that were the case I would have RoCo, Gary and DJJ in front of CJ. Those guys just don't stall the ball on offense and play really good defense. CJ is honestly a liability on both ends for us, obviously an incredibly talented scorer and ball handler which unfortunately is to our detriment when playing with the starting lineup and then he's an atrocious defender. Hood is an unknown I was just giving my best guess with him. I put Melo last among the rotation players because he's a lot like CJ but way way out of his prime and honestly if I had to give up one of those ten guys I'd give up Melo.

I do not think that CJ, even with his contract, has negative trade value. I think we could move him, Ant and possibly a pick for Oladipo, McConnel and one of their end of the bench guys to make the trade work. I know that is a big gamble because we would then have to re-sign Oladipo and possibly McConnel or try our hand at free agency which hasn't been too kind to us. The other trade I pretty much know we can do is CJ for Tobias Harris and that one might net a pick coming back to us. So there are teams out there, likely more than the two I just mentioned that would give us positive trade value for CJ.

Damn dude, does every post you make have to be about "dogging" on CJ? CJ is not the reason this team struggled this past year and was a key player for the team to make it to the WCF the year before.

 

[blazerkor]

Damn dude, does every post you make have to be about "dogging" on CJ? CJ is not the reason this team struggled this past year and was a key player for the team to make it to the WCF the year before.

CJ is the biggest reason why we have had the worst three point defense and overall perimeter defense in the league year in and year out for a while now. CJ constantly passes up open threes (which he is one of the most effective players in the league when taking them) to wait for his defender so he can go one on one. He seems like a great guy off the court but on the court he is a ball hog and a huge defensive liability.

On a team that doesn't have one of the top 4 best ball dominant players in the league, CJ's offense would be gold but on this team the way he chooses to play on offense it is a net negative. His defense is going to be a problem on every team. Oh and by the way someone else in here said that CJ has negative trade value and in order to unload him we would have to attach picks. I have not and will not ever say that because CJ is such a potent threat to score that he definitely has value. Maybe I put too much on CJ, maybe if Stotts would pull him out of the game and tell him it's unacceptable every time he does his one on five MeJ bullshit, CJ would be fine for our offense but with Dame only being average on defense we just can't have a terrible defender next to him.

 

[Big Dog]

CJ is the biggest reason why we have had the worst three point defense and overall perimeter defense in the league year in and year out for a while now. CJ constantly passes up open threes (which he is one of the most effective players in the league when taking them) to wait for his defender so he can go one on one. He seems like a great guy off the court but on the court he is a ball hog and a huge defensive liability.

On a team that doesn't have one of the top 4 best ball dominant players in the league, CJ's offense would be gold but on this team the way he chooses to play on offense it is a net negative. His defense is going to be a problem on every team. Oh and by the way someone else in here said that CJ has negative trade value and in order to unload him we would have to attach picks. I have not and will not ever say that because CJ is such a potent threat to score that he definitely has value. Maybe I put too much on CJ, maybe if Stotts would pull him out of the game and tell him it's unacceptable every time he does his one on five MeJ bullshit, CJ would be fine for our offense but with Dame only being average on defense we just can't have a terrible defender next to him.

You apparently missed my point.

 

[Hoopguru]

Dame
Nurk
CJ
RCov
Hood
Trent

 

[illmatic99]

CJ is no worse than our third best player, and there's a clear gap between him and the 4th. I can't understand why anyone would put guys like Trent/Roco over him. It's not like advanced stats love either of those guys either. I mean, you do watch the game, right?

 

[JoshuaHall]

CJ is the biggest reason why we have had the worst three point defense and overall perimeter defense in the league year in and year out for a while now. CJ constantly passes up open threes (which he is one of the most effective players in the league when taking them) to wait for his defender so he can go one on one. He seems like a great guy off the court but on the court he is a ball hog and a huge defensive liability.

On a team that doesn't have one of the top 4 best ball dominant players in the league, CJ's offense would be gold but on this team the way he chooses to play on offense it is a net negative. His defense is going to be a problem on every team. Oh and by the way someone else in here said that CJ has negative trade value and in order to unload him we would have to attach picks. I have not and will not ever say that because CJ is such a potent threat to score that he definitely has value. Maybe I put too much on CJ, maybe if Stotts would pull him out of the game and tell him it's unacceptable every time he does his one on five MeJ bullshit, CJ would be fine for our offense but with Dame only being average on defense we just can't have a terrible defender next to him.

Stotts and his atrocious defensive strategies are the reason, not CJ.

 

[SharpesTriumph]

Dame
CJ
Nurk
RoCo
Trent
Kanter
Collins
DJJ
Melo
Hood
Little
Simons
Giles
CJ2

My rankings consider injury history. For example I'd rank Nurk 2nd if I had equal expectation of him staying healthy as CJ.

 

[blazerkor]

CJ is no worse than our third best player, and there's a clear gap between him and the 4th. I can't understand why anyone would put guys like Trent/Roco over him. It's not like advanced stats love either of those guys either. I mean, you do watch the game, right?

I agree with you completely when it just comes down to who the best player is. Now if we're talking about fit within our roster, considering how great Dame is and his strengths and weaknesses, I think that's where some of these fans are coming from. The problem is that the question from the OP is a bit ambiguous as to how we are supposed to rank our players and then he references a ringer article that is definitely taking into consideration fit with Dame.

CJ's ability to handle and score the ball is so fantastic that if we're just being honest and not allowing all of the ways he's hurt this team to cloud our judgment, there is no one outside of Dame, including Nurk, who is better than CJ. The shitty thing is that CJ and Dame are so redundant in their strengths and weaknesses that they actually hurt each other's games. So are Nurk, RoCo, Trent, DJJ (at the highest estimations of what he might be) better than CJ? No. Do they fit better next to Dame? Well that's open for debate.

 

[blazerkor]

Stotts and his atrocious defensive strategies are the reason, not CJ.

Stotts does not put enough into or maybe even know how to make our defense as good as it can be. That being said, if he did he would probably just bench CJ. What in a game plan is going to improve CJ's defense? Is Stotts going to make CJ fast, more explosive or laterally quicker? Is Stotts going to get CJ to start reading angles? Is Stotts going to get CJ to close out better without over committing and even then sometimes when he does get the close out just getting shot over because he's too short and has too small of a reach to play SG? Is Stotts going to make Dame a better defender so he can cover for all of CJ's shortcomings? Is Stotts going to be able to change CJ's attitude and get him to commit to giving effort on every defensive play? The answer to all of those questions is nothing and no, accept for maybe the last one. Stotts might be able to better motivate CJ on defense which might bring his level of defense up a little. That being said, ask yourself this... what defensive genius could cover up for CJ's vast defensive shortcomings and at the same time cover up for Dame's smaller but still real defensive weaknesses?

 

[42N8Bounce]

For a fun comparison, here's our players ranked by contract size -

Dame
CJ



Nurk
Covington
Hood
Jones


Collins
Kanter
Simons
Little
Trent Jr
Anthony
Giles
Elleby

 

[blazerkor]

For a fun comparison, here's our players ranked by contract size -

Dame
CJ



Nurk
Covington
Hood
Jones


Collins
Kanter
Simons
Little
Trent Jr
Anthony
Giles
Elleby

In terms of pure ability that's about right. I wish CJ was at the top of that second group but we can't turn back time and get Olshey to pay him the around 20 million he would be worth on a team that he fit on.

 

[wizenheimer]

last year's team ranking in various 'advanced' categories:











maybe, 2018-19 is more appropriate because Portland had a much deeper bench that season than last season:











I didn't do rebounding or assist rates because those vary so much positionally

I'd put Nurkic ahead of CJ as both a better player and a more valuable player. It's not close either, IMO. Covington, Trent, & Jones would follow with Hood being the biggest question mark

 

[Hoopguru]

Id love to have George Hill on this team. He's making 20/2 though.

 

[illmatic99]

He did this on a broken back


This was our biggest win in 20 yrs.


It's like people take him for granted.

 

[OSUBlazerfan]

I'm not a fan of CJ so it pains me to say hes #2, but he is

Tier#1
Dame

Tier#2
CJ
Nurk

Tier#3
Covington
Hood

Tier#4
Melo
Collins
Jones
Trent Jr

Tier#5
Kanter
Giles
Simons

Tier#6
Little
Elleby

So from last years team we added two Tier3 players and swapped Jones w/Whiteside. Good improvement i suppose.