On Giles vs Kanter: it's 18 minutes per game at the backup center. It's not likely going to make too big of a difference considering Kanter does a good amount on the floor as well, even if Giles is a bit better. Giles will get his chances with the inevitable injuries/COVID cases. I'm more worried about how the 2nd unit is going to run offensively and defensively. CJ/Trent/Hood/Melo/Kanter are 5 guys who are all great......at getting their own shot. I'm very worried that collectively they're going to much less than the sum of their parts in terms of talent level because outside of Trent, those are mostly offense only players, and not playmakers. So even though the talent is there, we may get killed on the defensive end and on offense just take turns playing iso-ball which is not very efficient. Most excited about the starting lineup. Dame/CJ/DJJ/RoCo/Nurk has a chance to be a better version of the 18-19 team, and we can kill teams on both ends.
I don't see what other people are seeing. I think Collins is a significantly better option at the 4 than Giles assuming he's healthy.
I think the way we get jobbed by refs we'll need Collins and Giles ...Collins has a tendency to pick up fouls in bunches
I'm with everything you said except the idea that bad decision making doesn't point to having not played competitively in a year. It would stand to reason that as Hoodie plays more he should become more locked into the games both physically and mentally.
Ok let’s look at the games that count, their mpg are close enough to be able to compare their stats imo (14 v 17) PER: Giles VORP: Giles BPM: Giles DBPM: Giles TS %: Giles REB %: Giles AST %: Giles STL %: Giles BLK %: Collins TOV%: Giles WS/48: Giles Zach is also older and more experienced, so not sure the “ceiling” argument could be made either, especially when you consider how highly rated Giles was coming out of high school. Collins to me is a rim protecting center. He can play the four, but probably shouldn’t as it isn’t the best utilization of his skillset. Giles seems the better fit at the four, even though he may not be as good of a shooter. His playmaking ability offsets that.
Kanter was unplayable in some games for Boston, but Stotts is no Brad Stevens. He has one plan and one plan only.
Only technically his 3rd year because (like Oden) injuries kept him from playing at all the year he was drafted. It is his 4th year in the league.
Considering the context of the conversation, I’d say the year of development he missed is pretty significant. He can, and should, still be considered a young player. Guy doesn’t even have two seasons worth of games under his belt and is the same age as Obi Toppin.
Zach basically missed all of last season. Not much different than Giles missing his first. They're both young players. They both have injury histories. They both have a lot to prove before either can be considered a reliably productive rotation player. Giles has first ups this year, and personally I expect him to do something worthwhile with his opportunity. Collins is getting Wally Pipped.
well yeah, I don’t think anyone was saying Collins wasn’t a young player as well. I still think Collins and Giles should play minutes together though. They compliment each others games, at least on paper. There’s no reason, short of Giles pricing himself out of Portland’s price range, they couldn’t both be part of the plans beyond this season.
Im vary moderate in my excitement about the team finishing near the top of the West. We've always been live and die by the 3, Im hoping that changes but with Dame and CJ leading the team Im not sure it will change that much?
Top 2 offense, bottom 2 defense. We never really "died" by the 3. We died by bad defense. That has been addressed. Hence, the excitement.
I feel like with our two weakest perimeter defenders playing the most minutes on the team, we'll still struggle to defend the three ball, which will impact other parts of our defense too. At the same time without those two we might not be one of the best offenses in the league. It's a tough situation but I hope you're right and our new personnel covers for our same old weaknesses.
in the regular season sure, but the playoffs are different, and time and time again our offense gets stalled in the playoffs
