Whats the barometer for enough? Boston was an average three point scoring team and got to the finals, for example. Memphis was the second seed in the west and ranked 17th. Dallas was 19th and made it to the conference finals. I think it just depends on how teams want to play. I dont get the sense that Billups wants to rely on the three as much as Stotts did. Like the three point attempts were considerably reduced this past season compared to the previous year.
I want it to be Little since he represents the future and I always love to see potential talent bloom into actual talent. But if we look at the actual production of last year: Little: 6'5, 220 lbs Age: 22-154d Per36: pts 13.6, reb 7.8, ast 1.8, 3pt% 33.1 Hart: 6'5, 215 lbs Age: 27-131d Per36: pts 22.4, reb 6.0, ast 4.8, 3pt% 37.3 Hart is the better player at this time in my opinion. I think Little should be one of the first off the bench to grab as much SF or SG minutes as possible. Winslow can swing between PF and SF. After watching Walker in the Summer League, I'd love to see him break into that primary 9-man rotation. It looks like his natural position is PF, but I think he has the mobility to match up against the quicker SGs and SFs.
What I want it to be/should be: Dame Hart Nas Grant Nurk What I fear it will be: Dame Ant Hart Grant Nurk
He's a PF in my eyes, but like I said, I suspect he'll get more minutes at the 5 than the 3. I could be way off, I'm just going off how Cronin/Billups decided to put the roster together.
I'd start Hart. Let Little prove he can stay healthy before giving him the starting nod. Not because I want to punish him, but I don't want to do that to Hart if Little is just going to get injured constantly. Little has a lot to prove. He can do it off the bench.
Dame / Ant Hart / GP² / Keon Nas / Walker Grant / Winslow Nurkic / Watford Right mix of offense/defense/playmaking and secondary playmaking (allowing Dame to play off the ball and deal with double teams better - big pain in past seasons) in first unit. Then with second unit you can start staggering certain players. I wanna see Dame/Hart play together a lot. Hart's defense is needed with Dame. Ant would be the most talented partner for him in the backcourt, but I think he'd thrive playing with the second unit and mixing it up with specific rotations. I'd try to avoid playing Nas, Grant and Nurk together too much when there's not at least two of Dame/Hart/Ant on the court, because all three need playmakers in order to fully function. Sliding in Winslow to play with these guys is a pretty neat option to have. GP is the guy you would like to have on the court whenever Dame and Ant play, due to them stretching the floor and opening up things inside. He's basically a PF in that sense. Check why he worked so well in GS and don't try to reinvent that wheel. I believe Walker is just such a perfect fit on this team. He's such an intelligent player that you can basically slide him into any unit and let him play with almost any combination of players. Amazing pick. Keon showed nice glimpses this preseason. I'd give him a chance. Eubanks only when it's sorely needed.
Whenever Winslow and GPII play together, it'll be Winslow playing PG and GPII PF a bit. Due to their limitations on offense, I doubt they'll spend a lot of time on the court together though. Closing out a tight game could be fun if you'd throw GPII, Hart, Nas, Winslow and Walker at a team.
So many options. the Key to getting the most out of them is Chauncey Billups. We have enough options at every position except center that Billups can sit down players who aren't performing, and experiment to get the best lineups. If he doesn't do that and gives special treatment to certain players (the one I'm worried about is Grant) , especially on a good-average team, there is no excuse.
Excellent question. I have a feeling however that with Dame, Ant and Grant being able to shoot from the outside and Winslow / Nurk working so well for offense at the post - and having 3 ball handlers on the court, it would be really hard to trap the Blazers as teams used to do to the Dame, Cj with Harkless, Aminu and Nurk group. That team basically also had 3 acceptable 3 point shooters and 2 sub-par ones (Nurk, Harkless), but it did not have 3 ball handlers, only 2. I would love to see a more balanced Blazers team where when the 2nd unit goes in there is a much smaller fall in offensive production.
Agreed--that, in my mind is the best argument for Winslow as starting 3. Of course, my hope is that if Sharpe and Walker show themselves to be capable scorers and worthy of rotation minutes, they along with GP2 and Hart/Nas would offer enough second unit scoring to push Winslow out of the rotation entirely.
With change … plenty of it for Portland … Dame / Simons / Hart / Grant / Nurkic — with Hart as the glue helping Dame. Little coming off injury/surgery and nicked up all along … if he earns the 3, then Portland’s win total just went up. IMHO, Grant will fit right in. Dame is the floor general and the locker room camp counselor. A good thing, hope is. Maybe the best of things.
I doubt it would happen this year, honestly. Also, I might be a bigger Winslow fan than most. I just remember how well he ran the offense in Miami when he had the chance before the injuries. He is basically ET that is paid like what ET should have been paid when he played for Portland. Not a star, but an excellent role player that can guard. Also, if he can unlock Nurkic, he is very valuable for Portland and we saw some glimpses of that last year. Also, he seems like a good BBIQ player and I like these kind of players.
One of my favorite (and most hated) things about the great Spurs teams over the years was their second units ability to dominate and how Pop would let them run with it.
