I think with Dame, Ant and Grant on the floor, likely usage of each goes down all things being equal. But on any given night the hottests hands should get the touches. Those three are a pretty good offensive trio. I don't know where they stack up among other top trios.
I just did this past 7 game stretch that Dame missed from 11/20 to 12/3 on nba.com. Simons: 29.4 pts, 5.4 asts, 2.7 rebs, 2.4 to, 47.7% FG, 42.3% 3pt, 63% TS 116 ORTG. He had Steph Curry numbers but the team went 2-5. I don't necessarily agree that we need to break them apart. Everyone has to sacrifice stats to win and that's what Ant is doing in Dame's presence.
Which is why my response was - I don't think it matters much this year. If the team excels then the All-Star spots open up. Remember there still needs to be exposure which this team this year is not going to get without earning it. If the Blazers make the league and the fans take notice then that second spot becomes a reasonable expectation. Right now? Not so much.
and, there are the win/loss records with-Dame and without-Dame if you give 1 loss each to with-Dame & without-Dame of the games Dame was injured during...Portland has an 8-3 record with Dame; and a 5-8 record without him
Yeah it's pretty obvious why Simons averages more points and assists without Lillard. It's the wins and losses that count. The team is better with Lillard.
exactly my response when you said allstar talk was off track but you said something about recalibrating Ant's production? Back at you with "huh?" Weren't you comparing him to Edwards just a few posts ago? Just trying to understand what you posted and why you responded the way you did. Your title isn't as specific as your post seemed to want discussions to be. Ant is playing like an allstar this season...of course he'll score less with Grant and Dame on the court.
relax. i said slightly off track because all the posts were about all star this year. was trying to talk more about the big picture. sheesh, who pissed in your cornflakes this morning?
I'm not pissed off...not sure how that got in the discussion.....you asked me a "huh" question in response to my post....I answered it sans piss or cornflakes ...back at ya with 'relax"
My main concern is that they seem to play the same position and I don't think either one plays nearly as good in a different role.
Simons is a great shooter. Not sure that is really debatable and you have to have multiple shooters on a team to win. They might not all need to start, but you still need them. The Blazer right now have three really good ones thanks to the acquisition of Grant. His shooting has caught me by surprise. Can he sustain it? Potentially by next year, we will have 4 at 4 different positions. (I see Sharpe as an SF as he matures) I do not want to get rid of any of them. In a perfect world, all 4 of those shooters would also be good defenders, but good luck finding a player in a trade who can shoot as well as Dame and Ant AND play great defense. Who would give up a player like that in a trade? Occasionally it happens when a player demands to be traded but that does not happen very often and Portland is usually not their preferred destination. So I guess the question is how much of a downgrade in shooting would we be ok with in order to get an upgrade in size/defense? Or is it smarter to keep the shooters we have and mix them in with good defenders? We need a full season IMO to figure that out.
All I know is that five years from now a backcourt of Ant and Sharpe will be a pretty solid base for a rebuilt Blazers post-Dame. I don’t think you give that up easily.
Might be quicker than that? Gotta figure Dame will slow down in 2-3 years. Not disagreeing with 5. Just think 37 is definitely on the downhill side.
keep in mind that 1 year before that, Ant will have been an unrestricted free agent. No guarantee he'll still be a Blazer
Draw whatever conclusions you want based on whatever you want. I've never noted anyone siting BPM or VORP here before, but you do you... hell, I've consistently been killed every time I refer to PER. Most of their stats including those you sited are very close, which I noted in my previous post. STOMP
Yup, I hope to see Ant and Sharpe here for the next decade. Ant needs to become more of a PG, but he is a fairly decent one whenever Dame has been out. I can’t actually think of a top flight SG that came into the league with a PG this side of Klay. Booker had to wait how many season before getting a real PG, 5 or 6? I think Sharpe is really going to benefit from having Ant this early in his career who can build up that chemistry with him going into his prime. Both of these guys really seem like they have the potential to do it all on offense. Good chance this backcourt can become what Wall and Beal thought they were in WAS (no shade though).
