He's getting No love in this forum. I see people wanting him out? why? is it because he's a defensive liability? Lillard is a much bigger liability on defense and you hold on to him like it's your lives. Ant is a superior offensive talent, gonna be unleashed with Lillard gone, and his combination with Scoot is gonna be absolutely lethal. Stop the hate!
He had Dame Lillard as a sidekick and still didn’t impact winning. Cj did. Granted it wasn’t anything great but they won. Ant for whatever reason isn’t a winning player.
I just can't really find a way to understand why he answered that question a while back. I'll just leave it at that.
Dame is disrespecting Ant if anybody as he doesn't consider him a "win now" NBA vet if you consider his trade demand. He's actually insulted every vet on the team and the coaching staff by demanding a trade. Ant is not an alpha leader. He's also as good as he's going to get with the years and minutes he's played. Fact is we should have sold high on Ant and Nas two seasons ago when their trade value was peaking and Dame had his surgery. Some people like him but I think he's overrated. If anything he's a Jamal Crawford 6 man type who comes off the bench to score in bunches. In my view Ant lacks serious lower core strength. The difference between a Scoot pass and an Ant pass is about double speed. We haven't had a stellar passing pt guard since Andre Miller in my view. Scoot is a stellar passing pt guard. Ant is not.
I think it is partly because combo guards are often tweeners and although they are valuable to have on your bench they are not ideal as starters. Ant is best as a shooting guard but his 181 lb frame is not ideal to guard bigger SGs. His length is fine with a 6'9" wing span. Fans also have a tough time separating a player's salary from his production. And because fans think there are plenty of 2-way players out there that would be better....when there really aren't. For me, it comes down to who he is surrounded by. For example, let's say we had a point forward who was a great defender (i.e. Ben Simmons), and let's say Shae improved his defense and played SG...... and we had a SF who was also a great defender and could slash to the basket, and we had a center who was a great rim protector........Ant would be a great guard to have on the court with those guys. Not so much next to Dame, Hart, and Grant. With Scoot as our PG, I think Ant is best as a 6th man.....forget about his salary. If Dame is gone, Ant becomes the best outside shooter on the team....is that even debatable? That is not good enough for some fans but it is still a nice skill set to have at the end of games when we have to score.
define "disrespect" evaluating him as an undersized SG is not disrespect. Someone saying they'd rather have Josh Hart than Ant is not disrespect. Saying Ant is a terrible defender is just factual and not disrespect. Saying he's more suited to a 6th man role than a starter is not disrespect, it's 'accurately' evaluating his strengths and flaws saying that you're tired of Portland trotting out short starting lineups that play poor defense and identifying Ant, at SG, as a reason why it happens is not disrespect. Wishing for a 2-way wing at SG instead of a 1-way 6'3 guy is not disrespect. Saying Ant has low value in a evolving NBA is not disrespect. Seeing the Blazers with Scoot at PG and Sharpe at SG and not seeing a role for Ant other than a backup is not disrespect Ant can be one of those micro-wave players. A guy who can get incredibly hot and shoot you into a win...every once in a while. But he always gives back a lot to the other team on their end of the floor. Ant is more efficient than CJ, and certainly more watchable than MeJ, but he's got some MeJ traits he's been developing. Hopefully, that is curbed because I don't think Portland will find a trade for him, even though I wish they could
Depending on what the return for Dame includes I'd either like to see Ant in a three guard rotation with Scoot and Shae starting or I'd like to see him moved to a team in need of an offense first lead guard, with a coach who thinks they can get a lot more out of him at the 1 than we have at the 2 given all of Ant's athletic gifts. I like Ant and besides times where we've been tanking I don't think he's ever been given a chance to really succeed because he needs to be decidedly the smallest guy in any 5 man lineup and he's only been that when a our team has had very little else to complement him.
Yes, it is the complete lack of defense. Stellar scoring potential but ZERO defense. Calls into question BBIQ and/or effort.
I'm worried that Billups will give him more minutes and importance than he should be getting. I'm tired of coaches who overlook the big picture of how a player affects how the team plays.
The cumulative advanced stats aren't particularly kind to Ant (PER, WS, BPM, VORP). He scores a lot, but his efficiency (TS%) is basically average. I don't think he's necessarily done enough to earn the classification of "superior offensive talent".
I’m just going to insert this here: My ant handle is because I was studying ant ecology (dispersing seeds in Australia) in grad school. Not because I’m an ant fan. I will not be upset if we trade Ant!
While I'm not sure he's getting a lot of hate, this is that natural progression of how players are viewed on this board: High hopes after being drafted Increased expectations after minimal production Considerably more expectations after they sign their 2nd deal, not based on their actual play Start crapping on him in favor of the newest draft pick with high hopes
