Very young but a very bright future with better balance and potential than in recent years. I’m not going to include Holiday since it’s pretty well assumed by most that Jrue will be traded. PG: Scoot, Simons SG: Sharpe, Simons, Rupert SF: Thybulle, Sharpe, Kris Murray, Camara PF: Grant, Murray, Walker, Camara C: Ayton, Brown Blazers have Jrue and nice picks to trade for upgrades, or they could trade Jrue for more picks/young players to amass trade chips. personally, I would love to see Jrue used to acquire a quality backup Center or used to upgrade SF. What do y’all think?
Half the shlubbs in this forum thought you’d be good as gone from this forum years ago. Yet you persist. Never trade Jabari Walker!
Scoot, Sharpe, Simons, Thybulle, Grant, Ayton. Everyone else are basically scrubs, and I say that as a big Walker supporter. One more non-scrub would be huge for us, but Idk if that's happening this offseason.
We’ll call @KingSpeed for an Uber to take them to the airport. @THE HCP can continue mowing the lawn for the new guys.
Hard Agree with OP.. I like the depth too.. Though I do understand we're about to face immense difficulty out west. I know everyone is assuming Jrue's gone, n sounds like when theres smoke theres fire situation.. but while he's here I'll do a depth chart myself, I dont see how this is really "holding Scoota or Sharpe back situation" theres plenty of minutes to go around, n 1 injury happens n there's massive minutes for everyone, lotta positional flexibility int he depth chart too. A month from now things will be much more clear PG - Jrue, Scoota, Simons SG - Simons, Sharpe, Thybulle, Rupert SF - Thybulle, Sharpe, Murray, Camara PF - Grant, Murray, Knox, Camara/Walker, Butler C - Ayton, Brown, Badji Just wanna say that even though Ive followed players like Scoot since before they were household names my favorite player on the blazers roster is MOSES BROWN n I'm a native new yorker n been keeping tabs on him for years n would love to see him have a productive season off the bench, one of the many reasons why im now a blazers fan.
Forgot Blazers summer league legend Duop Reath in your center depth chart. He's gonna give your boy Moses stiff competition for those backup 5 minutes.
hey Duop Reath is an LSU basketball legend to me! I was a duop reath fan back at lsu! but thanks for the reminder cuz im a huge duop reath fan (its the offseason n like day 1 of being a blazers fan for me, so im rusty, once the season starts i wont forget names like duop reath!
Honestly, one of the results I'm hoping for with a Jrue trade is having few enough guards who need minutes that our guys slide down rather than up. I want Sharpe playing almost all his minutes at 2 rather than 3.
Yeah, unlike you I'm not a big college hoops guy, so I'd never heard of the dude prior to 3 months ago. But I liked what I saw out of him in July, and look forward to having a wide-bodied center coming off our bench. I think he and Moses contrast enough that they should complement each other nicely.
Henderson / Simons Sharpe / Thybulle / Rupert Grant / Knox / Butler Holiday piece / Murray / Walker / Camara Ayton / Conditt / Badji
yeah and really im unsure of the Reath contract details, but Centers like him and Moses are the types where its basically standard procedure u get paid the minimum n short contract lengths n have to keep proving yourself.. But Moses is a certified NBA quality C, the G-League and lots of other leagues are truly beneath his skill level so I'm just itching to see him get a chance n real minutes --- he did grab 23 boards n set the thunder single-game franchise record a few seasons back IIRC But really the Blazers have 2 excellent low cost C's ont he roster behind Ayton whos really well deserving of that contract as well.. so I truly do believe the Blazers are getting nice value from the C spot, n have the foundation to keep that going for years.. I followed Ibou Dianko Badji pre-draft, havent seen much of him since hes gotten to portland but I'd assume he's quite a bit behind Moses, but I'm interested to see his progress too, especially adding strength. but Reath is good and I'd probably favor him to beat out Moses for minutes tbh.. Reath is patient and he can pass the ball and he's got solid vision n that would seem to be quite valuable to the Blazers very young 2nd unit... N Reath was always one of those guys where "if he was 7-foot" he'd have cruised to the NBA no problems, but they didnt realize how you could get away with shorter, and sub-7-footwingspan C's like Sabonis and Julius Randle, n now that the cats out of the bag i'm not surprised to see Reath in the NBA ---- But I'm quite interested to see his progress cuz its been a few years n i bet he's gotten better.. And they have George Conditt! yeah The Blazers have nice depth n good contracts n young players at C far as Im concerned.
Well the thing is that with Jrue and Scoota in the backcourt their basically interchangable.. Cuz Scoota is so damn powerful and explosive and Jrue is just a menacing defender at every level --- he might be the best at slowing down De'Aaron Fox btw which is... a task of completely absurd difficulty.. and then there's Thybulle... n insane athelete Sharpe, so the Blazers will have, hopefully some solid perimeter d.. So idk... seems very Chauncey Billups to me.. that whole type of thing... IDK.. why I'm kind of hoping we see Jrue suit up before he's traded, just to see the defense ---- cuz I cant possibly imagine if they trade Jrue that they can return any assets that will help maintain the perimeter defense.. and i mean Ayton is here now... he is actually a very powerful force on the boards, he should be career high boards in portland i wanna see no less than 12 from him or a ton of oboards.... If they can really hold the lines on that perimeter... cuz ayton isnt just good at getting rebounds he can just tip balls out n do all that stuff, n if they can get him like features n engaged n consistent he's a whole nother animal.. n the roster as a whole is so young theres a lot to be gained from a competitive season rather than a tankfest, n this team might be able put up a decent fight in a very scary western conference.. n whats the worst case scenario? another lotto pick n then they can probably tweak it next offseason n really take-off.. idk, ima believer in this core.. N lets not forget Jrue has a championship ring, n was an integral starter to that squad he wasnt some 3rd stringer... Having him around these youngins is a very good idea.. Jrue has a bunch of brothers who are NBA players too..
The question with Holiday is, "What do we want to accomplish this season?" If the goal is to facilitate and accelerate the development of Scoot and Sharpe as our long-term backcourt, then it would seem that having Holiday along with Simons in our starting lineup would be an impediment to that goal. I would also posit that it only makes sense to keep Holiday if one intends for this team to compete this season. I'll admit that a Holiday/Simons/Thybulle/Grant/Ayton lineup seems promising, but I don't think the rest of our roster has enough experience to provide the depth necessary to be a playoff team. I certainly don't want a "tankfest" as you put it; I'd definitely like them to compete and even surprise people. I just don't think there's enough benefit to doing that with Holiday on the roster to offset the risk of asset degradation that playing him poses.
What about the 3-guard lineups though? Cuz u know like how theres these anti-smallball 5's who destroy smallball lineups... In certain ways Jrue Holiday is like that vs 3-guard lineups.. If other teams play 3-guards, n they do it often these days.. The lineup that no one probably brings up much -- Scoota, Anfernee and then Jrue at SF.... They can close games out in the 4th quarter like that... the way the Kings bring on Malik Monk for winning time.. To me thats a nasty 3-guard lineup... and like i said... look at the matchups vs the Sacramento Kings... As much as Dame could trade blows with any PG in the league.. Jrue can bother Fox, which is almost a task unfit for mere mortals.. n then Scoota or Anfernee -- Huerter cant stay infront of those dudes.. As crazy of an athelete as Malik Monk is... Scoota Henderson is like Malik Monk on steroids... IDK... Its more of an east coast style of ball I'm seeing here.. like the old Villanova teams with Kyle Lowry-Allen Ray-Randy Foye.. IDK... The Blazers have a major uphill climb infront of them.. some unorthodox strategies might actually be the most viable.. Its not like u can just go big.. Scoota will leave you in the dust n then dunk on your teams center.. n simons n jrue discard defenders with ease as well..
I still would not be upset if that "piece" was Simmons. His size and defense slide perfectly into that slot. The only issue I see is until Scoot proves he can hit the 3 on a consistent basis we might have to start Ant and let Ben run the point. But Scoot will still get 30 minutes off the bench before he eventually starts
Once the hangover of the Dame and Holiday trades are over the next big controversy is going to be who starts at guard among Ant, Sharpe and Scoot. Because I strongly suspect Matisse starts at 3--we desperately need his defense, and we probably don't want to play Sharpe out of position a lot at SF. Ant is the obvious guy to bring off the bench as he's more of a combo guard, whereas Scoot is a natural point and Sharpe is a natural 2. But I really don't think Ant will like getting benched for a rookie. He's been a starter too long to just roll over on this. Ant is the one who has put up 3500 points already in his career. The easy way out is to play all 3, but the lack of size and defense isn't good for the team.
I would start Scoot and bring Ant off the bench. It is inevitable that Scoot is the PG of the future, and we need Ant's shooting off the bench. The one exception is if we did get a point forward like Ben who can't shoot from the outside, then I think you start two shooting guards next to him and Grant and Ayton. But the odds of that scenario happening are small.
