Exactly. The excuse is always "Wait until ____ ". It's very rare for a player to change their game. Yes, many improve some weak areas of their game. However it's extremely rare for a player with HUGE holes in their games to overcome those. Ant is out of the big development stage of his career. He can improve, but they will be incremental. He's a fantastic shooter - but he can't play defense, run an offense (be the PG), or effectively attack the basket. These are the same issues that have been pointed to for the last few years.
but the context is that question could be 'why should Scoot guard SG's', and the answer is because the other starting guard can't. another ancillary question(s) is can Brogdon guard SG's? can Thybulle guard SG's? can Sharpe guard SG's? actually thinking about moving Scoot out of position defensively shows the issue with Ant as a starter
after an ugly Blazer loss last season, with several Blazers clearly getting outhustled, Coach Billups said, "yaaa .. I don't hold players accountable, you know... I'm not that type of coach." Billups job is to be nice to everyone and keep his job. The Blazers are rolling in draft picks. With the possibility of a few more lottery picks on the horizon. Being a nice coach on a decent team that might alter their trade deadline destiny to become bad, is important in this "tank on purpose" rebuilding phase. If players check out, lace up cement shoes, and Billups loses his team for the 3rd straight season, it's more losses and a better draft pick.
I just feel it might be a bit early to be piling on Simons just yet? Two years ago he was very young and without Dame. Last year he was with Dame. This year he is the veteran and in many ways will need to pass along a bunch of knowledge to Scoot. Some here have Scoot already better than Simons. Simons has plenty to teach Scoot at this point.
I was really hoping that that was Chauncey's job...champion pt guard, MVP in the playoffs. He's got a pt guard coach.
I will admit in retrospect the first line of my post on page one was not right but I will own my screw up but I do stand by the rest of what i said. I am not even sure why I brought up Dame anointing Ant as he left town cause the dislike for Ant has been around much longer then even that from some fans.
Hahaha can't wait until we replace Simons with Sharpe and he becomes the decently-efficient 20+ PPG scorer we hope he can be. Because then we'll have the 3rd iteration of all these threads!!!
The Blazers need to run the offense through Scoot. I don't want Grant and Anferee out there just trying to get their numbers.
I like Ant for what he is, a very talented 3 level scorer who isn’t a good defender. Lots of one way players in the NBA. You still need guys to fill roles and having a guy that can get his at anytime is a huge benefit in close games. He’s also a guy who can get white hot and win you games that we shouldn’t win.
The entire team will benefit if they run the offense through Scoot. Simons will get more open looks. Grant will get more open looks. Ayton will get more open looks. Just give the kid the damn ball.
that's also a predictable offense I'd think would be simple to defend...IF, the Blazers don't have a front court player that can be a secondary initiator or at the very minimum, can find open passing lanes with some consistency while putting ball on the floor. A younger version of Batum with a more aggressive mindset would be excellent. When he was averaging over 5 assists for Portland he was doing so with almost no dribbling and the ball was in and out of his hands in less that 3 seconds, often less than 2 seconds; and he was excellent at hockey assists so all the Blazers have to do is find a 2-way forward who can dribble-drive and average 15-7-5 on good efficiency while shooting above 38% on three's. Easy peasy
