If he wanted to challenge Barton for minutes and Wesley for the Starting spot, if anybody needed to have his ass in PDX training early, it would have been Elliot Williams. The Kid was poised to have a breakout season getting way more mins per game than he ever have.
Mike Rice @mikerice6 In my yrs with blazers have not seen anyone work harder than lillard nolan smith joel freeland & luke babbitt
imagine lillard vs. smith makes for some great training Call It: Can/Will Smith become a Legit NBA (role) Player this year ? ? ?
Before Elliot's injury I didn't know, but now it's clear that Nolan will get a lot of minutes this season, enough to become a role player.
Yes, on both accounts. (not sure if you were tongue-in-cheek with your post, but if you're holding you're breath on Batum becoming an All-Star, I'll go ahead and dial 9-1-1 for ya.)