Yep, and the bigger the moment, the more I think Mo will be the guy that rips the heart out of the other team. He's a risk/reward guy, our Herm Gilliam.
I'd probably be more inclined to move CJ than Mo. Hard to say what his trade value would be after the foot injury. Maybe there's a trade partner out there with a player we need that was in love with him during the draft?
That kind of player is fine if you have the steady players as well, but right now we simply don't have the steady scoring bench players. I like Robinson and Freeland, but Freeland is only good for maybe 4-6 points per game and Robinson is another question mark. He could go off for 16 or he could score 4. We don't know. I think Wright has been a disappointment because I was hoping we could count on him for at least a couple threes every game. His shot has been off lately. I'm fine with Mo being a microwave player, but we need a steady hand that will get us around 8 points off the bench every night. Wright is only averaging just under 5 ppg right now. That's not enough. I'm hoping once CJ comes back he can be that steady hand off the bench.
Hard to say since he's never played against NBA competition. At this point he's all potential and no production, not exactly the recipe you want in your sixth man for a team with playoff aspirations - just saying, he's not going to get much time to prove if he can or can't play on this particular team.
It's the only recipe we have because right now our bench doesn't appear to be anything special. I think we HAVE to give him some PT when he comes back because we need to know what we have. It's not like Mo is playing amazing ball right now. If CJ is half as good as some people say he is, he could be a huge piece in any playoff aspirations that we have.
I think the starters are still playing too many minutes, because you have to have at least one or two of them out there at all times. We have three players in the top 25 in mpg (Aldridge at #8). Now, Lillard is down to 16th in the league from 1st, which is good, but look at San Antonio: Parker leads them at 31.1 mpg, which would put him 5th on our team, a hair ahead of Lopez. Or the Heat: Lebron plays 35.5 mpg, which would be 4th, while Bosh plays fewer minutes than Lopez! Of course, the Blazers are comparatively young, but you don't want to burn them out come playoff time. I do wonder why Stotts won't even include Claver in the rotation. Is he actually inactive? While Crabbe is active? I don't get it. His shot is off but he does so may other things. If you played him with some of the starters I think he'd be a good glue guy and then the starter he replaced could get some burn with other bench players.
Last season, weren't our starters in the top in minutes? I think Lillard was like top 3 and Aldridge was right up there.
I think we're fine at the moment and wouldn't mess with anything currently (obviously). However, I do think a team like below would be more balanced than our current team (w/Moe and sans CJ). Starters Andre Miller (b/u 1 - 15 mpg) - Aldridge loves him, could get the team going when the shots aren't falling by getting it inside. We'd basically play a little different style while he's in, but he could play generally with Aldridge at 5 and someone who can stretch the floor a little at 4 (Frye/Robinson), to keep floor spacing and the lane unclogged. But I think that Stott's could adjust to him, he obviously had J-Kidd in Dallas and made it work. I'd prefer him to Mo. Martell Webster (b/u 2-3-4) - He would be absolutely filthy in this offense. And as long as he's on the floor with a playmaker or two (Lillard/Batum), his handles wouldn't be a huge liability. Basically having two of he/Matthews/Batum on the floor all the time guarantees different physical looks from our D. I'd prefer him to Mo/Wright. Thomas Robinson (b/u 4) - Keep him at 10-15 mpg, rebounding tenacity. Channing Frye (4-5) - I think he'd fit this offense very well too, as long as he could play the post on D next to Aldridge, and defend the perimeter when next to Lopez. His floor spacing would be great. Could he bring the rebounding that Freeland does?
Wow. I didn't approve of the pick but I'm still intrigued by him. Meanwhile Mo is the epitome of journeyman and on the downslope of his career. If he was traded at the end of the season then he'd be remembered as a Blazer about as much as Eric Maynor (who has fallen off a cliff in Washington). I really wish we'd've gone after Shaun Livingston instead of Mo.
I feel like you're putting too much emphasis on minutes. For his first five years in the league, LeBron was averaging right around 40 mpg. He has only started coming down recently as he's getting older. In his second and third seasons he was averaging over 42 mpg. When you have a player as valuable as Dame or LeBron, you have to keep them on the floor. I would like to see Dame around 36 mpg, but right now it seems like we can't afford to take him off the floor. He and Aldridge are so vital to our offense. The fact that their minutes are down at all is huge.
He might be available. He's only been playing 18 mpg as the Nuggets have kicked it into gear over the last ten games. I bet Brian Shaw would prefer Mo. Although, having said that, although Mo can shoot, he's not necessarily used to uptempo, while Dre can play all types. Would Stotts like Dre's game, though? I guess we could post him up... Less likely to be available. Did you know that the Wizards have the third best record in the East? Incredible, isn't it? Especially as they have a .500 record. And Martell has been playing 40 mpg for them over the past ten games. I like how you limited all your choices to beloved ex-Blazers. I do think that Channing might be available, but they'd have to want a bundle of crap because he makes $6M and we're not giving up Wesley. OR Freeland.
Really odd timing to have this conversation after last night. The bench played like crap against the Lakers, but came up huge in getting the win last night. Mo Williams got the offense clicking when the starters were shooting bricks early and falling behind to the Pacers. The plus/minus stats from the game are interesting in that all of the bench players were positive while all of the starters were negative except for Lillard. Sure, it would always be nice to bolster the bench strength if it can be done without losing a key piece, but I'm not seeing this as any sort of a crisis situation.
Here's another Ex-Blazer name: Jarrett Jack. Cavs suck, he must be miserable, maybe the Cavs want Mo back? [Scratch that: he's paid three times as much! Money can be a cure for much misery.]
I like how our team is moving forward. Jack is a bad ass, but if love to see the squad old hey put together have success
But check out the +/- numbers for the season: Scoring Statistics Player Pos G M/Gm FGm FGa PCT 3m 3a PCT FTm FTA PCT +/-/G AVG 1 aldridge,lamarcu C 18 37.1 168 361 .465 0 2 .000 73 94 .777 4.1 22.7 2 lillard,damian PG 18 36.6 116 293 .396 50 124 .403 88 97 .907 4.3 20.6 3 matthews,wesley SG 18 34.2 106 194 .546 51 100 .510 36 47 .766 4.5 16.6 4 batum,nicolas SF 18 35.8 84 185 .454 38 95 .400 36 45 .800 5.4 13.4 5 williams,mo PG 17 25.3 66 155 .426 15 41 .366 11 11 1.00 0.3 9.3 6 lopez,robin C 18 30.3 59 124 .476 0 0 .000 35 45 .778 3.1 8.5 7 robinson,thomas PF 18 11.3 36 78 .462 0 0 .000 17 30 .567 -0.6 4.9 8 wright,dorell SF 18 14.3 27 71 .380 17 48 .354 13 16 .812 -0.2 4.7 9 freeland,joel PF 17 14.6 25 57 .439 0 2 .000 10 12 .833 2.6 3.5 10 leonard,meyers C 3 6.7 3 4 .750 0 0 .000 4 4 1.00 0.3 3.3 11 barton,will SG 6 2.7 2 5 .400 0 1 .000 2 2 1.00 2.0 1.0 12 crabbe,allen SG 5 1.8 1 2 .500 0 0 .000 2 3 .667 1.2 0.8 13 claver,victor SF 3 1.0 0 0 .000 0 0 .000 0 0 .000 -0.3 0.0 14 watson,earl PG 4 5.8 0 1 .000 0 1 .000 0 0 .000 2.2 0.0 Player Min Pts Tnd/48 TC EJ FF PF DQ STA +/- PTS/48 1 aldridge,lamarcu 668 409 29.51 1 0 0 33 0 18 73 29.39 2 lillard,damian 659 370 26.57 0 0 0 45 0 18 78 26.95 3 matthews,wesley 615 299 25.74 2 0 0 35 0 18 81 23.34 4 batum,nicolas 645 242 25.84 0 0 0 40 0 18 98 18.01 5 williams,mo 430 158 16.47 1 0 0 50 0 0 5 17.64 6 lopez,robin 546 153 20.33 1 0 0 50 1 18 56 13.45 7 robinson,thomas 204 89 20.18 0 0 0 28 0 0 -10 20.94 8 wright,dorell 257 84 20.03 0 0 0 15 0 0 -3 15.69 9 freeland,joel 249 60 17.16 1 0 0 34 0 0 45 11.57 10 leonard,meyers 20 10 30.60 0 0 0 5 0 0 1 24.00 11 barton,will 16 6 15.75 0 0 0 2 0 0 12 18.00 12 crabbe,allen 9 4 22.67 0 0 0 1 0 0 6 21.33 13 claver,victor 3 0 -9.99 0 0 0 0 0 0 -1 0.00 14 watson,earl 23 0 1.04 0 0 0 6 0 0 9 0.00 Mo's number is particularly telling. As is Batum's, only in the opposite direction. [Edit: fuck it, I can't find a way to keep the original spacing. Just follow the link.]
Mo did not get the offense clicking. Mo made some ridiculous shots down the stretch that saved our ass but were most definitely not in the flow of the offense. That's how he plays though. He dribbles around for 15-20 seconds and then jacks up a shot. The Pacers were denying Dame the ball, so Mo just started shooting. It paid off, but it could have just as easily blown up in our face. Mo's shooting over the last five games: Vs Indy 6-12 Vs LA 3-8 Vs Phoenix 1-8 Vs GS 1-7 Vs Chicago 3-7
I think we need to try Earl and Mo together. We need Mo's scoring, but we need someone who can set up the other bench players. They will not be has productive without someone running the show for them.
Nate you need to listen to Damian Lillards interview after the game last night, hear what he says Mo brings to this team and get back to me. Williams has filled his role pretty well.
Sorry man, but I've listened to too many interviews from players over the years. They mean nothing. It's all fluff. There's what I see and there's what the players/coaches tell you. I trust what I see, but if you can find his interview online somewhere, I'll watch it.
