He'll be another Wesley Matthews. He has the body of an ox, but it's all asymmetric right now. In a couple of years he'll be bemuscled like Matthews. He's not the dribbler or shooter that Lillard is, but has the inside physical presence of Wesley.
If CJ can handle the speed and pace of the game (I think he can) he is going to be a very good compliment to Lillard. I'd give Stotts a couple of weeks to work him into the rotation, though. Hopefully we can blow someone out and see him sooner rather than later.
Yeah I don't get the comparison either. Wes 'may be' overrated on defense as some say, but CJ will never be as strong or good at defense as Wes. Too early to tell if CJ can hit the three like Wes, but even if he can, Wes has about the quickest trigger with accuracy under duress that I've seen. CJ has a more traditional shooting motion and I don't see CJ getting his shot of that quickly. CJ's handle, passing and mid-range game are better. Wes has developed a post up game that CJ will probably not duplicate. Yeah, I'm not seeing the similarity either.
I just personally don't like Matthews game, never have. I like his attitude but not his game. When his shot is not falling he is pretty worthless in my opinion. He doesn't make anyone around him better. He constantly drives to the basket out of control with his head down and you just know he's gonna throw up some wild shot that's gonna probably get blocked. He never looks for his teammates on those head down to the basket drives. His defense is also overrated, BIG TIME. On the other hand I love CJ's game. His style is what basketball is all about.
Considering almost all of his stats are at or above his norms.... http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/m/matthwe02.html
I'm just as excited as the next guy but let's hold on and actually see him play some NBA games before saying things like that.
Nice stint by CJ. 18.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists on .472 shooting. The downside: .111 shooting from '3' and barely over a 1/1 Asst/TO ratio. Hopefully he started to get his 'legs' and can contribute when Mo is being bad-Mo. (so almost on a nightly basis. If Crabbe is going to be deactivated, let him get some run in the D-League as well at least to get some floor time. I'd like to see what he would do as a volume shooter over there.
Three point shooting is, from my experience, one of the hardest things to get back when you haven't played in a while. He's not Dame so I don't expect him to be a bomber from deep anyway.
I'm sure he had some rust but as for not being Dame, he shot .512 from '3' his senior season (half season due to injury) compared to Damian's .409 his senior year. Since they both played in small conferences where they could get their shot almost any time and were the focus of defenses on a nightly basis, I think he has the ability to be the shooter Dame is without some of the quickness.
That's because Dame was probably shooting from 5 feet behind the NBA line, and CJ was shooting college threes
No, not a Leigh fan, but I have seen enough to feel very confident that he is going to be a very, very good player in this league.
Interestingly, coach strongly suggests that C.J. sucks: [video]http://www.csnnw.com/blazers/batum-will-play-through-pain[/video]
Think he will be more of a tweener, take some of Mathews time until he can move over and maybe spell Lillard. But I don't know how well his ball-handling/distributing skills are. Lillard needs to take some time off to get his game back though.
