Is the plan for CJ to be the new Mo?

I wonder a few things.
1. Is the plan to re-sign Mo? I hope not: he's a pretty reliable bucket-getter, but a horrible defender and not much of a distributor. He's an awesome guy, obviously, and probably helped the lockerroom a lot last year, but with luck we don't need that any more.
2. If it isn't, are we hoping to replace him either with CJ straight up or some mixture of CJ and Will the Thrill? I imagine they want to see what happens in Summer League. I actually think that kind of makes sense - it would be a very Spurs-like thing to do, like how they replaced Gary Neal with Patty.

Now, of course neither CJ nor Will are PGs (and actually, of the two, I think Will has more court vision than CJ) but I think Stotts' system doesn't exactly need Steve Nash. I really kinda wish we could have drafted Kyle Anderson, though, because right now Batum is more of a point-forward for us, but he can't play 48 minutes a night.

On the other hand: it looks like our summer league team is stocking up on PGs (Appling, e.g.). Does that mean they're not going to try to convert CJ/Will? I'm confused.

 

I don't think Mo was a reliable scorer. I think he was extremely inconsistent. CJ could be a much more efficient scorer next season.

 

I fear the plan/agreement all along was to get Mo on board cheaply last year, then resign him for more this year. Which would mean after using the MLE and BAE (if we are going to). I'd just as soon turn his spot over to Will and CJ. The reason: Mo's terrible defense, inconsistency, and propensity for ball stopping and bad plays.

 

I wouldn't mind grabbing someone @3 like Deng and letting Batum get more b/u distributor minutes personally. I think he's a better PG defender than big 3 anyways. Deng could play 4 against small ball units.

 

I'm not opposed to Deng. I think we could run with a lineup of Dame/Nic/Deng/LA/Rolo because I think Nic can be our point guard. Despite what the lineup sheet would say, it would be Nic at PG, Dame at SG, Deng at SF, LA at PF, and Rolo at Center.

 

Mo had his flaws but to say he wasn't a distributor is wrong, he led the league in assists off the bench last season. He pushed the tempo and had a knack for making game changing big shots when we needed him. I don't think we'll resign him but he deserves some recognition for what he did for us. He ended injured and couldn't play through it. Also was a great lockerroom guy and mentor to the rookies and sophmores. I have no problem with Mo. Barton could replace him but CJ has to show me he can play at this level. I hope he does.

 

He had assists, but I wouldn't call him a distributor. His propensity to dribble endlessly at the top of the key was extremely destructive to the flow of the offense. That's one thing that really drove me up the wall.

 

Mo was a guy who got us a lot of wins when we were down double digits last season. He was a sparkplug. Watch Miami pick him up or NY. The guy sparked a lot of runs. We were top 3 in offense and that says he didn't kill the offense. I know he had a couple of bad games but not as many as CJ throughout the year. Easy to diss his off games and forget how much he contributed to a 54 win season. His teammates all praised him as well as the coaching staff

 

I think you are grossly overstating how many games he helped us win, and I think you are grossly understating how many bad games he had.

 

It probably boils down to if we had a better bench can Mo play more within the flow of the offense instead dominating the offense. If he can what he brings is great. If he has to dominate the ball to be effective and he does that with a better bench then its pointless.

 

I watched all but one game last season and I stand by my assertion that Mo hit a lot of momentum changing shots that sparked comebacks. With a lead he would sometime chuck, but the payoff was demonstrable. I understand you really don't like him, but like I said, I have no problem with Mo. We were better with him on the team. I can remember a few bad games he had and he was injured for most of them.

 

I like Mo a lot. He seems like a great guy. I don't like his style of play.

I will say this, it's possible that Stotts ASKED him to play that way. We have no idea. But I have always had a strong dislike for point guards who over-dribble, take bad shots, and stop the flow of the offense. I didn't like Damon, and Mo reminds me of Damon.

 

Not unlike $amon. $amon got a lot of assists, because he'd dump the ball off at the last second only if he didn't have a shot.

 

They're like twins. We are cursed.

 

Ha, ha, Nate. I also thought of $amon.

As for Mo, he definitely took a lot of game changing shots. Some went our way, some went the other way.

 

I don't mind giving Mo some credit. We'd have been more screwed without him. And he seemed to play better within the offense the last third of the season. And I do think Stotts asked him to play the way he did. And it was Stotts who gave him so many minutes, and so many minutes next to Dame, taking the ball out of Dame's hands.

 

I probably would have hated him much less if Stotts would have stopped playing him next to Dame. God that was so frustrating to watch. Terrible defense. Bad offensive flow. It was just horrible.

 

Don't weasel out and give in on Mo. He is a bad pass or an out of control dribble waiting on the bench. He definitely needs to be replaced for the Blazers to progress.

 

I don't want him back. At all. I think there are plenty of other point guards in this free agent class that are much much better.