I actually believe they should have break out seasons. It seems Leonard and Plumlee have really bonded, going to the beach together. It should be a bombtastic season!
Could be a breakout season for about 9 new players on the roster..I'm still hoping Crabbe becomes a factor as well.
That's really weird. I mean, we may be bad, but somehow we'll still put 93 points on the board just because that's what even bad NBA teams do. Lillard gets his 20-25, but that leaves at least 70 points for a group of guys who have mostly been young bench players to score. So that means SOMEBODY on this team has to step up and add some buckets. It's practically impossible that nobody breaks out on our team.
Not to stray from my usual luminescence, but I feel like both those guys could backslide without LMA attracting attention from the defense. My expectations are lower.
Yeah, I don't get the "logic" behind Waiters as a top 10 breakout candidate. "My belief that Waiters is a viable breakout candidate is based fully on what the basketball spirits whisper to me in my fever dreams, not what the data says. (Because the data says he is one of the least productive players in the NBA.) Waiters is 23, he's been in a tough spot his entire career and he'll finally have a chance to live in the shadows under a healthy Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook." How, exactly has Waiters "been in a tough spot his entire career"? He's been in the league 4 seasons, played over 6000 minutes in 211 games; 95 as a starter. He has been given the opportunity to start, but not relied upon as a No. 1 option. He was also given the chance to play the 6th man role, and failed there, too. If he was a poor fit and inefficient with LeBron and Kyrie as teammates, how exactly, is having "a chance to live in the shadows under a healthy Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook" going to cause him to have a breakout season and suddenly become an efficient scorer? The guy sucks and the author even admits the "the data says he is one of the least productive players in the NBA". The data doesn't lie. Waiters is what he is. IMHO he's one of the least likely players in the entire league to have a breakout season. If you look at his advanced stats, Wiaters has actually gotten worse since his rookie year. By contrast, both Meyers Leonard and C.J. McCollum have both shown much more improvement with much less playing time. BNM
With so many young players on our roster getting their first taste of big minutes, it's hard to imagine NONE of them having a breakout season. Seriously, if you include the "Other Candidates" section of that article, there are 33 players mentioned, that's more than one player per team., but not a single mention of any or our players. My first instinct was to cry national media bias, but then I noticed this article is really a collection of quotes from articles/blobs by beat writers from the various teams. So, are our local guys asleep at the wheel? Why aren't they writing quotable articles out all of our potential breakout candidates? BNM
You could very well be right on that, but playing devil's advocate..............they still played well in the 2nd group when LA was rarely on the floor. Except for a couple of games in the playoffs, Leonard came in for LA, so I am not so sure LMA is a factor for how Meyers plays. As long as CJ has Leonard stretching the floor he should have enough room to work. But I agree if he is in with no other help, it could hurt his production. Although that is not really him backsliding, that is the team as a whole backsliding.
We know that when you play Lamarcus, you just need to slap his thumbs on every possession and he'll start missing shots.
I actually believe this. If not this season, then by next season I think most people in here will also come to this POV.
No, I was pretty down on him his rookie year. Although I still recall the first time I saw him snag a rebound and make a sweet outlet pass...that did give me some hope even during those bleak days. But at this point I will be very surprised if he isn't better than LMA before LMA's current contract expires. I think there's an outside shot that he'll be better THIS season than LMA ever was as a Blazer (I still don't know whether Pops can turn LMA into a great player or not, so I'm hesitant to compare Meyers to LMA as a Spur).
