The only "money" coaches care about is their own. And the only way for them to make more money....... is to win. Terry will play those who help him keep his job.
Jake Layman's stats per 36 30 points 50% from 3 100% from 2 4 boards 5 assists 2 steals. Blazers have 2 MVPs, and one is named Jake Layman. Michael Jordan only averaged 28.3 points per 36 in his career, and he didn't shoot 100/50 neither.
Exactly! Plumlee is our 11th highest paid player, but he starts and 5th in the team in minutes played. Last year, Ed Davis, Gerald Henderson and Chris Kaman were our 2nd, 3rd and 4th highest paid players. None of them started and one barely played. Three of our starters, C.J., Vonleh and Plumlee made less combined than Ed Davis. Hell, Brian Roberts made more than C.J. last year. When the game is on the line and Terry is drawing up a play, the LAST thing on his mind is how much anyone makes. He's going to go with who he trusts and who he is comfortable with. With the game on the line, he's gone to Meyers Leonard twice, even though Meyers has barely been part of the rotation (and makes significantly less than Turner or Crabbe). Some will ask why Meyers is even in the game at all with the game on the line. I can think of at least 3 reasons: 1 He sets the best screens on the team, by far. The rest of our players suck at setting screens. Most of our late game, inbounds plays start with a series of screens to free up Dame oor C.J. 2 Meyers knows the playbook backwards and forwards. In that Memphis game, Meyers wasn't the 1st, 2nd or even 3rd option. He was the 4th and last option, but because he knows the plays, he was in the right place at the right time to get the game tying buzzer beater that sent the game into OT. 3 Meyers is a good FT shooter, especially in pressure situations. I'd much rather see Leonard at the FT line with the game on the line than Plumlee, Davis, Harkless, or even Aminu. Point being, Terry will ALWAYS play the guys he thinks gives the team the best chance to win - given the situation. It has NOTHING to do with how much guys are paid. BNM
I want Layman to be the star of this team, if only so i can say that after each victory: the opposing team "just got laid".
I would hope that was the case but history sometimes points to that not always being the case. Stotts wouldn't play CJ or Barton. When they did get minutes the very next season, one was a 20 ppg scorer who was 'Most Improved' and the other was a Top 6th MOY candidate....all of a sudden. Instead, Stotts wouldn't play them and Olshey had to waste a pick on Aaron Afflalo.
Exactly bc he had more expensive guys that theoretically should have been better. I'm sure this isn't only a Stotts decision as well. Although I love Olshey I'm sure he has slight bias for the more expensive guy to be producing and therefore playing. I think when the Layman's of the world end up really getting minutes is when it finally becames really really really obvious that he needs to play. Other than that human nature of the BUSINESS it's not going to let the $600k a year guy play over the 18M a year newly signed free agent
Jimmy Chitwood can really play. Jumper sure is purty, but honestly the other things he brings is what has me excited. The defense is nice.
Are you really trying to claim McCollum and Barton were better, and deserved more minutes, than Matthews and Batum in 2013-14 and 2014-15? Really???? Remember, C.J. re-broke his foot prior to training camp his rookie year. He missed training camp, preseason and the first 35 games of the regular season. When he finally did start playing he was out of shape and did not play well at all. There was a LOT of talk in this forum about him being a wasted lottery pick. Wes Matthews was the incumbent starter and was just flat out WAY better (even when C.J. was healthy) at both ends of the court. Go look at their advanced stats and shooting percentages. Wes just flat out out played C.J, by a HUGE margin. That was Barton's second season and he still hadn't met a shot he didn't like and hadn't learned how to play within a team concept. Because of his incredibly poor shot selection, his shooting percentages and advanced stats were way worse than Batum's We took the entire league by surprise that year when we won 54 games and upset HOU in the playoffs. I'd say Stotts knew what he was doing. The next season, C.J. also came into camp fat and out of shape. Once again he got hurt and missed 14 games in November and early December. He gradually played his way into better shape. After Wes got hurt in early March, C.J. started to get significant minutes, but his play didn't immediately take off. He was playing about 25 MPG, but scored in single digits in 11 of those first 14 games. His play gradually started to improve, culminating in that breakout series against MEM. Point is, due to being injured and out of shape, he didn't start playing well until late March/early April. And, when he played well, Stotts gave him more minutes. As the saying goes, minutes are earned. Last year, with Matthews and Afflalo gone and a summer of health, C.J. came into camp in shape, and uninjured for the first time in his NBA career. So yeah, he played MUCH better than his first two seasons. in 2014-15, Barton was an even bigger lost cause. He was still totally out of control, and either didn't know the plays, or chose not to run them. He was playing 1-on-5 street ball and shooting like shit (.380 FG%, .222 3FG%, .667 FT%). Getting traded was the wake up call he needed to work on his shot and learn how to play under control. He didn't deserve playing time in Portland. By trading him, Olshey did him a favor. He was a terrible 3-point shooter coming into the league and terrible his first three years. He spent the summer of 2015 working on his shot and became a respectable 3-point shooter. He also learned how to get his shots within the flow of an offense for the first time. He was incredibly raw when we drafted him (which is why he fell to the 40th pick) and was on a 50+ win playoff team with established players in front of him. Not exactly another Jermaine O'Neal situation, but he needed both more motivation and more PT to develop into a solid NBA 6th man. I still don't think salary has one damn thing to do with who Stotts plays. Again, last year Davis, Henderson and Kaman were our 2nd, 3rd, and 4th highest paid players, yet Vonleh (and eventually Harkless), Plumlee and C.J., were 3/5ths of our starting 5 in spite of being our 9th, 10th and 11th highest paid players. If salary had any correlation to playing time, Davis, Kaman and Henderson should have been starting instead of Vonleh/Harkless, Kaman and C.J. BNM
