Baldwin will play tonight

Per Twitter:

@BlazerFreeman: Shabazz Napier will start in Damian Lillard’s absence and Wade Baldwin will see time tonight when the Blazers visit the Grizzlies.

 

The user here who's secretly Wade Baldwin's mom will love this!

 

Great! Been wanting to see what he can do.

 

No mention of Leonard getting time. Perfect.

 

My guess is he initially takes Napier’s role and then they play it by ear in the second half.

 

This is the second of a back-to-back and the third road game in four nights. With Dame and Moe both out, the minutes have to come from somewhere.

The good news, is that with Dame playing big minutes last night, Shabazz should be well rested. He played less than 18 minutes last night and less than 12 against OKC on Sunday.

So, I expect he will see about 6 minutes in the first half, and depending on how he does and how the game progresses, as you say, he may, or may not see additional time in the second half.

Between Shabazz, C.J. and Turner, we have three other ball handlers, but C.J. (37 minutes) and Turner (36 minutes) played big minutes last night. This is the perfect opportunity to give Baldwin some playing time and see how he does.

BNM

 

hope he plays well enough to take Pats role as Pat has been playing very poorly

 

If Napier's toe is still bothering him he might be on restricted minutes.

 

I agree about Pat but Baldwin is a different type of player. He’s best used with the ball in his hands. We’re kind of stuck with Pat playing minutes this season, so for the teams sake I hope he pulls his head out of his ass.

 

I’m going to ignore what Terry did to him tonight just so I don’t work myself up.

Dude is a baller. Looks like he’s added some muscle since I saw him in the d league.

 

Your DLeague videos got me pretty excited about him... it was justified.

 

It’s why I don’t care whether we keep Napier or
not.

But I can’t wait to see Terry reward Baldwin by benching him for the rest of the season.

 

Good debut. Kid's got some chops. He's certainly no Nolan Smith...

 

I'd rather see Wade play than Patty or Shaspazz.

 

Since pat has been ass and won’t be in the playoff rotation, I see no downside in giving Baldwin minutes on Friday, at the very least.

 

It was great to see Baldwin tonight. Although we have seen young players come in and tear it up for a game or two and then struggle when teams adjust to them. But that is beside the point. What was exciting is for next year. His size and skill set should be a nice fit to come off the bench and play next to Dame or CJ. He should be able to cover most SG's in that situation. And he comes cheap.

 

He passed well, he drove aggressively to the basket, he hit his one '3' attempt and he showed quickness, speed and the ability to elevate and finish after contact. Whether it was a one-time thing or something he can repeat, there are a lot of those skills that some of our starters don't even have.