I feel like it's worth mentioning that if Olshey operated as many here wished he would, Jake very likely would've been cut or traded quite a while ago. Not to derail the thread because Jake's emergence has been arguably the most enjoyable story all year, but -- while it's certainly more rare than the other side of the coin -- this is the upside of Neil falling in love with his guys. Give credit where its due on this one...
If he'd been on this pace (really more of a minutes thing because he was shooting over 51% as a starter before all the DNP's) for the whole year, YES. Got too late of a start in terms of consistent rotation minutes.
From his Game #1 when Calabro was opining about his 'repeatable stroke', I've been hoping and waiting for what he is doing now. It was in garbage time, but there aren't a lot of players that can do what he did at any time so it was definitely a 'skill' He struggled for a while with confidence/minutes, but his shot has always been a thing of beauty and he has always had the athleticism. He didn't just all of a sudden learn to cut. It was something he finally either had the opportunity to do or just said, 'fuck it, I'm tired of handing off to Dame/CJ all the time and deferring to them at every opportunity.' How a few lobs, back cuts, etc weren't run for him before now is unconscionable....it's not like he just learned to jump.
just so nice to see a young Blazer playing with confidence and attacking the rim and not being a ET / Chief turnover machine.
Right when Layman is in there I see Dame actually look for him when he makes his drive so I think got more confidence in Layman then Harkless or Aminu on the offensive side of the ball.
I'd be curious to see what the rankings are in terms of who get the most assists on Layman's buckets.
for all the hatin’ on ET I do he is actually really, really good at dribbling with his head up and finding Layman (and others) especially on the break or semi-transition.
My mind changed on him at a preseason game I attended when he went supernova against the Suns. He reminded me of a more athletic Peja Stojakovics due to the high, quick release and similar stroke on the 3 ball.
Another interesting way to look at these is to align the assist numbers with the lineup data in bbref. https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/l/laymaja01/lineups/2019 For instance, Layman's got 10 assists from CJ in 544 minutes of court time, as compared to 7 from Collins in basically half as many (275) minutes. Turner's 25 assists in 273 minutes is a bit more impressive through that lens.
my first instinct on his leap - character. he didn't sit around and mope and feel sorry for himself or get discouraged. he worked and waited for his time and made the most of it.
