Not trying to derail the thread, but how is Nic doing in Charlotte? Stinking it up ... for $130mil they paying him. We dodged the bullet on him. Other than that, Nic was solid when he played with us.
From everything Ive read Nic hasnt really changed, he’s incredibly inconsistent on both ends of the court, has games where he looks like Scottie Pippen and then has games where he looks like Martell Webster...
He reminds me of a hyper-aggressive Mo Harkless. Same shooting ability, same size and athleticism, same length. Jake is just really greedy and decisive, while Mo kind of floats around in the game. Jake looks like he can be the 2nd or 3rd best scorer on a good team, while Mo looks more like a bench role player. Just a different mindset. Mo found his place in the league as a 19 year old on a completely leaderless Orlando squad, while Layman is a 4 year college guy who has only ever known the NBA with Dame. Environment matters. Watching those highlights of Jake what really stands out is how decisive he is. As soon as he gets the ball he's already got a plan of what he intends to do with it. It's surprising how he never gets called for a charge, because most guys who are that quick to react make some bad choices too. A guy like Meyers or Mo stands there and just plans on figuring it out once he gets the ball. Even CJ and Turner mostly improvise off the dribble. Jake seems to have a plan for everything. He's very Rudy Fernandez in that way--he's one of those guys who always seems to have an idea. I think he's really taking off now because his teammates are seeing that side of him.
Well, Mo was a 50%/41% shooter last year, so maybe I'm using some selective memory here. I'll admit he's been garbage this year, particularly from 3. But my point still stands--Jake is the player we were hoping Mo would be. (He's also the player we were hoping Martel Webster and Travis Outlaw would be.)
BTW--from now on Olshey should only draft 3-4 year college guys. Dame, CJ, Pat, Crabbe, Jake....his rate of picking talent from that pool is shockingly good. Portland needs a late first round pick every year just for this purpose.
I agree with this on every level. 4 year college players have all had the chance to grow and develop. Unless of course you have a chance at a top 3-5 generational talent?
I know this is probably not going to be liked because we live in a numbers obsessed world but despite 41% I never felt like Harkless was actually a good shooter. With these sample sizes the problem is, if he misses just 5 more shots he becomes 38% so just about decent, if he makes 5 more he suddenly becomes amazing at 44%. He definitely improved his shooting since his early career but %s are so misleading. For example Gary Harris is barely 30% shooter this season but I'd prefer him to take a three for my team than Harkless 10 times out of 10.
You’re not off base here. The nba tracks shot attempts based on nearest defender and Moe doesn’t grade out well at all when there’s a defender within 2-4 feet. He shoots below 30% in those situations, and that’s using last years numbers when his overall percentage was above 40%. Aminu is the same way. There’s a reason why teams dare them to shoot. I don’t see Layman defended the same way.
I do wonder if Jake's natural position is actually shooting guard. He got flat out abused last night in the post against guys who were shorter than him, which yeah is bad defense, but it's also kind of a consequence of his lanky frame. It just seems like he's more effective tracking smaller, faster guys with his length than he is guarding bigger guys who want to bang. In many ways I can see him as an ideal SG to play off Dame. He doesn't dominate the ball at all like CJ can. He also can't create like CJ, but I think he can play a longer version of Klay Thompson on this team. (Jake is 2" taller, but they're both listed at the same weight and they have the same wingspan and standing reach at draft.) If the opportunity presents itself for a significant ugrade for a similar level of talent to CJ at SF, I think Portland has to pull the trigger on it and see how Jake plays out as a shooting guard. After all these years it'd be nice to have a size advantage in the back court. This is obviously off-season talk. I think Stotts is playing Jake exactly as he should right now. I had really thought Jake should get the starting job after the All Star break, but Mo has just been fantastic and I'll admit I was wrong. I don't know if Mo feels Jake about to steal his job, or if he's finally healthy or what, but I love what he's bringing right now.
Hood's on Mo's tail, too. So Harkless is copying Layman's aggressive dunks, but not Layman's long shots.
Yeah, this is the first time since, well, maybe Bonzi Wells that the starting SF job has real competition. I think Nurk also feels the need to play aggressively knowing that Kanter can take a lot of his minutes if he doesn't bring it. Evan Turner better be ready when he comes back, because Steph Curry is gunning for his minutes too. Pressure makes diamonds.
I like Curry. His shooting gets distracted by being a playmaker. If Stotts told him to play 1-dimensionally like McCollum, Curry would be a great shooter.
As much as I dislike Turner, Curry ain't gunning for shit. Maybe he's gunning for a rotation position in Europe or China, but that's about it.
