I know theres a great player in there, and this vote of confidence by our team has to be helping his confidence. I believe in him
I would like to see Zach offensive go up but remember if he starting with Dame and CJ and Whiteside either Bazemore or Hood. So you have to look at him being a 4th or 5th option. Plus Dame and CJ together going to put an average of 35 shoots. What I will want see him raising his rebounds to 7 or 8 a game and hopefully he can average Double figures on the offensive. Defensely I am not to worry he stays front of people pretty good.
I think so too and you might see 3 man rotation in the center position. Skals might not have any choice but play center until Nurk comes back.
Remember all the way back to the Denver series when many posters on this board were clamoring for Hood and Collins to start over Aminu and Harkless. There's a reason for that. It makes our starting lineup better in my opinion. I've always felt that Collins in particular plays better with the starters than he does with bench players.
Zach and Whiteside, block party every night!! Watching Zach in the playoffs, not worried at all for the PF spot moving forward. You could tell the game was slwoing down for him. now just a bit more respect from the refs (which alwasys happens) and he wont be called for the little tcking tak fouls that he was getting called for. If Draymond got called for the same fouls that zach was getting called for he would play 15 minutes a game.
Agreed. However, in the last 3 seasons the Heat have won 41, 44, and 39 wins. That's really hard on someone of his maturity level. If all goes as planned, Blazers win 50+ and the national media will be shocked at his "transformation" into a hard worker and good teammate. Neil will credit Stotts.
That is why i quoted my statement. Fact is i did look before i posted it. There are a few references but the biggest and probably the most seen is the comments Barkley made while discussing Whiteside with Shaq a couple years ago. Barkley's statement however was more about his utilization instead of just lazy or disconnected. He did say Capella worked harder. Shaq IMO shut him down as soon as he went to rebounding. Of course Barkley was a great rebounder so it begs the question "Is there merit"? I would say a player that plays defense the way he does and still is a top 5 rebounder in the league answered that question without Shaq having to make the point. But O'Neil was all over that and reduced Barkley to a muttering of other statements. Since Barkley made those statements the Miami boards had conversations from both walks. The entire label has morphed into something more like he takes plays off and chases stats instead of the way he was being used. Got to be careful quoting things other posters on a board say. They are not facts. They are opinions and they can hurt a player before he even suits up and plays a minute of basketball for any organization.
On one of the afternoon shows (think it was Rip City Drive) they had on a national NBA beat writer who echoed some of the same things about taking plays off, chasing blocks, and that some in Miami threw a party when he was traded. (That is not the only interview of a national member of the media that has said very similar things.) That doesn't mean there isn't good things as well....but it's not just people on fan boards saying those things. There have been maturity questions by the local media in Miami and enough of an issue that Spo drastically reduced his minutes. Some for the LAC might say the same thing in defense of Harkless if we told them that Mo' takes some nights off or doesn't play hard all the time and is often plain checked out. No matter what the reality is, I think he will be good here for several reasons. 1. A winning environment 2. Dame's leadership 3. Contract year
I've never looked at a Heat fan message board. I've only seen what legitimate, credentialed journalists have said about Whiteside. But again, I have no idea whose analysis you would deem worthy of consideration.
A lot rests on Zach.... because our front court is sooooooooo thin right now. That could change because the offseason is really just starting, but with Aminu, Leonard, Kanter, and Nurk all being either off the team or injured, leaves Zach as the only big man who knows our offense and defense going into next season. Obviously Whiteside will be able to step in and start, but we need Zach to take a big step forward this season. I didn't mention Skal because I really don't know what to expect from him this upcoming season. I think he has a lot of potential though. I'd love to see him become a part of the rotation.
Year 1: Fans here didn't think highly of him. I saw a lot of potential. Probably had the best fundamentals of all of our bigs. Too thin. Year 2: I was disappointed he didn't progress like I wanted. Fans here liked him more than they did. Still too thin, but better. Had a good postseason. Year 3: Crossing fingers. Needs to make the 3rd year leap. Hopefully, his body will not inhibit him. Will have a lot more responsibility. Needs to decrease foul rate. Let's Go!!!
I think he is going to have to be a part of the rotation due to how thin they are up front til Nurk gets back. If he can show some of what he did in the final game last year against the Kings, that would be very welcomed. Didn't know he had a step-back '3'. Liked the way he followed offensive rebounds for ferocious put-backs. Showed a bit of a mid-range game and challenged a number of shots. All of that is very needed.
Miami blaming everything on Whiteside for there last 4 season but it might not been Whiteside at all for there failure.
that was true of just about everybody. Collins, Layman, Hood, Curry, Meyers....Turner might have been the exception but he's about 99% square peg in a round hole league
Olshey has set things up, so far, so that a lot rests on both Zach and Simons. If Simons struggles, the Blazers have some proven alternatives in Bazemore and Hood. CJ can play point, generally poorly, but he's filled that role before on the other hand, if Zach really struggles, the Blazers are really thin behind him.
@PtldPlatypus and @kjironman1 I think it's really important to note that if Whiteside wasn't viewed as having flaws in his game or a bad attitude there is no way we could've gotten him for freaking Harkless and Leonard. If he doesn't end up having an attitude or Portland's culture brings out the best in him then we just stole a very good player from Miami. There has to be a reason that Miami was willing to take that chance other than to just save a few million. From Portland's perspective if he is a malcontent the only real issue is that we'd struggle until Nurk gets back but that may have been the case anyway. Worst case scenario we trade Whiteside's expiring contract at the deadline or buy him out for the roster spot. There's nothing better than low risk, high reward type moves. Getting a guy like Kevin Love or Blake Griffin are high risk, high reward moves. If you make the wrong move there and are stuck with those massive contracts for 3-4 years then you fucked up the franchise and the rest of Dame's prime years. I'm not saying that we shouldn't take a high risk, high reward move at some point but I'm loving what's happening so far this summer.
