Aminu was/is so overrated by a lot of people on defense. Really he was never any better than average, and he was terrible on offense. I'll never miss him being a Blazer for a second.
The guy made it sound like we gave away the second comings of Rodman and Camby. I will miss them for a second.....ok lets move on.
I appreciate what those guys brought to the game. Only problem was, one (Moe) was never consistent and the other (Aminu) was prone to take bad shots, wasn't actually that good a shooter, and wasn't dependable. They were both never truly a threat on offense, and couldn't create for themselves to save their lives. Aminu was making mistakes a young player makes, and Moe would be invisible for long stretches... I don't know if Bazemore is any better, but I know that Hood at least could create for himself.
He's got length and strength. I agree with the premise of the article. It's a big question mark going into the season. Our D at the three and small ball 4 spots.
I felt like (this is opinion), that both Moe and Aminu were plus defenders, and good at switching, and at one on one vs perimeter-oriented players. They lacked eye discipline for team defense and got caught ball-watching too often. They also struggled against those guys who are bullies in the paint, Harrell, Blake, Paul Milsap. Now to be fair it's almost impossible to completely shut down one on one any player in today's NBA and those guys hurt a lot of teams. So to me I think the advanced stats kind of has Aminu / Harkless both right, they're + defenders, very good, probably not quite elite. Unfortunately, the lack of offensive production was a bane for there combination in Portland.
1) Shouldn't it be "Blazers take D out of their 3"? 2) Will always like Chief and Mo. Good guys. Wish we could bring them off the bench, they'd be great in that role. 3) Another vote for "stupid article", however... 4) Blazers not being able to guy the Kawhiis and James's of the West IS in the national zeitgeist. I don't think it's right, but it doesn't have zero merit. Plan to see more of this type of stuff in the future.
The same people who are complaining about how bad he was weren't saying how good he was in the playoffs the year before.
Still think Bazemore should start. Decent wing defender with a 7' wing span. He also scored over 30 twice last season. I say bring Hood in off the bench for CJ at SG, and Mario off the bench for Bazemore.
I'm so glad Harkless and Aminu are off this roster. I can't even express how much i hated watching the Aminu "Trainwreck" every time he decided he was gonna "Be Like Mike". I will also be very happy to see any other player that actually gives a decent effort for more than one game out of three. So very tired of "Which Mo is gonna show" nights.
One of the reasons ET Mo and Chief seemed to have energy on defense is that they didn't have to work on offense at all. They really played on one side of the ball...ET distributed more and was more of a two way guy so in his case less but Mo and Chief were a defensive unit and a good one
Mo and Chief played well on defense against smaller quicker players. Neither could play well against Milsap and there are others that abused them. . Neither could guard Lebron even for stretches though very few can. I will say Aminu always played hard every game. You cannot question that Chief is gonna give you his all. But he just could not produce on the offensive end. I'm happy to be rid of that problem. We might not have a better answer yet? But they will at least be looking for something and will not be stuck for another season with two players they know will not take them any further.
