What are yours? Here are a few of my random ones: 1) Will Whiteside be a Blazer by season's end? 2) Which Blazer will be team runner-up MVP? 3) Will Simons win an NBA award (i.e. 6th Man, MIP, etc.)? 4) Which of these Blazer newcomers - Bazemore, Whiteside, Gasol, Hezonja - will become the biggest contributor equaling wins? 5) Will the Blazers win 50+ games and/or get back to the WCF (and beyond)? 6) Will Stotts win COY? Olshey GMOY?
Can Simons be effective as the 2nd unit PG? How much will the Blazers miss Moe/Chief's perimeter defense? Can Baze/Hood/Hezonia/Collins provide at least league-average 3-point shooting? Will Dame/CJ see benefit from the increase in secondary/tertiary ball-handlers? Can our guards effectively utilize Whiteside's size/athleticism on the offensive end?
1) yes 2) Whiteside 3) no 4) Whiteside 5) kind of a trick question. I can see Portland winning 50 games and losing in 1st round. Or winning 49 and making it to the WCF (less likely than 50). I'd say the odds are against them doing both 6) no in a whole bunch of ways, this season rides on Zach and Simons. There's a lot riding on two guys who are 21 and 20. Maybe too much? It would be unrealistic not to expect a lot of inconsistency from them. On the other hand, it's not like Aminu-Harkless-Turner brought a lot of consistency...Portland survived that
3 things that come to mind- Can Collins make that jump? Who is going to take over on the defensive end for Mo and Chief? How quickly will people jump off that Ant bandwagon. He is going to have some very rough stretches, it’s inevitable.
1) Good Question 2) Bazemore 3) A better question is "How much of my hair will I be pulling out when they try to take an obvious SG in Ant play PG, and he struggles with it, and everyone wonders why?"
Most important question: Is there room in the display case at the Blazers' practice facility for another one next to the 1977 Championship trophy?
I can honestly say I don’t know much about Bazemore if I didn’t look at his stats. I remember him as a professional towel waiver in Golden State is all. Is he a wing defender type we will desperately need?
probably all defensive stats should be viewed a little skeptically; so much depends on team circumstance that said, one stat that may have a little meaning is comparing individual defensive rating to the team rating. Aminu and Harkless were consistently better in defensive rating than Portland's rating. And that matches the eyeball test. They were both also always in the top-3 or top-4 in Portland''s defensive box plus/minus stats. Again, matches the eyeball (Turner not so much....like all things ET his defense was overrated when he arrived in Portland) since Bazemore became a starter in Atlanta, he's consistently been at or better in defensive rating than his team. And while he didn't rank as high as Aminu and Harkless did in DBPM, he was between 4th and 7th on the team those are good signs that he'll at minimum be a decent defender, maybe pretty good. now, while Bazemore has a long wingspan, he's simply not that big. He was measured as 6'3.75" w/o shoes. Both Aminu and Harkless were measured at 6'7.25". A wingspan isn't going to offset that 3.5" difference in size. Turner has a shorter wingspan but is 2" taller. Obviously, all three ex-blazers had more mass and that's important especially when guarding a physical SF (Lebron, Kawhi) or a PF
I immediately envisioned the cover of Free Willy, but Free Skal instead, with Skal edited in jumping out of the water over the kid.
I think most have been answered. Yes When do we worry about Team runner up MVP? No Whiteside by a large margin I have them at 48 but 50 would be nice.
I think the Hood/Bazemore connection will be fun to watch. I could really see these two going shoulder-to-shoulder this season. http://www.basketballinsiders.com/p...pes-begin-with-rodney-hood-and-kent-bazemore/
