I look over our roster, and one question keeps haunting me: Who is going to guard LeBron, Kawhi, Giannis, Simmons, George, Butler.....? There are all these long, athletic, strong wings in the league and our current plan seems to be to throw Bazemore and Hood at them. This is the downside of letting Aminu and Harkless go. I'm on board with the change, but it's a really significant shift. Portland is kind of zagging while the rest of the league zigs. We had switchable 6-8 guys and let them go. I guess the thinking is that all our front court size will make up for it. As long as they aren't dunking, does it matter if these big athletic wings are shooting over somebody around 6'6 and 200lbs as opposed to the 6'8 220lb guys we used to have? It sounds reasonable, but I'm not so sure. We're undersized but have really good shooting at 1-3. We're oversized but have kind of crummy shooting 4-5 (relative to modern NBA bigs). I think we'll be ok if we can get our front court set up on defense, but if it becomes a track meet there will be a lot of dunking on us. Which is interesting given how much we are hearing about them pushing the pace this season. Hezonja is the one NBA vet with the size and strength to play with these guys. If I had to pick one guy to leapfrog everybody and force his way into the starting position over Hood (who I think is the presumptive starter for now) by December, I think I might pick Mario.
I think you need one more poll option for player to be acquired in a trade after December 15 (Covington/Porter/etc). This is a glaring hole that I really think we have to fill before the playoffs. We might be able to get away with covering up for it in the regular season, but nearly every one of our competitors in the west has a long/strong wing who can bully our small guys while drawing our big guys into foul trouble.
I don't think the fact that we don't have an obvious default defensive matchup for those guys is an issue. It forces us to throw multiple different looks at those guys/teams. Little bit of Hood/Baze, little bit of Zach(/Skal), little bit of Mario, throw a double-team from Dame/CJ--constantly switch it up to try to keep them off balance.
Harkless and Aminu didn't stop these guys last year. These types of players going to get there's points. The deal is you stop everyone around them.
Biggest question mark of the season. Since they're already crowning Williamson a top 50 player maybe it's Little, the Zion stopper.
I don't think I can edit polls. But I'm pretty much in agreement. This is going to sound nuts, but I'm hoping the hype is real on Simons, and we take a long, hard look at dealing him for Pascal Siakam. It's hard to say right now if that trade is even close to fair for either team, but by the trade deadline I'm hoping Toronto has decided to go in a different direction. Total win-now move, but jeez, we just spent $200m on Dame, and his meter is running.
I've been saying this for a year plus now, but a Collins for Jaylen Brown deal works for both teams. Siakam might be off the table at this point, while Boston just kicked the can on Brown's extension til next year. If Skal can be a Zach-lite for us on both ends and provide Nurk insurance, this kind of move would be perfect.
I don't think the same guy covers all those players. So I had to vote for: It doesn't matter. We'll scare guys from the rim, and give up contested jumpers. (Although the word "scare" is a bit much) None of those guys except for Paul George were excellent 3 point shooters last year. Clutch 3 pt shooters maybe, but not all game long. Regardless if you had to pick your poison against these All Star players......... it is on the perimeter. Let them shoot from deep, If they force themselves into the paint then we will have to rely on our centers for help.
Are you talking "lateral movement"? Yeah he looks average to me in this area. Not that all pre-draft analysis are the same, but I did see one where he was graded 9 out of 10 for his athleticism. He does have a decent vertical leap for his size. I am guessing that he is athletic as most spread 4's and many bigger SF's, but would have the same problem as Chief and Hark trying to guard LBJ, Kawhi and George.
My prediction of this kid he doesn't live up to the hype. Will he be a good player I say yes. The reason I say this he is going have trouble getting his shot off around the basket he not great 3 point shooter. Now he can block shots and he can run the court where he dangerous but to me right not that's all he got. I am not saying occasionally he going to score inside but he also going get the ball pack on him quite few times.
Looking at the poll results so far it's kind of surprising how all over the map everyone is. I think it goes to show how much we're in uncharted waters here. It's why I've got this funny feeling that even Nassir Little gets 300-400 minutes this year. Stotts is going to be pretty tempted to throw him out there just to see if he can help stop the bleeding at times.
Hezonja has every physical trait to be a good defender and is also pretty good at playing passing lanes. Bazemore is a good defender and can guard taller guys because of his length. Hood isn’t a liability either. None of them are as good as Harkless but when you factor in the other side of the ball, we probably got better on the wing. I also wouldn’t dismiss Little just yet either. His defense could get him on the court and Stotts usually gives his rookies a chance early in the season.
