Even with him on fire he was almost giving up as many points on defense as he was creating. That part of his game will come, but I can understand why he wasn't cutting into CJ's minutes. If you give Ant all the minutes he can handle before he develops good defensive habits, it's not always good for the player in the long run. That said, if we can figure out a way to salvage our season by trading CJ for a decent 3/4, sign me up. Ant is definitely a starting caliber SG.
.... already. I think his ceiling is higher than I initially expected, even to start this year after the hype from Neil. I'm thinking he'll make a few all star teams during his Blazer tenure if he keeps up a similar trajectory. Am I off base here? I think a pairing of Dame-Ant (at his peak or in the not too distant future) is better than a pairing of Dame-CJ.
Given his natural sense of the game, I definitely think he has all star potential. Statistically, this season over his first 10 games he compares extremely favorably to CJ's second season, especially when you factor in that Ant is 3 years younger. Ant is basically our only above average starter besides Dame and CJ. We have to get him on the court a lot more.
He even compares almost even with CJ in CJ's 3 season when he was given the starting role. That's pretty impressive given there's 4 years age difference, and the last time Ant played significant minutes on a team was in high school. CJ basically had 6 years (4 college, 2 pro) of higher level organized ball and really wasn't that much better than Ant this year, at least per 36 minutes.
I wonder how sustainable this is, but young SGs don't shoot this well from the field this early in their careers. Even Brad Beal (this is my Ant comp) took til like year 4, age 22, to reach 44%. I think we can put Ant's ceiling somewhere in the top tier SG range. Beal/Klay/OKC Harden, etc. He's already 10th among SGs in PER.
I think it's Jan 29 actually, he signed his extension on 7/29/19 : https://www.nba.com/trade-deadline-explained If a player signs a contract extension for a longer period, a higher amount, or higher annual increases than would be permitted for an extension-and-trade, then the team is prohibited from trading the player for a period of six months following the date of the extension
I mentioned this in the game thread but if we're comparing Simons to Dame and CJ, how many times did they have to guard Trae Young on an island last night? Simons hasn't been hidden on defense like Dame and CJ often are so I'm not worried about the defense as long as he's giving max effort on that end and improving, which I think he has so far in just 10 games.
It helps that he has better tools than CJ. Ant is 6'4 with a 6'9 wingspan. CJ is 6'3 with a 6'6 wingspan. And that's without even mentioning the quickness and footspeed. Ant definitely moves better laterally than CJ (or even Dame for that matter). With Anfernee, I'm more just concerned about developing good habits, being smart, and putting more muscle on that frame so he doesn't get pushed around as easily by bigger guards.
I agree that especially when the three of them are on the court that I'm fine with Simons taking the toughest matchup. I'm just saying that I'm not going to hold his defense against him when comparing the three if he's the only one actually guarding the other team's best player.
And the fact that he's played in only 10 games this year and 1 last year. Team defense takes a while to master.
I don't think any of those things are concerns in the least. He's already smart, he's had good work habits going back to HS, and he's 20, so unless he's an anomaly(directly contradicting the anomaly he already is), he's going to add muscle.
I want Ant as a Lou Williams 6 man scoring sparkplug off the bench...I want Hood starting for defense and post up mismatches. I do want Ant finishing close games. Now the best way to get Nas and Ant or Trent and Moses more burn is to blow some teams out early.
He's a way better defender than he was first game...I noticed his lateral speed and length...Ant just has great timing which you can't coach...you have it naturally or you don't...I think Mario will be a Pat Connaughton type player when he gets his timing down but Ant was born with it
Best answer is to rest CJ and Dame for the playoffs as much as possible and give Ant as many minutes as possible. Honestly I bet Stotts wants to play Dame and CJ less minutes, but when the entire city of Portland wants him fired for losing a game 8 games in, he’s not really able to do so.
Trent has seen the court last two games when CJ rested....mostly because Rodney is out but he played unselfish defense and got 7pts
I’m old enough to remember when people said similar things about Rudy Fernandez and countless other one-hit-wonders. leave it to blazer fans to abandon a consistent playoff performer for a sophomore who has had like 5 good games in his career. (To clarify, I do think Ant is an excellent young talent, but you’re making a ton of assumptions.)