Ranking the players the blazers miss the most

Interested to see who y’all would rank as who the blazers miss the most from last years roster. This is my rank:

1 Aminu
- Defense. Defense. Defense. Also underrated offense and rebounding, especially in the playoffs.

2 Kanter
- Having a reliable iso post up scorer and rebounder was huge. Kanter might even be #1. We f’d up.

3 Curry
- 3 pt efficiency and defense

4 Turner
- passing and playmaking; defense

5 Meyers
- stretch 5

6 Harkless
- cool headband

7 Layman
-big smiles

 

Cliff Robinson

 

After last night's game I'm putting Pat Connaughton on the list.

 

Was he on last years roster? I think he left a year before that, but yeah I always thought he was good.

 

If there were no injuries the answer to this would easily be Layman, in my opinion.

Because of injuries as crazy as it sounds we could really use Meyers this season.

 

Thread title doesn't mention "last year"...

 

I'd go with Jake as a player who we could use but along those lines Shabazz Napier has been putting up great numbers off the bench for Minny….often leads them in assists, steals...etc...we could have used him off the bench with this roster.

 

People aren't going to like this pick but.....Lamarcus Aldridge and Patty Mills would make us a contender

 

Of the players from last year I miss none... Thanks for their time here, like Aminu, Harkless, but honestly I don’t miss them.

 

I agree with you on Aminu. He had his best season as a Blazer last season, he slowed down on offense attacking the hoop and that made a big difference to me. His rebounding and defense are missed , maybe a lot.
I don't understand people who seem to only look at 3-point shooting percentage and forget about everything else, including 2-point shooting, which is baffling. Like these player don't take half or more of their shots as 2-pointers, and it's obviously counting on the scoreboard.

 

Chief is definitely missed.....from last year he'd be the guy I think we miss the most because he kept the defense on a string and rebounded really well. He was a team first player

 

stats from last year's roster:

winshares/48 (rotation):

Damian Lillard .205
Enes Kanter .196
Jusuf Nurkić .189
Meyers Leonard .164
Al-Farouq Aminu .121
CJ McCollum .114
Maurice Harkless .114
Jake Layman .111
Zach Collins .104
Seth Curry .082
Rodney Hood .077
Evan Turner .060

defensive box plus/minus:

Jusuf Nurkić 3.6
Maurice Harkless 2.3
Zach Collins 1.0
Al-Farouq Aminu 0.8
Evan Turner 0.7
Enes Kanter -0.3
Meyers Leonard -0.4
Jake Layman -0.6
Damian Lillard -1.1
Rodney Hood -1.2
Seth Curry -1.8
CJ McCollum -1.9

box plus/minus:

Damian Lillard 5.5
Jusuf Nurkić 5.1
Enes Kanter 2.3
Maurice Harkless 2.2
Meyers Leonard 1.4
Al-Farouq Aminu 0.9
CJ McCollum 0.3
Zach Collins 0.1
Jake Layman -0.3
Seth Curry -1.3
Rodney Hood -1.7
Evan Turner -1.8

value over replacement (cumulative stat: more minutes = higher mark):

Damian Lillard 5.4
Jusuf Nurkić 3.5
Al-Farouq Aminu 1.7
Maurice Harkless 1.5
CJ McCollum 1.3
Meyers Leonard 0.8
Zach Collins 0.7
Jake Layman 0.6
Enes Kanter 0.6
Seth Curry 0.2
Evan Turner 0.1
Rodney Hood 0.0

again, the Blazer front office made a big bet: that being they could sacrifice some defense and some rebounding in favor of offense and spacing, and come out ahead of the game. So far, it's been a really bad bet. Blazer rebounding has cratered and the defense is definitely worse; but the offense isn't coming anywhere close to offsetting the losses on defense and on the boards.

obviously, the injuries to Nurk and Zach hurt, but another big hole in the roster has been created from the loss of Aminu and Harkless. The sum of that pairing was actually better than either by themselves.

 

I miss the Evan Turner that got back-to-back triple doubles, but we only had him for 2 games.

 

I'm kinda surprised Curry isn't doing more in Dallas. Is he injured?

 

I feel like most of these threads are only popping up because they suck this year and its a rub it in to people’s faces who was expecting better. Here’s the problem though. That Blazer team last year was not going to come back this year. Aminu was basically gone the second the season was over. They couldnt afford Kanter and Hood. We had already seen that that team folded like the cheapest of suits any time GS decided to play defense. We had seen it, it wasnt going to get better. You take Nurk, and Zach (cause he’s hurt too) off that team and your defense is still garbage because your bigs arent capable of playing defense in Stotts scheme.

ML is a bad defender and he’s extra bad in a system that puts a TON of pressure on the C to cover so much ground, and make quick decisions.

Sure its been a disappointing year, and they may not recover, but I had no desire whatsoever to run it back with that group. I appreciated the growth of Aminu at times, Harkless and Layman had moments, but I dont miss knowing that it was the same thing again. Im glad ML’s getting a chance in Miami. Curry wasnt here long enough to be missed and ET was basically awful.

Im still holding hope for this season, but even if things dont pan out, I think their current group is a very good team when healthy.

Not gonna dwell on the past teams that were getting swept year after year. I loved that they made the WCF’s last year but that team that was letting Draymond outwork their entire frontline every freaking game Im not missing it. Im gonna look forward to that, they have some young players who have flashed potential, they have two decent trade chips. They have Dame, and Zach and Nurk will be back at some point.

 

Heres why I disagree when Nurk or Zach (or both) werent on the court last year there defense wasnt very good. Stotts defensive needs a big that can do a lot defensively.

 

Swanigan, Stauskas, Baldwin, and Nurkic. Seriously...

Olshey expected Kanter to stay, and Hood to leave. So he coddled Hood, and harshly demanded a quick decision from Kanter. (Olshey thinks that Zach "Ed Davis clone" Collins will be a future shooting sensation, in the unlikely event that Collins ever becomes as experienced and foul-free as Ed Davis.) After Olshey bungled Kanter, he quickly checked his list and signed Tolliver hours later on the fly, after better free agents were gone.

 

any good defense needs a big who can defend the paint. That's been the case since the NBA started. I don't believe that's a singular attribute of the Stotts defense, whatever that is

 

Funny, I didn't see you post once during the playoff run.

 

To me this whole post just magnifies the importance of Jusuf Nurkic, not the guys we let go or brought in.