Kid just turned 20. Not every player coming into the league is NBA ready on either end of the floor, let alone BOTH. He’s shown he can score and that’s about it. Nothing wrong with that. Not sure what you were expecting from a #24 pick basically coming straight out of HS. This kid is going to be a solid scorer in the league if we are patient.
The issue most people have with CJ isnt that he’s a bad player, its that he will at times go one on 4, that he starts dribbling and its like everyone knows a shots coming. I think most people believe CJ has the makings of a very talented scorer, but he has a tendency to make himself ineffecient by forcing shots that arent there. All scorers do that to some extent, but it can really kill momentum, really kill the flow of the offense and he hasnt done anything else at a rate thats even been “good” for long stretches of his career. I think almost all Blazer fans would be ok with CJ if he consistently had up around 4-5 assists, and limited his Im gonna shoot this shot no matter what mentality to a couple times a game instead of 6 or so times a game. You can point out flaws in someone’s game, its ok to do so. CJ has elite top 4-5 in the league handles, and his balance on the dribble is crazy, all he needs to do is show he’s willing to use that play making ability to get his team mates involved and it’ll make his game much more efficient. Maybe they didnt have enough offensive threats Around him in past years and he lost some trust in guys not named Dame, but his play making for others has been on a downward spiral. The last ten games or so the difference is he’s getting others involved more often, and that means he’s getting cleaner looks.
The complaints on McCollum have been to the point of being overly excessive the last 2 years. No player is perfect, but many of the negative comments are definitely not warranted about McCollum as those same posters seldom give him praise when warranted.
I disagree with you here. It wasnt the Posters here saying, Simons is the most talented guy theyve Drafted, it wasnt the Posters here taking every opportunity to say how amazing Simons has been, or make sure every media session had someone talking up Simons. The Blazers organization built the hype meter, and whatever expectations that came from that is on the organization for it. I thought they were doing a huge disservice to Simons by talking about him like he’s the new Dame all summer, because he’s young and you knew there would be struggles.
I think you should delve into the archives. There were posters putting unrealistic expectations on him in the off season and first few games.
They wouldnt have if the Blazers just let the kid grow into it on his own... The organization built him up way too much, and yeah some posters bought in, and he still might be really good, but I think had they let it come to him those expectations dont get built up.
Simons is tight with Mitchell of the Jazz, guess their families are close. I remember when Mitchell was new in the league he too was a bit out of control and unafraid to shoot or drive. I see similarities with Ant now in his infancy. He will eventually govern his game better between offense and defense. I think he will be a scoring guard much like Mitchell in time.
Starting a Pro-CJ thread is against the forum guidelines. I suggest you delete it before you'll get banned.
One can also attribute his better play to he is simply playing better and also is playing with better lineups right now. We had players like Tolliver and Herzonja getting minutes and were missing Whiteside and Lillard in some of those games as well. I said all along that McCollum was in a slump and give time while many were advocating trading him and making comments such as CJ sucks and I hate CJ.
sorry TBF, not buying that as blaming the team for what posters post in here isn't the problem as this forum has been this way for awhile.
So do you think the "expectations" would have been the same if they came into the season with a third Vet PG on the team and / or if they hadn't talked him up all summer? I mean we can agree to disagree, and of course it's "our" fault for buying it to some extent, but I think the way they handled Simons has led to any sort of "stumble" on his part would lead to the sky is falling stuff. I still think Simons could end up to be really good. I just think they could've made it easier on Simons, to me they painted a bulls-eye on him.
100% because Olshey was rubbing all over his junk like he was going to make First Team All-NBA this season. (I think I just coined that "rubbing all over his junk" thing, thank you very much.)
You guys just provided two of the many times a day my kids ask me what I'm laughing at and I refuse to explain.
I'm not saying we should give up on him - he's obviously a great scorer when he's on. I'm just noting he's going through a slump right now.
Well, some of those same posters hyping Simons are also the ones that call Olshey a used car salesman or a snake and say they don't trust Olshey and now they believe him? It's just not adding up.
