CJ needs to be traded. There is no argument. That is just what needs to be done. Everyone else will come around.
Yes, of course. CJ needs to be traded for a better player. Dame needs to be traded for a better player. We NEED to trade Tolliver with Myles Turner as well. Too bad none of this is possible.
I don't really feel like this is much of an answer though... Do you believe the expectations on Simons would be different if they had brought in a vet pg as a backup to dame? Do you believe the way they talked about him all summer changed the expectations? I mean yes you can call out posters for buying into the hype of a player, that was driven by someone they don't "trust" anyways, but In my opinion, the Blazers handling of Simons has put a target on him.
Heres an example, the team basically through their media partners and all that made it sound like Little would be on the bench get no minutes, and so everyone expected nothing out of him. Then in his limited time playing he has done some things that have raised eyebrows and he’s become a bit of a fan favorite. Simons is basically called the future of the team, all summer, were told he’s more talented than Dame was, they didnt bring in anyone else to fill in at PG, it was given to Simons, so people began to have raised expectations of him, because he’s being handed the keys to 2nd unit at 20, and talked up. Yeah I totally get it, some people maybe drove those expectations higher than needed, but to me the Blazers made a concerted effort to the hype and drive up expectations for Simons and that has at the very least contributed to some people being disappointed in him.
You're right it wasn't. But most of us lived through the organization hyping up Batum as 'omg he's so goooooooooooooooooood this year. So much improved!!!' At the end of the day the organization did a disservice to Batum because of that. He never turned into that type of player. He turned into a good player with flaws, but not the elite two way god they tried to sell the fanbase on every season. Now to me it looks like they're doing it with Simons. Many posters believed the hype. I much like with Pat Connaughton wanted to see it before I dove into the hype. I was willing to be late to the party simply because of how the organization handled hyping Batum. What Simons has shown through 20ish games is that he's raw, will make mistakes, needs to work on his handle and his decision making. Much like Little. The one thing he's also shown is that Seth Curry is far superior of a basketball player on both ends in 19-20 than Simons is. It's good that Simons & Little are getting this experience and will help them. But everyone from the organization to the fan base need to pump the breaks a bit. Simons isn't going to be CJ let alone as good as Lillard this year. There are even questions if he will be better than CJ ever. He could turn into a Jamal Crawford. We don't know he's soooo young. We do know that if Simons were to replace CJ this year. That the games would get a lot more difficult, simply because CJ is legit and Simons is raw.
about Simons: the first thing that happened was all of the off-season hype going super-nova and getting light years ahead of the reality. Some of it was ridiculous and the Blazer front office essentially set up Simons to be 'disappointing' if he wasn't Lou-Williams-good off the bench the 2nd thing that happened is there was a major miscalculation on just how much play-making there would be on the bench. Simons is in no way a PG; and Hezonja is terrible. That's left Simons playing with Bazemore, and Bazemore as the bench option for running the offense. This has been a major issue since the Aldridge team broke up. Olshey's refusal to invest in a backup PG leaves the 2nd unit rudderless a great deal of the time, and Stotts has a tendency to platoon his rotations. When you build a bench that makes absence of Turner's play-making talent really noticeable, you've failed Simons has talent, that's obvious. But he's very young and inexperienced. And because of having almost no play-making in the 2nd unit, Simons has been left to try and create too much of his own offense. He only has a 44% assisted FG rate, and that's simply too low for a player that young who has yet to develop a varied set of moves. Simons got scouted and he doesn't have the tools yet to overcome the scouting adjustments...IMO he will get better as he gains experience and develops his core strength. Maybe a lot better, although I think all the chatter about him having all-star talent was incredibly premature. I don't see it yet
I lived through it with other Blazers too. I think that's why I'm so slow to jump onto the "bandwagon" with slow players now, I'm just like let's wait and see what they do, it's somewhat unfair to set high expectations for raw 20 year olds. I still think Simons can be a really good player someday, but I'm just going to watch and find out lol.
Will say though I'm fully aboard the Collins Bandwagon. I completely believe Portland would be far from 4games under 500 if Collins never dislocated his shoulder. Portland would be top 5 offense and a top 8 defense. With maybe 5 losses. That's not because I think Collins would've been a superstar or even an allstar this year. It's that he would've covered a lot of holes Portland has right now. But if Collins never goes down Melo never arrives, and I'm not proven right in the Melo-mega thread when I said Lillard + CJ + Melo > Westbrick + PG + Melo/Har_en + CP3 + Melo
Collins isn't the difference between a team with a 40% winning percentage and a 75% winning percentage. Thats the difference of 30 games at the end of the year...
That's your opinion and you're entitled to it. Just like I'm entitled to my own opinion. Thank you have a nice day.
The mods have removed 18 posts from this thread for personal insults. One more personal insult in the thread and I'm closing it.
