Come on man..... neither one of them could reliably score to save their lives. Hood and Melo can actually put the ball in the bucket reliably.
Id personally like Hood / Aminu or Harkless / Melo. My fairly consistent position was the main problem of Aminu / Harkless was the pairing they literally averaged about 12-15ppg a night from their starting forwards and it was just too little, yeah they were good defenders but at the end of the day, the offense really, really hurt starting both. If those 4 are the options, I think having a defensive specialist wing type is fine just pair them with someone who can score and more than just score, but create a little bit in one on one either for themselves or others.
To me, the ideal spot for Hood is coming off the bench. I'd like to see Little in the starting lineup.
See I disagree about Zach. I think he's suited as a backup 4/5 who can swing between the two positions.
Neither of them could reliably create their own shot but that wasn’t their role and wasn’t necessary. Both of them scored efficiently when they shot. Dame and CJ plus Nurk was enough offense to create open shots for them. Hood typically scores 15 points per 36 minutes. Harkless about 12. But when you factor in steals, offensive rebounds, and turnovers it’s close to equal in terms of point production, but Hark did so on fewer shots and is a better defender.
The problem with Aminu and Harkless wasnt just shooting though, they never became good at pumping and driving, so even though they were adequate at shooting they werent great floor spacers because if you closed out they couldnt really beat teams. If you didnt close out hard they were ok 3 point shooters but not great. I just dont think you can start two forwards in the modern NBA that have very limited offensive skillsets. Of the playoff teams the last few years, the Blazers started offensively the worst two forwards. They werent good at putting the ball on the floor, they werent good passers, just being sort of adequate shooters does not make someone an adequate floor spacer. I know you probably think I hate Aminu / Moe, I dont. Either could be a starter type guy IMO, but they need to play with other guys who help cover their weaknesses. Instead they basically had the same weaknesses.
An extreme example here but ML is a great shooter but a poor floor spacer. Here’s why, you could close out hard and the threat is neutralized. He wasnt a threat to do anything other than reset the offense. Both Moe and Aminu had similar problems but to a lesser extent. You close out hard and not have any threat of oh they’ll pull the ball down and do something that will beat us, once in a while they would, but it was rare. The thing is you can have guys like that and be ok, but it puts so much pressure on your main scorers if there isnt any dynamic threats besides them. I think when Nurk was healthy and was amping up, he was becoming a great third option and maybe with Dame, CJ and Nurk all clicking two forwards that are basically just 3 point shooters is “ok”, but its really hard IMO to make that work, because theres a lot more to spacing the floor then shooting, if the defense Respects your ability to go around them they wont sag as far off of you because a hard close out means you’ll go around them.
I agree about ML but he had a problem. He routinely passed up 3's he should have taken at the slightest scent of a defender. I don't see that Aminu did that. Also Aminu did fake and drive a lot last year. Last year he shot 35% of his attempts from 0-3 ft vs 21% the year before. That was from passing up 3's and driving. As a result his FTA and TS% went way up even though his 3pt% was down. What I see as the main problem is that in the playoffs teams trap Dame a lot and we just aren't good enough at beating it. The passes out were generally passive and weak and the 5 on 4 advantage was barely there, by the time Aminu or Hark got the ball, they weren't really open and were left to do what they can't do. So in that situation, yeah, you'd rather have Hood who can create some kind of shot, but it won't be one that actually punishes the trap. At any rate, all things considered, defense, shot creation, efficiency etc. I think last year's starting lineup was significantly better and that will show in the +/- as this season progresses. Maybe Melo will surprise me though and Hood is shooting really well so far, so you never know.
dude really? Send this shit to a dm if you cant just address me directly if you want to ask what im saying. Are you privy to everything said on here and in private? if not then, i suggest you save your judgmental assumptions for when you know all the facts..... or you can just continue to ASSume you know...
You may be right that ultimately choosing offense over defense was not the right approach, I would tend to one a more balanced line up. Like I said somewhere up there, Melo / Harkless, Aminu / Hood. Those type of combinations would make much happier than Aminu / Harkless. Though I selected the LMA/Rolo/Nic/Wes/Dame as Dame's best starting 5. I'd agree with you that they have never really been good at picking apart traps. Which is interesting when they see it so often.
Yeah, I agree that the team you picked is the best starting 5. I didn't pick them because last year's team wasn't getting any votes! I don't put defense over offense or offense over defense. I thinks it's about 50/50. But I think defense tends to be more cumulative (they will attack your weakest links) while offense, especially our ISO heavy offense, you get diminishing returns adding more scorers.
You made me do the research. This was the 7th game since Dame entered the NBA in which 4 Blazers scored 20 or more (never had more than 4). Most have included a player scoring 20 off the bench (inlcuding our win earlier this season over Atlanta in which Ant scored 20 off the bench, joining Dame, CJ and Hassan). The only time Dame's had 3 other starters join him in breaking 20 were both in the 2014 playoffs: 4/27/14 (game 4 win over Houston), and 5/10/14 (game 3 loss to San Antonio). Long story short--this is officially the first regular-season game in Dame's career in which 4 starters broke 20.
