What do you mean? Development matters. If we’re gonna miss the playoffs at least let some young guys work their way into roles next year. Might prevent another Afflalo/CJ situation where we’re looking for guys we already have.
Have we been eliminated from the playoffs? That's simply a yes or no answer. I wonder if other teams forums obsess over end of the bench players like this forum does.
Melo is averaging 33 MPG, and there are times everyone can see he is running on fumes. Mario is averaging 16 MPG. What role do they play in the Blazers' plans beyond this season? What about Ariza, who is looking pretty spry now, but is no spring chicken himself? I get why people don't think Gabriel deserves 20+ MPG...but is it really such a bad idea to find out if his minor league stats are just an illusion? As for Little, I would argue he needs to play - period. We don't need another Leonard who won't contribute until Dame is collecting Social Security!
As of today, we are in 9th, 3 games behind 8th. Doesn't sound bad? 4 other teams are within 1.5 games at our heels. That's 6 team within a 4.5 game spread....chasing ONE play-off spot. How much are you willing to gamble out of your own pocket that the Blazers are the 1-in-6 to prevail? Seems a lot of you are good with the Blazers going all in on that bet, even at the cost of what might be best for next season and beyond.
You can tell he’s trying to do too much but it’s shit like this why I’ll always be in his camp. The game will eventually slow down for him and the tools will take over.
I dont think so. I think @Scalma and @Rastapopoulos are really good at looking at young players and seeing their strengths, and thinking we should see if they can play. I dont hear either of them really “over-hype” guys, they just see potential and want to give guys run, or in some cases want to run them away from us.
I mean I’ve been wrong before, but I don’t really care. I always focus on what young players can do rather than what they can’t. Everyone in the nba is talented but not everyone takes advantage of their opportunity, if they even get one. I think Wenyen will get his soon. He played over Whiteside for a stretch last night and has taken minutes from Biggie. That tells me Stotts is gaining trust in him..not an easy thing for a rookie to do. We’ll see what he does with his opportunity though.
That might be true, but i'm really tired of "potential", i want proven players and not more projects.
I sympathize. A team needs a prospect or 2 on the bench - but the Blazers have at least 5 (Collins, Simons, Trent, Little, Gabriel). That's one third of the roster and leaves the team vulnerable in the case of multiple injuries.
2 of those guys are contributory role players though. Simons is completely fine as an 11th to 13th guy, and should be better than that next year.
For those who have watched Gabriel a decent amount and think he should play more. What do you project his highest season PER, PPG, RPG, or any measurement to be throughout his career? I'm curious what type of realistic ceiling people think this guy has.
