Tony Snell signed first day, yet that didn’t stop you from saying Ennis was better than him. Contradict much?
Not really. Chriss is a borderline NBA player and his history in the league has reflected that. Snell has at least been in the NBA during the entirety of his career, and Zeller has made a ton of $ with legit NBA roles throughout his career. While their stats being similar is encouraging, it's not really indicative of him even getting a contract with the team. Chriss was a lotto bust who has had trouble sticking with every team he's been on (5 teams in 4 yrs, getting spot minutes everywhere; waived without playing a game on rebuilding teams). Are we sure he's even better than Giles? He's the hill you want to die on-- really?
What you mean not really? Were you not claiming a guy that’s still on the street was better than the guy signed early? So how’s that not a contradiction? Show me one season Giles (or Skal since you threw that name in there as well) had that were comparable to Chriss’ last healthy season. You act like he’s a 30 year old. He came into the league as a raw prospect, and started to break out at 22 (the same age snell was as a rookie btw) playing on a team that didn’t even have many good players. What’s wrong with that timeline? Bigs typically take longer to develop anyway. If he didn’t have a significant injury he probably wouldn’t have had to settle for a non guaranteed deal. If he shows he’s healthy, I’d be surprised if he didn’t make the team.
Whatever the 14th roster spot move is, I hope it addresses the gaping hole at the sf/wing position. As the roster is configured now, someone needs to play out of position. Doing that significantly reduces their efficiency and impact on the game. And I put Simons under the point guard category. I think that's a round peg in a square hole. Move CJ for a starting caliber SF/Wing. Slide Ant to SG. Pick up a solid backup point guard. If only I was GM, everything would be perfect....
Maybe you are massively under estimating the giant leaps CJ Elleby has made this summer? I'm sure he has gotten good enough to push for 3rd string SF.
RoCo is also arguably playing out of position. Move CJ for a starting-caliber PF and slide RoCo to the 3, and it's even better. I also think that we will be in great shape if Nas makes the jump.
Good post. I'd swap Snell and Little. One has started many games the other has hardly ever had an NBA role. Hope NAS can improve into more but until he does I consider him a 3rd string guy. I don't think it will impact the Blazers season what position or player they bring in to a 14th spot... it would be a 3rd to 4th string player so not very relevant to wins. Any guys that could make a difference to wins are already signed. Maybe during the season the trade market or buyouts will change this. Clearly Neil views Powell as playing significantly if not the majority of his minutes at SF. He does have a 6'11" wingspan, very different from CJ 6'6". I'm quite happy with the Nance and Zeller additions, as finally the team has a legit 6th man and an all around backup center. If NAS or Snell or an acquisition has a big improvement to give us another legit option off the bench, and we don't have injuries, this is a roster that could start to contend in the west.
We certainly did need to move on from the Aminu Harkless starting duo, but the productivity and defense of one of them in the rotation has been greatly missed the last few years. If we could get the 2018 version of Aminu off the bench in 2022 along with Roco&Powell starting at forward spots and a healthy center that would be very nice. The problem with Aminu was the other starting forward was a lesser version of him in Harkless, then we had Even Turner coming off the bench, and two injured centers. Even with all those issues the team made the conference finals.
I wasn't surprised that the '18-19 Aminu arguably outperformed Nance. I think Aminu was a bit underrated what does surprise me is that the '18-19 Harkless actually appears to have outperformed last season's RoCo RoCo's biggest advantage was in 3pt%. But Harkless was much better at two's and had a higher FT rate, so their respective TS% was really close. Obviously, I think RoCo is better, but the Aminu/Harkless pairing is pretty instructive for the possibility of a RoCo/Nance pairing. That being that both sets of forwards are low impact, low production. They are inconsistent. And that's a big reason why Portland has been locked in pretender status. The NBA is strongest in the wing/SF's/stretch-4 positions. That's where contenders are made...having at least a couple of high-level two way players in those positions. Portland hasn't had a single one since Aldridge and it kills them, year after year
Nurk/Zeller Nance/PP/GB3 RoCo/Nas Powell/CJ(6th) Dame/Simons McLemore/Snell/CJ2 That’s ^ what needs to happen if this is the roster imo.
They'll never do it but you're absolutely right. Also this is the reason that they need to find another home for CJ that brings us back a piece or pieces that just make the team better.
I figured the sarcasm was strong enough in that post that everyone would catch it. I'm sorry. I was wrong for the second time this decade. Been a tough run since smart phones got popular.
